STAGES Episode 520 - CARMEL DEAN (SPOTLIGHT EPISODE)

STAGES with Peter Eyers

Carmel Dean is a Composer, Arranger, Musical Director and Pianist. Her first musical, Renascence, was produced Off-Broadway by the award-winning Transport Group, and was named Best New Musical at the 2018 Off-Broadway Alliance Awards. The Original Off-Broadway Cast album is available on Apple Music and Spotify.

Her song cycle Well-Behaved Women starring Broadway stars LaChanze, Bonnie Milligan, Liz Callaway, Barbara Walsh and Andrea Burns, among others, premiered to two sold-out performances at Joe’s Pub in New York City.

As a Musical Supervisor and Arranger her recent projects included The Notebook with music by Ingrid Michaelson. Carmel was Musical Director for the Broadway musical If/Then, starring Idina Menzel, and was Music Supervisor of the subsequent National Tour.

Other Broadway credits include Hands on a Hardbody, American Idiot, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Off-Broadway credits include Everyday Rapture, Vanities and Elegies by William Finn. International credits include Chicago in Hong Kong and the 2000 Olympic Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies in Sydney. Carmel has also served as Chita Rivera’s Musical Director for many national and international appearances, and she performed with Green Day on the Grammy Awards in 2010.

Other compositions include the YouTube series Project: Song Blog; music for the Disney TV show Johnny & the Sprites; and Songs of Innocence & Experience (co-composed with William Finn, Deborah Abramson, Vadim Feichtner & Gi-hieh Lee.)

Carmel is a native of Perth, Western Australia, and received a B.Mus. from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). In 2001 she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study in the United States, and subsequently graduated from NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program with a MFA in Musical Theatre Writing. She is a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Workshop.

Sydney audiences are readying for an enormous treat as Carmel is in town for the return Australian season of her delicious song-cycle Well-Behaved Women. This dynamic and empowering musical extravaganza celebrates extraordinary women throughout history.

Well-Behaved Women is a co-production between Belvoir Theatre and Michelle Guthrie Presents. It plays the Belvoir Theatre from September 28th to November 3rd.

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