Ravinia 2022, Issue 4

DAVID MULLEN (BILLINGS) I I I ROB LINDLEY, host, stage director, creator Originally from small-town Iowa, actor and director Rob Lindley attended Central Col- lege in Pella, IA, and moved to Chicago short- ly thereafter to study at The Second City Con- servatory. He has since become the director and host of the Chicago Humanities Festival’s Flory Concert, which has included The Music of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies as well as Assas- sins in concert. Lindley has been the creator and host of many gala concerts for organi- zations in the Chicago area, including Court Theatre, Apple Tree Theatre, and Northlight Theatre, as well as the annual “Chicago Sings” series at Porchlight Music Theatre. His other directing credits include Songs for Nobodies (Northlight Theatre); Far From Heaven , How to Succeed in Business Without Really Try- ing , and Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill (Porchlight Music Theatre); and 50 Shades! The Musical Parody (Off-Broadway at the Elektra Theater). As an actor, Lindley recent- ly appeared as Monsieur André in the 25th anniversary national tour of Phantom of the Opera and has been seen locally in Sound of Music (Marriott Theatre); Fun Home (Vic- tory Gardens); Secret Garden , James Joyce’s The Dead , Angels in America , Caroline or Change , Carousel (Court Theatre); Candide (Goodman Theatre); Funnyman (Northlight Theatre); The Tempermentals (About Face Theatre); and Oh, Coward! (Writers Theatre), for which he won the 2010 Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Actor in a Revue. Rob Lindley made his Ravinia performance debut in 2007 as an actor in the ensemble cast of Loesser’s The Most Happy Fella , which starred George Hearn and Sylvia McNair. Tonight he makes his Ravinia directorial debut and first appear- ance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. BRIAN STOKES MITCHELL, vocalist A fixture on Broadway’s stages with two Tony Awards to his name, actor and vocalist Brian Stokes Mitchell began his career on television as Dr. Justin “Jackpot” Jackson on Trapper John, MD , portraying the character for the entire run of the series. A versatile musician since beginning piano lessons at age 6, he began to learn composing, arranging, and orchestration in his teens and studied scoring further privately and through UCLA, leading him to score and conduct several episodes of the series. That talent has also extended into his discography of more than 20 albums, with Mitchell producing and arranging the music for his three solo recordings, including 2012’s Simply Broadway and his latest, Plays With Music . Mitchell earned his first Tony Award, as well as Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards, in 2000 for his star turn as Fred Graham in Kiss Me, Kate , having pre- viously been nominated for his portrayal of Coalhouse Walker Jr. in Ragtime . He earned further Tony nominations in 2001 in the title role of King Hedley II and in 2003 as Cervantes in Man of La Mancha . His Broadway credits also include Kiss the Spider Woman (1993) , Jel- ly’s Last Jam (1992), Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (2010), and Shuffle Along (2016), and he has appeared in City Center Encores! productions of Do Re Mi , Carnival , Kismet , and The Bandwagon . Mitchell earned his second Tony Award in 2016 in recognition of his charitable work as board chair of the Entertainment Community Fund—a position he has held since 2004—and he was also in- ducted into theTheatre Hall of Fame that year. With concert repertoire spanning jazz, opera, pops, country, and musical theater, he has been featured on a variety of stages, including Los Angeles Opera for The Light in the Piazza with Renée Fleming, the Kennedy Center for Sweeney Todd with Christine Baranski, and Carnegie Hall for Porgy and Bess with the San Francisco Symphony and South Pacific with Reba McEntire. Brian Stokes Mitchell first performed at Ravinia in 2006 and tonight makes his sixth appearance at the festival. HEATHER HEADLEY, vocalist Born in Trinidad, Heather Headley moved to the United States and settled in Indiana in her teens, and she soon immersed herself in the arts with musical theater and communi- cations studies at Northwestern University. Those studies quickly turned to star experi- ence, however, when she was invited to join the original Broadway cast of Elton John and Tim Rice’s Tony-winning musical adaptation of The Lion King as Nala. During that produc- tion, the writing duo cast Headley in the title role of their next musical. In 2000, she hit the stage as the Nubian princess Aida, winning both a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award. Two years later, Headley showed the versatil- ity of her voice with the release of her debut album, This Is Who I Am , a gold-selling col- lection that included two Billboard top-five dance tracks in “He Is” and “I Wish I Wasn’t.” She earned Grammy nominations as Best New Artist and for “I Wish I Wasn’t” while also winning a pair of Soul Train Awards for the album and “He Is.” Headley followed up in 2006 with In My Mind , which soared up to number five on Billboard ’s Hot 100 and featured her first number-one hit in the title track, and then in 2009 with Audience of One , which won her the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Gospel Album. Just af- ter releasing Only One in the World in 2012, she returned to the theater stage as Rachel Marron in the original West End cast of The Bodyguard , earning an Olivier nomination. Broadway soon beckoned again, and in 2016 Headley joined the Tony-winning revival of The Color Purple in the star role of Shug Av- ery. Most recently she has turned to screen acting—in 2018 she had a recurring role as Gwen Garret on Chicago Med , and in 2020 she began starring as Helen Decatur on Sweet Magnolias . She also appeared in the 2021 Are- tha Franklin biopic Respect as gospel singer Clara Ward. Heather Headley first appeared at Ravinia in 2007 and tonight returns in her Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut. ALEXANDRA BILLINGS, vocalist An actress, singer, author, teacher, and ac- tivist, Schaumburg, IL, native Alexandra Billings starred as Madame Morrible in the Broadway production of Wicked , the first trans artist to portray the role. She previ- ously starred on Broadway in the Manhattan Theatre Club production of The Nap at the Samuel J. Freidman Theater, earning critical praise in her debut role as Waxy Bush. Bill- ings made her professional debut in Chicago in 1987, that year earning the first of her five career After Dark Awards from performances with a variety of companies around the city, including Bailiwick Theatre, Court Theatre, About Face Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Northlight Theatre, and Steppen- wolf Theatre, with whom she earned a Joseph Jefferson Award in 1997. On screen, Billings stars as Detective Ainsley Lowbeer in the upcoming Amazon television series The Pe- ripheral , and she had a recurring star role in the award-winning series Transparent as Davina Rejennae. She made multiple guest starring appearances on Never Have I Ever , The Conners , and Goliath , and also guested on episodes of The Rookie , How to Get Away with Murder , Grey’s Anatomy , and ER , among other series. In 2016, Billings was honored with the Visibility Award from the Human Rights Campaign and also moderated a panel during Transgender Awareness Month at the Obama White House. She has been a mem- ber of the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame since 2005, and earlier this year she published her autobiographical memoir, This Time for Me , with Amazon. Billings holds a Master of Fine Arts from California State University–Long Beach, where she was an assistant professor before holding her current position as an as- sociate professor of theater at the University of Southern California. She is also a View- points associate with Steppenwolf Theatre. Alexandra Billings is making her Ravinia and Chicago Symphony Orchestra debuts. RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 33