Meet the Writers
Ben Moss
Music
Ben Moss (he/him) is a Lucille Lortel Award-winning performer, music director, songwriter, and orchestrator. He most recently performed in and music directed Heather Christian’s Richard Rodgers and Drama Desk Award-winning Oratorio for Living Things at Ars Nova, for which he was hailed by The New York Times as a “priceless collaborator.” His specialty is the development of new musicals; select musicals currently in development include A Wrinkle in Time (music director, by Heather Christian & Lauren Yee), Azul (music director, by Jacinta Clusellas, Tatiana Pandiani & Melis Aker), Little Duende (music director, by Robi Hager & Georgina Escobar), and Walk on Through (actor/musician, by Gavin Creel). Broadway conducting credits include Head Over Heels, Amélie, Deaf West’s Spring Awakening. Other credits include Heather Christian’s PRIME (Playwright’s Horizons “Soundstage”), The Hello Girls (Prospect Theater), Arlington (Vineyard Theatre), After Anatevka (with Alexandra Silber, Audible), Striking 12 (Prospect), Chasing The Song (La Jolla Playhouse), America is Hard to See (Life Jacket, Edinburgh), Spring Awakening (1st National Tour), Ben Moss & Friends (The Duplex) and The Bongo Hour with Peter Smith & Sandy Honig (The Slipper Room). His years of work as a multi-hyphenate theater artist in New York venues led BroadwayWorld.com to pronounce him “the next big thing.” On all platforms @benkmoss and benkmoss.com.
Tony Oblen
Lyrics
Tony Oblen (he/him) is a lyricist by night and a marketing manager by day — so the corporate showmanship on display in Don’t Call Me John! is right up his alley. In 2014, Tony was selected to join the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop as a lyricist, which culminated in a reading of his short original musical The Case of the Four and Twenty Blackbirds, based on a short story by Neil Gaiman. Prior to that, while a student at Harvard, Tony served as the president of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals and penned the lyrics for the organization’s 165th annual production, There’s Something About Maui (Farkas Hall). Tony also wrote the one-act play Fire Ants (Harvardwood Writers’ Competition semi-finalist) and co-wrote the lyrics and music to Jonah: A Musical Detour (Williamstown Theatre Festival). He’s also written songs for charity events in New York City, most notably the Golden Sphinx Gala honoring producer Daryl Roth.
Chris Recker
Book
Chris Recker (he/him) has been immersed in the New York theater community for over fifteen years, most notably as a company manager and general manager for productions including the original Broadway production and First National Tour of Spring Awakening as well as Broadway’s The Lion King. His current writing projects include Don’t Call Me John!, Counting the Hills, Sue Sells Rochester, and Lost and Found. Chris was a 2005-2006 Kennedy Center Arts Management Fellow and earned a Master of Arts degree in Theatre Studies from Bowling Green State University. His work on Don’t Call Me John! is inspired by the men and women who wrote, managed, and performed in the industrial musicals of the 1950’s -70’s; though largely unrecognized, their audacity and creativity helped fuel a generation of American workers through comedy, song, and dance.