Thursday, December 12, 2013

Point Park Alum Directs Sound of Music Live Performance

For Immediate Release
Dec. 4, 2013

Tony Award-winning Point Park alum Rob Ashford to direct ‘The Sound of Music,’ starring Carrie Underwood, Stephen Moyer live on NBC


PITTSBURGH – Point Park alumnus and Tony Award-winner Rob Ashford will direct the classic musical,The Sound of Music, live on NBC at 8 p.m. Eastern, Thursday, Dec. 5.

The three-hour live telecast, directed by Ashford and Beth McCarthy-Miller, stars six-time Grammy Award-winner Carrie Underwood as Maria von Trapp, Stephen Moyer, star of HBO’s hit series True Blood, as Captain von Trapp, and five-time Tony Award-winner and two-time Grammy Award-winner Audra McDonald as Mother Abbess.

This will be a faithful adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s beloved musical and include all the favorite musical numbers performed by the cast in the live broadcast.

Ashford won a Tony Award in 2002 for choreographing Thoroughly Modern Millie. He has been nominated for a Tony Award eight times and for several Laurence Olivier awards, the British equivalent of the Tony. He won the Drama Desk, Fred Astaire Award, and Outer Critics Circle awards for Cry-Baby(2008).

Ashford made his directorial debut with Parade (2008) on London’s West End. On Broadway, he directed revivals of the musicals Promises, Promises, starring Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth, and How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, starring Daniel Radcliff. Earlier this year, Ashford directed his first non-musical on Broadway, a revival of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, starring Scarlett Johansson.  Ashford also directed the musical numbers for the film, Beyond the Sea, Kevin Spacey’s Bobby Darin biopic, and won a 2009 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography for the 81st Annual Academy Awards.

NBC’s live version of The Sound of Music also features another Pittsburgh native – Michael Campayno, a Carnegie Mellon University Drama School senior.

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Contact:
Ramesh Santanam | Director of Marketing & Public Relations
rsantanam@pointpark.edu |412.392.8106

Laura Greenawalt | Marketing & Public Relations Coordinator
lgreenawalt@pointpark.edu | 412.392.3175

Posted on behalf of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates.  Joyce Kane is the owner of Cybertary Pittsburgh, a Virtual Administrative support company, providing virtual office support, personal and executive assistance, creative design services and light bookkeeping.  Cybertary works with businesses and busy individuals to help them work 'on' their business rather than 'in' their business.  www.Cybertary.com/Pittsburgh

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