Joel Higgins(I)

Higgins was born in Bloomington, IL, attended Parkway Central High School in St. Louis, MO, graduated from Michigan State University in 1966 and served in the Army in Korea and Georgia from 1967-70.

Best known as a TV (Silver Spoons, Best Of The West, etc.) and Broadway (Shenandoah, Oklahoma, City Of Angels, etc.) actor, he has also written numerous Musicals and over 100 commercial jingles and theme songs. He wrote the book and lyrics and starred in "The Fields Of Ambrosia" which premiered at the George St. Playhouse in 1993. He reprised the role at the Aldwych Theatre on London's West End in 1996.

He subsequently co-wrote and directed "Johnny Guitar, The Musical" which opened at the Century Center For The Performing Arts in New York where it garnered numerous Drama Desk, Drama League and Lucille Lortel Award nominations and won the Outer Critics' Circle Award as Best Off-Broadway Musical in 2004 and has gone on to tally over 30 Productions around the country.

Higgins was also in the first touring company of "Grease" and has starred in many regional and stock musicals and plays around the country, including "Brigadoon", "Showboat", "Kiss Me Kate", " Guys & Dolls", "The Music Man" and "Side by Side With Sondheim".