Musical theatre

Anika Noni Rose (born September 6, in Bloomfield, Connecticut) is a Tony-Award winning American singer and actress. After studying drama at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, CA, Rose moved to New York without a job. She had been in New York three months when she nabbed the role of Rusty in Broadway's Footloose. Rose's big Broadway break was getting cast as Tonya Pinkins' daughter in Caroline, or Change.

Helena Blackman (born 10 December 1982 in Southampton) is a British musical theatre performer who was runner-up on the talent show, How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? in 2006. Helena trained at the Guildford School of Acting. In 2008 she was nominated for a TMA award for best supporting actor for her role as Nellie Forbush in the UK number one tour of Rodgers and Hammerstein's 'South Pacific'. Helena also starred in Stephen Sondheim's 'Saturday Night' playing leading lady Helen Fogel.

Stephen Schwartz was born in New York City on March 6, 1948. He studied piano and composition at the Juilliard School of Music while in high school and graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1968 with a B.F.A. in Drama. Upon coming back to live in New York City, he went to work as a producer for RCA Records, but shortly thereafter began to work in the Broadway theatre. His first major credit was the title song for the play Butterflies Are Free; the song was eventually used in the movie version as well.

Read more about Stephen Schwartz on Last.fm.

Kim Criswell is an American singer-actress from Chattagnooga Tennessee. She trained at the Cinncinati Conservatoire, and then appeared in various Broadway Shows. In 1992 she came to London to star in a revival of Annie Get Your Gun, and settled in Britian.
She has made many musical theatre recordings, particularly on the EMI Classics label and later on the JAY/TER label. She also recorded some pop albums for EMI Classics.