Broadway Then and Now

Join Tony Award-winning musical director Ted Sperling (My Fair Lady, The Light in the Piazza) and vocalists Santino Fontana (Tootsie, Frozen) and Jessica Vosk (Wicked, Fiddler on the Roof) in a program that celebrates their favorite selections of music from Broadway past and present. Ted and Santino recently sold out Carnegie Hall with their performance of Stephen Sondheim’s Anyone Can Whistle, and Jessica also sold out Carnegie Hall for her solo concert debut, My Golden Age. 

A Tony Award winner for his orchestrations of The Light in the Piazza, Ted Sperling is known for his work across many genres. As Artistic Director of MasterVoices, he has directed and conducted operas, oratorios, and musical theater rarities. Last season he conceived and supervised an online production of Adam Guettel’s Myths and Hymns, which was nominated for a Drama Desk Award. He was music director of the recent Broadway productions of My Fair Lady, Fiddler on the Roof and The King and I. Other Broadway and off-Broadway credits as musical director or director include South Pacific, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Full Monty, See What I Wanna See, A Man of No Importance, A New Brain, Floyd Collins, Striking 12 and The Other Josh Cohen. As an actor, Mr. Sperling played Wallace Hartley in the Broadway musical Titanic, and is talk show host Steve Allen in the final episode of Season Two of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” 

Santino Fontana has cemented himself as one of Broadway’s foremost leading men as well as a formidable screen talent. In 2019, Santino won the Tony Award for Tootsie, also garnering him Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards. He is widely known for lending his voice to the villainous Prince Hans in Disney’s Frozen. On television, Santino will be seen in the upcoming season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. He starred on The CW’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and has appeared on Shades of Blue, Singularity, Fosse/Verdon, The Good Wife, Nurse Jackie, Brain Dead, Mozart in the Jungle, and Royal Pains, as well in the web series, Submissions Only. Santino received a Tony Nomination for his portrayal in CINDERELLA. Santino has won Lucille Lortel, Obie, and Outer Critics Circle Awards and was nominated for Drama Desk and Drama League Awards for his performance in Sons of the Prophet.

Jessica Vosk is a celebrated singer and actress known for stirring roles on the musical theater and concert stage. Vosk made her Carnegie Hall debut in November 2021 in a sold-out solo show titled My Golden Age. Before the infamous shutdown, she starred as the Narrator in of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Lincoln Center. She also created the role of Aunt Val in the world premiere of Becoming Nancy. Before that, Vosk finished an acclaimed run as Elphaba in Wicked on Broadway. Vosk starred in New York City Ballet’s Jerome Robbins tribute Something to Dance About and re-created the role of Fruma Sarah in the most recent Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof. Other Broadway credits include Finding Neverland and The Bridges of Madison County. She starred as Anita in West Side Story with the San Francisco Symphony; the recording of the concert was nominated for a GRAMMY®. Her debut, Billboard-charting solo album Wild and Free was released in 2018 and was followed by 2020’s A Very Coco Christmas.

The American Song series at NJPAC is presented, in part, through the generous support of the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, the David S. Steiner and Sylvia Steiner Charitable Trust, the Joan and Allen Bildner Family Fund, and the Smart Family Foundation/David S. Stone, Esq., Stone & Magnanini.