After selling more than 65 million records worldwide as the star of THE MONKEES TV show, Micky Dolenz has continued to make his mark in other areas of the entertainment business, through his varied career as an actor, director, writer, producer and performer.
 
Micky was born in Los Angeles on March 8, 1948. His dad, George, had starred in a number of films and in the mid 1950s in the television series “The Count of Monte Cristo.” Micky first established himself as a performer at age 10 when, under the stage name of Micky Braddock, he starred in his first TV series, “Circus Boy,” which aired on NBC from 1956-1958.
 
In his teens, Micky guest-starred on a number of television shows and also learned to play guitar.
 
“I was singing hard rock including songs by the Rolling Stones and the Animals,” he says. “In fact, I auditioned for THE MONKEES singing Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode.”
 
The Monkees audition took place in autumn 1965. Micky was one of four actors chosen out of 400 applicants who responded to a trade ad announcing auditions for a new TV show about a rock ‘n roll band.
 
The Monkees debut single, “Last Train to Clarksville,” featured Micky on lead vocals, hit the charts September 10, 1966 and rocketed to number one. Two days later, the television show debuted on NBC to great success.
 
The TV ratings remained high for two seasons and Micky and the band starred in their own feature, “Head,” a 1969 psychedelic romp written by a young Jack Nicholson. The movie is now considered a cult classic.
 
Ultimately, The Monkees achieved their greatest success as recording artists. Their first four albums (The Monkees; More of the Monkees; Headquarters, and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd.) reached number one on the charts and they had three consecutive number one singles: “Clarksville,” “I’m a Believer” (with lead vocals by Micky) and “Daydream Believer.” The group’s first five albums also went gold.
 
In 1977, Micky flew to London to star in Harry Nilsson’s West End Musical, “The Point.” He planned to stay three months but remained for 12 years. During that time, Micky honed his behind-the-camera skills (which he first practiced by directing episodes of “The Monkees”) by becoming prominent producer-director for the BBC and London Weekend Television. He also directed a short feature film, “The Box,” written by Michael Palin and Terry Jones of Monty Python, and helmed numerous music videos.
 
“I had the best of both worlds,” he explains. “It was great to have the opportunity to work in two very different forms of the same medium, the commercial and the non-commercial, and fuse the best of each into something unique…a new style, a new approach.”
 
When Micky returned to the U.S., he continued his directing career with projects for the Disney Channel and Harmony Pictures, among others.
 
In 1986, MTV broadcast episodes of The Monkees show and exposed a whole new generation to Monkeemania. Micky and Peter Tork recorded new tracks for Arista Records and the single, “That Was Then, This Is Now,” became their first Top 20 record since 1968. Micky, Peter and Davy Jones subsequently reunited for a 1986 summer tour that was so successful it sparked the reissue of all The Monkees’ classic LPs as well as Pool It on Rhino Records. At one point in 1987, there were seven Monkees albums on Billboard’s Top 200 LP’s Chart.
 
The early nineties found Micky back in the United States and on the road again with the National Touring Company of “Grease”. Micky enjoyed musical theater so much that he accepted the lead role in a Canadian production of, “A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum”.
 
Whilst in Canada, Micky wrote what he calls, “the first half of my unauthorized autobiography”, I’m A Believer, published by Hyperion Press.
 
In 1996, The Monkees again joined together this time for a “30 Year Reunion” summer tour around America. The response was such that they toured again the following year, this time finishing up in England, selling out Wembly Arena twice.
 
The next few years found Micky dividing his time evenly between acting (The Drew Carey Show, Days of our Lives, General Hospital), and directing (Boy Meets World for ABC/Disney, Pacific Blue for USA Networks and Malpractice, a feature film for Lifetime Television).
 
January of 2004 found Micky back on Broadway, co-starring in the Elton John/Tim Rice Tony Award winning musical, “Aida”. Then, after a short, but exciting, stint as the morning DJ on CBS-FM in The Big Apple, Micky was once again treading the boards in the revival of the Stephen Swartz musical, “Pippin”.
 
Micky is currently living in the hills of Los Angeles with his wife Donna, a pack of coyotes, a family of deer, and a new radial arm saw.
 
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In a few short years, Megan Hilty has gone from understudy on Broadway to a star of stage, screen, and music. Her impressive accomplishments have made her one of the fastest rising talents in the entertainment world.
 
Megan was born in Bellevue, Washington on March 29, 1981. Drawn to music at a young age, she explored a career in opera before deciding to pursue musical theatre. After graduating from the Washington Academy of Performing Arts Conservatory High School in Redmond, Washington, she moved to Southern Oregon and spent two years waiting tables and working odd jobs while performing in shows such as Jesus Christ Superstar, Hello Dolly!, and My Fair Lady. She then enrolled in Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she performed in a variety of college and regional productions. She graduated from CMU in 2004 with a Bachelor’s degree in Theatre.
 
Upon graduation, Megan was offered the role of “Glinda” standby for the Broadway company of Wicked. She made her Broadway debut in the fall of 2004 opposite Tony winner Idina Menzel, and was asked to take over as principal Glinda in May 2005. After a year on Broadway, Megan performed the role on tour and in the 2007-2009 Los Angeles production.
 
During her years with Wicked, Megan was workshopping the role of “Doralee” in 9 to 5: The Musical, Dolly Parton’s adaptation of the popular film. In 2009, Megan starred in the show on Broadway alongside Allison Janney and Stephanie J. Block. She was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical, an Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Actress in a Musical, a Drama League Award, and an Ovation Award for Best Actress in a Musical.
 
During this time period, Megan made guest appearances on many television shows, including Bones, The Closer, Desperate Housewives, and Ugly Betty, while also providing the singing voice for Snow White in Shrek the Third. She also made concert appearances around the U.S. in the Meg an’ Sho Show (alongside Shoshana Bean) and with a solo cabaret show called Megan Hilty Sings the Blondes.
 
In 2011, Megan joined the cast of NBC’s Smash as “Ivy Lynn,” an actress who is desperate to land the lead in a musical about the life of Marilyn Monroe. Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker said of her work: “Hilty has built a character who feels like a real Broadway diva: sexy, funny, ambitious, insecure, at once selfish and giving.” The show aired from 2012-2013 and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Outstanding Musical or Comedy Series, while also offering Megan the opportunity to record both covers of popular hits and original songs from the musical within the show, “Bombshell.”
 
During her hiatus between Smash’s first and second seasons, Megan starred in the New York City Center production of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes as Lorelai Lee, a role made famous by Carol Channing and Marilyn Monroe. Megan received rave reviews for both the production and its cast recording. Ben Brantley of The New York Times called the opening performance “…one of those single, golden nights, so cherished by theatergoers, that thrust its leading lady into the firmament of musical stardom.”
 
In 2013, Megan released It Happens All the Time, her first solo album with Portrait (an imprint of Sony Masterworks), and also made her Carnegie Hall debut. Megan also returned to TV with NBC’s Sean Saves the World starring Sean Hayes.
 
Megan currently makes frequent concert appearances, both with symphony orchestras throughout the United States and in solo concert at smaller venues. She also regularly performs in a variety of special events, such as the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade or Christmas in Washington. Megan maintains an active voiceover career, providing the voice of “Rosetta” in the Disney Fairies series and the “China Doll Princess” in the animated feature Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return.
 
Megan and her husband, Brian Gallagher, were married in November 2013. Their first daughter, Viola, was born in September 2014.

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It was a warm June night, the neon marquee of Manhattan’s famed Radio City Music Hall served as a beacon welcoming thousands who gathered to honor, celebrate and award the best of Broadway for the 2009 Tony Awards. That evening, Constantine Maroulis was deservedly bestowed with a Tony Nomination for his tour de force performance in Broadway’s landmark show Rock of Ages. Seems rather simple right? Well it was anything but, years of hard creative work came to fruition and in a sense full circle, for some five years earlier Maroulis had become a household name by beaming into 30 million households each night via his lengthy appearance on the television’s American Idol. There, Maroulis utilized his versatile arsenal of talents to perfection, enlisting a growing legion of fans that witnessed this magnetic and charismatic performer, one who was full of surprises and was destined for continued success.
 
Born in Brooklyn, New York and later raised in the nearby suburbs of New Jersey, Constantine James Maroulis grew up surrounded by a wide array of polarized music from classic rock, alternative and spirituals to jazz and jam band antics. That disparaging mix of sounds would soon become an essential ingredient in his development as soon as he entered high school where he began participating in musical theater productions as well as singing in various rock bands. Constantine continued to pursue both acting and music while attending college locally. It was not unusual to see Constantine onstage at a Summer Stock theater production while afterwards heading straight to a nightclub to front a band. There, he gained the invaluable experience of burning both ends of the entertainment candle that would help him nail his audition that garnered his spot to attend the prestigious Boston Conservatory of Music.
 
Continue reading at constantinemaroulis.com…
 
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