David Loud - 2012 BTP Guest Artist

David Loud occupies a unique place in Broadway history, originating three roles as an actor, and also serving as conductor, music director or vocal arranger for many of Broadway’s most popular musicals.  He is particularly well known for his collaborations with composer Stephen Sondheim, the songwriting team of John Kander and Fred Ebb,and director Scott Ellis.

It was during his years as a student at Yale University that David auditioned for and was cast in Sondheim’s 1981 original Broadway production of Merrily We Roll Along as Ted, the onstage pianist. The production played 16 performances before closing and Loud returned to Yale to finish his degree.  Returning to New York in 1984, he was cast as the Narrator/Pianist in a production of Billy Bishop Goes to War, starring then-actor Ellis, which led to his association with Ellis on many of their subsequent collaborations.  In 1995, he created the role of Manny in Terrence McNally’s Master Class, a production on which he also served as musical supervisor.

Highlights of his career as a musical director include the original Broadway productions of Ragtime, Sondheim on Sondheim, Steel Pier, Curtains, and The Scottsboro Boys, the revivals of Company and Sweeney Todd, the world premieres of The Visit, Harold and Maude and First You Dream, the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of She Loves Me, and the hit Off-Broadway production of And the World Goes 'Round, for which he created the vocal and dance arrangements.

His arrangements have been heard at Carnegie Hall, The Hollywood Bowl, The Kennedy Center, and at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts' Allen Room.  Loud has also enjoyed a long professional relationship with Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley, whose evening of duets, Opposite You, he created.