Celebration of Noël Coward’s Work Features Performance by Marymount Manhattan Students at Lincoln Center

During the Summer I 2012 Session, Marymount Manhattan offered a special course devoted to Coward’s achievements in the musical theatre. The course, team taught by celebrated director and educator Michael Montel, Broadway’s Larry Fuller and MMC’s Artist in Residence Christine Riley, will culminate in these three performances. 

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center and the Noël Coward Foundation present Star Quality: The World of Noël Coward, a major exhibition focusing on Coward as playwright, composer, director, and stage, screen and cabaret performer, in the Donald and Mary Oenslager Gallery from March 12 to August 18. In conjunction with the exhibition, a series of related public and educational programs will be presented citywide. 

“Musical Theatre Intensive: The Musicals of Noël Coward” examined the major musical works of Coward, including Operette, Tonight at 8:30, Pacific 1860, Sail Away, Bittersweet and The Girl Who Came to Supper, through readings, listening sessions, viewings and dialogues between Michael Montel and distinguished guest speakers who worked with Coward. 

Other participating organizations in the citywide celebration include the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Paley Center for Media, the Juilliard School, the Acting Company, Irish Repertory Theatre, the Mabel Mercer Foundation, Feinstein’s at Loews Regency, and Film Society of Lincoln Center. 

About Larry Fuller, Director and Choreographer

Larry Fuller began his career as a dancer/actor, appearing on Broadway in Carousel, The Music Man, Kean, Bravo Giovanni, and Funny Girl. When Barbra Streisand headed to London for the West End production of Funny Girl, Fuller was tapped to choreograph it, and then repeated the task for the American tour. Additional touring productions that Fuller has directed and choreographed include I Do! I Do!,Kismet, and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. In Europe, Fuller has directed and choreographed productions of West Side Storyin Vienna and Nuremberg, created Jazz and the Dancing Americans for the Opera House Ballet in Graz, Austria, and directed the European premieres of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide and On the Town and George Gershwin’s Girl Crazy. He also directed and choreographed the mid-1980s hit, Dave Clark multi-media musical Time in London. In 1997 he directed and choreographedJFK: A Musical Drama in Dublin, Ireland. Television audiences have seen Fuller’s choreography on the Ed Sullivan Show, and he has staged and choreographed both the Tony and Emmy Awards telecasts twice. Fuller’s Broadway credits as a choreographer include On the Twentieth Century,Merrily We Roll Along, and A Doll’s Life. He has been nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography twice, for his work inSweeney Todd and Evita, which also garnered him a Tony nod. He choreographed the original West End production of the latter and directed and choreographed the 2004 U.S. national tour as well. At Marymount Manhattan, Larry Fuller taught the Summer Intensive at The York, devising an original revue and directing a new musical by Adam Gwon. He also directed a staged reading of the musical Bluesbird with an all-student cast.

About Michael Montel, Classroom Instructor

Michael Montel is the founder and Artistic Director of the Museum of the City of New York’s Perform! cabaret series, now in its ninth year. His Broadway work includes William Inge’s Summer Brave, Carson McCullers’s The Member of the Wedding and Philip Barry’sHoliday. Off-Broadway productions include Arlene Hutton’s Last Train to Nibroc and the American premiere of Christopher Hampton’sTreats. His York Theatre production of Darling of the Day was named by Time Magazine as one of the Ten Best Shows of 2005. His work abroad includes Lost in Yonkers for Tel Aviv’s Cameri Theatre and Nibroc for the Edinburgh Festival. Television work includes ten programs for In Performance at the White House and Clifford Odets’s The Country Girl starring Faye Dunaway, Dick Van Dyke and Ken Howard. Among pursuits of greatest fulfillment were the years he spent with Hal Prince, Stephen Porter and T. Edward Hambleton as Artistic Director of the New Phoenix Repertory Company. He has been on the faculties of New York University, the Hartt School and Marymount Manhattan College where he currently teaches Musical Theatre Techniques. He lives in New York City with his wife, Ginger. Their son is director Max Montel. 

About Christine Riley, Music Director and Artist in Residence

Christine Riley has been working in the field of musical theatre for more than 15 years. Most recently she was the Musical Director/Arranger/Orchestrator for A Moment in Time, a new musical with Stewart Lane. Previously, she was the Musical Director for The Who’s Tommy, The Full Monty, Pajama Game,Urinetown, and Cabaret (Five Towns College),Gemini the Musical (The Acorn), Romance, Romance (The Glove Theatre), Seesaw (The Connelly Theatre) and Count to Ten (Theatre at St. Clements), as well as the Associate Musical Director for My Vaudeville Man at the York Theatre. Other credits includeThoroughly Modern Millie (AMD - National tour), Flight of the Lawnchair Man(AMD - 37 Arts), and Mud Donahue and Son(AMD - 45th Street Theatre), as well as serving as the musical director for many regional and university theatre productions. At MMC, Christine was the director and music director for the class projects Shout and Edges. She was the music director for MMC’s mainstage shows Sweet Charity and Rags. Ms. Riley received her Bachelor of Music from Ithaca College and Master of Music from Arizona State University. 

About Musical Theatre at Marymount Manhattan
The musical theatre minor, coordinated by Patricia Hoag Simon, comprises 24 credits and is designed to complement the B.A. in theatre arts with a concentration in theatre performance. MMC alumni have appeared in Broadway productions and National tours of Showboat, Hair, Wicked, Mary Poppins, Aida, Phantom of the Opera, Spring Awakening, The Book of Mormonand The Lion King, as well as Off-Broadway productions and the television series Glee. 

Marymount Manhattan College is an urban, independent, liberal arts college. The mission of the College is to educate a socially and economically diverse student body by fostering intellectual achievement and personal growth and by providing opportunities for career development.

Published: June 06, 2012