Alex Santoriello is an American actor, singer & producer best known for originating roles in three Broadway musicals “Les Miserables” (1987), “Chess” (1988) and “Three Penny Opera” (1989) and as a producer on the Broadway musical “A Tale of Two Cities” (2008).
Born in Newark, N.J in 1956 and raised in Murray Hill, New Jersey he graduated from Governor Livingston Regional High School (1974) where he played football, baseball, ran track and was voted most likely to succeed in music. Following that he attended Kean College for 3 months, pledged Phi Mu Alpha (national music fraternity) played Miles Gloriosus in “A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum” and then quit school when the professors went on strike. The Vietnam era veteran received an honorable discharge from the US Army after serving on active duty (1975 – 1979). While in the army he attended Kansas State University as a voice major and was a winner of the mid-west regional NATS awards (1978).
After military service he returned home to New Jersey to pursue his acting career. He made his equity stage debut at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey, understudying Che in “Evita” (1985). He made his New York debut as Prince Paris in “La Belle Helene” (1986) at Rosetta Lenoire’s AMAS repertory theater in Spanish Harlem and then did two more off-off Broadway shows that year before landing a part in the original Broadway company of Les Miz.
He played Gus the Theatre Cat in a Broadway tour of “Cats” (1991-1992) and Pontius Pilate in two national touring productions of “Jesus Christ Superstar” (1990 & 1994) the second of which also starred Ted Neeley and Carl Anderson. He was Don Quixote in “Man of LaMancha” (1997) at the Colonial Theatre in Rhode Island and Che in “Evita” (1994) at the Pioneer Theatre in Salt Lake City.
Alex directed and musically supervised the world premiere production of “A Tale of Two Cities” in concert at the Circle Theater in Indianapolis (1995). He assembled a cast of veteran Broadway artists, along with Richard Kiley who narrated the action, a choir of fifty voices and a forty-member orchestra, led by Robert Krogstad who also arranged and orchestrated the score. Alex is the voice of Sydney Carton on the “Tale of Two Cities” concept album, which he also helped produce. He can be heard on several other musical recordings including John Clifton’s “Man With A Load Of Mischief” (2004) and Neil Berg’s “The Prince And The Pauper” (1997), the original production of which he also directed.
Alex appeared in the Academy Award nominated film “Far From Heaven” (2002) and in the TV soap opera “All My Children” (1992).
He is an original member of Neil Berg’s “100 Years of Broadway in Concert” (1998). For three years the concert tour took him to Barbados to perform for a major charity event and in 2002 Alex moved there. He taught singing to young people and served as the first musical director of the Barbados National Boys Choir. He performed for numerous charitable events sponsored by the Rotary Club, St. Vincent DePaul Society and others. For nearly 10 years he fronted GetBak, a popular party band that covered rock and roll. He appeared several times with the Barbados Police Band including the reopening of the historic Kensington Oval in Bridgetown (2007) and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Gala (2012).
In 2007 he founded Lexy Piano Bar. Rated by Zagat as one of Barbados’ top five night spots it featured a monthly rotation of international piano bar entertainers. With its interactive format, Lexy was wildly popular across a wide customer base, mixing the very rich and famous together with the everyman/woman.
Alex is a licensed commercial pilot, an active flight instructor and an avid sailor who has logged thousands of ocean miles.
Alex has worked with Sirs Sting, Cliff Richard, Tim Rice, Cameron Macintosh & Trevor Nunn; Benny Anderson & Bjorn Ulveaus (ABBA); John Caird, John Dexter, Andrew Wilk, John Lodge, Dennis Quaid, David Cassidy, Richard Kiley, Michael Crawford, Maureen McGovern, Georgia Brown, Ted Neeley, Carl Anderson, Colm Wilkinson, Claude Michel Schoenberg, Alain Boublil, John Clifton, Neil Berg and his sister Jill Santoriello.