returns to Music Theater Works where he directed The Student Prince. He is a champion for Chicago artists and has overseen the physical and cultural revival of the beautiful Mercury Theater Chicago. He has directed over 40 musicals including his Jeff Award-winning productions of Spamalot, The Addams Family and Ragtime as well as the Jeff Award nominated productions of Mary Poppins, The Producers, The Addams Family, Avenue Q, The Color Purple, Barnum-The Circus Musical, The Christmas Schooner, Nine the Musical, Ragtime, Gypsy, The Secret Garden, Sweeney Todd, Company, A New Brain, Into the Woods, Merrily We Roll Along, and Falsettos. He was pleased to produce The Man Who Murdered Sherlock Holmes, which was awarded the Jeff Award for New Work. He opened the new Venus Cabaret Theater with Stephen Sondheim’s Company and Stephen Schwartz’s Pippin. Stearns has received Jeff Awards, BroadwayWorld Awards, After Dark Awards, the Larry Sloan Advocate Award (for his support of Season of Concern), the first Guy Adkins award for his contributions to the art of musical theatre, and the Franny Award as a distinguished alumnus of the University of Illinois at Chicago.