Musical Theatre Radio presents "Be Our Guest"

42 Balloons

No, seriously. In a chair.

42 BALLOONS is an uplifting musical inspired by the highly improbable true story of how Larry, and his partner Carol Van Deusen, convinced their friends and family to help Larry achieve his dream of flying.

Featuring an irresistible, 80s-style pop score, 42 BALLOONS questions how far you would go to make your dreams come true. Is the sky actually the limit, and what happens if it doesn’t all go to plan?

His first full-length musical Pieces of String premiered in 2018 at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester. It was The Stage’s Best Regional Musical of the year and was nominated for the UK Theatre Best Musical Production award. For Pieces of String, Gus won The Stage Debut Award for Best Composer/Lyricist, and was nominated for the inaugural Writer’s Guild of Great Britain Award for Best Musical Theatre Bookwriting. His song cycle Lifeboats, celebrating the LGBTQ+ community was performed at the Kings Head Theatre in London as part of the MT Pride season in 2023 and his second full-length musical Mayflies premiered at York Theatre Royal in 2023, to great acclaim.

Gus was commissioned to write new works for York Theatre Royal’s Love Bites and Green Shoots and has written two short musicals – an audio musical short Subway which was released in 2020 - and SICK! which was performed at LOST Theatre, London. In 2021, Gus, with Craig Mather, wrote and released an EP of pop songs focused on mental health In Motion. His short play Clocks & Teapots was performed at Rada Studios & the London Transport Museum. He co-wrote and directed Barren, (special prize for merit at the LOST One Act Theatre Festival), Love Love Love (Canadian Fringe Tour) & wrote & performed in Tell Me On A Thursday at the Camden Fringe. Gus wrote two songs for Copyright Christmas, for Olivier award-winning theatre collective Duckie at the Barbican.

Gus was commissioned by Hull Pride for their City of Culture celebrations and co-wrote with Alistair Brammer on the MADTrust album ‘The West End Goes MAD for Christmas’.

Gus is a MGCFutures Bursary recipient and has been shortlisted for the Stiles + Drewe Best New Song Award twice, the Perfect Pitch Award and The KSF Artists of Choice program. Gus’s work has been presented at BEAM, the Theatre Royal Stratford East Musical Theatre Workshop and has been supported by the Peggy Ramsay Foundation. Gus is currently resident artist at York Theatre Royal.

In 2014, Gus was on the UK Jury for the Eurovision Song Contest!

George Livings, originally from London, England, holds a degree in Acting and Musical Theater from Mountview Theatre School. He has a rich background in West End productions such as Kiss of the Spider Woman, Blitz and Forever Plaid, as well as the lead roles in the UK National tour of Godspell and the German production of Starlight Express.
Upon relocating to Orlando, Florida, George served as the Director of Production at The Holy Land Experience, where he collaborated with Jonathan on various projects, including the conceptual concert of The Last Adam. Despite setbacks caused by COVID-19, George remained resilient, directing workshops and pursuing higher education with a focus on his Masters in Film Composition and Orchestration.
Throughout his career, George and Jonathan have crafted numerous shows and songs together, including eight children's musicals and mini musicals like "Centurion" and "Moses." Currently residing in Staten Island, New York, George serves as the Executive Director of Creative Arts at Salem Church, where he continues to pursue his passion for storytelling through The Last Adam.
With a vision to present the gospel in a unique and compelling way, George is dedicated to his role as a creator and director, finding fulfillment in his family life with his wife, Janeen, and their two sons, Alex and Jonah. Together, they embody the essence of George's dream to make a lasting impact through innovative musical theatre.

Ian Kowalski

Ian (he/him) is a graduate of the Performing Arts program at O'Neill Collegiate and Vocational Institute and the Media Production Program at Toronto Met University (fka Ryerson). As a lifelong performer and lover of the arts, he is passionate about creating a platform for artists to express themselves as authentically as possible in telling impactful stories that change our perception of what is possible with theatre.

Select acting credits include Peter in Peter Pan the Musical (The LOT), Tobias in Sweeney Todd (Ember Island Players), Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast (O'Neill CVI) and Will Bloom in Big Fish (RMTC). Behind the scenes, he has directed Cumulus (UBC Brave New Play Rites Festival), Fun Home (Bowtie Productions), directed and produced several short films and has worked in the art department for multiple films on the Hallmark Channel.

Taylor Long

Hi, my name is Taylor. I'm a Toronto-based photographer, videographer, editor, and director of photography. Originally from Halifax, NS, I have a background in opera and musical theatre and performed on the east coast before discovering a passion for photography and videography.

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Recent highlights include a three-week intensive at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, working with Academy-award nominated director Atom Egoyan on the Canadian Opera Company’s digital production of Bluebeard’s Castle, and working as DOP on the COC/Against the Grain Theatre co-production of Mozart’s Requiem.

Randy (Lei) Chang is a Toronto based performer who's credits include: Merrily We Roll Along, Ordinary Days and A Perfect Bowl of Pho

Steven Pasquale is an American actor of stage and screen. His stage credits include: A Man of No Importance[Off-Broadway], Little Fish[Off-Broadway], The Bridges of Madison County[Broadway], The Wild Party[Off-Broadway], The Robber Bridegroom[Off-Broadway],

Steven has a couple of albums including 'Somethin' Like Love' and his latest release 'Some Other Time'.

On TV he is best known for his role as the New York City Firefighter/Emergency Medical Technician Sean Garrity in the series Rescue Me. He made his television debut on the HBO series Six Feet Under, playing a love interest for David.

Jeff Whiting is an award-winning director and choreographer, acclaimed as a 'director with a joyous touch' by the New York Times, Jeff Whiting specializes in work for theater, television, special events and concerts around the world, including James Taylor, Bette Midler, Steve Martin, Tony Bennett, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Sting.

On Broadway, Jeff was the Associate/Resident Director for the Broadway productions of Bullets Over Broadway (6 Tony Nominations - Susan Stroman), Big Fish (Norbert Leo Butz), The Scottsboro Boys (12 Tony nominations), Hair (Tony-winner of Best Revival), Young Frankenstein (Sutton Foster, Megan Mullally), and Wicked's 5th Anniversary (Stephanie J. Block, Ashanti). National Tour credits include Hairspray, Young Frankenstein, Bullets Over Broadway, Rockin’ Road to Dublin, Christmas in Killarney, and The Producers.

Having been praised on THE VIEW as 'a truly remarkable talent,' Jeff's theatrical direction and choreography includes development and World premieres of Loch Lomond, Chasing Rainbows (starring Ben Crawford, Ruby Rakos), Fly More Than You Fall (Best Musical), The Scottsboro Boys (Phoenix Theatre Co.), The Lost Colony (Waterside Theatre), Big Fish (Milwaukee), Single Wide (NYMF), Hairspray (Brazilian Production), Big (Milwaukee), In The Light (NYFA), Catch Me If You Can (New London Barn), The Sound of Music (Phoenix Theatre Co.), and Gypsy (Best Director).

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Since then, James and Gina have started developing their second musical Lady M, which underwent a workshop in April 2022 with a West End cast and creative team. Other projects include The Frontline Singers and a third musical (yet to be announced).

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As a partnership, James and Gina work together collaboratively on every element of their musicals, from writing the music and lyrics, to developing the book. They have built close, ongoing relationships with an exciting group of brilliant creatives, most notably theatre director Jean-Pierre Van Der Spuy, choreographers Lee Proud and Lizzi Gee, record producer Rik Simpson, film director James Hastings, photographers Tom Leishman and Chris Georghiou, and graphic designer Gary Kelly. They also love to work with their close-knit band of musicians – James Luke, Mike Parkin, Georgia Morrison, Evie Heyde and Auriol Evans. 

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Lady M - A New British Musical

Based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady M tells the untold story of Lady Macbeth. Chilling flashbacks of her haunted past are woven into this reimagining of the famous tale, revealing an original backstory to Lady Macbeth's villainy and downfall. Created, adapted and written by James Beeny and Gina Georgio, the sung-through musical features a modern score with original music and lyrics.

Together, the brothers have been the creative producers and writers behind some of South Africa's biggest SAMA-winning artists, having earned a Grammy Award Nomination, an Off-Broadway Alliance Award, a Naledi Award, a Loerie Award Nominations, Metro FM Best R&B Award Nomination, and a Channel O Africa Best R&B Award Nomination.

Bongi Duma wrote additional music and lyrics for Mandela and is an accomplished performer composer and arranger and can currently be seen on Broadway in The Lion King. He has worked with the likes of Miriam Makeba, Angelique Kidjo, Somi, Michael Frenti and many more.

Stephen Cole is an award-winning musical theatre writer whose shows have been recorded, published, and produced from New York City to London to the Middle East and Australia and Edinburgh, Scotland.

His shows include: After the Fair, Night of the Hunter, Saturday Night at Grossinger's, Aspire, Time After Time, Merman's Apprentice and The Road To Qatar! to name just a few.

Mary, Ethel and Mikey Who? takes Stephen's real-life friendships with Ethel Merman and Mary Martin, the two undisputed queens of Broadway, tossed them into a blender and come up with a fantasy about a nerdy super-fan in the early 1980s who, while visiting his dying idol Ethel Merman, stumbles into a time portal in her closet and exits on the other side in Sophie Tucker's star dressing room at the Imperial Theatre in 1939. Mikey Marvin Minkus gets to know his idols in their prime as he time travels through the decades with them, influencing their lives and careers, while helping to foster their legendary rivalry. Only visiting times when Merman and Martin's fates crossed, Mikey becomes a vital part of their lives, all the while interacting with such celebrated theatrical figures as Cole Porter, Jerome Robbins, Josh Logan, Dorothy Fields, Larry Hagman, Irving Berlin, Sophie Tucker, Leland Hayward, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and a newcomer named Jane Fonda.

Van Dean is a Tony® Award and Grammy® Award winning producer.  He co-founded Broadway Records which released nearly 300 albums during his leadership. Van earned his Grammy Award for helping to produce the Broadway Records’ release of the 2015 Broadway revival of The Color Purple.  His Grammy nominations were earned for his work on Matilda the Musical, My Fair Lady and Caroline, or Change.  Van also executive produced well over 200 other albums including 9 that were Grammy Award nominated.

His theatrical production credits include The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess (Tony® Award), Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella (Tony® Award nomination), Anastasia, Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissette and Diablo Cody  (Tony® Award nomination), How to Dance In Ohio, The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical, Matilda (Tony® Award nomination), Evita (Tony® Award nomination), Gore Vidal’s The Best Man (Tony® Award nomination), Catch Me If You Can (Tony® Award nomination), The Velocity of Autumn, Big Fish, Bonnie & Clyde, Chinglish, the Off-Broadway production of You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown (2016) and ROOMS a rock romance and the national tours of Anastasia, Matilda, Cinderella, The Lightning Thief and more. He was also a producer of Master Class with Tyne Daly and the 2022 and 2023 productions of Bonnie & Clyde in London’s West End.  Upcoming: Death Note, Wild, Goodbye New York, SMASH, Figaro, Little Dancer, Song of Bernadette.

He co-produced Broadway For Orlando’s “What The World Needs Now Is Love” to raise funds for the GLBT Community Center of Central Florida. The charity single was featured on NBC’s “Maya and Marty” and at the Democratic National Convention in 2016.  He co-conceived and co-Executive Produced the anti-bullying single “I Have A Voice” featuring 70 Broadway kids from Matilda, School of Rock and more and co-produced the new Broadway United music video of “We Are The World”. He also co-conceived and produced From Broadway With Love: A Benefit Concert For Sandy Hook featuring 100 Broadway stars, a 40 piece orchestra and 300+ children from Newtown and From Broadway With Love: A Benefit Concert for Parkland, USA at the BB&T Center Arena in Sunrise, FL and co-produced the Emmy® Award winning From Broadway With Love: A Benefit Concert For Orlando.  He is also a co-producer of the feature film documentary “Midsummer in Newtown” which premiered as a Spotlight selection at Tribeca Film Festival. Van has several major film and television musicals in pre-production. 

Center Stage Records is a new label dedicated to the preservation of Broadway, London, Off-Broadway, new musicals in development and theater-related solo albums