Palm Beach Dramaworks to Welcome Broadway Musical Director Paul Gemignani, 12/8

On December 8, Palm Beach Dramaworks launches the third season of its highly successful Dramalogue - Talking Theatre! series with Paul Gemignani: Musical Theatre's Master Maestro. The program features the esteemed Broadway musical director in conversation with Sheryl Flatow. Gemignani, recipient of the 2001 Lifetime Achievement Tony Award, will discuss a remarkable career still going strong after more than 40 years, and talk about how he helps shape a show and bring a score to life. The program will be presented twice, at 2pm (limited seating available) and 7pm at the Don & Ann Brown Theatre.

Earlier that day Mr. Gemignani will teach a master class to a select group of talented South Florida students from 9am to noon at Palm Beach Dramaworks. Gemignani will work one-on- one with each of the participants on material they've selected and prepared.

Dramalogue is a series made up of six programs that explore all aspects of theatre in conversations with or about the industry's top professionals and master artists. Gemignani, renowned for his long association with Stephen Sondheim, has, in fact, been musical director for shows or concerts featuring scores by most of Broadway's great composers and lyricists, including Cy Coleman, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Marvin Hamlisch, John Kander and Fred Ebb, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, Cole Porter, and Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. A very short list of the performers he's worked with includes Alec Baldwin, Len Cariou, John Cullum, Nathan Gunn, George Hearn, Sally Ann Howes, Angela Lansbury, Patti LuPone, Marin Mazzie, Audra McDonald, Reba McEntire, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, Faith Prince, and Chita Rivera.

Among the more than 45 productions on Broadway and the West End for which Gemignani has served as musical director/conductor are Follies, Pacific Overtures, Candide,A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Evita, Sunday in the Park with George, Dreamgirls, Merrily We Roll Along, Into the Woods, On the Twentieth Century, Jerome Robbins' Broadway, Crazy For You, Passion, High Society, Kiss Me, Kate, Assassins, The Frogs, and The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Later this season, he will be the musical director for the Roundabout Theatre Company's production of She Loves Me.

Gemignani won a 2006 Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Direction for his work on the Great Performances'broadcast of South Pacific in Concert from Carnegie Hall. In 1989, he was honored with a special Drama Desk Award for "consistently outstanding musical direction and commitment to the theatre," and in 1985 the Drama League of New York recognized him with the Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theatre Award.

Mark Perlberg is the executive producer of Dramalogue, which is sponsored by Nancy and Jay Parker. Presentations may include videos clips and/or scene readings. Audiences are invited to participate in a Q&A at the conclusion of each event. A subscription to the entire series is $90. Individual tickets are $20.

Palm Beach Dramaworks is a non-profit, professional theatre and is a member of the Theatre Communications Group, the South Florida Theatre League, Florida Professional Theatres Association, and the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County.

The Don & Ann Brown Theatre is located in the heart of downtown West Palm Beach, at 201 Clematis Street. For ticket information contact the box office at (561) 514-4042, or visit www.palmbeachdramaworks.org.

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