Stephen Cole
New York
STEPHEN COLE (Librettist-Lyricist-Author)
is an award-winning musical theatre writer whose shows have been recorded, published, and produced from New York City to London to the Middle East and Australia. His off-Broadway musical AFTER THE FAIR (music by Matthew Ward; winner of 5 Dallas Theatre Awards for it's world premiere including Best New Play or Musical) was nominated for the Outer Critic's Circle Award for Best Musical and was subsequently produced in London to great acclaim. The original cast CD featuring Tony winner Michele Pawk won several awards. THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (music by Claibe Richardson) won the presigious Edward Kleban Award and was produced in San Francisco where it was nominated for several Bay Area Theatre Awards. The musical has subsequently been produced in NYC as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival in 2006 and in October 2010 at Lyric Stage in Dallas featuring Davis Gaines, Julie Johnson and a 24 piece orchestra. Hunter was given a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the CD has received rave reviews from the press including Billboard Magazine, who called it "the best CD of a new musical ever!" The CD also won the prize as best new musical on CD from the German music critics. The award winning concept CD features Ron Raines and Dorothy Loudon and was the recipient of a German music critics Award.. SATURDAY NIGHT AT GROSSINGER'S (music by Claibe Richardson) has had successful runs in Dallas (Starring Gavin MacLeod), LA and Florida. Broadway legend Chita Rivera toured in his show CASPER (music by Matthew Ward...this also played Australia) and Hal Linden and Dee Hoty starred in the world premiere of his musical adaptation of DODSWORTH (music by Jeffrey Saver). Stephen has been represented off Broadway with the hilarious PIANO BAR at the Triad. In 2005 Stephen and composer David Krane were commissioned to write the first American musical to premiere in the Middle East and the result was ASPIRE, which was produced in Qatar. Their amazing and hilarious cross-cultural experiences resulted in yet another musical about the creation of the show entitled THE ROAD TO QATAR which was produced to rave reviews at the Lyric Stage winning Best New Play or Musical from the Dallas-Ft. Worth Drama Critics Forum. THE ROAD TO QATAR! played Off Broadway and has been recorded by Jay Records. Krane and Cole also wrote a short movie musical entitled THE WHEEL GOES ROUND that was accepted and shown at five International Film Festivals including The Big Apple Film Festival in NYC. Saver and Cole's new musical TIME AFTER TIME had its world premiere in Feb. 2010 at the Pittsburgh Playhouse under the direction of Gabriel Barre. Other produced shows include MERLIN'S APPRENTICE (Music by Matthew Ward) and ROCK ODYSSEY (Music and Lyrics by Billy Straus), which had 2 successful productions at the Adrienne Arscht Center Miami and will be produced annually then for the next ten years. Stephen is also a published author with four books to his credit including THAT BOOK ABOUT THAT GIRL and I COULD HAVE SUNG ALL NIGHT, the Marni Nixon story, NOEL COWARD and Charles Strouse's memoir PUT ON A HAPPY FACE. Stephen has written continuity, narration, and special material for fifteen different Drama League Shows including all star tributes to Kander and Ebb, Liza Minnelli, Chita Rivera, Terrance McNally, Liz Smith, Peter Stone and most recently Angela Lansbury and Patti LuPone. Some of the stars Stephen has written material for include Marlo Thomas, Tyne Daly, Bernadette Peters, Christine Baranski, Hal Linden, Chita Rivera, Gavin MacLeod, Dee Hoty, Christine Ebersole, Keith Carradine, JoAnne Worley, Lauren Bacall, Matthew Broderick, Michael Rupert, Joel Grey and many others. Stephen is the recipient of a Gilman-Gonzales Falla Commendation for musical theatre. He was also named one of Variety's 50 Creatives to Watch- 2000. Liz Smith in her syndicated column has called Stephen's lyrics "brilliant and gifted."
As a producer, Stephen presented Liza Minnelli, Barbara Cook, David Hyde Pierce, and many others in an 80th Birthday Tribute to John Kander. Stephen has also released a series of CD's entitled MERMANIA on Harbinger Records. These include never before released selections sung by his favorite star and friend, Ethel Merman. .
Works in progress include THE BLACK AND WHITE BALL (with Todd Ellison) and MERMAN'S APPRENTICE (with David Evans).
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