Lonny Price

Lonny Price is an American actor, director, writer, and composer born on March 9, 1959, in New York City. The son of Edie L. (Greene), a merchandise manager, and Murray A. Price, a car leasing company owner, he grew up in Fresh Meadows, New York, and Metuchen, New Jersey. Price trained at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts before enrolling at the Juilliard School, which he left after one year to pursue a professional acting career.

Price began his career in Off-Broadway productions, earning a Theatre World Award for outstanding stage debut for his work in Class Enemy in 1979. His first major Broadway credit came in 1981 with the Stephen Sondheim, Hal Prince, and George Furth musical Merrily We Roll Along, in which he originated the role of Charley Kringas. The production underwent extensive changes during a prolonged preview period before closing after sixteen performances. He subsequently appeared in Athol Fugard's "Master Harold"...and the Boys, portraying a South African student opposite Danny Glover and Zakes Mokae, a production that ran for eight months. In 1989, Price played Jimmy Durante in the Broadway musical biography Durante. His Broadway credits also include Sally Marr...and her escorts, Children and Art, the play Broadway Boy, and A Class Act.

Among his Off-Broadway acting credits, Price appeared as Mendel in the William Finn and James Lapine musical Falsettoland in 1990. His film work includes major supporting roles as Ronnie Crawford in The Muppets Take Manhattan and Neil Kellerman in Dirty Dancing, and his television appearances include guest roles on The Golden Girls and Law & Order.

In 2000, Price co-wrote, with Linda Kline, directed, and starred in A Class Act, a musical based on the life and career of composer-lyricist Edward Kleban, whose sole Broadway credit was A Chorus Line. The score drew from songs Kleban had written for unproduced projects. Following a two-month run at the Manhattan Theatre Club, the production transferred to the Ambassador Theatre, where it ran for three months. The show earned Price a Tony Award nomination for Best Book of a Musical and received four additional Tony nominations, including Best Musical.

Price's directing career has been closely associated with the New York Philharmonic, for which he has helmed numerous concert productions. In 2000, he directed a concert staging of Sweeney Todd featuring Patti LuPone and George Hearn, winning an Emmy Award for the production. He directed Leonard Bernstein's Candide in 2004 with Kristin Chenoweth, Sir Thomas Allen, and Patti LuPone, and Passion with LuPone and Audra McDonald, which also won an Emmy Award. Additional Philharmonic productions include Camelot with Gabriel Byrne, Marin Mazzie, Christopher Lloyd, and Nathan Gunn. In March 2010, Price conceived and directed Sondheim! The Birthday Concert, celebrating Stephen Sondheim's 80th birthday, and won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Special for the PBS broadcast. In April 2011, he directed a concert production of Company with Neil Patrick Harris, Stephen Colbert, Martha Plimpton, Christina Hendricks, and Patti LuPone. In 2013, he returned to Sweeney Todd at the Philharmonic with Emma Thompson and Bryn Terfel; the PBS telecast for Live from Lincoln Center won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music, or Comedy Special.

On Broadway, Price directed a 2007 revival of 110 in the Shade at the Roundabout Theatre Company starring Audra McDonald, which received a Tony nomination for Best Revival of a Musical. He directed the 2014 Broadway production of Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, also starring McDonald, who won her sixth Tony Award for her portrayal of Billie Holiday. Price subsequently staged the production on the West End in London in 2017, again with McDonald, as well as the HBO special. In 2016, he directed a London revival of Sunset Boulevard starring Glenn Close, which transferred to Broadway for a limited run in 2017.

Price made his directorial debut with an Off-Broadway revival of The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N in 1989 for the American Jewish Theater. He went on to direct The Rothschilds and Juno for the same organization, both of which received Outer Critics Circle nominations for Best Revival. Price served as Associate Artistic Director of the American Jewish Theatre from the late 1980s through the mid-1990s and was artistic director at Musical Theatre Works until 2002, when he became its resident director. He also served as a staff director for the ABC soap opera One Life to Live, where he was part of a team that received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Drama Series Directing in 1995. His episodic television directing credits include five episodes of Desperate Housewives and three episodes of 2 Broke Girls.

In 2016, Price directed the documentary Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened, chronicling the original 1981 Broadway production of Merrily We Roll Along. The film screened at the New York Film Festival and was named one of the New York Times Top Ten Films of 2016. Price directed the Roundabout Theatre Company premiere of the musical Scotland, PA in 2019 and serves as a guest instructor at HB Studio.