About

New York Composer, Playwright, and Lyricist
About robertMITCHELL
His musical, CAPONE, starring Danny Aiello, began at The Lynn Redgrave Theatre and was revived by B’way Producer Rose Caiola at The MCC Theatre. DIMAGGIO - THE MAN BEHIND THE MYTH, was performed at Playwrights Horizons. His musical THEY ALL KNEW played at The York Theatre and received critical acclaim from The New York Times, Variety and The New Yorker – “from the creator of the 2003 hit ‘Vincent’, a highly pleasing musical with frothy melodies and complex harmonies”.

FRANKENSTEIN, his retelling of the Mary Shelley novel from the monster’s point of view, featured Brian Charles Rooney as Victor Frankenstein in the NYC production, and later toured throughout Europe. His opera musical, RAPPACCINI’S DAUGHTER, based on the Nathaniel Hawthorne short story, has been produced in New York, New Jersey, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and was also part of a European Tour.

DOROTHY DANDRIDGE, his musical about the trail-blazing, African-American star of the 50s, played at Theater 80 and Amas Theatre in NYC. BAGS, based on the lives of New York’s homeless, was produced Off-Broadway by actress/producer Lee Grant. THE LONE STAR STATE, an outdoor musical drama starring Marilyn Maye, was commissioned by and performed at the 3,000 seat Moody State Theatre in Galveston, Texas. A recording of this work was made in London with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. ONE MAN, TWO MINDS and LA TRISTEZZA are one act dramatic song cycles commissioned by a grant from Meet the Composer, performed live on WQXR Radio (NYC) and later staged at Soho Rep. LIFESONGS - a musical revue, was produced at the Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center.

Other works include CHILDREN AND ART - performed at the Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Festival of One Act Plays. THIS IS YOUR LIFE, JOE MAZZARELLA - a one act jazz-rock opera performed at the Free Theatre in Chicago. FRIENDS AND LOVERS, based on Patricia Ryan poems, was performed at La Mama’s.

For dance, he was commissioned by The Chicago Ballet to write a latin-jazz-rock version of the CARMEN BALLET, and MONAHAN – with chamber orchestra and mixed voices, was performed by the Nikolais Dance Company.

In film and radio he has written the scores for BUT ONLY FOR A DAY, a documentary broadcast on PBS TV, SOUTHERN HEART, a full length feature which premiered at Robert De Niro’s Tribeca Film Center. IN SOUTH AFRICA, a documentary filmed in Africa, and THE WISE MAN, an after school PBS Radio Broadcast.

He is also the author of the play THE MAFIA-CAMORRA WAR - a Mafioso retelling of Shakespeare’s “King Lear”, performed at The Actors Studio, and has written screenplays entitled MOMMA’S BOY, about the life of actor Danny Aiello, as well as WOODY’S 9-60 - a dark, allegorical comedy.

Currently, he has been commissioned to write both the ‘stage musical’ version and screenplay for AZUSA – about the 1906 religious revival in Los Angeles that paved the way for the Pentecostal Movement that is 700 million strong worldwide and still growing.

Also active as a Conductor/Music Director, Robert Mitchell has conducted the Chicago Civic Orchestra, the Chicago Jazz Ensemble Orchestra, a recording of the “Carmen Ballet”, and in London, members of the BBC Orchestra for his orchestral arrangement of the recording for “Hello Dolly”. Among other shows, he was the Conductor and Music Director for seven European Tours of “The Best of Andrew Lloyd Webber”, traveling throughout Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

As a musician, he was a guest soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, played in six Broadway shows, and performed for such luminaries as The Queen of England, Prince Charles, Princess Diana, Jackie Kennedy, Presidents Bush, Clinton and Reagan.

Member of ASCAP, The Dramatists Guild and The Writers Guild of America.

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