Be Our Guest with Gabriel Barre, Tricia Paoluccio & Bruce Vilanch (Here You Come Again)

Gabriel Barre is an American director and actor. Best known for creating original musicals, his work has been seen on Broadway, throughout the United States, and across four continents internationally. Gabriel directed the Broadway production of Amazing Grace, which also toured the country and was a sit-down production at the new Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC in 2019. In New York City, he is known for his off-Broadway work: he directed the original production of Andrew Lippa’s, The Wild Party at the Manhattan Theatre Club starring Idina Menzel, Taye Diggs, Brian Darcy James and Julia Murney. He was awarded the Calloway Award for Best Direction, and was nominated for five Outer Critics Circle Awards and thirteen Drama Desk Awards, both including Best Direction of a Musical. He directed the original production of John Cariani’s Almost, Maine at the Daryl Roth Theatre, which has become one of the most frequently produced plays in the United States with over 4000 productions to date. It has been translated into a dozen languages and recently unseated Shakespeare as the most produced play in North American high schools. Other Off-Broadway productions include a new adaptation of Cyrano De Bergerac at the St. Clement’s Theatre, using the Anthony Burgess translation, brought to life by a cast of only eight actors and featuring direction by Barre (who also appeared in the leading role), action direction by Rick Sordelet and an original musical score by Alexander Sovronsky, performed live, by the actor/musician cast.  He also directed the original productions of Summer of ’42 at the Variety Arts Theatre, Honky Tonk Highway at Don’t Tell Mama (winner of a MAC Award and Bistro Award for Best Review), 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. Tricia Paoluccio is a multi talented actor, unique visual artist, and creator. Growing up on an almond farm in Modesto, CA, with an inventor as a father and school teacher mother, Tricia moved to NYC and sold her art on the street before she could make a living as an actor. Since making her Broadway debut in Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge, she has worked consistently in NY theatre on Broadway and off, in television and film. As a visual artist, Tricia has been commissioned to create botanical designs for luminaries in the fashion, publishing, and music industries. As a creator she has created and produced an optioned web-series, and, during the pandemic, cowrote a show in which she will star, premiering this Fall of 2022, where she gets to play her lifelong idol: Dolly Parton. This show, entitled Here You Come Again, was approved by Dolly, who has given Tricia permission to play her and given the creative team the world wide grand rights to all of her music. She divides her time between her California farm and NYC, where she lives with her two sons and husband, director Gabriel Barre. She is passionate about prison reform, having spent a dozen years serving as a volunteer chaplain at Manhattan Detention Center. Bruce Vilanch is an American comedy writer, songwriter and actor. He is a two-time Emmy Award-winner. Vilanch is best known to the public for his four-year stint on Hollywood Squares, as a celebrity participant; behind the scenes he was head writer for the show. In 2000, he performed off-Broadway in his self-penned one-man show, Bruce Vilanch: Almost Famous.