Gabriel Barre

Gabriel Barre, born James Gabriel Barre on August 26, 1957, in Brattleboro, Vermont, is an American actor and director whose work spans Broadway, Off-Broadway, national tours, and productions across four continents. Raised primarily in Burlington, Vermont, he is the son of an Episcopal priest, James Lyman Barre, and a systems analyst, Hallie Susan Hebb, and is the oldest of three children. At eighteen he relocated to New York City to study acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Following his graduation from AADA, Barre spent five years as a member of the Richard Morse Mime Theatre, based in Greenwich Village, performing at Lincoln Center and touring the United States with the company. That work extended internationally when he served as a cultural ambassador, performing throughout the Middle East in countries including Israel, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, and Greece.

His Broadway performing career ran from 1981 to 1993 and included appearances in Barnum, Rags, Anna Karenina, Starmites, and Ain't Broadway Grand. His performance in Starmites earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical in 1989. Additional New York stage credits include the original Off-Broadway casts of Return to the Forbidden Planet, The Petrified Prince at the Public Theatre, Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, and A Fine and Private Place, which he also directed. He performed in productions at the Roundabout Theater, Mirror Repertory Company, the Lamb's Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, the Jewish Repertory Theatre, INTAR, the York Theatre, and LaMama, among others. He was also an original cast member of Forever Plaid, for which he received a Bistro Award.

As a director, Barre helmed the Broadway production of Amazing Grace, which subsequently toured nationally and was scheduled for a sit-down engagement at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. in 2019. His Off-Broadway directing credits include the original production of Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party at the Manhattan Theatre Club, featuring Idina Menzel, Taye Diggs, Brian Darcy James, and Julia Murney. That production earned him the Calloway Award for Best Direction and received five Outer Critics Circle Award nominations and thirteen Drama Desk Award nominations, including Best Direction of a Musical. He also directed the original production of John Cariani's Almost, Maine at the Daryl Roth Theatre, a play that has since received more than four thousand productions, been translated into a dozen languages, and surpassed Shakespeare as the most produced play in North American high schools. Other Off-Broadway directing work includes Summer of '42 at the Variety Arts Theatre, Honky Tonk Highway at Don't Tell Mama, which won a MAC Award and a Bistro Award for Best Revue, Stars in Your Eyes at the Cherry Lane Theatre, Andrew Lippa's john & jen at the Lamb's Theatre, and Son of a Gun at the Samuel Beckett Theater.

Nationally, Barre directed the U.S. tour of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella starring Eartha Kitt, which played New York City's Madison Square Garden and toured regionally for three years. He also directed a national tour of Pippin that originated at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut and traveled throughout the United States and Canada. In 2015 he created a new Stephen Schwartz musical, Magic to Do, for Princess Cruise Lines.

His international directing work includes the world premiere of Frank Wildhorn's adaptation of Carmen at the Karlin Theater in Prague, Czech Republic, starring Lucie Bila, a production that ran for ten years to sold-out audiences and was filmed in 3D for commercial release throughout the Czech Republic. At the same venue he directed large-scale revivals of Jesus Christ Superstar and the Czech premiere of Elton John's Aida. In 2018 he directed the world premiere of Holmes, The Legend, a new Czech musical written by Ondrej Brzobohaty. In South Korea, he directed the world premiere of Frank Wildhorn's Tears of Heaven at the National Theatre in Seoul, a production nominated for eight Musical Awards including Best Direction. In Japan, he directed the Umeda Arts Theatre production of Wildhorn's The Scarlet Pimpernel, which was subsequently revived after touring Osaka and Tokyo. In Mexico, he directed the non-replica Mexican premiere of Billy Elliot, which won Las Lunas del Auditorio for Best Musical in 2018 and received twelve nominations from Los Premios Metropolitanos de Teatro, winning five awards including Best Musical and Best Direction.

His concert directing credits include three consecutive years in the American Songbook Series at Lincoln Center, multiple Musical by the Year concerts at Town Hall, a concert version of Pippin for World AIDS Day, and The Four Seasons at Lincoln Center. He also directed the workshop of Forever Deadward: The Vampire Musical Parody.

Barre has cited working as an actor with Graciela Daniele, Anne Bogart, Tom O'Horgan, and Hal Prince, as well as alongside Geraldine Page at the Mirror Repertory Company, as primary influences on his development as a director. His training included work with Sir Ian Richardson and Herbert Machiz. He resides in New York City with his wife, actress Tricia Paoluccio, and their two sons.