Brandon Wardell is an award winning actor, musician and producer. Brandon has appeared on and off Broadway in; Evil Dead the Musical (Outer Critics Circle nomination), Assassins (Tony winner for best revival), Good Vibrations, Thoroughly Modern Millie (Tony winner for Best Musical) and James Joyce’s The Dead (Tony nominee for best musical) . His film and television credits include; The Turing Love Affair , The Rooster (Slamdance Film Festival), 2005 New Year’s Eve Celebration where he sang for a million people in Times Square, multiple appearances on The View, All My Children (Julian) Guiding Light (guest star) and numerous commercials. Brandon is also a producer and his company Theatreland Productions is currently producing the cast album of the Broadway show FELA! They also recently completed the cast album of Paul Scott Goodman’s “Rooms”. He was nominated for a Grammy in 2009 for “Ain’t Misbehavin’”, starring Ruben Studdard and Frenchie Davis and in 2008 for the revival of “Gypsy” starring Patti LuPone. Other cast album production credits incluse: “Annie 30th Anniversary Cast Recording” and “Evil Dead the Musical”. is currently working on several other producing projects including a feature film called “The F*kin’ Champ” with his company Johnny Roscoe Productions. Mr.. Wardell has been an actor, musician, costume assistant, producing associate, fight captain, dance captain, co-writer, general manager, sound engineer, assistant director or producer for over 25 Broadway shows, numerous cast albums, countless concerts and a variety of shows in hundreds of other venues throughout the country.
Brandon grew up in rural North Carolina and found his love of music at an early age by performing in and helping set up his father’s band. His first gig in front of a crowd of 5,000 came at the ripe old age of 5 and he has been hooked ever since. Brandon’s first big break as a singer came when he was asked to sing at the Merle Watson Festival in Wilkesboro, NC for a crowd of over 100,000. He performed between bluegrass legends Allison Krauss and Emmylou Harris. Also on the card was on of Brandon’s favorite bands, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones.
Brandon went to the North Carolina School of the Arts after working professionally for a few years after high school in regional theatres and in concert venues. After a couple of years there he felt the best learned lessons were waiting to be found and set out again to work in the professional world. Brandon still has a close relationship with NCSA to this day and has given multiple master classes at the esteemed University as well as other professional actor workshops around the country.
In January of 1999, he moved to New York City, and immediately began working for 5-Time Tony Award winning costume designer, William Ivey Long in his costume shop to pay the bills and get to know the business in New York. He has worked on more than 20 Broadway shows with William over the years and still helps William out in a pinch. Loyalty is very important to Brandon. Being thrust into the world of Broadway in this way set Brandon on a course to learn about all aspects of the business and would pave the way for him to work in many capacities on shows and to communicate comfortably with just about anyone about their area of expertise. This was not natural for Brandon as he grew up an only child and was quite shy when not onstage. The access to the award-winning sexy clothes from Chicago and Cabaret made it possible for Brandon’s Glam-Rock Band, Violet Crush, to create a striking image to go along with their kick-ass hard rock music. The band’s most recognized achievement was booking a gig with none other than Motley Crüe and The Scorpions at Jones Beach. Brandon was not satisfied with a life on the road with gorgeous women, all the Jack Daniel’s he could stand and decadent nights of debauchery so he decided to go to an open call and see if he could get back into acting.
Brandon went to his first EPA and walked away with a role in James Joyce’s The Dead. The show starred Christopher Walken and Brandon thought he was in heaven. Well, although it was critically acclaimed, the show only lasted 5 months and then went on the road for a year where Brandon stayed with it and played at the Ahmanson in L.A. as well as the Eisenhower Theatre at the Kennedy Center. After this, Brandon had had plenty of Joyce for a lifetime. A return to NYC was necessary.
Not long after coming back to New York, Brandon ended up in the cast of Throughly Modern Millie. Several Tony Awards later, Brandon Left the show to take part in an off-Broadway musical called A Man of No Importance. Although this show never worked out for him, it put him in contact with many great artists, not the least of which is the great Joe Mantello who cast him in his next show Assassins.
Assassins, which was scheduled to start rehearsals at the end of September in 2001 finally got it’s chance in 2004. Brandon served as the Dance Captain for the show and understudied several roles in addition to his duties as David Herold. This would not be the last time Brandon had the opportunity to work closely with Stephen Sondheim. He recreated the choreography for the Finale and also performed the role of Charles Guiteau for Sondheim’s 75th Birthday Celebration. Brandon has also had the pleasure of performing the role of John Hinckley with original Squeaky Fromme, Annie Golden.
In 2005, Brandon had his biggest Broadway break to date when he was cast as Dave in Good Vibrations. Although this show was not a critical success, Brandon garnered praise for his performance. The show was short-lived but Brandon had the opportunity to spend time with heros Brian Wilson and Mike Love and that will live in his memory long a that show is forgotten.
Brandon had his biggest challenge yet when he was cast in the cult-musical Evil Dead the Musical. Brandon played Scott in the show and had to die a total of 48 times a week. During the run of this show, Brandon had the opportunity to meet a slew of famous horror icons. He even ended up using his engineering skills on the album which was released on Time Life Records.
Brandon has been involved with the workshop of Catch Me If You Can for several years now and reprised his role of Johnny Dollar in the world premier Productionat the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle. He is set to continue with the show when it reaches Broadway in Winter of 2011.
For more about Brandon’s record producing career, please visit: www.theatrelandproductions.com and
