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12/08/2021 07:30 AMVito Corleone said it, as fans of the Godfather will remember: Every man has but one destiny. If so, Todd Ellison’s destiny was clear from the start. He grew up on Melody Lane in Ivoryton. So? He is an internationally acclaimed conductor, composer, music director, and vocal arranger.
His Broadway credits include music director of Annie, On the Town, Once Upon a Mattress, and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. He was music supervisor and conductor of An American in Paris in New York and London as well as music supervisor of the show in Tokyo and in Australia. In Nashville, he conducted The Nutty Professor, with music by Marvin Hamlish. The show was directed by the late comedian Jerry Lewis.
Todd conducted a national touring production of production of Cats that made a stop at the Bushnell in Hartford enabling his family to see him at work.
“My parents were really happy,” he recalls.
He also was the conductor for national tours of Starlight Express and Annie-2.
Beyond musical theater, Todd conducted the Radio City Music Hall Christmas spectacular for two seasons and has conducted symphony orchestras in Pittsburgh, San Diego, and New Haven as well as with the Philly Pops.
Now, Todd has created Crossing Rivers, a collection of his original songs, some already available to listen to on Spotify. The album can be pre-ordered on iTunes, Amazon Music, and Apple Music. The official release date is Monday, Dec. 20.
In addition, Todd has just joined the board of the Community Music School in Centerbrook.
“It’s time to give back to the community and I like what the music school stands for. If you practice, you will get better,” he says.
Todd’s partner Gavin Lodge and their two children moved back to this area from New York City in March 2020 to what had previously been a weekend cottage.
“My kids can have a childhood out here,” he says.
Like so much else today, including the move to Connecticut, Crossing Rivers was a result of COVID. In the enforced idleness that the lockdown brought to theaters, Todd wanted to keep occupied.
“I had to do something. This was a chance to concentrate on a writing life,” he says.
He wrote six songs that he describes as reflections on decisions, career, and relationships. He not only wrote the songs, he also performs them.
“I’m not Pavarotti, but I’m not awful,” he says.
Crossing Rivers not only gave Todd a chance to sing, it also gave him a chance to learn the new techniques of computerized music-making. He recorded the songs at home; in fact, he says in his bedroom. Other artists, who provided background accompaniment, sent him their audio files. He put all the tracks together in the final version.
“It was recording on a shoestring. I was learning a lot of recording techniques and I like learning things,” he says.
Todd’s father Carl Ellison, a former first selectman of Essex, remembers his fascination with music with a child’s record player when he was a two-year old. He started piano lessons at six. As a high school student, he was the organist for the First Congregational Church in Essex and played the clarinet in the Valley Regional High School Band.
When he was 16, Todd saw Jesus Christ Super Star at the Ivoryton Playhouse and that confirmed his resolve to be part of the world of musical theater.
“When the show closed, it was like the circus had left town,” he recalls thinking of his disappointment that the musical’s run was over.
He wrote to a number of leading conductors asking about their careers. Not one of them answered him. That led to a resolution he keeps to this day: He answers all letters written to him.
He remembers when he was in his early 20s, he again wrote to one of the giants of musical theater, the late Steven Sondheim. This time the response was different: Sondheim called him back.
“My mother answered and said that it was Steven Sondheim on the telephone,” Todd remembers.
Sondheim told Todd to come by his house when he was in New York.
That is just what Todd did. The Sondheim-Hal Prince production of Merrily We Roll Along had just closed after a short and unsuccessful Broadway run (since then, revised, it has enjoyed commercial success).
“Sondheim said art isn’t easy. I think he was venting,” Todd recalls.
Two years later he heard the same phrase again—in Sondheim’s successful production, Sunday in the Park with George, Todd points out, there is a song entitled “Art isn’t Easy.”
Todd got a degree in piano performance at Boston University School of the Arts before coming to New York City. He calls his subsequent theater career charmed; he says he never has had a bad experience, Still, he has had he has had some unexpected moments.
In a show called Amour, which Todd describes as an ideal off-Broadway musical that had the ill luck to be on Broadway where it was not a success, a wobbly glass door that was part of the set once shattered, sending glass shards in all directions.
Fortunately, neither actors nor audience were hurt but the show was halted for a 10-minute clean-up. At the end of the performance, the audience gave the cast a standing ovation.
“It was the only time we ever had a standing ovation for that show,” Todd recalls.
On another occasion, a member of the stage crew when Todd was conducting How to Succeed in Business complimented his conducting skills. Feeling flush, Todd took the podium; he gave an upbeat but his baton flew out of his hands onto the stage. Megan Mullally, one of the actors in the scene, picked it up, twirled it dramatically and tossed it back “to the great delight and applause from the audience,” Todd recalls.
Reviews have compared Todd to the late Marvin Hamlisch. He recalls his first meeting with Hamlisch at an early reading of The Nutty Professor. After 20 minutes, Hamlish withdrew, leaving Todd to teach the music he had heard only once. Ten minutes later, Hamlish returned, stood in the back of the room, listened for a bit, and then proclaimed, “You are me, 40 years ago.”
Today Todd recalls the entire incident as the beginning of a lasting friendship.
He jokes about what the qualities a young musician would need to be called the next Todd Ellison.
“They would be someone with the musical chops of Marvin Hamlish, the charm of George Clooney, and the trust fund of Elon Musk,” he notes.
Thinking more seriously about his career and the choices he has made, Todd knows that musical theater was the right path for him.
“There was never ever anything else I wanted to do,” he says.
Crossing Rivers, original songs by Todd Ellison, can be pre-ordered on iTunes, Amazon Music, and Apple Music. The official release date is Monday, Dec. 20.