Michael James Scott, a former Genie of Disney's Aladdin and a Broadway.com vlogger, was recently married to filmmaker Jeremy Merrifield—and their wedding was a who's who of Broadway. The ceremony, held on November 9 in Los Alamos, California, was officiated by Anne Garefino, lead producer of Broadway's The Book of Mormon, of which Scott was an original cast member.
"We had a wedding full of Broadway friends and our families, so it was a crazy group of the most awesome mixture of people," Scott, who had three costume changes on his wedding night, told Broadway.com. "Marisha Wallace [an alum of Aladdin and Something Rotten!] sang 'This Is Me,' which was incredible." Merrifield added, "Ashley Brown [Broadway's original Mary Poppins], the greatest soprano I've ever heard, sang 'Time After Time,' a song that means a lot to us about how we approach our relationship."
In addition to Aladdin and The Book of Mormon, Scott's Broadway credits include Something Rotten!, Elf, Hair, The Pirate Queen, Tarzan, Mamma Mia! and All Shook Up. Casey Nicholaw, who has directed Scott numerous times, was of course on the wedding's guest list. Fellow Mormon original cast members Josh Gad, Rory O'Malley and Michael Potts were also in attendance. Former Wicked leads Stephanie J. Block and Julia Murney also attended the festivities, as well as celebrated drag queen Willam (famous for RuPaul's Drag Race), who is Merrifield's childhood friend.
Another former Elphaba, Shoshana Bean, who was recently seen on Broadway in Waitress, contributed to the celebration by lending her pipes to a mashup of "Just the Way You Are/Have I Told You Lately That I Love You," arranged by Mormon and Wicked musical director Stephen Oremus.
"Our hashtag for our wedding was #TheyMetAtTheaterCamp because we met at theater camp and that was the gayest thing we've ever heard," Merrifield said. "We met about 20 years ago at the Broadway Theatre Project, which was a little theater camp Ann Reinking did in Florida. It was 10 years later that we met again at our mutual theater camp friend's concert; it was raining and I walked Michael home in the rain, and we've been together ever since."
"Willam joked, 'If you want a gay wedding, here's the recipe: three Elphabas, Mary Poppins, Olaf, King George, Cher, multiple Mormons and a Genie,'" Merrifield said.