John Mercurio

John’s musicals and songs have been performed at regional theatres, colleges, high schools, in circus tents and online. Most recently, he wrote songs for Page Turner Adventures, an award-winning children’s media company that produces multi-platform content for kids ages 4-10.

John’s musical Academy (for which he wrote book, music and lyrics) premiered at  the New York Musical Theatre Festival where it received the NYMF Awards for Excellence in Music and Honorable Mention for Excellence in lyrics, Outstanding Musical and Outstanding Direction (John Carrafa.) In addition, Academy was offered a production at the Daegu International Musical Festival (DIMF) where it won the award for Best Musical.  

Academy had its regional world premiere at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre where it was named one of the top ten best shows by South Florida Theatre Review. Three songs have been recorded available on Spotify.

With collaborator Tajlei Levis, he wrote Glimpses of the Moon (directed by Mark Bruni) which premiered in the famed Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel in New York. Since then, it has been published by Concord Theatricals and has had several regional and college productions, including at MetroStage in Alexandria and Georgia Ensemble Theatre.  The original cast recording  is available on iTunes.  

John’s kid's musical, Through the Looking Glass (conceived and developed by Andrew Kato)  had three productions at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre and is now available for licensing.  A contemporary retelling of the Lewis Carroll classic, Looking Glass tells the story of modern-day Alice who is bullied by classmates and takes a trip through her mirror to figure out how to cope. The original cast album available on iTunes. 

John's musical Myth was developed at the O’Neill Music Theater Conference, where he received The Georgia Holof Lyricist Award for his work.  John is one of a handful of artists to be chosen to attend the O’Neill twice, having been there in 1998 with his musical A Tailor’s Tale (directed by B.T. McNicholl.)  Last summer, Myth was developed further at a workshop as part of AMDA's new work series, directed by Igor Goldin.

In 2009, John was awarded the ASCAP Foundation Cole Porter Award for music and lyrics. He is also the recipient of an award from the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation and a Commendation Award from the Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Musical Theater Foundation.  

 Other works include:  Diva Diaries (Lakeshore Theatre in Chicago, Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Broward Center for the Performing Arts); The Riverhaven Book Club (Lyric Theatre, Florida) and 1001 Nights (workshop at the George Street Theatre; demo songs recorded by LaChanze).  

John has also composed the incidental music for circuses, plays and the scores to three ballets including one choreographed by former New York City Ballet dancer and choreographer Miriam Mahdaviani.  He received a degree in music theory from the Eastman School of Music and a master's in music composition from NYU and was a member of the BMI Advanced Musical Theatre Workshop.