Christa Justus I Bio

A native of Columbus, Ohio, Christa Justus is a veteran of both the Broadway and First National touring productions of the Tony-Award winning musicals Les Misérables and Titanic. She was nominated for a Barrymore Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for her performance as “Melba (Zip) Snyder” in Pal Joey at the Prince Music Theatre in Philadelphia. Other regional theatre credits include “Mary” in Merrily We Roll Along at the esteemed Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, MN. Christa has appeared in several Maltby & Shire productions including their latest musical Take Flight at the O’Neill Musical Theater Conference, Manhattan Theatre Club and St. Petersburg, Russia as well as workshop productions of their Tony Award-winning Broadway hit, Baby. In addition to her stage work, Christa has appeared in film, television, concert halls and on numerous recordings. A graduate of The University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), Christa made her directorial debut in June 2008 with the Upstate New York regional premiere of Les Misérables. She most recently originated the role of “Margaret” in the Manhattan Theatre Club workshop of the Broadway-bound musical, Nine To Five, with a score by Dolly Parton based on the 1980 movie.

Composer, playwright and pianist Andrew Gerle is the first recipient of the Theater Hall of Fame's Burton Lane Young Composer's Fellowship. He is also a three-time winner of the Richard Rodgers Award for musical theater writing, administered by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, for The Tutor (book and lyrics by Maryrose Wood). With lyricist Eddie Sugarman, he won a 2006 Jonathan Larson Award for their show, Meet John Doe, which received seven Helen Hayes nominations for its 2007 world premiere at the Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC. He has been a Fellow at the MacDowell Artists' Colony and a writer-in-residence at the Sundance Theater Institute and the O'Neill Musical Theater Conference. As a musical director, he has worked on dozens of Off-Broadway, regional and touring productions, including Maltby & Shire's Take Flight in St. Petersburg, Russia. He has served as musical director and accompanist for such distinguished artists as Kitty Carlisle Hart, John Raitt, Jennifer Holliday, Leslie Uggams, Liz Calloway, Mary Testa and Michael Rupert. As a classical pianist, he has appeared as soloist with the Baltimore Symphony, the Yale Symphony, the National Symphony, and on programs for National Public Radio and Television. This spring, he will play the role of Manny in PaperMill Playhouse's production of Terrence McNally's Master Class. Please visit www.andrewgerle.com.