AN ACT OF GOD returned to Broadway at The Booth Theatre on June 6, 2016 and ran in a critically acclaimed limited engagement through September 4, 2016. It starred Emmy® Award winner SEAN HAYES (“Will & Grace,” Promises, Promises) as God and DAVID JOSEFSBERG and MICHAEL GLEASON as the angels Michael and Gabriel. Written by God and transcribed by 13-time Emmy® Award winner DAVID JAVERBAUM (“The Daily Show”), this hilarious 90-minute comedy was directed by two-time Tony Award® winner JOE MANTELLO (Wicked).
Photos: Jim Cox
Sean Hayes received critical acclaim for his roles in theater, television and film, and quickly gained fame as the sarcastic and hilarious, Jack McFarland, on NBC’s “Will & Grace.”In 2011, Hayes made his Broadway debut in the wildly successful Promises, Promises alongside Kristin Chenoweth. He received a leading-actor Tony nomination for his performance in addition to a Grammy nomination for Soundtrack Recording. That same year, he served as the host of the Tony Awards and was awarded with an Emmy as a result. Previously, Hayes was seen on stage in New York in the New York City Center production of Damn Yankees with Jane Krakowski and Cheyenne Jackson. In 2003, Hayes and producing partner, Todd Milliner formed Hazy Mills Productions. Projects include “Situation: Comedy,” “Hot in Cleveland,” “The Soul Man,” “Grimm,” and the Emmy-award winning “Hollywood Game Night.” Hayes became a household name in 1998, when he landed the coveted role of Jack on “Will & Grace.” His portrayal garnered him an Emmy Award (along with six nominations), four Screen Actors Guild Awards, and seven Golden Globe nominations. Hayes also starred in “Martin & Lewis” for which he earned a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. Previous film credits include The Bucket List, Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss, Pieces of April, The Cat in the Hat and The Three Stooges.
Broadway: An Act of God, Honeymoon in Vegas, Les Miserables. Motown, The Wedding Singer, Grease. Off-Broadway: Altar Boyz (drama League nom.). National tour: Tommy (Jeffrey Finn Productions). TV: Arthur “The Fonz” Fonzarelli in “The Unauthorized Story of Mork and Mindy,” “Made in Jersey.” Comedy: Stephen Lynch tour. David’s comedy duo, Joberg and Gurner, is signed to Comedy Central Records. The album is called Manood. Twitter @djosefsberg. Instagram @davidsjosefsberg
Theatre: Mark Taper Form: Stuff Happens (U.S. premiere), A History of the American Film; Geffen Theatre: IThe Weir. IBroadway and Off-Broadway: Curse of the Starving Class, Guys in the Truck, the Miser. Regional: Speed-the-Plow, Bedroom Farce, Streamers, Snoopy(original cast and cast recording), Counselor-at-Law, State of the Union. L.A. Theatre Works: Tennessee Monkey Trial, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers. Television: “Modern Family,” “Frasier,” “First Monday,” “Brooklyn Bridge,” “The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd,” etc. Film: Mother, Revenge of the Nerds, The World’s Greatest Lover. He starred in and wroteActor Under Fire, a semifinalist at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Festival. Groundlings (1977-1981). www.jimmytheg.com
Joe Mantello received Emmy and Critics’ Choice Award nominations for his performance in HBO’s “The Normal Heart.” Directing credits include The Humans, Airline Highway, The Last Ship, Casa Valentina, I’ll Eat You Last, The Other Place, Dogfight, Other Desert Cities, The Pride, Pal Joey, 9 to 5, November, The Receptionist, The Ritz, Blackbird, Three Days of Rain, The Odd Couple, Glengarry Glen Ross (Tony nomination), Laugh Whore, Assassins (Tony Award), Wicked, Take Me Out (Tony Award), Frankie and Johnnie in the Clair de Lune, A Man of No Importance, Mizlansky/Zilinsky, Design for Living, The Vagina Monologues, Bash, Love! Valour! Compassion! (Tony nomination) and Corpus Christi. Acting credits include The Normal Heart (Tony nomination) and Angels in America (Tony nomination). He is a member of Naked Angels, as associate artist at Roundabout and have received Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Helen Hayes, Clarence Derwent, Obie and Joe A. Callaway awards.
GOD is the original multi-hyphenate and triple threat, an auteur and visionary whose bold creations and intelligent designs have earned Him international recognition since Day One. Though best known for his performance art, He is also a writer whose previous literary efforts, The Old Testament and The New Testament, have collectively sold an impressive 7,000,000,000 copies. They have also been adapted numerous times for the big screen, most recently by Ridley Scott in Exodus, a project he regrets green-lighting. An Act of God is His first work written directly for the stage, although His 1827 comic romp The Book of Mormon was recently adapted into a successful, albeit unauthorized, Broadway musical. The current production marks his first appearance in California not involving the consumption of psychotropic drugs. God lives in heaven with His wife Ruth and their children Zach, Jesus and Kathy. He is managed by David Miner at 3Arts Entertainment.
DAVID JAVERBAUM is a 13-time Emmy-winning former head writer and executive producer of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” He is the co-author of that show’s bestsellers America: The Book and Earth: The Book, and the sole author of The Last Testament: A Memoir by God and What to Expect When You’re Expected: A Fetus’s Guide to the First Three Trimesters. His Twitter account @TheTweetOfGod has nearly two million followers. He is also a Tony-nominated lyricist whose collaborations with songwriter Adam Schlesinger include the Broadway musical Cry-Baby, the Grammy-winning songs for Stephen Colbert’s Christmas special The Greatest Gift of All, and Neil Patrick Harris’ opening number for the 2011 Tony Awards, “Broadway Is Not Just for Gays Anymore”. He created the talk show No, You Shut Up! with Henson Studios for Fusion. He is currently a producer for The Late Late Show with James Corden. He lives with his wife and children in California.
With Joe Mantello: Airline Highway, Casa Valentina, I’ll Eat You Last, Pal Joey (Tony Nom.), The Ritz, 9 to 5, Take Me Out, Blackbird, November, Bash, The Mineola Twins. Over 40 Broadway productions including: The Book of Mormon (Tony Award), Something Rotten, The Visit, Finding Neverland, It’s Only a Play, Pippin (Tony Nom.), The Pillowman (Tony Award), HAIR, Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Tony nom.), The Coast of Utopia (Tony, Outer Critics Cirlce, and Drama Desk Awards), Nine, and Urinetown. Cirque du Soleil's Amaluna. @scottpaskstudio
Broadway: set and costume design for Fun Home (Tony nomination), The Last Ship, Seminar; set design for Violet, The Real Thing, The Realistic Joneses; costume design for Airline Highway (Tony nomination), Rocky, Other Desert Cities, Good People, In the Next Room…(Tony, Drama Desk noms.,) and Xanadu and others. Off-Broadway set and costume design includes Placebo, The Flick (Drama Desk noms.) and Circle Mirror Transformation (Playwrights Horizons), Choir Boy (MTC) and Dogfight (Second Stage).
Hugh Vanstone won the 2013 Tony best lighting design award for Matilda (Shubert). He lives in London where his work has garnered three Olivier Awards. Recent Broadway credits: I'll Eat You Last (Booth); Ghost (Lunt Fontanne ) – Tony nomination for Best Lighting; La Bête (Music Box); A Steady Rain (Schoenfeld), God of Carnage (Jacobs), Mary Stuart (Broadhurst) – Tony & Drama Desk nominations for Best Lighting; Spamalot (Shubert) – Tony nomination for Best Lighting. More at hughvanstone.com.
Broadway: Blackbird (current); The Humans (current), It's Only a Play; Airline Highway; The Other Place (MTC), I’ll Eat You Last, Outside Mullingar (MTC), Casa Valentina (MTC). 2010 Lucille Lortel and Drama Desk Awards for When the Rain Stops Falling (LCT) and 2011 nominee for The Other Place (MCC), prior to its Broadway run at MTC. Symphony: The Holy Land, completed in January. Founder of Chance Magazine, a new theatre design magazine that debuted last summer.
Previous collaborations with David Javerbaum include Cry-Baby: The Musical; “A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift Of All;” “The Maya Rudolph Show;” and original songs for the Tony and Emmy telecasts. He has won two Emmys and a Grammy, and has been nominated for Tony and Academy Awards. He is a member of the band Fountains Of Wayne.
Broadway: The Heidi Chronicles, The Best Man, Fela!, 9 to 5, Say Goodnight Gracie. Elsewhere: Here Lies Love (Public Theater), Far From Heaven (Playwrights Horizons), The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (2nd Stage), Notes from Underground (Yale Rep), The Grace Jones Hurricane Tour, Rent (New World Stages), Haroun and the Sea of Stories (NYCOpera), Blind Date (Bill T. Jones). For Nature Theater of Oklahoma, No Dice and Life & Times (Burgtheater, Vienna). Upcoming: Dear Even Hansen, and Amelie
Broadway: Finding Neverland, Matilda, Pippin, Ghost (DD Award), Sideshow, The Woman In White, Macbeth (Armory). Movies: Hugo, Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban. Consultant to David Copperfield, Penn & Teller. Awarded The Magic Castle, Hollywood’s Creative Fellowship. Other: Phantom US tour, Zorro, Batman Live, Before the Dawn, with Kate Bush. Associate Artist at The Old Vic, London. www.stageillusion.com
Current Broadway: Blackbird. Recent and Select Broadway/Off-Broadway: An Act of God, Fish in the Dark, It’s Only a Play, Airline Highway, Disgraced, Sex with Strangers, Lost Lake, The Country House, Casa Valentina, Holler if Ya Hear Me, The Trip to Bountiful, Fences. Also: MTC, 2nd Stage, Atlantic, LCT3, Ars Nova, Old Globe, Goodman, Arena, McCarter and others. Film/television: “American Odyssey” (NBC), “How to Get Away With Murder” pilot (ABC), “Ironside” pilot (NBC), “Steel Magnolias” (Sony for Lifetime).
Current projects: The Book of Mormon (Broadway and National Tours), Matilda (Broadway and National Tour), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, The Flick, Allegiance, School of Rock, Noises Off, Blackbird, Hughie, Eclipsed, The Robber Bridegroom, The Crucible, Shuffle Along, and A Long Day’s Journey Into Night. Aurora has been providing technical supervision and production management to the entertainment industry since 1989. www.auroraprod.com.
Jeffrey Finn is a four-time Tony Award nominee and the recipient of the 2013 Robert Whitehead Award for Outstanding Achievement in Commercial Theatre Producing. Jeffrey currently serves as Vice President of Theater Producing and Programming at The Kennedy Center. His commercial Broadway credits include Hughie, An Act of God, The Elephant Man, The Realistic Joneses, I’ll Eat You Last, Dead Accounts, Scandalous, Seminar, American Idiot, A View from the Bridge, Oleanna, Blithe Spirit, and On Golden Pond. London: The Elephant Man. Upcoming: The Honeymooners, a new Broadway musical comedy based on the legendary CBS television series. Jeffrey is most proud of his twin sons, Alex and Marc Finn. www.JeffreyFinnProductions.com
Wendy Orshan and Jeffrey M. Wilson founded their company in 1994. Their associates are Ron Gubin, Chris Morey and Jeff Klein. Current Broadway Productions: Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Dear Evan Hansen. Recent: An Act of God (Executive Producer; Broadway, Tour), An American in Paris, Eclipsed, Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Broadway, National Tour), The Elephant Man. Special projects: Eclipsed at the Curran (San Francisco), New Island Festival (Governor’s Island, New York), “A Broadway Celebration: In Performance at the White House” for PBS, and IBM’s Centennial Gala.
Denver Center for the Performing Arts is the largest non-profit theatre organization in the nation, presenting Broadway tours and producing theatre, cabaret, musicals, and innovative, multimedia plays. The DCPA entertains and educates 800,000 people each year, creating unforgettable shared experiences that are bold in vision yet universal in appeal.
Venture Hill Entertainment, LLC currently in N.Y., OnYour Feet, The Color Purple, Hughie, touring Matilda, DOMA Theatre Co. producer,Young Frankenstein, Jesus Christ Superstar, American Idiot in Los Angeles, recipient of Bitter Lemons, NAACP, LA Weekly, Ovation, Eddon and Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards.
Broadway: Tuck Everlasting, On Your Feet! The Story of Emilio and Gloria Estefan. Tours: An Act of God starring Sean Hayes, Dirty Dancing and The Sound of Music. Upcoming: The Blonde Streak, Bull Durham, a new play based on the life of Oscar Levant in partnership with Sean Hayes; and a new musical featuring the songs of Jimmy Buffett.
With Jeffrey Finn Productions, Broadway projects include Hughie, An Act of God, The Elephant Man (Tony nom.), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Investor), The Realistic Joneses, I’ll Eat You Last, Dead Accounts, and Seminar. Upcoming: The Honeymooners, a new Broadway musical comedy based on the legendary CBS television series.
Productions include The Color Purple, Legally Blonde, All My Sons, A View From the Bridge, The Addams Family, Driving Miss Daisy, Of Mice and Men, Evita, An American in Paris, Hughie starring Forest Whitaker and the upcoming musical Dear Evan Hansen. Crain's "40 Under 40", President of New Vintage Theatricals, Ltd.
Roy Putrino has produced on Broadway with It’s Only A Play, and has been involved with How to Succeed… and Grace as well as Passion Play in the West End. Off-Broadway producing includes Clinton: The Musical and Getting The Band Back Together. Winner of the 2013 Distinguished Citizen Award and the 2015 Mission Award for the Ramapo Preforming Arts.
Tony-winning brother & sister producing team, Luigi & Rose Caiola. Rose is Artistic Director of Manhattan Music & Arts Center (MMAC) Broadway: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, All The Way, Cinderella, An American in Paris. This Season: On Your Feet!, Fiddler on the Roof, The Color Purple, Spring Awakening, China Doll and Sylvia.
Following a 35- year international career as a lighting designer, Richard began producing in 2009. Tony Awards: The Norman Conquests (2009), La Cage (2009), Memphis (2010), Vanya & Sonia (2013). Other Broadway includes: King Charles, Something Rotten!, Disgraced (2013 Pulitzer Prize), Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. West End includes: Memphis, Betrayal (Kristen Scott Thomas), Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Olivier Award). This spring on Broadway: Come From Away.
Two Tonys, five nominations, one Emmy nomination. Recent: You Can’t Take It With You, Beautiful, 700 Sundays, I’ll Eat You Last. Produced national and international tours for Richard Pryor, Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Bette Midler, Stevie Wonder, Kristin Chenoweth, among others. Produced Live Aid and Live 8.
CEO of Endgame Entertainment. Has produced or directed over 50 shows or movies including Broadway: A Little Night Music, Hairspray, The Producers, Legally Blonde, and STOMP. Film: Looper, An Education, Every Little Step, It’s the Rage, Pulse: A STOMP Odyssey, Michael Jordan to the Max, Proof, I’m Not There.
Broadway: Three Time Tony Award-winner: Gentleman’s Guide, Vanya & Sonia, Norman Conquests. Bright Star, China Doll, Gin Game, Fiddler, Cinderella, Addams Family, Finian’s Rainbow, Ragtime, Blithe Spirit, Seagull, Thurgood, All My Sons etc. Off-Broadway: Cagney, Turn Me Loose, The Lion, Exit Strategy, Black Tie, etc. TV: “Jamie deRoy & friends,” “CityArts” Films: Broadway: The Golden Age.
Investor (B’way): American Psycho, Spring Awakening, Allegiance, Godspell, It’s Only A Play, Ghost, Legally Blonde, Macbeth, The Grinch, Chita Rivera: TDL, and The Wedding Singer; (UK): Blithe Spirit, Single Spies; For Mom, Dad, Carmela, Josephine, George, Michael, Elizabeth, Michael, Megan, Alice, Bobby, Alex, Simon, Raymond, Billy, Noel, Julie, Kathryn, Bryan, Taphat, & Kevin; TAAWOFM.
Broadway: On Your Feet!, Side Show. West End: Show Boat. Marc is the owner of Premier Party Servers Inc., Modelbartenders.com leading event planning and staffing companies, and Gemini Theatrical Investors. He has appeared on Broadway in both Phantom of The Opera and Guys and Dolls through his support of BC/EFA. Thanks to Mom and Dad for instilling in me the love of theatre.
The Gordon Frost Organisation is Australia’s most successful theatre producer with credits including Wicked, Dirty Dancing, Grease and Driving Miss Daisy. Broadway credits include the Tony Award winning The King and I, Hairspray and Exit the King. West End credits include Priscilla, Blithe Spirit and The Bodyguard.