One of the most successful musical theater composers of all time takes audiences behind the scenes in Unmasked, a world-premiere featuring stories and songs from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s remarkable life and celebrated work. This funny and warm musical portrait, a concert for the theater, offers an intimate look at Lloyd Webber’s five decades in the spotlight and beyond, from his quirky family and bohemian youth in London to the creation of such smash hits as Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Cats, Phantom of the Opera, and Sunset Boulevard. You’ll hear new and sometimes unexpected interpretations of his best-loved songs, rediscovered gems, and some new material specially written for this production.
Paper Mill Playhouse will begin the new year with the world premiere Unmasked: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and written with Richard Curtis. Unmasked: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber runs Jan 30—March 1, 2020. JPMorgan Chase & Co. is the major sponsor of Unmasked: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber. The 2019–2020 season is proudly sponsored by Investors Bank. Opening Night is Sunday evening, February 9, 2020 at 7PM.
Directed and choreographed by JoAnn M. Hunter (School of Rock, Paper Mill’s Cinderella), with music direction by Michael Patrick Walker, the cast will feature Nicholas Edwards (Frozen), Alex Finke (Come From Away), Alyssa Giannetti (Love Never Dies), Jeremy Landon Hays (The Phantom of the Opera), Kara Haller (School of Rock), Amy Justman (Company), Andrew Kober (School of Rock, Paper Mill’s Cinderella), Angel Lozada (NBC’s Jesus Christ Superstar), Mauricio Martinez (On Your Feet!), Bronson Norris Murphy (Love Never Dies), Mamie Parris (School of Rock, Cats), Dave Schoonover (Love Never Dies, Paper Mill’s Cinderella), and Rema Webb (Escape to Margaritaville).
The production team includes scenic and costume design by Alexander Dodge (Paper Mill’s Chasing Rainbows: The Road to Oz, A Gentleman’s Guide…, Anastasia), lighting design by Tony Award nominee Ed McCarthy (Tony Awards, Kathleen Turner: Finding My Voice), and sound design by Jon Weston (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Big Fish). The Production Stage Manager is Frank Lombardi. Max Quinlan will serve as associate director and Liz Ramos will serve as associate choreographer. Casting is by Tara Rubin Casting.
Unmasked: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber will be performed at Paper Mill Playhouse eight times a week, Wed–Sun and will play the following schedule: Wed at 7:30PM, Thu at 1:30PM and 7:30PM, Fri at 8:00PM, Sat at 1:30PM and 8PM, and Sun at 1:30PM and 7:00PM. Tickets start at $32 and may be purchased by calling 973.376.4343, or clicking here. All major credit cards accepted. Groups of 10 or more may receive up to a 40% discount on tickets and should call 973.315.1680. Students may order $20 rush tickets over the phone or in person at the Paper Mill Playhouse Box Office on the day of the performance.
MEET THE COMPANY
NICHOLAS EDWARDS is thrilled to be back in his home state and making his debut at Paper Mill Playhouse! Broadway: Frozen (ensemble, u/s Kristoff, u/s Pabbie). Off Broadway: Spamilton. National Tours: Les Misérables (ensemble, u/s Enjolras), Sister Act (Pablo). DC Area: Jesus Christ Superstar (Jesus, Signature Theatre). Other credits include Valentin in Kiss of the Spider Woman and Judah in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. BFA, Musical Theatre, Montclair State University.
ALEX FINKE was most recently seen as Janice & Others in the hit Broadway musical Come From Away. Other credits include: Broadway: Les Misérables (Cosette); Off Broadway: Johanna in the critically acclaimed revival of Sweeney Todd at Barrow Street Theatre; First National Tour: Anything Goes (Hope Harcourt); Regional: The Unsinkable Molly Brown at the Denver Center, Footloose at PCLO, Music Theatre Wichita. University of Michigan, BFA, Musical Theatre.
ALYSSA GIANNETTI is thrilled to be performing at Paper Mill Playhouse for the first time. She made her professional debut as the Christine Daaé understudy and ensemble swing with the first national tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies. Originally from Bloomfield Hills, MI, Alyssa holds a BM in Voice and Opera Performance from Northwestern University.
KARA HALLER. Paper Mill debut! Broadway: School of Rock. National Tours: School of Rock (first national), Beauty and the Beast. Select regional: Harmony (Ahmanson Theatre), Anything Goes (Ogunquit Playhouse, Gateway Playhouse), Beauty and the Beast (Musical Theatre West).
JEREMY LANDON HAYS. Broadway: The Phantom of the Opera (Raoul), Les Misérables. National Tour: Les Misérables (Enjolras, originating at Paper Mill), Cats (Tugger). Television: The Oath (Crackle), Bull (CBS), FBI (CBS), The Blacklist (NBC), Broad City (Comedy Central). Film: Compliance (FX, starring Mary Louise Parker), Sometime Other Than Now (starring Kate Walsh). Jeremy has penned the book to Everything in the Dim Light, a new Broadway musical currently in development, with music and lyrics by The Bones, adapted from the Thomas Hardy novel Far from the Madding Crowd. Jeremy has also written two television pilots, Buried Deep and Take the Black.
AMY JUSTMAN. Paper Mill debut! Broadway: Carousel, In Transit, The Phantom of the Opera, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder, White Christmas, Company (PBS Great Performances). National Tour: The Phantom of the Opera. New York: Passion (Classic Stage Company), four Encores! shows. Regional: Cincinnati Playhouse, Baltimore Center Stage, Flat Rock Playhouse, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. Opera and concert credits include prisoner of the state (New York Philharmonic), Bernstein’s Mass (Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra), A Midsummer’s Night Dream (New York City Ballet), and The Threepenny Opera (Syracuse Opera). TV: Fosse/Verdon. Winner of the Lotte Lenya Competition.
ANDREW KOBER. Most recently: Cinderella at Paper Mill. Broadway: Beautiful, School of Rock, Sunday in the Park with George, She Loves Me, Les Misérables, Hair. National Tour: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Off Broadway and regional: Roundabout Theatre Company, the Public Theater, MCC, New York Theatre Workshop, the Old Globe, Yale Rep, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Bucks County Playhouse, Denver Center Theatre, Barrington Stage Company, and four summers at Shakespeare in the Park. TV: Fosse/Verdon (FX Network), Ray Donovan (Showtime), House of Cards (Netflix), Boardwalk Empire (HBO), Blue Bloods (CBS), Pan Am (ABC), The Plot Against America (HBO).
ANGEL LOZADA is proud to make his Paper Mill Playhouse debut in Unmasked! He is originally from Orlando, Florida, and is a proud son of Puerto Rican parents! Angel is a Florida State University alumnus (class of 2017) with a BM in Music Theatre. Favorite credits include Jesus Christ Superstar both live on NBC and at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Che in Evita at Riverside Theatre and ACT of Connecticut, and Bernardo in West Side Story at Maltz Jupiter Theatre.
MAURICIO MARTINEZ is a Mexican actor and recording artist. Broadway/National Tour: On Your Feet! (Emilio Estefan). Regional: Evita as Che (Kansas City Rep). TV: El Vato (Netflix—International Emmy Award), Señora Acero 2 (Telemundo), and numerous telenovelas for Univision. On the Mexico City stage, he starred in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Saturday Night Fever, The Drowsy Chaperone, Sweet Charity, and A View from the Bridge, among others. Mauricio has released two pop albums available on iTunes and is currently working on his third solo album.
BRONSON NORRIS MURPHY makes his Paper Mill Playhouse debut with Unmasked. In a career full of celebrating the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Mr. Murphy became best known to American audiences for premiering the role of the Phantom in the first North American production of Love Never Dies: The Phantom Returns. Broadway/NYC: The Phantom of the Opera, Evita (NY City Center). National Tours: Cats, Love Never Dies.
MAMIE PARRIS. Unmasked marks Mamie’s Paper Mill Playhouse debut. On Broadway she garnered acclaim as Grizabella in the revival of Cats and originated the role of Patty in School of Rock. Additional Broadway and first national tour credits include Wicked (Elphaba), 9 to 5 (Judy), On the Twentieth Century, Ragtime, The Drowsy Chaperone, Legally Blonde, and 110 in the Shade. Regional credits include the new musicals Dave (Ellen) at Arena Stage and Life After (Beth) at the Old Globe, as well as roles at Goodspeed, Pittsburgh CLO, and the Muny. Film and television credits include The Blacklist, State of Affairs, and A Standup Guy.
DAVE SCHOONOVER is loving this immediate return to Paper Mill after Cinderella (u/s Sebastian, Lord Pinkleton). National Tours: Love Never Dies (u/s Phantom, Raoul, Gangle), White Christmas (Sheldrake, u/s Bob), Young Frankenstein (u/s Dr. Frankenstein), Cats (Tugger). Off Broadway: The Fantasticks (El Gallo standby). Regional: Annie (Rooster, TUTS), Sweeney Todd (Pirelli, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival), Parade (Governor Slaton, Merry-Go-Round), The Music Man (Harold Hill, Forestburgh Playhouse), White Christmas (Bob, Westchester Broadway), Young Frankenstein (Dr. Frankenstein, Ogunquit), Toxic Avenger (Toxie, Hippodrome Theatre), Little Shop… (Orin, Arrow Rock Lyceum).
REMA WEBB most recently appeared in Footloose (Kennedy Center), Hercules (Public Theater/Disney Theatrical), and Little Shop of Horrors (Cape Playhouse). Broadway credits: Escape to Margaritaville, The Color Purple, Violet, The Lion King, The Book of Mormon, Ragtime. Off Broadway and regional credits: Little Shop of Horrors, The Cradle Will Rock, The Colored Museum, A New Brain, You’re Standing in My Way: A New Song Cycle, Being Alive.
THE CREATIVE TEAM
ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER (Composer) is the composer of some of the world’s best-known musicals, including Cats, Evita, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Phantom of the Opera, Sunset Boulevard, and School of Rock. His awards, both as composer and producer, include seven Tonys, seven Oliviers, a Golden Globe, an Oscar, an Emmy, the Praemium Imperiale, PCLO’s Richard Rodgers Award for Excellence in Musical Theater, a BASCA Fellowship, the Kennedy Center Honor, and a Grammy for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for Requiem, his setting of the Latin Requiem mass, which contains one of his best-known compositions, “Pie Jesu.” He owns seven London theaters, including the Theatre Royal Drury Lane and the London Palladium. He was knighted by Her Majesty the Queen in 1992 and created an honorary member of the House of Lords in 1997. He is passionate about the importance of music in education, and the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation is one of Britain’s leading charities supporting the arts and music. In 2016, the foundation announced a $1.3 million arts education initiative with the American Theatre Wing.
RICHARD CURTIS (Cowriter) is a film writer and director, responsible for Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Mr. Bean, Love Actually, The Boat That Rocked, and most recently Trash, About Time, and Yesterday. In the other half of his life, he is cofounder and vice chair of Comic Relief, which he started after visiting Ethiopia during the 1985 famine, leading to the fundraising event Red Nose Day. He has coproduced the charity’s 16 live broadcasts for the BBC since 1988, raising over £1.3 billion for projects in the UK and internationally. In 2015, Richard helped bring Red Nose Day to the United States, in a partnership with NBC and Walgreens, where it has raised nearly $150 million to help children here and around the world.
JOANN M. HUNTER (Director & Choreographer) is always honored to be back at Paper Mill, where she choreographed Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Annie, Pump Boys and Dinettes, Grease, Oliver!, and Curtains. She has 20 Broadway shows to her credit as choreographer, associate choreographer, and performer. Choreography includes: Broadway: School of Rock (also national tour, West End), Disaster, On a Clear Day…, Broadway Bound; Off Broadway: Rock and Roll Refugee, Dedalus Lounge, The Twelve (workshop); Regional: Ever After (Alliance), world premiere of Beatsville (Asolo), A Sign of the Times by Bruce Vilanch (Goodspeed), Harmony by Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman (Ahmanson), world premiere of The Nutty Professor directed by Jerry Lewis; National Tour: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. She directed and choreographed Debra Monk’s Birthday Bash for BC/EFA. Upcoming: Love Life and SuperYou Off Broadway.
MICHAEL PATRICK WALKER (Music Director). Broadway: 2017 revival of Sunset Boulevard (assistant conductor), Frozen, Aladdin, If/Then, Avenue Q (conductor), Cats, and more. Concert Performances: Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and ten amazing years as Chita Rivera’s associate musical director and pianist. As a composer/lyricist he was honored with an Outer Critics Circle Award and multiple Drama Desk nominations. His musicals include Being Theo, Dog and Pony (with Rick Elice), and the ninth longest running Off Broadway musical of all time, Altar Boyz (with Gary Adler and Kevin Del Aguila). Recordings: Out of Context: The Songs of Michael Patrick Walker, Johnny and the Sprites (coproducer), and the Altar Boyz cast album
ALEXANDER DODGE (Scenic & Costume Design). Paper Mill: Chasing Rainbows, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Importance of Being Earnest, Master Class. Broadway: Anastasia (Outer Critics Circle nomination), A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder (Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle nominations), Present Laughter (Tony nomination), Old Acquaintance, Butley, Hedda Gabler. Recent Off Broadway and regional: Harry Clarke (Minetta Lane/Audible), the premiere of the musical The Flamingo Kid choreographed by Denis Jones (Hartford Stage). Opera: Samson et Dalila (Metropolitan Opera), The Thirteenth Child (Santa Fe Opera), Ghosts of Versailles (LA Opera), Dinner at Eight (Minnesota and Wexford), Il trittico (Deutsche Oper Berlin), and Lohengrin (Budapest). MFA, Yale.
ED McCARTHY (Lighting Design). Recent: Kathleen Turner: Finding My Voice, The Heart of Robin Hood in Hong Kong, Peter Brook’s Tragedy of Carmen. Public Theater: Southern Comfort. Broadway: Adaptation of Coram Boy (2007 Tony nomination for best lighting design of a play). Radio City Christmas Spectacular; over 70 Off Broadway and regional shows; associate lighting designer for all companies of Mamma Mia! in the Western Hemisphere; and many others. Television: the last 20 Tony Awards (earning four Emmy nominations), Live from Lincoln Center, Grammy Awards, Prairie Home Companion, and more. Graduate of, and teacher at, NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
JON WESTON (Sound Design). Paris and West End: An American in Paris. West End: Thoroughly Modern Millie, Rent, The Who’s Tommy. Broadway design credits include Prince of Broadway; She Loves Me; Amazing Grace; An American in Paris; On the Twentieth Century; You Can’t Take It With You; The Bridges of Madison County; How to Succeed…; The Color Purple; Caroline, or Change; Nine; The Green Bird; Thoroughly Modern Millie. Off Broadway and Regional: Footloose (Kennedy Center); Scotland, PA (Roundabout); Evita (Bay Street); Grey Gardens (Bay Street); The Last Five Years (Second Stage); Death Takes a Holiday (Roundabout); Parade (Mark Taper Forum); Family Guy, Live! (Carnegie Hall).
FRANK LOMBARDI (Production Stage Manager). Paper Mill Playhouse: Million Dollar Quartet, Mary Poppins. Broadway: Betrayal, The Cher Show, Torch Song, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, A Behanding in Spokane, Hamlet (twice, with Jude Law and Ralph Fiennes), Spamalot, Disney’s Tarzan, Hairspray, The Sound of Music, Steel Pier, The Phantom of the Opera, Passion, Side Show, Footloose, The Red Shoes, The Secret Garden. Off Broadway: Plenty (Public). Regional: Camelot (Westport Country Playhouse, CT); Idaho! (Smith Center, Las Vegas); The Will Rogers Follies (Maltz Jupiter Theatre, FL); world premieres of Catch Me If You Can (Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre) and Randy Newman’s Faust (La Jolla Playhouse); The Lion King (original L.A. company).
TARA RUBIN CASTING (Casting). Previous Paper Mill: Chasing Rainbows, The Sting, Bandstand, A Bronx Tale, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Can-Can, Les Misérables 25th Anniversary Tour. Broadway and National Tours: Ain’t Too Proud, King Kong, Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, The Band’s Visit, Prince of Broadway, Indecent, Sunset Boulevard, Miss Saigon, Dear Evan Hansen, Cats, Falsettos, Disaster!, School of Rock, Bullets Over Broadway, Les Misérables, Big Fish, The Phantom of the Opera, Billy Elliot, Shrek, Spamalot, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Producers, Mamma Mia!, Jersey Boys. Off Broadway: Sing Street, The Other Josh Cohen, Clueless, Gloria: A Life, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, Here Lies Love.
ACCESSIBILITY PERFORMANCES FOR UNMASKED: THE MUSIC OF ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER
Paper Mill Playhouse, a leader in accessibility, will offer audio-described performances for Unmasked: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber on Sun, Feb 23, at 1:30PM and Saturday, Feb 29, at 1:30PM. Prior to these performances at noon, the theater will offer free sensory seminars. Sensory seminars offer an opportunity for patrons with vision loss to hear a live, in-depth description of the production elements of the show and hands-on interaction with key sets, props, and costumes. There will be a sign-interpreted and open-captioned performance on Sun, March 1, at 7:00PM.
FREE AUDIENCE ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIES FOR UNMASKED: THE MUSIC OF ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER
CONVERSATION CLUB: Join us Thu evenings, Jan 30, Feb 6, 13, and 20, one hour before curtain for an informal, informative gathering. You’ll learn more about the performance you’re about to see.
THE DIRECTOR’S VIEWPOINT: One hour before curtain on Wed, Feb 5, a pre-show discussion with the show’s director in the Renee Foosaner Art Gallery.
Q&A WITH THE CAST: After the matinee on Sat, Feb 29, stick around for a lively Q&A with cast members directly following the performance.
Paper Mill Playhouse Education & Outreach are proudly sponsored by The Goren Family & the Harmony Helper App.
