Patrick A’Hearn (Director, Riverside Christmas Spectacular) marks his fourteenth season as a member of the Riverside Center management staff, offering a new dimension and broader outreach to our marketing and artistic endeavors. Mr. A 'Hearn was a member of the original Broadway cast of Les Misérables and can be heard on its original cast recording. He has appeared on Broadway and in the national tours of Les Misérables, Chicago (with Chita Rivera and Ben Vereen), The Phantom of the Opera, The King and I (starring Rudolph Nureyev), The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber (with Michael Crawford), and Joseph and the Amazing Techni Dreamcoat (with Andy Gibb), as well as in the acclaimed Forbidden Broadway in New York. He was featured in the world premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem Variations, performed as Marvin Hamlisch's principal vocalist in Mr. Hamlisch’s Concert Tour, and appeared in concert with Byron Janis, at the Aspen Music Festival, and in concert tours throughout Europe. Additional principal portrayals include Freddy in My Fair Lady with the Portland Open Edmonton Opera, and the European tour starring Maximillian Schell, Mr. Snow in Carousel with the Minnesota Opera, and the title role in The Student Prince with Jerome Hines and Christine Andreas. A featured soloist in Broadway Pops programs with major symphonic orchestras throughout the US, Patrick has released two nationally distributed CDs, Patterns of the Heart and By George! The Music of George Gershwin. He assisted Trevor Nunn and John Caird in the staging of the first national tour of Les Misérables. At Riverside Center, he has appeared in an Actors' Equity Guest Artist capacity as Harold Hill in The Music Man (2006), the Beast in Disney's Beauty and the Beast (2007-08), and the Phantom in Phantom (2012) for which performances he was honored by DC Metro Theatre Arts as "Best Performance by an Actor in a Musical 2012" and by the Maryland Theatre Guide Reader's Poll as "Best Actor in a Musical 2012." His Riverside directing credits include 42 Street, Evita, Into the Woods, Chicago, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Hello, Dolly!, Dreamgirls, Cabaret, The Full Monty, our highly acclaimed production of Les Misérables (for which Patrick received the 2013 award for "Best Director of a Musical" from DC Metro Theatre Arts and the Maryland Theatre Guide Reader's Poll), Gypsy (DC Metro Theatre Arts "Best of 2014 Director of a Musical"), My Fair Lady, The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber (2015, 2016) which garnered the DC Metro Theatre Arts Award as "Best Musical and Director of a Musical in 2015, Oklahoma! (our 2016 anniversary production), Some Enchanted Evening-The Songs of Rodgers & Hammerstein, Riverside Christmas Spectacular, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Disney's Beauty and the Beast, A Rockabilly Christmas, Annie (Starring Sally Struthers as Miss Hannigan), Souvenir, A Riverside Family Christmas, The Marvelous Wonderettes, Bright Star, Meet Me in St. Louis, Lemer & Loewe's Camelot, and Riverside Christmas Spectacular: Home for the Holidays. Patrick most recently directed our soaring production of The Bridges of Madison County, They’re Playing Our Song, the Wizard of Oz, and this redux of the beloved RIverside CHristmas Spectacular: Home for the Holidays.