James Brennan, Director

Most recently Mr. Brennan directed the critically acclaimed Richard Cory written by Ed Dixon, adapted from a play by A.R. Gurney, at the 2005 New York Musical Theater Festival.  Jim has also created productions of The Sound of Music for Pittsburgh CLO, Call Me Madam at the Goodspeed Opera House, On Your Toes, Noises Off, Don’t Dress For Dinner, and A.R. Gurney’s The Dressing Room at the Cape Playhouse on Cape Cod, and a She Loves Me at the Paper Mill Playhouse.  Other directing credits include the Paper Mill’s productions of Noises Off, Sound Of Music and Crazy for You (which was televised on PBS) as well as a Where’s Charley? in Wichita, a 42nd Street and a Hello Dolly! in Sacramento, Crazy for You in Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Sacramento, Westchester and Wichita, and She Loves Me in Philadelphia and Maine, as well as the Broadway concert revivals of Cole Porter’s Jubilee and Jerome Kern’s Sally.  He has, over the years, in various Stock and Dinner Theatres, directed and choreographed productions of Chicago, Cabaret, The Merry Widow, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Bells Are Ringing, George M, The Apple Tree, Kiss Me Kate and High Button Shoes.

As an actor, he has appeared on Broadway in Good News, Rodgers and Hart, So Long 174th Street, I Love My Wife, Little Me, 42nd Street, Singin’ In The Rain, Me and My Girl and Crazy for You, and directed the Broadway revivals of Jerome Kern’s Sally and Cole Porter’s Jubilee.  He toured America in No, No Nannette, Good News, Me and My Girl, Crazy for You, and Camelot.  He has performed Noel Coward’s Private Lives at the Alley Theatre in Houston, My Fair Lady in Philadelphia, Sacramento, Portland (Oregon), Dallas, Wichita and Winnipeg, Camelot in San Diego, Sacramento, Philadelphia and the Paper Mill Playhouse, 1776 in Sacramento, Rochester, Philadelphia (receiving a Barrymore Award for his John Adams), and a Devil in Damn Yankees in Sacramento.

When he’s been directing for a stretch of time, he misses acting…and vice versa…