The actors and singers may be the public faces of Broadway, but it’s the directors, choreographers, designers, and untold others doing the legwork behind the scenes. These artists, responsible for bringing such hits as “In the Heights” and “Company” to life on stage, gather for a series of interviews and roundtable discussions in an upcoming symposium at Princeton University. “Making Broadway Musicals: Artists and Scholars in Conversation” takes place at the Lewis Center for the Arts, 185 Nassau Street, on Saturday, April 21, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The event features an impressive lineup of Tony and Drama Desk Award-winners. Directors in attendance will be John Rando, who won a Tony Award in 2002 for his direction of “Urinetown,” director/choreographer Dan Knechtges. Representing the musical side of the business will be lyricist and composer Lisa Lambert, who wrote the lyrics and music for “The Drowsy Chaperone,” along with orchestrators Mary-Mitchell Campbell, Alex Lacamoire, and Michael Starobin. From the design side will be costume designer Jess Goldstein, who won a Tony Award in 2005 for “The Rivals” and also designed the costumes for “Jersey Boys.”
Princeton theater professor Stacy Wolf and Harvard music professor Carol Oja collaborated to organize the symposium, which will also include scholars in theater, music, and dance from Barnard College, UCLA, City University of New York Graduate Center, Baruch College, University of Illinois, and the University of Portsmouth in England.
“We are delighted to bring some of the most prominent artists working in the field to our students and to open this opportunity to the wider community,” Wolf said in a press release. “We hope that audiences’ experiences of musical theater will be enhanced by gaining insight into the backstage creative process.”
“Making Broadway Musicals: Artists and Scholars in Conversation,” Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University. Saturday, April 21, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Free and open to the public. Visit www.princeton.edu/arts.
