Playbill

Philip Campanella (Designer) Obituary
Philip A. Campanella, a composer and musical director who had worked with Manhattan cabaret artists and with Roundabout Theatre Company, died May 5, 2005, at Greenville Hospital Jersey City, NJ, according to published reports. Mr. Campanella was 56. According to The Villager, the newspaper in Greenwich Village, the neighborhood where the performer and vocal coach lived for many years before relocating to his hometown of Jersey City, the cause of death was arterial thrombosis.

Mr. Campanella was executive director of Singers Forum, a not-for-profit academy devoted to the vocal arts.

Over the years he directed and produced dozens of performances including the recent birthday tribute to Singers Forum founder Andy Anselmo starring Liza Minnelli, Mandy Patinkin, Julie Harris and Joanne Woodward.

Mr. Campanella served as musical director and composer-in-residence for Roundabout Theatre Company, supervising music for over 100 productions with artists including Jane Alexander, Anthony Hopkins, Charles Grodin, Jim Dale, Esther Rolle and Uta Hagen.

He composed original music for productions of Hamlet, The Master Builder, All My Sons and Misalliance. He appeared in the 1973 Broadway production of Roundabout's The Play's the Thing, for which he composed the original music.

He also has sound design credits for the Roundabout Broadway productions of Philadelphia, Here I Come!, The Homecoming and A Taste of Honey.

In New York, he musical-directed a record-breaking revival of Harold Rome's Pins and Needles, later broadcast as a CBS special, and Lindsay Anderson's revival of Look Back in Anger with Malcolm MacDowell, subsequently produced as a Showtime special. Mr. Campanella's music and lyrics for James Joyce's Dubliners have been published by Samuel French.

He appeared in concert with many celebrities, including Maxene Andrews of the legendary Andrews Sisters, and conducted Geraldine Fitzgerald's Streetsongs throughout the country, including at the White House.

He earned degrees in music and theatre from St. Peter's College, Jersey City, in 1970, according to The Jersey Journal.

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