Creative Team

Ms. Shear has written the plays Restoration (La Jolla Playhouse, New York Theatre Workshop), Dirty Blonde (Obie Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Lucille Lortel Award, Jefferson Award and Drama Desk and Tony Award® nominations) and Blown Sideways Through Life (Obie Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award).  As a performer, Ms. Shear's Broadway credits include Dirty Blonde directed by James Lapine (Lucille Lortel Award, Clarence Derwent Award and Drama Desk and Tony Award® nominations) and Smell of the Kill directed by Christopher Ashley. Other theater credits include Chicago (West End), Who's the Daddy directed by Tamara Harvey (London), Remains of the Day directed by Scott Elliott (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Blown Sideways Through Life directed by Christopher Ashley (Obie Award, Lucille Lortel Award and Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations) and Dirty Blonde (West End, Off-Broadway). Ms. Shear's TV credits include Blown Sideways Through Life (PBS), Friends, and The Player.  Film credits include Living Out Loud and It Could Happen to You. Ms. Shear also writes for numerous publications including The New York Times, Vogue, Travel & Leisure, New York Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.

With Nathan Tysen, Miller composed the musical The Burnt Part Boys (book by Mariana Elder), which was nominated for a 2009 Lucille Lortel Award for Best New Musical. It was presented in a lab production at the Vineyard Theatre (May 2009), a production at New York Stage & Film (Summer ’09), and as a co-production with the Vineyard Theatre at Playwrights Horizons (May 2010), with an original cast album released on Yellow Sound Label. Also with Tysen, Miller composed the song cycle Fugitive Songs (2008 Drama Desk Nomination) and contributed songs to PBS’s The Electric Company, Sesame Street, and Elmo’s World. Recently he co-composed the first ever New York revival of Angels in America with Michael Friedman, directed by Michael Greif at the Signature Theatre. Miller is currently working with lyricist Nathan Tysen on a commission for Lincoln Center Theatre, a Playwrights Horizons/TheatreWorks Palo Alto co-commission, and an original musical as part of the American Musical Voices Project: The Next Generation at Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA. He is a proud graduate of Elon University and NYU.

Nathan is a Brooklyn based songwriter and performer. Musical theatre work with composer Chris Miller includes lyrics for The Burnt Part Boys (2009 Lucille Lortel Nomination for Best New Musical), Fugitive Songs (2008 Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding Revue), and an adaptation of Chris Van Allsburg’s picture book, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick (Boston Globe Top Ten Pick of 2008). Current projects with Miller include two commissions from Lincoln Center Theater and Playwrights Horizons/Theatreworks Silicon Valley. An accomplished writer and performer of children’s music, Nathan has penned tunes for Sesame Street, The Electric Company, Storytime By Design, and Little Maestros. Nathan has also worked for over a decade writing and directing for the Lovewell Institute for the Creative Arts, helping to create over a dozen new musicals with young adults. He plays in the bands Joe’s Pet Project and Blue Bottle Collection. MFA: NYU GMTWP, BFA: Missouri State Univ. Nathan hails from Salina, KS. www.nathantysen.com

Casey won the 2011 Tony®, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for his work as co-director on The Book Of Mormon. Other Broadway credits: Elf: the Musical, The Drowsy Chaperone (2006 Tony®, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations), and Monty Python’s Spamalot, directed by Mike Nichols (2005 Tony®, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations for Best Choreography). Additional New York credits: for City Center Encores!—the highly acclaimed productions of Anyone Can Whistle and Follies (direction and choreography), Bye Bye Birdie (choreography) and Can-Can (musical staging); for N.Y. Philharmonic—Candide; South Pacific at Carnegie Hall  (also on PBS Great Performances), Sinatra: His Voice, His World, His Way at Radio City Music Hall starring the world-famous Rockettes. He directed and choreographed the world premieres of Minsky's at Center Theater Group, Robin and the 7 Hoods at the Old Globe and Disney's Aladdin at the 5^th Avenue in Seattle.

Selected credits: Broadway: A Christmas Story! The Musical, Scandalous, Desire Under the Elms, Hollywood Arms. Off-B’way: CSC, Atlantic, MTC, NYSF/Public, etc. Productions at virtually every regional theatre across the country. Works are within the permanent repertories of San Francisco Opera, Chicago Lyric, English National Opera, Boston Ballet, et al.

Broadway: Kinky Boots; Follies (Tony®); Elf (2012 and 2010); Legally Blonde (Tony® nom); The Drowsy Chaperone (Tony Award®, Drama Desk, Outer Critics, Olivier noms); Dirty Rotten Scoundrels; Flower Drum Song (Tony® nom); Side Show; To Be or Not To Be; Bye Bye Birdie. NY: Sinatra; The Wizard of Oz; Radio City Christmas Spectacular; Cinderella; The Merry Widow; Pageant (Olivier nom); The Kathy and Mo Show. Regional: Minky’s; Robin and the Seven Hoods; Mame; Lucky Duck (San Diego Critic’s Award); Allegro (Helen Hayes Award); many others. TDF Young Master Award.

More than 20 Broadway shows. Some recent designs include Annie, Bring It On: The Musical, The Book Of Mormon (Tony Award®); Anything Goes (Drama Desk); American Idiot; Promises, Promises; Next To Normal (Tony® nomination); Grease; Curtains; Spring Awakening as well as Grey Gardens and The Pajama Game which both earned Drama Desk nominations. Off-Broadway designs include Rent, Everyday Rapture, Saved, 10 Million Miles and Bug (Obie and Lucille Lortel awards). Regional designs include Bonnie And Clyde (LaJolla); American Idiot (Berkeley Rep); Dancing In The Dark (The Old Globe); A Christmas Carol (McCarter).

Danny orchestrated Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Newsies and Hercules for film and Newsies, Big River and How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying on Broadway. He wrote the underscore for Annie, Cinderella and The Music Man for ABC and has composed the scores to several direct-to-videos for Disney. His “January Sonata” for viola was performed at the OK Mozart Festival and in Ottowa this summer by word-famous violist Paul Neubauer. 

Rob is music director of City Center’s Encores! Series where he recently worked on Merrily We Roll Along, Damn Yankees, Stairway to Paradise and Finian’s Rainbow. Broadway credits include Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, Finian’s Rainbow, and revivals of The Pajama Game, Wonderful Town and The Apple Tree. Rob won a Helen Hayes Award for his music direction of the Kennedy Center’s production of Sunday in the Park With George. He is also music director of the Kennedy Center Honors Orchestra (Emmy® nominee).