JASON OSTROWSKI
The following is used with permission from Jason Ostrowski (updated August 30, 2007)
Jason can be seen this fall in the first American Tour of Bill Kenwright's production of Whistle Down the Wind by Andrew Lloyd Webber. He will be the male ensemble swing in the show.
Jason was born and raised in Rochester, NY. His appreciation for music and theater started at a young age with piano lessons, and was fostered at Greece Athena High School. In 1998, he graduated with a BFA in musical theater from SUNY Fredonia. Jason's professional career began that summer at Disney's Animal Kingdom, in a live stage musical Disney's Journey Into Jungle Book. There he played Baloo the Bear.
In 2001 Jason relocated to NYC. Since he has been here, he has appeared in Forever Plaid covering all 4 roles, Who Killed Woody Allen as Conan O'Brien, TheaterWorks USA's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Ramona Quimby. Jason recently made his Broadway debut in Company as the stand-by for the role of Peter.
Jason is also a songwriter. Check out upcoming performances, news, and music at www.JasonOstrowski.com
HUGH PANARO
The following is used with permission from www.Hugh-panaro.net and http://www.myspace.com/hughpanaromusic
Critically lauded and adored by legions of fans, tenor Hugh Panaro is one of Broadway’s leading performers, demonstrating versatility, charisma and volumes of vocal talent.
Though perhaps best know for his recent run as The Phantom in Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, Mr. Panaro began his career on the Great White Way as Marius in Les Miserables after originating the role on the first US national tour. He also created the roles of Buddy in Side Show, Julian in Jules Styne’s The Red Shoes, and the title role in the 1999 U.S. tour of the musical Martin Guerre.
In 1995, he made his West End debut in the original London Company of Harold Prince’s Show Boat as Ravenal, which he continued to play on Broadway and in Toronto. Mr. Panaro has also performed with the London Sinfonietta, and added his voice to the soundtrack for Dreamworks' Prince of Egypt animated film.
Born on February 19th, 1964 in Pennsylvania, Mr. Panaro embraced his love of performing at the tender age of 13, casting dreams of veterinary school aside for the chance at the stage and screen. His love of animals has obviously not been squelched and he has posed with his dog Soot for photographs.
To the dismay of "Phantom Phans" around the world, Mr. Panaro left the Majestic Theater as of October 2005 to create the role of Lestat in the eponymous musical. Based on Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles and featuring the music of Elton John, Lestat cast Mr. Panaro as the nihilistic, seductive vampire, intent on conquering the world with his voice and his sheer will.
Broadway:
Lestat (2006)
The Phantom of the Opera - title role (2003-2005)
The Phantom of the Opera - title role (1999)
Side Show - Buddy (1997)
Show Boat - Gaylord Ravenal (1995)
The Red Shoes - Julian (1993)
The Phantom of the Opera - Raoul de Chagny (1991)
Les Miserables - Marius Pontmercy
Off-Broadway
Little Fish - Robert
Radio City Rockettes - Mack & Mabel
The Stephen Sondheim Gala - Children & Art
Sweeney Todd -The Demon Barber of Fleet Street - Anthony Hope
Merrily We Roll Along - Franklin Shepard
Noa Noa
Wuthering Heights - Heathcliff
Children of Eden
What's A Nice Country Like You Doing In A State Like This
Sweet Adeline - Tom Martin
The Broadway Hour
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - Henry Spofford (Los Angeles, 2001)
Juba
Splendora
Orpheus in the Underworld
Mavra
Falstaff - Fenton
The Pirates of Penzance - Frederick
Chicago
National Tours
Film & Television
Law & Order - Faccia a Faccia - Hotel Clerk - 1998
Broadway Damage - 1999 - David
Hugh Panaro has also made a number of notable concert appearances, including:
Broadway on Broadway, Stars in the Alley, Broadway in Bryant Park, Jerome Kern: Life Upon the Wicked S.T.A.G.E., Kurt Weill: The Centennial, Te Deum in Carnegie Hall, Jerry Herman: Tap Your Troubles Away (Los Angeles), Broadway Nights Concert Series, The Broadway Concert--A Romantic Journey, 12th Annual Chicago Humanities Festival, The Cole Porter Songbook Concert, "A Star Spangled Salute" with The Houston Symphony, Sons of Italy Foundation Gala in Washington's National Building w/ Tony Bennett, Theatre Under the Stars: First American Musical Theatre Awards, Something Wonderful: The Richard Rodgers Centennial, The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Children and Art: Sondheim 70th Birthday Celebration
HEATHER PARCELLS
The following is used with permission from Heather Parcells and www.heatherparcells.com (added March 18, 2007)
Heather is currently appearing on Broadway as Judy Turner in A Chorus Line. She has also appeared in the Ensemble of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Heather has appeared in the National Tours of Thoroughly Modern Millie (Miss Dorothy u/s, Miss Flannery u/s, Ensemble/Rita), Some Like It Hot starring Tony Curtis (Rosella/Sweet Sue u/s), and Chicago (Velma Kelly). She has appeared Off-Broadway in Mademoiselle Modiste and Meet Me in St. Louis (both at Musicals Tonight, NYC). Regional credits include How the Grinch Stole Christmas (New York City Workshop), Chicago (Westchester Broadway Theatre), Blood and Fire reading (ASCAP Workshop), Jungle Queen Debutante (The York Theatre/Workshop), Call Me Madam (Virginia Musical Theatre), Carousel, Blood Brothers, Hello Dolly and Moon Over Buffalo (Central Piedmont Summer Theatre), Honky Tonk Angels (Lone Star Performing Arts Assc.), Will Rogers Follies and Mame (Galveston Island Outdoor Musicals), and Say, Young Man of Manhattan and Greenwillow (Lab Theatre). Heather has also appeared on Television in The Guiding Light and Sex & the City.
Heather was a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Florida State University, where she received her BFA in Music Theatre. She was also a nominee for Best Actress for the National Broadway Theatre Awards for her role as Velma Kelly in Chicago.
MAMIE PARRIS
The following is used with permission from Mamie Parris (added September 3, 2007)
Born in Hurst, Texas, Mamie first sang on stage at the age of 4 when her older brother could not perform in his school talent show due to an unfortunate Chicken Pox situation. At 11, Mamie and her family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where she attended the Kansas City Middle School of the Arts and, subsequently, the Paseo Academy of Fine and Performing Arts. It was there she discovered acting and the thrill of live theatre. By the age of 15, her previous notion of law school was long gone and it became apparent that after graduation she would be New York City bound.
At 17, after one two-day trip to New York City, and having never seen a Broadway show, Mamie made the move to the Big Apple. There she attended the American Musical and Dramatic Academy... and spent a lot of time starving. After AMDA, she set to work in summer stock and regional theatres. Her quest for adventure and desire to try new things and see new places sent her away from New York for brief and not-so-brief stints working on cruise ships and even country-music tours with Kenny Rogers, but she always returned to the City, happy to be home.
Recently, Mamie made her Broadway debut in the Tony-Nominated Roundabout revival of 110 In The Shade, directed by Lonny Price and starring Audra McDonald. She is now in the cast of the Tony Award-winning musical The Drowsy Chaperone as the understudy to the roles of Janet Van de Graaff and The Drowsy Chaperone. She has also developed a reputation for supporting the talents of many up-and-coming musical theatre writers, and looks forward to being a part of the many exciting new projects as they make the journey to Broadway. Excerpts from some of these works-in-progress can be heard at www.myspace.com/mamieparris.
ADAM PASCAL
The following is used with permission from www.adam-pascal.com
Adam Pascal was born on October 25, 1970 in the Bronx, but spent the majority of his life in Syosset Long Island, where he had moved to when he was ten years old. He discovered his passion for music and his natural ability to sing when he was twelve years old, and described himself as a "total metal head" as a teenager. He was engrossed with Queensryche, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, though he also cites The Beatles, Elton John, and Billy Joel as major influences in his music.
Adam's first live performance also came at the age of twelve when he played his first real "rock and roll gig" at his hometown's junior high school, covering heavy metal bands like Ozzy Osbourne and D.O. He had gotten his first taste of live music; it went from there and never stopped. He formed a band named Mute and they played throughout Adam's high school and college years. However, in what he considered "his first career decision in the music business," he left the band and went off alone.
As he had been in this band for nearly fifteen years, Adam was in a situation of not knowing what to do next. Then came the fateful day when a friend of his referred him to an off-Broadway play that was being workshopped at the New York Theatre Workshop. The play was RENT. After a rigorous auditioning process during which he was called back three times and had to learn two songs overnight, he won the role of Roger Davis, an aspiring singer-songwriter living with AIDS. RENT went on to become the most successful musical in a decade, and much of that success, at least by many people's standpoint, was because of Adam. Though he had never acted before the play, he was called "the meditative soul of the play" by The New York Times, and praised by critics and fans alike for his amazingly soulful voice and outstanding acting. In 1996, Adam received two prestigious nominations in the forms of the Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Best Actor in a Musical, and won in that very category in the Obie and Theatre World Awards. In the months that followed after the success of the play, Adam became discouraged from the role because of the commercialization of the play, and left quite suddenly to play Eddie in the Sony Pictures Classics release SLC Punk! Fortunately for audiences, he traveled to London with many of the original cast members for the unveiling of the show there.
After his tenure on RENT wound down, Adam was approached by director Bob Falls for Aida, a new Broadway musical created by Elton John and Tim Rice, the same powerhouse duo that had brought The Lion King such accolade. It was a dream come true for Adam; Elton had been an inspiration for so many years. During his time as Radames, Adam was also asked to participate with a select few Broadway stars, including his Aida co-star, Heather Headley, in the televised concert My Favorite Broadway: The Love Songs.
During his time with RENT, he had also formed the Adam Pascal Band, and though the band is not together anymore, he has since released a solo effort called Model Prisoner. Unlike many of his colleagues, Adam decided on a small independent Internet label to record his music, and went back to his first love, rock and roll. A deeply personal album, it was written to express his feelings on life and love. He has said that he would love to tour with this album and promote it, as he has never done an "actual full-fledged straight-up tour."
On September 22, 2003, Adam performed in the Actors' Fund benefit concert of Chess, and in December of the same year, it was announced that he had joined the cast of Tarzan, the upcoming Disney musical workshop based on the music of Phil Collins, as the storyteller. Adam also appeared in two motion pictures in 2003: as Theo in the hugely successful comedy School of Rock starring comedian Jack Black, and as Nicholi in the independent rock musical Temptation with another RENT and Roger alumnus, Manley Pope.
Since then Adam has been splitting his time between his own music, the stage, and the silver screen. In 2004, he released his second solo effort Civilian and joined another all-star cast a production of Hair for the Actors' Fund. And most recently, the majority of the original Broadway cast of RENT reunited to portray the characters they had created ten years earlier in a movie version of the tenth longest running show on Broadway. With the chance to revisit the role that made him famous and the ability to reach a wider audience through this new medium, Adam truly makes his mark both in this film and in the hearts of whom he has touched.
Adam lives in New York City with his wife, Cybele; his sons, Lennon Jay and Montgomery Lovell; and his dog, Carly.
