Ted Sperling has joined the Public Theater as Director of the Musical Theater Initiative. Sperling has a long history with the Public, beginning as musical director of Romance in Hard Times under Joe Papp and, most recently, with artistic director Oskar Eustis on See What I Wanna See.
"Ted is one of the most intelligent, talented and highly discerning forces shaping the American musical theater landscape today," Eustis said in a statement. "His presence will be of inestimable value in helping to expand and formalize the Public's development of new musicals for our time."
Sperling won the 2005 Tony and Drama Desk Awards for his orchestrations of The Light in the Piazza, for which he also served as music director. Other Broadway and off-Broadway credits as music director include Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Full Monty, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Kiss of the Spider Woman, My Favorite Year, A Man of No Importance, Wise Guys, A New Brain, Saturn Returns, Floyd Collins and Lincoln Center Theater's forthcoming production of South Pacific. Sperling made his professional acting debut in the Broadway musical Titanic as Wallace Hartley, the ship's bandleader. His directing credits include the off-Broadway productions of Striking 12 and See What I Wanna See and the world premiere of the musical Charlotte: Life? Or Theater? and a revival of Lady in the Dark, both in Philadelphia. He has conducted the scores for the films The Manchurian Candidate and Everything Is Illuminated and directed the short musical film Love, Mom. As Audra McDonald's music director, Sperling has conducted the New York Philharmonic in a live New Year's Eve TV broadcast as well as performances of La Voix Humaine at the Houston Grand Opera.
