Spotlight Broadway
(Celebrity Cruises)
(Celebrity Cruises)
World premiere of a musical SPOTLIGHT BROADWAY conceived & written by Jerome Vivona utilizing a Broadway creative and production team as a flagship show of a 4 show repertory for the maiden voyages throughout Europe with Celebrity Cruises commencing in May 2002. Passenger favorite, SPOTLIGHT BROADWAY take a magical journey into the heart of New York City’s Times Square visiting with the people, seeing the shows that make it great while feeling the pulse of the Great White Way.
Produced by Bob Nederlander, Jr, Amy Nederlander and Toby Simkin based on a researched idea by Toby Simkin, John Daniele & Larry Alexander.
Directed & Choreographed by Jerome Vivona; Set Design by Riccardo Hernandez; Costume Design by Paul Tazewell; Lighting Design by Jeffrey S. Koger; Projections by Wendall K. Harrington; Musical Direction by Terry Hanson; Music Supervision by Jim D’Amico; Hair Design by David H. Lawrence; Dance Arrangements by Brian Cimmet and Orchestrations by Mike Lewis.
Starring Amy Connolly, Laura Dysarctck, Robyn Hurder, David Koch, Vanessa McMahon, Steve Morgan, Mary Mussberg, Declan Owens, Richard Paxton, Monica Palos, Marco Puenta, Tarita R. Reid, Tia Robinson, Irene Omer Flowers, Matt Tinker and Sandra Weinthal.
Assistant Choreographed by Kyle-Craig Bogard; Associate Set Designed by Chad McArver; Drafting by Paul Weimer; Associate Costume Designed by Valerie Marcus; Assistant Costume Designed by Kate Jones & Michael McAleer; Automated Light Programming by Mathew Piercy; Conventional Light Programming by Richard J. Beck; Associate Projections by Sage Carter and Animation by David Biedny.
Celebrity Director of Entertainment Jim D’Amico; Celebrity Specialist, Entertainment Productions Leigh-Ann Thomasson; Celebrity Specialist, Interactive and Technical Systems Brian Lunsford; Celebrity Specialist, Entertainment Technical Systems William Price; General Management by Marcia Goldberg & Nancy Gibbs; Casting by Jessica Gilburne & Ed Urban; Senior Production Manager Kraig Tippee; Production Stage Managed by Thom Schilling; Assistant Stage Managed by Jason Sutton; Dance Captained by David Koch, Rehearsal Percussionist Tony Tedesco; Assistant to Jim D’Amico: Amy De Varona; Assistant to the Producers: Richard Rainville and Music recorded by Hal Batt at After Hours Recording Studio.
For the Celebrity Constellation Theatre: Cruise Director: Ray Carr; Production Manager: Gareth Mogford; AV Manager: Amado Hernandez; Audio Engineer: Troy Wyatt; Broadcast Manager: Mark Sommise; Backstage Manager: Alex Took; Technicians: Craig Alferdson, Renante Lopez & Shaun Throndson.
Scenery built by Hudson Scenic Studio. Inc. New York. Costumes by Barbara Matera, Ltd.; Eric Winterling; Jennifer Love Costumes; Phillip Brown; Skip Stewart Design, Orlando Theatrical Supply Co. Millinery by Lynne Mackey; Arnold Levine. Shoes by Menkes Theatrical; Capezio. All Props fabricated by Prism Production Services, Rahway, NJ. Insurance by Robert A. Boyar, MARSH USA; Legal Counsel by Elliot Brown, Daniel Wasser and Jason Baruch, Franklin, Weinrib et al and Banking by Linda Dunn, Citigroup Private Bank
Special Thanks to Frank Scardino, James Merillat, Susan Weaving, Sarah Kaskel, Roland Scahill, Leah Alter, Patrick Herold, Mala Mosher, Lawrence Anderson, Morris Azouz, Jim Payne, Mike Terranova. Derek Gallan, Basil Hero, The Broadway Theatre Archive, Marcus Collins and DJ Wizniak.
As Executive Producer & Senior Vice President of Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment LLC since 2000, a New York division of the Nederlander Organization charged with international development of theatrical markets, venues and shows.
SPOTLIGHT BROADWAY
Changing the shape and fabric of Cruise Shows.
The realization of my idea mapped out on a cocktail napkin on a Princess Cruises holiday with DJ around the world in 2000, I thought it may be possible to use Broadway talent (creative & production teams, construction shops and performers) to develop and produce a higher quality of show for cruise ships.
After running the anticipated numbers, and spending several months in research and planning, it proved to be a valid idea just needing me to seek the right cruise line partner. Adding the validation of Nederlander as a theatre venue owner, through my network of friends, we then took the idea to Celebrity Cruises, to pitch and ultimately build out my plan.
Shortly after, we had 4 Broadway-style shows opened in Europe on a spectacular 5 star floating palace… the GTS Constellation cruise ship in 2002, at the time, the worlds largest cruise ship.
The GTS Constellation (Gas Turbine System) owned by Celebrity Cruises was built in St. Nazaire, France but registered in Liberia, and embarked on her maiden voyage in 2002. 946.6 ft long, 105.6 ft wide the ship had 11 decks, 10 elevators, a guest capacity of 1,950 over 1019 staterooms & suites plus crew of 999 from over 50 nations with most officers from Greece. Captained by Ioannis Papanikoulau and Hotel Manager George Traganis.
The multi-level proscenium Celebrity Theater had a seating capacity of 900, and was designed for state-of-the-art technology in mind including stage elevators, lifts, flys and control, allowing us to produce 4 Broadway style shows, each with 2 performances a night, rotating in repertory with the other 3 shows, for a total of 8 performances during each cruise.
For the several months living on the ship from dry dock through sea trials, and then rolling out the various shows in actual passenger sailings, I was lucky to be classified as VIP guest passenger and not as crew, and generally lived on the Sky deck rear corner of the ship in stateroom #9156 with a huge verandah (the furtherest from the theatre as possible), and for some occasional cruises was upgraded to try out different suites.
Primary Ports (in rotation) included St. Nazaire (dry dock), France; Barcelona, Spain; Villefranche (Nice & Monte Carlo) France; Ajaccio, Corsica; Citiavechia (Rome), Italy; Naples, Italy; Valetta, Malta; at sea; Barcelona, Spain; Villefranche (Nice & Monte Carlo) France; Ajaccio, Corsica; Citiavechia (Rome), Italy; Naples, Italy; Valetta, Malta; at sea; Barcelona, Spain; at sea; Malaga, Spain; Lisbon, Portugal; Vigo, Spain; at sea; Le Havre (Paris), France; Zeebrugge (Brussels), Belgium; at sea; Hamburg, Germany; at sea; Oslo, Norway; at sea; Dover (London), England; at sea; Oslo, Norway; at sea; Stockholm, Sweden; Helsinki, Finland; St. Petersburg, Russia; Tallin, Estonia; at sea; Warnermunde (Rostock & Berlin), Germany; Copenhagen, Denmark; at sea; Dover (London), England.
