Randy Newman’s
FAUST: The Concert

Michael Roth (music direction, orchestrations, pianist) — whose work has been called music “one could imagine Charles Ives composing had he lived long enough to encounter rock-and-roll and beat poetry” — is a composer, sound designer, music director, orchestrator, and pianist, his work encompassing chamber music, new opera and music/theatre, film, dance, PBS, and music and sound for theatre — over 250 productions throughout North America including Broadway, off-Broadway, and Canada’s Stratford Festival.

Michael has received much recent recognition for THE WEB OPERA, his award-winning experimental sung-through web-series streaming at thewebopera.com, composed and self-produced to raise awareness of cyber-abuse, an official selection at 35 film festivals, based on true events, screened at the 2021 New Music Gathering and 2022 Culver City Festival, winning Best Experimental Short. Additional work in new opera and music/theatre includes IMAGINATION DEAD IMAGINE, his treatment of Samuel Beckett’s text, authorized by Beckett, for string quartet, recorded voices, and laptop, seen in Los Angeles, San Diego, Prague, and upcoming at a Beckett Festival in Ashland, Oregon; THEIR THOUGHT AND BACK AGAIN, available on CD; and THE GOLEM OF LA JOLLA, an opera-in-progress examining contemporary anti-Semitism.

He is particularly proud of his many collaborations with Randy Newman, including music direction for Disney’s THE PRINCESS & THE FROG, editing five definitive anthologies of Randy’s music, and orchestrations for FAUST, first heard in La Jolla, then Chicago, then New York, and culminating in his work at The Soraya.

Recent projects: with Al Pacino, composing/improvising the score for an ongoing series of readings of RICHARD III; with Tom Hanks, HENRY IV in Los Angeles; with Christopher Plummer, THE TEMPEST, onstage and filmed and A WORD OR TWO, Mr. Plummer’s solo show; two US premieres with Tom Stoppard; with Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, LAST WORDS OF UNCLE DIRT (Playwright’s Horizons, with Wu Man on pipa), and MARY AND THE MONSTERS, a new opera; many collaborations with Culture Clash; accompanying singers from Marni Nixon to Alicia Keys; and his work with Stacy Keach, Des McAnuff, MacArthur Fellows Peter Sellars and Sarah Ruhl, and many others.

Michael studied composition with William Bolcom, taught sound design at UCSD, and his recent premieres include, as part of the California Festival, KYRIE-MERCY-ANA M, a motet for eight voices performed by the Hex Ensemble for Hear Now, and SHEETCAKE, for four pianos, toy piano, and bass. For more information: https://rothmusik.wixsite.com/rothmusik

Reeve Carney (Devil)

Reeve Carney most recently starred on Broadway, creating the central role of ‘Orpheus’ in the Tony Award and Grammy Award winning musical Hadestown. On screen he was seen as ‘Tom Ford’ in Ridley Scott’s feature film Gucci opposite Adam Driver. Reeve is also known for his portrayal of ‘Dorian Gray’ in the Showtime series Penny Dreadful, and for originating the role of ‘Peter Parker/Spider-Man’ in the Broadway production Spider-Man Turn off The Dark (a role that he was handpicked for by Julie Taymor and U2’s Bono).

Javier Muñoz (Lord)

is an actor and activist whose impressive body of work spans theater, film and television. He is best known for starring and co-creating the role of “Alexander Hamilton” in the hit musical HAMILTON on Broadway for two years after Lin-Manuel Miranda departed the show (and was his alternate prior to that).  He got his break starring as “Usnavi” in IN THE HEIGHTS on Broadway, also created by Miranda. He just starred in the rock musical, GALILEO at Berkeley Repertory Theater, opposite Raul Esparza and the pre-Broadway run of the musical, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, in the role of “Nigel Owens” (originated by Stanley Tucci in the feature film), with music by Elton John. 

Javier starred in the dark comedy indie feature, MONUMENTS, opposite David Sullivan & Marguerite Moreau; he starred in the indie feature LOVE RECONSIDERED and in THREE MONTHS, opposite Troy Sivan and Judy Greer, on Paramount+.  He voices a lead character in the Disney Jr. animated series, Eureka! Other TV credits include recurring on Shadowhunters, Blindspot and Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. Javier is also an outspoken activist for LGBTQ+ rights, a Global Ambassador for (RED), which fights to end HIV/AIDS, and supporter of GMHC.

Jordan Temple (Narrator)

Jordan is an L.A.-based comedian and TV writer-producer from Queens, NY who has written for Emmy-winning shows such as “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “Atlanta,” and “Abbott Elementary.” Temple wrote and starred in his own mashup plays such as The Color Urkel and Hidden Fences. The latter was a satirical play based on the viral mistake made at The Golden Globes and Oscars in 2017 that combined Hidden Figures and Fences that was staged in 2017 and 2018. Currently, Jordan is writing for season four of “Abbott Elementary” and restaging his one-man experimental jazz-infused show about the love of his grandmother called Sweet Lorraine. Jordan was born to be an artist, is a lover of theatre, and is a big Randy Newman fan.

Ryan McCartan (Faust)

originated “J.D.” in Heathers: The Musical at Hudson Backstage in Los Angeles and then at New World Stages Off-Broadway. He went on to make his Broadway debut as “Fiyero” in Wicked. Additional theatre credits include “Hans” in Frozen (Broadway), “Tony” in West Side Story (Lyric Opera of Chicago), and “Celtis” in Lone Star (Ruth Stage, Off-Broadway). McCartan starred as “Brad Majors” in Fox’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again alongside Laverne Cox and Victoria Justice, directed by Kenny Ortega. He has recurred on “The Winchesters” (CW), “Royal Pains” (USA), and “Liv and Maddie” (Disney Channel).

Veronica Swift (Martha)

Veronica Swift’s new eponymously titled album, her third for Mack Avenue Records, is a masterful coming-out story. On her previous albums, Confessions (2019) and This Bitter Earth (2021), she ascended to the upper echelon of early 21st century jazz singers because of her virtuosic brilliance, interpretive ingenuity, bracing songwriting, and keen arrangements. Simply put, Swift is not only one of the most dazzling singers to emerge in her generation, she’s one of the most versatile.

While her first two albums solidified her position in modern jazz, Veronica Swift shows that she’s more than a jazz singer, exploring French and Italian opera, European classical music, bossa nova, blues, industrial rock, funk, and vaudeville. She pulls the feat off without the results sounding callow or pastiche. Swift’s expansive artistic voice remains firmly intact regardless of genre.

Swift describes this personal artistic statement on her new album as “transgenre.” “I grew up immersed in the culture of jazz music, blessed to have had some of the greats as mentors, and I felt a deep familial duty to uphold that” she says, reflecting on her parents – jazz singer and educator, Stephanie Nakasian, and bebop pianist, Hod O’Brien.

“But as rooted in jazz as I’ve been, there’s a uniquely visceral power in rock and soul music that’s always fueled my creative passion, and rather than mask or confine that part of my identity, the people I admire most show themselves unabashedly and that’s the kind of tradition I want to be a part of.

Swift first gained major international attention in 2015 when she won second place in the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz International Vocals Competition. Four years later, Mack Avenue Records released her acclaimed album Confessions when she was only 25 years old. She demonstrated her flair for conceptual song cycles on her follow-up album, This Bitter Earth, which not only gave glimpses of her rock influences but thematically touched upon some of the harder truths of being a woman, particularly when it comes to domestic abuse.

Swift says that for her new album she’d been exploring her “transgenre” concept for about two-and-half years. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she strategized the unveiling of this more artistically naked version of herself to the public while being mindful of how conservative the mainstream jazz industry can be.

She forged and refined most of the material for Veronica Swift on the road. Much to her delight, audiences enthusiastically welcomed the new direction. “My live concerts have been the experiment by which I am seeing the readiness of the audience to embrace the full scope of who I am, and it’s encouraging to know I can continue to push myself creatively and invite people into the fold along the way.”

Joanna Lynn-Jacobs (Margaret)

Joanna is a classically trained vocalist, mover and performer. She blends her strong background in opera with diverse musical influences, such as folk music from around the world, musical theater, blues and jazz. Some of her recent appearances include the role of “Poppea” opposite Anthony Roth Costanzo in The Comet/Poppea at The Geffen Contemporary MOCA, co-produced by American Modern Opera Company and The Industry. She has also played “Tess/chorus” in Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels’ Omar at San Francisco Opera, and the role of “Iphigenia of the Sea” in the US premiere and tour of (…Iphigenia) by Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spalding. Previously, Joanna performed in The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s War of the Worlds narrated by Sigourney Weaver and directed by MacArthur Grant winner Yuval Sharon and starred in their production of ATLAS by Meredith Monk the following year. Joanna currently performs in Europe and the US with Meredith Monk’s Cellular Songs. Lynn-Jacobs continually explores new artistic horizons such as improvisational movement and vocals with Heidi Duckler Dance and collaborative storytelling with Street Symphony’s Crossroads Concert Series.