Mark Janicello

Mark Janicello
Janicello in October 2023
Born	November 3, 1962 Brooklyn, New York
Nationality	American
Education	University of North Carolina Greensboro
Years active	1984–present
Notable work	The Finellis (2022 film) Naked in the Spotlight (autobiography)
Spouse	Danielle Bayer (married 1989–2000)
Children	2
Website	markjanicello.org

Mark Janicello (born November 3, 1962, in Brooklyn, New York) is an American singer, actor, painter, writer, producer and author.

Early life

Mark Janicello was born on November 3, 1962, in Brooklyn, New York, the second of three brothers. His mother, Rose Tubiolo Janicello, is a gospel singer, composer, and pianist from Queens, New York, of Italian descent. His father David Janicello, was an American, also of Italian heritage. He was an electronic engineer for Photocircuits Corporation abruptly changing careers in 1969 to open one of the three original branches of Colfax Furniture. Both of Janicello's parents attended a seminary and became ordained ministers in the Pentecostal branch of Christianity. The family moved to Burlington, North Carolina, when Janicello was six years old. He attended the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, earning a Bachelor's degree in 1984.^[1]

Performing career

Janicello began his career by singing in the subways of New York City in the mid-1980s as part of the MTA's Music Under New York program. Janicello's operatic debut was as Cassio in Verdi's Otello. Pinkerton in Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Caliph in Kismet and Leicester in the American premiere production of Rossini's opera Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra, followed. All three productions were directed by Donald Westwood for Opera Northeast.^[2][3] In 1988, Janicello made his west coast debut playing Raoul de Gardefeu in the Opera at the Academy's co-production (with Long Beach Opera)^[4] of La Vie parisienne directed by Christopher Alden.^[5][6] In the late 1980s, Janicello began performing with the charitable foundation Music for All Seasons, singing in children's hospitals, prisons and old age homes.^[7]

Concurrent with his stage career, Janicello continued to sing in the New York subways. In 1990, conductor Eve Queler heard Janicello singing arias in Manhattan's Grand Central Terminal. She subsequently engaged him to perform in Donizetti's Roberto Devereux, with which he made his Carnegie Hall debut.^[8] Diverse operatic roles followed in productions throughout the United States and Europe. Janicello also performed for two seasons with the comedic opera troupe La Gran Scena Opera.^[9] In 1996 Janicello sang the world-premiere of the opera Nuit des Hommes^[10][11] by Per Nørgård. In 1995, Janicello had sung Nørgård's opera Die göttliche Kirmes in St. Gallen, Switzerland.^[12]

Janicello's first performance in an operetta was as Camille, Count de Rossillon in the Paper Mill Playhouse production of Lehár's Die lustige Witwe.^[13] He returned to Die lustige Witwe two more times, most notably in 2010 in Vienna, this time playing Count Danilo Danilovitsch with the Wiener Operettensommer.^[14] Other operetta roles have included, Alfred in Die Fledermaus,^[15] the title role in Der Zarewitsch^[16] and Hans in Die verkaufte Braut.^[17]

In October 2012, he co-starred in the Broadway-style musical Loving the Silent Tears, directed by Vincent Paterson, alongside Jody Watley, Jon Secada, Liz Callaway, Debbie Gravitte, Kiril Kulish, Flo Ankah and Patti Cohenour.^[18][19][20] He also appears on the musical's cast album.^[21] The Musical is based on the poetry of Supreme Master Ching Hai, a Vietnamese spiritual leader and advocate for veganism. Janicello has been vegan since 2004 and advocates publicly for a plant-based lifestyle.^[22]

In 2021, Janicello provided the German narration for the documentary film Eating Our Way to Extinction, replacing Kate Winslet's English narration for German-speaking Europe.^[23]

Janicello and Elvis

In 1992, Janicello was approached by the Music Under New York program to enter the KFC Musical Feast competition^[24] representing New York City. The competition was a nationwide search sponsored by Kentucky Fried Chicken for the "Best street performer in America". Janicello created a performance where he first sang "Recondita armonia" from Tosca, dressed as a rock singer, and then aided by a quick costume change would switch back and forth between the songs "It's Now or Never" and "O Sole Mio" (which share the same melody) while switching vocal and performance styles between "Elvis and Luciano Pavarotti".^[25] He won the competition^[26] and was awarded the $15,000.00 first prize by head judge Bo Diddley.^[27][28] Janicello appeared with Bo Diddley on NBC's Today show^[29] among many other media appearances. Janicello's appearances on Today and Today in New York led to his invitation to join the International Opera Studio (IOS) of the Zurich Opera in 1994. Upon arrival in Switzerland, Janicello was asked by IOS boss Marc Belfort, to repeat his prize-winning KFC Musical Feast performance at a Gala performance at the Zurich Opera. At that event, he was approached by Swiss producer Peter Reichenbach, who asked him to perform as Elvis Presley with composer Ben Weisman at the first annual Cinemusic Festival in Gstaad in 1995. After performing with him in Gstaad, Weisman gave Janicello the unreleased Elvis song "Will You Still Be There" which Elvis had approved for his last album, but never finished recording. Janicello, together with Weisman recorded, released, and promoted the song in 1996 and 1997.^[30] It was Janicello's first commercial recording.

On the back of the release of "Will You Still Be There", Stadttheater Klagenfurt hired Janicello to play Elvis Presley in their 1997 production, Elvis: A Musical Biography.^[31] The musical moved from Klagenfurt to Metropol Theater in Vienna^[32] and subsequently toured throughout Germany^[33] and Austria.^[34] In 2002, Janicello wrote a new musical about Presley's life, ELVIS: Die Show, sein Leben which combined newly-composed songs with songs from Elvis' catalogue of hits. The musical premiered at Theater AKzent in Vienna^[35] before finishing an international tour with an extended run of performances at the Deutsches Theater in Munich.^[36] The musical featured both "Will You Still Be There" and "Great Big Mama"^[37] two of Janicello's own commercial releases.

Acting credits

Film

Television

Theatre

Opera and operetta

Music Videos

Computer games and internet projects

Discography

1. "Unchained" (1995) – Promotional CD
2. "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" (1996) – (UK ONLY) World-Premiere recording of Graham Todd's Oratorio based on Walt Whitman's Poetry
3. "Suspicious Minds" (1996) – Promotional CD
4. "Will You Still Be There" (1997) – CD Single – Unreleased Elvis Presley song written by Ben Weisman^[42]
5. "Can't Help Falling in Love" (1997) – EP from "Elvis: A Musical Biography"
6. "Du bist das Herz der Welt" (1998) – Schlager duet Hanne Haller^[43]
7. "Be My Love: Das Mario Lanza Musical" (1999) – Original Cast Musical CD
8. 'Classics' (1999) – Puccini and Verdi Tenor Arias
9. "Deep in Your Soul" (2000) – CD Single^[44]
10. "Time Stands Still" (2000) – CD Single
11. "Charlie: A New Musical" (2001) – German-language Original Cast CD
12. "Right Now" (2001) – CD Single from the Musical "Charlie"
13. "Amazing Grace" (2001) – Gospel Classics
14. "Endless Love" (2001) – LIVE in Concert
15. "Elvis: die Show, sein Leben" (2002) – Original Cast CD
16. "Rubbernecking" – CD Single – Live at Deutsches Theater Munich
17. "Great Big Mama" (2002) – CD Single
18. "I Can't Make You Love Me" (2003) – (EP)
19. "The Christmas Songs" (2003) – (EP)
20. "Charlie: A New Musical" (2004) – English-Language Original Cast CD
21. "Musical Man” (2005) – Best of Broadway
22. "Butterfly" (2005)
23. "Traummelodien" (2005) – German, French and Italian Opera and Operetta Arias
24. "Georgia on My Mind" (2005) – A Tribute to Ray Charles
25. "Traummelodien 2" (2006) – More Opera and Operetta Arias
26. "Elvis Goes Classic: LIVE" (2006) – Recorded in Komödie im Bayerischen Hof
27. "Die Nacht der Musicals" (2007) – Original Cast Album^[45]
28. "La Notte Italiana" (2008) – Italian folk, pop and light classics
29. "Listen" (2008) – (EP)
30. "Great Big Mama" (2009) – Double Dutch Remix CD Single^[46]
31. "The Ultimate Collection: The Love Songs" (2009) – Compilation CD
32. "Elvis & Me" (2009) – Double CD Set
33. "Push It Now" (2011) – CD-Single (sold with Janicello's autobiography Naked in the Spotlight – 1st ed.)^[47]
34. "Loving the Silent Tears" (2012) – Original Cast Album^[48]
35. "Musical Man 2" (2013) – Broadway's Greatest Hits Part 2
36. "I Am a Man" (2014) – CD Single^[49]
37. "Rock Legends" (2017)
38. "I Believe" (2017) – Gospel Classics 2
39. "Here I Am Again" (2019) – CD Single from "The Finellis"
40. "The Finellis Movie" (2021) – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack^[50]

Musical librettist and playwright

Janicello's first work as Musical Author was The Chamelon Concert. A highly-choreographed mix of operatic arias, Broadway hits, original compositions and songs made famous by Elvis Presley, The Chameleon Concert's book contained personal anecdotes and dramatic monologues written by Janicello. The show celebrated its world premiere in September 1998^[51] in Vienna's Theater AKzent.

In 1999, Janicello wrote the script for Be My Love: The Mario Lanza Musical^[52] which celebrated its world premiere in Theater AKzent on October 7, 1999, the 40th anniversary of Lanza's death.^[53] Be My Love was a jukebox musical whose score contained popular Italian Folk Songs, well-known operatic arias and a number of Lanza's hit songs.

In 2001, Janicello authored the book and worked as co-lyricist with Rolf Rettburg on his first completely original musical, Charlie: A New Musical.^[54][55] Charlie's music was composed by Béla Fischer. Charlie celebrated its world premiere in a German-language version in Vienna's Cabaret Stadnikow in March 2001. In 2004, an English-language version of Charlie was produced at Het Werkteater in Amsterdam,^[56] with additional songs by Kai Peterson.

Cloud Nine is an original children's musical written in 2010 by Janicello (book and lyrics) and the Swedish actor/musician Josef Törner. Originally conceived as a stage production, Cloud 9 is now in pre-production to be made into a 60-minute animated musical for television.^[57]

In Spring 2022, Janicello was commissioned to write a new play Take the Bins Out, a 75-minute monologue for a visually-impaired actor.^[58] The play tells the story of Finley Whitmore, whose diagnosis of Retinitis pigmentosa, a congenital eye disorder, is wreaking havoc on his professional and personal life. Take the Bins Out celebrated its world premiere on August 4, 2023 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.^[59] The Edinburgh production stars Milo Mooney, a visually-impaired actor/comedian as Finley and was directed by Janicello.^[60][61]

Janicello and composer Ulf Weidmann are currently in pre-production for The Finellis Musical which premieres in London in June 2024.

The Finellis

In 2016, Janicello began work as author, executive producer, co-director, lyricist and leading actor on the award-winning comedy The Finellis. Originally planned to be a television series, a proof-of-concept episode of The Finellis was a featured presentation at the 2016 Berlin Serienale.^[62][63] In January 2019, The Finellis went into production in Berlin with some new cast members and rewritten scripts. In August 2021, The Finellis went back into production again with additional cast members and a new connecting storyline which allowed the filmed material from 2019 to be turned into a 90-minute film. The Finellis Movie, was released internationally on January 18, 2022.^[64][65]

The Finellis – awards and nominations

In the 2019–2020 Awards Season, The Finellis in its sitcom iteration and Janicello's work on the project were nominated for, and won numerous prizes at international film and TV festivals.

The Finellis Musical

In late 2022, Janicello and composer Ulf Weidmann began turning The Finellis Movie into a stage musical. Act One of The Finellis Musical was presented at the Phoenix Arts Club on May 19, 2023. Based on the response from that event, financing was secured and The Finellis Musical will celebrate is world-premiere production starting on June 3, 2024, at Wonderville in London's West End.^[95]

Other awards

• 1988 – Janicello was awarded a $4,000 scholarship by The Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation. In addition to the cash prize, he was awarded singing lessons with operatic tenor Franco Corelli.
• 1992 – Janicello won the $15,000 Grand Prize in the KFC Musical Feast Competition and was named "The Best Street Performer" in America.^[96]
• 2016 – Janicello was awarded the Fips Fleischer Music Prize^[97][98] by the City of Leipzig, Germany for his many years of performances in that city^[99] He was awarded the prize by the Mayor of Leipzig Heiko Rosenthal.
• 2022 – Janicello was awarded the Honorary Title, "Best Gospel Elvis"^[100] at the Porthcawl Elvis Festival in Porthcawl, Wales, which is said to be the "largest Elvis Festival in the world".^[101][102]

Author, columnist, critic

Janicello's autobiography Naked in the Spotlight: My Life with Sex, Singing and Scientology^[103][104] was published in a German translation (Nackt im Rampenlicht) in April 2011 by Ibera Publishers^[105] of Vienna. The English version of Naked in the Spotlight was published in 2016.^[106]

In 2012, Janicello was engaged to write 6 articles about the marketing of art and artists for Hoop Doop Magazine.^[107][108] Since 2018, Janicello has worked as critic-at-large^[109] for BroadwayWorld.com reviewing stage productions in Berlin, northern Germany and London.^[110]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mark Janicello.

• Official website
• Mark Janicello at IMDb
• The Finellis, official website