Kiss Me Kate Tops 2011 Ovation Award Nominations - including a nomination for me in the Featured Actor in a Musical category!

I'm set to take part in an Equity reading of the new musical Ever After (based on the Drew Barrymore film) with a lush score by Zina Goldrich and Marcy Heisler. Kathleen Marshall is now on board as the director/choreographer.

Summer 2011

In June I took part in a workshop of a beautiful new musical at Lincoln Center Theater.: The Dancer Project (working title) has a score by Flaherty/ Ahrens, book by Peter Parnell and is directed and choreographed by the incomparable Susan Stroman. Every day was a thrill to spend time with top notch actors like the Boyd Gaines, Karen Ziemba and NYC Ballet principal, Tiler Peck. Being back in that rehearsal room with Stroman, Boyd, KZ and dear Nina Goldman, all Contact alum, was really sweet. There is nothing better than working at LCT and I have so many wonderful memories of my years in that building. Every creative tool an actor or director needs is at your finger tips: space, sets, props, hats and other costume-pieces and endless doses of encouragement from everyone in the building from ushers and backstage people right up to Bernie Gersten and Andre Bishop. My daughter, Grace, was born during the run of Contact in 2000, and everyone was thrilled to meet her again as a tween. Bravo to Stro and crew for creating an amazing new musical that I hope will be produced soon! You can read more about the piece itself below.

I had a terrific time in L.A. doing Kiss Me Kate at Reprise. I still can't believe they actually put up a full production with one week of rehearsal and one week of tech. Madness! The creatives and cast were all top notch and the show was a big hit. Tom Hewitt and Lesli Margherita were a spectacular leading couple. I relished playing opposite Meg Gillentine as Bianca (Meg and I first worked together on the workshop of Contact at LCT back in 1999). Choreography was by Lee Martino - a native New Yorker transplanted to LA, who really had her work cut out for her and produced terrific job. As did director Michael Michetti. This show is HUGE. How we put it up so quickly, I will never know. Although, I did develop two cold sores before we got to opening (The stress had to come out somewhere).

L.A. makes me homesick for Australia; the sun, the beaches and the Aussie flora everywhere. I also caught up with a couple of Aussie pals in SoCal (huh!) - Liam Burke (who has started a great Facebook page for ex-CATS! We met on that show in Melbourne in 1988), and Lisa Robertson (we worked on the Aussie production of 42nd St together in 1989. Liam has fallen in love with Santa Barbara and is writing and teaching there. Lisa has been in LA for more than a decade and established herself as a sought after acting coach and now a writer/director of the award-winning short film Commerce (which also has a Facebook page). She is doing the film festival circuit this summer. Bravo Lisa! With Liam and Lisa at the opening of Kiss Me Kate, it was almost like having having family there.

April 30, 2011
G'day!

Earlier this month I spent a week on a reading of a new musical by Scott Frankel and Michael Korie (Grey Gardens) based on the film Finding Neverland - which is the story of J.M. Barrie finding the inspiration to write Peter Pan. This show has a gorgeous score and is being produced by the Weinstein brothers, Harvey and Bob. Julian Ovenden and Kellie O'Hara were the leads. I played P.G. Wodehouse. This show has enormous potential and will be produced later in the year at La Jolla Playhouse. Rob Ashford is the director.

I always wanted to do a production of Kiss Me Kate and play Bill Calhoun - I had the chance a few years back at Papermill Playhouse but after I was cast I got offered Bobby Pepper In Curtains on Broadway (Noah Racey took a leave), and I was forced to pull out of the Papermill production. Now Reprise Theater Company in Los Angeles, where Jason Alexander is the artistic director, is doing Kiss Me Kate and I will get my shot at it, May 11-20.

In June I will be back at Lincoln Center Theater for a workshop of The Little Dancer Project. It has been 9 years since Contact closed. That was possibly the most joyous and most taxing three years of my life. So, my return is long overdue. I am really thrilled to be a part of this one. I play a French aristocrat (again!) named Bertrand. Here's an excerpt from Playbill.com: Tony Award-winning musical collaborators Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty are stepping out with Tony-winning director-choreographer Susan Stroman on a new dance musical for Lincoln Center Theater… a month-long workshop of the yet-to-be-titled original musical this June. Cider House Rules playwright Peter Parnell is writing the book. Inspired by true events, the work focuses on the relationship between a young ballerina and 19th century French painter and sculptor Edgar Degas. Stroman (Contact, Scottsboro Boys, Happiness) will direct and choreograph the work, which is set in the harsh and colorful backstage world of the Paris Opera Ballet.

Wait until you hear who has been cast! Very exciting.

March 5, 2011
Baryshnikov shook my hand and said, "Bravo!". Gush. It was a good week: A Gala honoring Susan Stroman (More about that later) and five invited performances of a workshop of Jonathan Bernstein and Suzie Misner's, Give Me Up. This play is being backed by Kevin McCollum the producer of Rent, Avenue Q, Drowsy Chaperone and developed at Baryshnikov Arts Center. Hence the encounter with MIsha. In 1986 I got my first big show, Cats and moved from Melbourne to Sydney. I adorned my walls with four large and very beautiful framed photographs of Mikhail Baryshnikov. They were quite stunning and a wonderful source of inspiration. At the time I never imagined I might one day meet the man himself, let alone have him sit five feet away from me (right next to Stroman) as I performed. I played Bernard, a hollow man and reformed alcoholic hoping to return to the wife and baby he had abandoned a decade earlier. What he doesn't anticipate is how his daughter, now 11, will desire and effect him and how thoroughly his wife will reject him. Leading to a spiral of self-destruction. The creators have found a beautiful way of telling their story. Unique: A turgid family drama that uses a modern dance form to punctuate and highlight moments, flashbacks and story-tell. Just as a song should in a traditional musical.  The whole play is underscored by two amazing musicians, C.J. Camerieri and Rob Moose on muted trumpet/piano and violin/acoustic/electric guitar, respectively. They each can loop a musical phrase live and repeat it while playing a harmony over it, a phrase later; at times atmospheric like a film score at times highly melodic.  Stro was blown away by how original the form is. Many were. It is a devastating play that deals with addiction, dependency, suicide. Suzie Misner, is the genius choreographer behind it and I play opposite her. She is both one of the most astounding actors and beautiful dancers you will ever see. She was in the revival of Guys and Dolls when I was at the Shubert in Crazy For You in the early 1990s. For a few years were part of the germination of the show that would become 'Fosse'. We spent hundreds of hours in a studio with the great Gwen Verdon, recreating Fosse's dances. In Give Me Up we dance a duet the ends the first act - it's a flash back to a happier moment in our lives; stunningly beautiful that devolves into an equally stunning decline of the relationship.  I truly hope this play continues to develop and gets produced. Bravo to all involved.

The Vineyard Theater hosted a Gala for Susan Stroman at the Hudson Theater this week. I was part of two numbers, I Got Rhythm with Karen Ziemba and the cast of Crazy For You and Simply Irresistible from Contact, with Boyd Gaines and Leigh Zimmerman. It was a funny, joyous evening, hosted by Nathan Lane and Mathew Broderick with numbers from many shows, including The Music Man, The Producers and Scottsboro Boys, her devastating musical that ran both on and off Broadway last year. The reunion of the cast of Contact was both exciting and hilarious, because we are all a decade older! Once we got over the giggles it felt like 1999 all over again. And Stro was absolutely thrilled. She is such a great lady and pleasing her is all we who are blessed to work with her want. Speaking of Stroman, she's got a new show up her sleeve. It's a musical set in the world of Degas and the Paris Opera Ballet. It will be workshopped at Lincoln Center Theater this summer.

February, 2011
It was a crazed end to the year. The last week of Promises, Promises (the show closed a bona fide hit on January 2) was punctuated with a flight to L.A. to join Kristin for two New Years Eve concerts at Walt Disney Concert Hall (Google an image of this building - it is amazing.) and a turnaround to get back to New York for the final weekend of shows and celebration. After recharging the batteries in sunny Puerto Vallarta for a week with the family, I attended the premiere of Stroman's new ballet, For the Love of Duke, at New York City Ballet (See previous post). It was a terrific night and as usual Stro's work woke everybody in the audience up and got them laughing. Looking forward: I am one week away from beginning a workshop of a new play by Jonathan Bernstein and Susan Misner called, Give Me Up. This is an incredibly inventive play that deals with dependency and addiction and their effects on a young family. I have been involved with this piece for a number of years, as Suzie and Jonathan have been crafting it, and I am grateful to them for including me in their process. Best of all I will be joining a group of actors that includes a bunch of old pals. At the end of this month I am going to be part of a tribute to Susan Stroman, a fundraiser for the Vineyard Theater, where her brilliant Scottsboro Boys premiered. The event will be held at the Hudson Theater, with Nathan Lane and Mathew Broderick hosting.

NEWSFLASH 12/2:  Promises, Promises Cast Album nominated for a Grammy Award!!

November 24, 2010
Susan Stroman, for whom I have spent most of my career working, brings me such joy. She is, quite simply, a great person. I have performed in two Broadway shows and two movies for her as well as last year's Kennedy Center Honors. But every now and then I get to spend time in a studio with her as she creates a new ballet or musical. Last month was my third time working with Stro on a new ballet. I enjoy her process and it brings out the best in me. We have a great short hand and with each idea incorporated, or jettisoned, I can narrow in on what will serve her vision. With all of her preparation and clear direction Stroman still manages to make me feel like a contributor to her vision. She takes such pride in the experience of creating. And does it with joy and humor and such care; such empathy. Hers is the safest rehearsal room in NYC – and possibly the funniest. We laugh. We dance. We laugh some more. There is always a physical joke or character nuance that will crack us up. It's Laugh and dance. Dance and laugh. Here's the release from NYCB:

"Highlighting the season will be a new ballet by Broadway choreographer and director Susan Stroman, who will create a companion piece to her 1999 work for NYCB, Blossom Got Kissed. The winner of multiple Tony Awards for her work on such Broadway shows as The Producers, Contact and Crazy for You, this will be the third work that Stroman has created for NYCB. She last worked with NYCB in 2004 when she created the full-length Double Feature."

Blossom Got Kissed is about an uncoordinated wallflower who finds her inner ballerina when she falls for a triangle player from the onstage jazz band. The music is by Duke Ellington. This new ballet, For the Love of Duke, is a companion piece to Blossom, also using Ellington’s music. It's a trio; a hilarious love triangle that premieres on January 28th, 2011. I can’t wait to see the amazing dancers at New York City Ballet dance Stro’s latest creation.

October 7th, 2010
The last month included a performance of Where Can You Take a Girl at the Broadway on Broadway concert. It was a grey old Sunday in Times Square but the fans still turned out and it was a real rush performing the number at the “Crossroads of the Universe”. This month sees a change in our cast as Katie Finneran departs. Her baby is due in the new year and it’s just amazing to me that she has been able to continue playing “Marge”, until now. The costume department extended the blouse she wears under the ‘owl coat’ to hide her baby bump. I will miss her madly. I was first asked to participate in an industry reading of Promises, Promises, back in December 2008; to see if the show still had legs. Of that group Sean Hayes, Katie, Brooks Ashmanskas, and myself were ultimately cast in the show. Now, though, we have the hilarious Molly Shannon waiting in the wings to replace Katie through the end of our run on Jan 2nd. Welcome Molly! In other news, Kristin Chenoweth has asked me to join her for a New Year’s Eve concert in L.A., at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Details are still being hammered out but it would mean flying out on December 31st, performing that night and flying back the next day for our penultimate performance of Promise, Promises on January 1st. She’s also talking about a huge tour next year. Keep you posted. Later this month I will be dancing with Susan Stroman as she creates a new work for New York City Ballet. The Australian Broadway Network website is up and running. Check it out -  www.australianbroadwaynetwork.com.

July 21st, 2010
Tonight we celebrate our 100th show of Promises, Promises. It’s been an exciting ride since opening in late April. The box office has been booming. We recorded the album, which sounds great. We got a big bump in sales after the Tony Awards, where we performed the opening number. Sean Hayes was a tremendous host for the evening at Radio City and Kristin added some hilarious moments, too. In May we performed “Where Can You Take a Girl” on board the Intrepid for fleet week and again at Broadway in Bryant Park. In August I’m going to be doing a reading of a new musical adaptation of the B. H. Barry’s Peter Pan. It’s called “Pan”. It’s being directed by Jeffrey Seller – one of Broadway’s most successful producers. Choreography will be by Andy Blankenbuehler. Later in the year I will be back in the studio working with Stroman on a new ballet. More on that later. Check out this profile on BroadwayWorld.com.

April 14th, 2010
I’m writing from my dressing room at the Broadway Theatre during our18th preview. The show is going great. The audiences are reacting like they’re at a rock concert. The crowds at the stage door, waiting for Kristin and Sean to emerge, require police supervision and bodyguards! I kid you not! We are all settling in to the routine of the show. While previews continue we rehearse each day for about 4hours, tweaking and tightening the show. Our first few previews ran quite long. But Rob has been really diligent about trimming the fat. He hasn’t cut any moments; just tightened transitions. We now come down about ten minutes sooner than we initially did. The way the show plays there are a few actors I don’t actually see until the curtain call. Which is an odd feeling. The brilliant Katie Finneran, who plays ‘’Marge’, I only see when we’re holding hands taking a bow. So we always have a little dance around the stage together as the curtain comes down and the stage clears. That’s what we were doing one night last week when Carol Burnett and Megan Mullally came racing onstage from the wings - raving about the show. Megan had tears in her eyes when she was talking to me. She LOVED it. So did Carol. It’s all very exciting. We open April 25th.

February 2010
Rehearsals for the Broadway revival of Promises, Promises are underway. We began the week with a meet and greet. So cool to go to work and see Neil Simon, there! Living legend. His book for Promises is great; makes me wish he’d write more for the musical theater. I’m playing Eichelberger, one of the Executives at Consolidated Life. I did it at City Center, Encores!, back in the mid-90s, and had a blast. As soon as the audience hears that unmistakable sound of Burt Bacharach’s 1960s pop score – the overture is nothing short of spectacular - they go crazy. This is Rob Ashford’s long-overdue Broadway directorial debut. He’s had great success on Broadway as a choreographer, and as both a director and choreographer on the West End. Bravo Rob. The show stars my darling, Kristin (our first Broadway show together after all those concerts!) Chenoweth and the incomparable Sean Hayes. Add Brooks Ashmanskas into the brew and you can imagine that rehearsal is literally a laugh a minute. Then there’s Tony Goldwyn, Dick Latessa (Last time we worked together was on The Encores! production) me old mate, Katie Finneran (Love her!). The rest of the cast are all Broadway vets and the dancing will be a real highlight. It’s going to be a very hot ticket. Here’s a pic of KC and me from Carnegie Hall.

January 2010
Happy New Year! Performing at the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington D.C. was intense. Mel Brooks, Robert De Niro, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Brubeck and Opera Diva, Grace Bumbry were the honorees. The Mel Brooks tribute, of which I was part, was right before intermission. The audience jumped to their feet at the end of our 12 minute medley. Stroman did a stellar job with the tribute.

We were then asked to line up in the wings to 'receive' the President and First Lady, which was unexpected. I stood between Melissa Etheridge and Jon Stewart (Heroes!). When you're meeting the big Kahuna everyone else is equally star struck, no matter how HUGE they are themselves. The Obama's strolled down the line shaking everyone's hand and saying hello. There’s not much to report, I was too intimidated to say anything except, ‘Honored to meet you. The President’s skin felt soft. Michelle looked goddess-like in a strapless purple/mauve draped gown. With he hair swept up she was at least 6'5". Seriously. I was dancing with 6 foot tall showgirls all week and she towered over them.

But the madness didn’t stop there. When Melissa (and I think you can call a diva by her first name when you’ve chanted in her ear, ”Obama! Obama! Let Mama Marry Mama!” while anticipating the arrival of the leader of the free world) was performing to honor Springsteen, I found a spot alone in the wings to watch. Behind her was a painted he backdrop of the Asbury Park boardwalk, The Boss’ stomping grounds! I have a house in A.P. and was excited to see it represented.. So, I am standing alone watching Etheridge when Sting stands shoulder to shoulder with me. He was so close I could smell him! He went on next to close the show, supported by a massive choir. I met him ten minutes later and told him how much I have loved dancing to his music over the years, "God Bless you", he says to me. No, God bless you STING! At which point Vice President Biden came backstage. The Secret Service are EVERYWHERE and I must have passed through the metal detector in the wings ten times throughout the evening. When I met the V.P. he asked me where I was from: Australia and more recently New York City. When I told him I was naturalized here he then thanked me for choosing the US. Thank -you Mr. Vice President! Star Struck. It was wall-to-wall celebs. THEN. THEN.

THEN, I met Meryl Streep, and she was delightful, "I heard you had an awful time with your costumes at dress rehearsal but you were terrific tonight, it looked wonderful", She said. I replied that it all came off splendidly. Then, just as a photo was taken, she leans her head toward mine and sings through her smile "That's why they call us professionals!" She was so lovely and down to earth.

A night I will always cherish. Thanks Stro!

Seán

December 2009
Hello Folks,

Heading into the Holidays I want to wish everybody a happy and safe season. Unfortunately for the audiences at the Cincinnati Pops we had to cancel the recent concerts there due to illness.

On Tuesday, December 29 at 9:00 p.m. CBS will broadcast The Kennedy Center Honors Gala, a two-hour primetime special from the Kennedy Center Opera House stage. The President and Mrs. Obama will sit with the Honorees Mel Brooks, Dave Brubeck, Grace Bumbry, Robert De Niro, and Bruce Springsteen as they enjoy a salute by performers from New York, Hollywood, and the arts capitals of the world.

Susan Stroman is putting together a hilarious tribute to Mel Brooks. I have always wanted to perform at the Kennedy Center Honors and was thrilled when Stro asked me. In recent years she has invited me to work with her as she created DOUBLE FEATURE, for the New York City Ballet, TAKE FIVE…More or Less, for Pacific Northwest Ballet and the musical HAPPINESS, for Lincoln Center Theater. Being in the rehearsal room with her is always a laughter-filled, sweaty, endeavor. I love it!

The big news is that I have been offered a role in the Broadway revival of PROMISES, PROMISES, starring Kristin Chenoweth and Sean Hayes. The show will be directed and choreographed by Tony and Emmy Award winner Rob Ashford and begins previews at the Broadway Theater on March 28th 2010. Opening night is April 25th.

The musical has a book by Neil Simon and a hit-packed score by Bacharach and David ("I'll Never Fall In Love Again," "Promises, Promises," and "Knowing When to Leave"), and is based on the 1960 Academy Award-winning Billy Wilder film, THE APARTMENT ( Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine). PROMISES, PROMISES is returning to Broadway for the first time in over forty years (Although, I was lucky enough to have performed in the City Center, Encores! production in the mid 90’s, directed and choreographed by Rob Marshall).

November 2009
Hello Friends. Moscow was amazing! I had a great time working with a talented group of actors there; very few of whom could speak English. They worked like demons to get all the lyrics and choreography down and we put on a terrific concert at the end of a three week intensive. The experience was thrilling. Working with Judy Blazer again was pure joy.

I had knee surgery upon my return in July, which made for a slow, crutch-laden summer.

But now I’m raring to go again and will start off with a few concerts with Kristin Chenoweth and the Cincinnati Pops on November 13 – 15.

May 2009
On May 11th I will be joining Kristin Chenoweth for her concert at City Center, Encores! We also have concerts planned for Cincinnati, Ohio, the weekend of September 10th. Later in the summer I will be going to Moscow to teach a musical theater intensive with my pal, Judy Blazer. I have no idea what to expect. With Judy, it’s sure to be a hoot.

Thanks for visiting,

Seán.

November 2008
Well folks, the economy hit my world in September and BRIGADOON was shelved. Hopefully it will be back on the schedule for next season. In the meantime I sang on a studio recording of DEAR EDWINA, by Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich and did a reading of PROMISES, PROMISES directed by Rob Ashford and starring Sean Hayes and Anne Hathaway. That was pretty cool.

July 2008
I had a blast doing CURTAINS. Such a great company and everyone made me feel so welcome. So sad to see that show close.

I just played The Gypsy King in a reading of EVER AFTER, directed by Doug (Doubt) Hughes. It’s a charming new musical with an outstanding score, based on the 1999 film, Ever After.

Next up YANKEE DOODLE - I’m pulling out the tap shoes to play George M. Cohan in a new version of his Broadway story at The Ordway Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota. I love playing this part; he’s the original song and dance man. And it’s the only show I ever did where the audience stood at the end of act one!

I am now set to play 'Lundie' in the Broadway bound revival of BRIGADOON which will be heading to Boston’s Colonial Theatre mid-October. Rob Ashford (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Curtains) who’s given me practically every job I ever had, is directing and choreographing. John Guare, (Six Degrees of Separation) is reworking the book. Brigadoon is now “a pacificist town that 'disappeared' in 1939 because its inhabitants didn't want to live in a world torn apart by war." Then on to Broadway early 2009.