Billy Porter has had a varied career: Broadway performer, Star Search winner, recording artist, writer and director.  A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama and the Professional Screenwriting program at UCLA, Porter’s Broadway credits include Smokey Joe’s Café, Miss Saigon, Five Guys Named Moe and Grease.  Off-Broadway and regional credits include Romance In Hard Times, The Merchant of Venice, House of Lear, Radiant Baby, Jason Robert Brown’s Songs For A New World, Adam Guettel’s Myths & Hymns, Angels in America, Going Native, Top Dog/Underdog, Jelly’s Last Jam, Jesus Christ Superstar, Antigone, A Chorus Line and Chicago.  Directing credits include Company and Letters from Nam for CMU, Once on This Island for Reprise, Twilight in Manchego at NYMFT, Signed, Sealed, Delivered at The Venetian Hotel in Vegas, and Being Alive, which he conceived and directed for The Westport Country Playhouse and The Philadelphia Theatre Company.  He is currently Artistic Director of Upright Cabaret.

James has been involved in musical theater now for the past 12 years. Starting at the prestigious Williamstown Theater Festival, he began running the late-night cabaret series and moved up to full music director of the festival by 1999. New York credits include: Radiant Baby (kbds), Never Gonna Dance (Assoc. conductor/arranger), BKLYN, The Wedding Singer and most recently, Legally Blonde (conductor). He is now the music supervisor for the national tour of Legally Blonde and also has a writing partnership with Billy Porter. Their collaboration, Being Alive, a revue of Sondheim’s music, has had 2 productions on the East Coast.

Michael McElroy is founder and director of Broadway Inspirational Voices, a multi-racial gospel choir comprised of Broadway performers based in New York City. As an arranger, in 2005 Michael, along with writing partners Joseph Joubert and Buryl Red, was nominated for a Grammy award for his work on Broadway Inspirational Voices' holiday cd Great Joy! A Gospel Christmas. His arrangements have been performed at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, Constitution Hall in Washington D.C., The Crystal Cathedral in Anaheim, California, as well as in churches around the country. Vocal arrangements for the theater include Being Alive (Westport Theater, Philadelphia Theater Company), Street Corner Symphony (Brooks Atkinson), Three Mo’ Tenors (Little Shubert Theater), Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks 2005 and 2006, Six Flags Theme parks, Rite Aid, State Farm, Salvation Army and Boy Scouts of America industrials. As a performer Michael has been seen on and off Broadway in many productions including his Tony-nominated performance is Big River in 2003.