Bruce Vilanch is a writer, actor, comedian, stripper (it pays), Muppet impersonator, and all-around suspicious individual. For six years, he was a Hollywood Square, just to the left of Whoopi, if that’s possible. For two years, he ironed his way across America and toiled on Broadway as Edna Turnblad in Hairspray. For twenty three years, he wrote the Oscar telecast, winning two Emmys in the process, and four other Emmys for things that now show up on YouTube. There is a documentary about all this called Get Bruce, made by the Weinstein Brothers some years ago. Very netflixable. He would be remiss if he didn’t mention his luminous flop Platinum, which he co-wrote when a toddler. Never believe a biography that doesn’t mention the flops.

Broadway: Amazing Grace. Off-Broadway: Andrew Lippa’s The Wild Party; Son of a Gun; Cyrano; Summer of ’42; Stars in Your Eyes; Honky-Tonk Highway; john & jen; and Almost, Maine. National Tours: Rodger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella starring Eartha Kitt, Pippin. Goodspeed: Pippin, Sweeney Todd, Finian’s Rainbow, Houdini, and many other new musicals. Other Regional: Flower Drum Song, Little Shop of Horrors, American Musical Theatre of San Jose; Private Lives, Seattle Repertory Theatre; Tom Jones, Memphis, Camelot, North Shore Music Theatre; Stand By Your Man, Ryman Auditorium; Hay Fever, Pericles, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. International: Carmen, Jesus Christ Superstar, Aida, Karlin Theatre, Prague; Tears of Heaven, Seoul, Korea. Currently: Magic to Do, Princess Cruises; The Scarlet Pimpernel, Tokyo, Japan; Billy Elliot, Mexico City, Mexico. As an actor he has been nominated for a Tony Award and has appeared often in film and on TV.

Director’s Vision

A Sign of the Times is a brand-new show that features popular music from the mid-1960s and an original book and story by the creative and hilarious celebrity-writer, Bruce Vilanch. We are conceiving a seamless show that tells the story of a young woman who leaves the safety and security of a small Midwestern town to discover herself in the world of New York City. We see the show as kinetic and full of movement and dance that will bear the energy and tumult of that decade and will take Cindy and the audience on a real journey of self-discovery. We will use the music of the era to tap into a nostalgia for it, but will also be approaching things freshly to tell a story that offers relevancy to today’s audiences and can exist as a “sign of our times,” too. There will be lots of laughs, stunning visuals, and moments of emotional release as well. As our lead character of Cindy comes of age in the big city, we will also witness and remember the coming of age of America itself. The music itself is the most vibrant inspiration. Many of the tunes were made popular by the wonderful Petula Clark and tell great stories in and of themselves. Visually, especially because we have made the choice that Cindy is a photographer who eventually finds a career in that field, we are also inspired by the photographs of Vivian Meier and others of the period. It was also an exciting time in photography, of course. We will be working to really contrast the quiet, colorless, world of Centerville, Ohio with the color, splendor, and excitement of New York City. The audience will be taken on a fun-filled ride through the nightclubs, subways, cramped apartments, and penthouses of 1960 New York—and the music will be the blood of the show, pulsing through it all.

Broadway: School of Rock, Disaster, On a Clear Day…, Broadway Bound. Off Broadway: Dedalus Lounge, The Twelve (workshop). National Tour/Regional: Harmony by Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman at the Ahmanson Theatre, LA; World premiere of Marvin Hamlisch and Rupert Holmes’ The Nutty Professor directed by Jerry Lewis. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Pump Boys and Dinettes, Grease, Oliver and Curtains (PMP/TUTS). She has directed Debra Monk in her one-woman show with special guest Ron Rifkin, Andrea Martin, Victor Garber, and David Hyde Pierce. In development: Rock and Roll Refugee for RFP, about the life of Genya Raven; Lourds Lane superhero rock musical Chix 6; and Perfect Spiral, a ballet with words about the will to do what you were born to do regardless of a possible outcome or the loss of your own identity. Associate Broadway Choreographer: Spring Awakening, Curtains, The Wedding Singer, All Shook Up. As a performer, twelve Broadway shows to her credit.

Joseph Church is best known for his music direction and supervision of two groundbreaking Broadway musicals, The Lion King and The Who’s Tommy, on Broadway, nationwide and worldwide. Other theatrical credits include Amazing Grace, In the Heights, Little Shop of Horrors, Randy Newman’s Faust, and Radio City’s Christmas Spectacular. He holds a doctorate in composition from NYU, where he is on the faculty. His book Music Direction for the Stage: A View from the Podium is published by Oxford University Press.

Broadway: Doctor Zhivago, Jesus Christ Superstar, Rent, Blood Brothers. Off-Broadway: Once Around The City, Second Stage. Director of Music, Stratford Festival, Canada 2008-2013; Music Director/Conductor for shows including West Side Story; Evita; Camelot; Jesus Christ Superstar; Cabaret; Kiss Me, Kate. Composed score for Des McAnuf’s Caesar and Cleopatra starring Christopher Plummer. Music Director for numerous Canadian Premieres (Toronto) including The Lion King, The Producers, Rent, Tommy, Phantom of the Opera. Regionals includes La Jolla Playhouse, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Dallas Theater Center, Arena Stage, Center Theatre Group, L.A. Music Direction. Orchestrations for Colm Wilkinson, Patti LuPone PBS Special.