Cole Porter was born in Peru, Indiana in 1891 and died in Hollywood 73 years later. In between, he wrote some of the most memorable songs ever heard on stage or screen, among them “Night and Day,” “Begin the Beguine,” “You’re The Top,” “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “Love For Sale,” and “Just One of Those Things.” During the 1930s, his most productive decade, he provided a series of sparkling scores for such hits as Gay Divorce, Anything Goes, Jubilee, Born to Dance and Red, Hot and Blue. Despite a crippling riding accident in 1937 which left him in constant pain, he achieved his greatest commercial success in 1948, with Kiss Me, Kate. His name remains synonymous with wit and sophistication to this day.

Guy Bolton (1884-1979) was born in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, England, on November 23, 1884. Bolton famously collaborated with Jerome Kern and P.G. Wodehouse on a series of buoyant musicals for the 299-seat Princess Theatre, including Have A Heart; Oh, Boy!; Leave It To Jane; Oh, Lady! Lady!; Sitting Pretty, Oh, Kay! and Rosalie. In the twenties, Bolton forged a partnership with George and Ira Gershwin. All six of their collaborations, including Girl Crazy, resulted in hit shows. Bolton wrote or collaborated on more than 50 shows between 1915 and 1965, including Anything Goes. He died in London on September 5, 1979.

P.G. Wodehouse (1881-1975) and Guy Bolton (1884-1979) were both born in England. They were introduced by Jerome Kern, and he suggested they all work together. They did, tirelessly, and in the beginning of their collaboration wrote nearly one show per month: the famed Princess Theatre musicals. Bolton and Wodehouse went on to write more than 20 musicals together. Usually, they collaborated on the book, and Wodehouse wrote the lyrics. Both lived into their nineties, and both, together and individually, were astoundingly prolific. Bolton, with one collaborator or another, or on his own, had a hand in well over 100 musicals and straight plays as well as numerous film scripts and novels. Wodehouse wrote 97 books, most notably, the Jeeves novels and countless short stories, articles, essays and films. In 1975, he was knighted side by side with Charlie Chaplin. In addition to Anything Goes, their work together includes Have A Heart; Oh, Boy!; Leave It To Jane; Oh, Lady! Lady!; Sitting Pretty, Oh, Kay! and Rosalie. They remained friends and neighbors (in Remsenburg, New York) throughout their final days.

Howard Lindsay (1889-1968) was an actor, stage manager, director and playwright before teaming up with Russel Crouse. Lindsay and Crouse’s partnership stands today as the longest collaboration of any writers in theatrical history, lasting for more than 28 years. The two men first joined forces in 1934, when the producer Vinton Freedley brought them together to rewrite the libretto for Anything Goes, which Lindsay directed. Two years later, they wrote another Cole Porter show, Red, Hot and Blue. Their first straight play, Life with Father, opened in 1936 and holds the record for the longest running play on Broadway, at 3,224 performances. Lindsay and his wife, Dorothy Stickney, created the roles of Clarence and Vinnie Day, performing them for five years. Among other shows, Lindsay and Crouse also wrote The Sound of Music (score by Rodgers and Hammerstein); the Pulitzer Prize winning State of the Union; Call me Madam and Mr. President (scores by Irving Berlin); The Prescott Proposals and The Great Sebastians. They produced The Hasty Heart, Detective Story and Arsenic and Old Lace.

Russel Crouse (1893-1966) was a newspaperman, a press agent for the Theatre Guild, the author of several books and a librettist before partnering with Howard Lindsay. Lindsay and Crouse’s partnership stands today as the longest collaboration of any writers in theatrical history, lasting for more than 28 years. The two men first joined forces in 1934, when the producer Vinton Freedley brought them together to rewrite the libretto for Anything Goes, which Lindsay directed. Two years later, they wrote another Cole Porter show, Red, Hot and Blue. Their first straight play, Life with Father, opened in 1936 and holds the record for the longest running play on Broadway, at 3,224 performances. Among other shows, Lindsay and Crouse also wrote The Sound of Music (score by Rodgers and Hammerstein); the Pulitzer Prize winning State of the Union; Call Me Madam and Mr. President (scores by Irving Berlin); The Prescott Proposals and The Great Sebastians. They produced The Hasty Heart, Detective Story and Arsenic and Old Lace. In addition to his work with Linday, Russel Crouse later reproduced, in collaboration with his wife, Anna Erskine Crouse, a son, the writer Timothy Crouse, and a daughter, the actress Lindsay Crouse.

Annie Tippe is a director and creator of new work, music theater and film.  She directed the world premieres and subsequent productions of Dave Malloy’s Octet (Lortel Award for Best Direction), Three Houses and Ghost Quartet. Recent: Britta Johnson’s Life After (Mirvish Toronto; Goodman – Jeff Award Nominee), Gabriel Kehane’s Magnificent Bird/Book of Travelers (Playwrights Horizons), Julia May Jonas’ Your Own Personal Exegesis (Lincoln Center), Molly Beach Murphy + Jeanna Phillip’s COWBOY BOB (Alley), Selina Fillinger’s Potus (Berkeley Rep) and Tony Meneses’ The Hombres (Two River). Her film “HELP ME MARY” won Best Narrative Short at LESFF. Former Ars Nova Director-in-Residence, Drama League and Williamstown Alum. Upcoming: World Premiere of Huzzah! at the Old Globe Fall ’25.  www.annietippe.com

Some Like It Hot (Broadway – Shubert Theatre); Motown the Musical (Broadway – Nederlander Theatre); Jelly’s Last Jam (New York City Center – guest conductor); Yemandja the new Angelique Kidjo musical (world tour – music supervisor); Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ (Pre Broadway engagement – The Old Globe); Encore! On Disney+ (Ragtime episode); The Color Purple (Broadway tour and Paper Mill Playhouse); Wicked (Pantages Theater – substitute conductor ); Memphis (Broadway tour); La Cage aux Folles, Ragtime, Little Shop of Horrors with M.J. Rodriguez (Pasadena Playhouse); Fiddler on the Roof (The Muny); Dear World with Tyne Daly (VPAC); Two By Two with Jason Alexander (Reprise); Passion (Boston Court); Jonathan Dove’s Innocence (Banff Centre). Full bio at DARRYLARCHIBALD.COM

Ayodele Casel, a Doris Duke Artist in the dance category, is an award-winning, critically acclaimed tap dancer and choreographer. Casel is hailed as a “tap dancer and choreographer of extraordinary depth” (The New York Times). Known for her skilled and imaginative improvisation, Casel’s projects include her concert and Bessie Award-winning film Chasing Magic, and Drama Desk-nominated work as tap choreographer for the Broadway revival of Funny Girl, Casel was a 2019-2020 fellow at Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, an artist-in-residence at Harvard University, and is recipient of a United States Artist Fellowship, Herb Alpert Award, Doris Duke Artists award, a Bessie and Flo-Bert award. In 2021, Casel was depicted on a U.S. Postal Service Forever Stamp celebrating tap dance.

Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021) wrote the music and lyrics for Saturday Night (1954), A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (1962), Anyone Can Whistle (1964), Company (1970), Follies (1971), A Little Night Music (1973), The Frogs (1974), Pacific Overtures (1976), Sweeney Todd (1979), Merrily We Roll Along (1981), Sunday In The Park With George (1984), Into The Woods (1987), Assassins (1991), Passion (1994), Road Show (2008) and HERE WE ARE (2023), as well as the lyrics for West Side Story (1957), Gypsy (1959), Do I Hear A Waltz? (1965) and additional lyrics for Candide (1973). Side By Side By Sondheim (1976), Marry Me A Little (1981), You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow (1983), Putting It Together (1993/99), Moving On (2001), Sondheim On Sondheim (2010) and Old Friends (2023) are anthologies of his work as composer and lyricist. For films, he composed the scores of Stavisky (1974), co-composed the score for Reds (1981), and wrote songs for Dick Tracy (1990). He wrote songs for the television production Evening Primrose (1966), co-authored the film The Last of Sheila (1973) and the play Getting Away With Murder (1996) and provided incidental music for the plays The Girls of Summer (1956), Invitation To A March (1961), Twigs (1971) and The Enclave (1973).

He won the Tony Award for Best Score for Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, and Passion, all of which won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award, as did Pacific Overtures and Sunday In The Park With George, the latter also receiving the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1985).

Stephen Sondheim was born and raised in New York City. He graduated from Williams College, winning the Hutchinson Prize for Music Composition, after which he studied theory and composition with Milton Babbitt. He served on the Council of the Dramatists Guild, the national association of playwrights, composers and lyricists, and served as its president from 1973 to 1981. In 1983 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and in 1990 was appointed the first Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Oxford University. He was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors in 1993, the National Medal of Arts in 1996, the MacDowell Medal in 2013 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. His collected lyrics with attendant essays have been published in two volumes: “Finishing the Hat” (2010) and “Look, I Made a Hat” (2011).

In 2010 the Broadway theater formerly known as Henry Miller’s Theatre was renamed in his honor, and in 2019 he became the first living artist to have a theatre named in his honor on Shaftesbury Avenue when the refurbished Queen’s Theatre in London’s West End was renamed the Sondheim Theatre to commemorate his 90th birthday, by Sir Cameron Mackintosh.

James Goldman was born in Chicago and graduated from the University of Chicago; he did postgraduate work at Columbia University. He has written numerous plays, including Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole (1961; co-written with his brother, William Goldman), They Might Be Giants (1961) and The Lion In Winter (1966). In addition to Follies (1971), he has been the bookwriter of A Family Affair (1962; co-author with William Goldman, music by John Kander), the television musical Evening Primrose (1967, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim) and Follies (1987, London – a re-conception of the original piece). His screenplays include The Lion in Winter (1968 – Academy Award; British Screenwriters Award), They Might Be Giants (1970), Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), Robin and Marian (1976) and White Nights (1985, co-writer). Goldman’s work for television has included an adaptation of Oliver Twist (1982), Anna Karenina (1985), Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna Anderson (1986). He is also the author of a novel, Waldorf.

Leigh Silverman is a two time Tony nominee and has directed over 60 world premiere new plays and musicals. Broadway: Yellow Face (Roundabout); Suffs (Tony nom); Grand Horizons (Williamstown, 2ST); The Lifespan of a Fact; Violet (Tony nom), Chinglish; Well. Recent Off-Broadway credits include: Harry Clarke (West End, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Vineyard/Audible); Merry Me (NYTW); Suffs (Public); The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (Shed,Taper); Hurricane Diane (NYTW); Sweet Charity (New Group). Encores: Violet; The Wild Party; Really Rosie. Audible projects include Harry Clarke, Yellow Face and Dykes to Watch Out For which was named Best of the Year. She received a 2011 Obie Award and 2019 Obie for Sustained Excellence.