WELCOME!
Marius in Northern Stage's Les Miserables.
Playing a cabaret at the Laurie Beechman Theatre.
Teaching at New York Film Academy.
I was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania and raised almost entirely in the sleepy, western New York town of Elmira. I learned to play the piano at a very young age and my first ever theatrical experience was the summer of my freshman high school year when I was cast in the local professional production of Mark Twain, the Musical! (which took place entirely in an ice hockey arena converted to an enormous thrust stage). There were equity actors, union breaks, Bolshoi Ballet dancers, a full sized riverboat replica, 8 shows a week for 8 weeks, and a very green 14 year old hired to imitate a trumpet solo in the 2nd act. I caught the acting bug immediately and auditioned for all 2 of the musicals that were done semi-annually in my small town. In the meanwhile, I spent many hours a day at home accompanying myself on the piano and singing show tunes like the good musical theater nerd I was/am.
Master of the House from Les Miserables 3rd National Tour. I'm the guy in the top hat all the way to the right with the wide open mouth.
I attended the Conservatory of Music at Baldwin Wallace University, receiving a bachelor of music in musical theater and minoring in piano. Immediately after graduating, I got my Actors' Equity union card at Weston Playhouse in Vermont, playing Curly in Oklahoma!. The next two years out of school were spent adjusting to NYC life, a little TheatreWorks/USA tour (written by Frozen's Kristen Anderson Lopez), and playing Quasimodo and Young Hercules on a Disney Cruise Line. The day I got off the boat I had a callback for the original third national tour of Les Miserables. As it happened, I went on tour for two years playing the wily, sneaky, greasy haired, gangster Babet and also understudying and performing Marius.
Les Miserables on Broadway with Leah Horowitz, Cortney Wolfson, and Ben Crawford
I made my Broadway debut in the first 'revival' of Les Miz that occurred in 2006/7. I was one of the first replacements, taking over Joly and singing little tenor quips here and there about 'witty girls who went to our beds'. After the production ended, I began to further cultivate my music director and piano skills under music director/supervisor, Kevin Stites. He took me under his wing and taught me much of what I know as a Music Director. I assisted him musically first on the Actors' Fund concert of Pamela's First Musical (Music by Cy Coleman, Lyrics by David Zipper, Book by Wendy Wasserstein), followed by the Broadway production A Tale of Two Cities the Musical, and finally serving as assistant music supervisor on the national tour of Little House on the Prairie the Musical (starring Melissa Gilbert).
Original revival A Little Night Music cast with Stephen Sondheim.
Recording A Little Night Music cast recording with Ms. Lansbury.
In 2009, after spending some time teaching and music directing regionally, I was cast by Sir Trevor Nunn in his revival of A Little Night Music along with Angela Lansbury and Catherine Zeta-Jones, and can be heard on the original cast recording. I played Mr. Erlanson, singer of ghost-like tenor solos and understudy (and sometime) Henrik. I loved the show and stayed with it the entire run, including when Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch joined the cast.
In between 'gigs', I've always been coaching singers and teaching musical theater whenever I can. I taught and music directed graduate students of the Russian Theater Academy (GITIS) in Moscow, Russia for 3 months, held master classes at the Shanghai Conservatory in Shanghai, China, and also ran a 4 week musical theater workshop (with Deidre Goodwin) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Currently, I teach, music direct, and accompany for New York Film Academy's musical theater department.
Since 2008, I have worked often at a quaint, Vermont regional theater called Northern Stage. They have afforded many opportunities in parts and pieces that were often 'firsts' for me. My first play. My first role that wasn't a teenager. And most importantly: my first Shakespeare. I played Romeo and Ms. Sutton Crawford played Juliet. We fell in love and vowed to change the ending; on February 7th, 2015 some 3 and a half years after we met, I married her.
