Dirty Dancing

Conrad commenced working on Dirty Dancing in Australia as Musical Director in June, 2004. He conducted and/or supervised every performance in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Auckland seasons. He also co-wrote the vocal and band arrangements and wrote several pieces of original music for the production in collaboration with the creative team.

Since the ground-breaking Australian season, Conrad has been engaged to work as Music Supervisor for all international productions including Hamburg (March 2006), London (October 2006) the North American premiere production in Toronto (October 2007) and soon to include Utrecht (2008) and Chicago (2008).

He has produced the original cast albums for productions of Dirty Dancing in Australia, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Prior to embarking on an international career with Dirty Dancing, Conrad was engaged as Musical Director for the Australian production of The Full Monty (2003) and prior to that as Musical Director for the Australian and South-East Asian tours of Singin' in the Rain and Musical Supervisor for the Australian national tour of The Man from Snowy River throughout 2001 and 2002. He produced the cast album for The Man from Snowy River which won the ARIA award in 2002 as best cast album and he was also awarded the Green Room Award as Best Musical Director for his work on that production. The previous year he received a nomination in the same category for his work on Singin' in the Rain. In addition to working on the Australian national production of Sweet Charity as Musical Director (further Green Room Nomination 2000) he also had the great privilege of providing additional vocal, dance and orchestral arrangements for that production in conjunction with the composer the late Cy Coleman.

Other major productions in Australia as Musical Director include Jolson in 1999/2000 for which he also received a nomination for a Green Room Award as Best Musical Director, Me and My Girl (1994-1996) throughout Australia and New Zealand, The New Rocky Horror Show (1992), Blues in the Night (1991), Nine (1987-1988) throughout Australia and Me and My Girl (1986). His production of the Australian cast album for Nine received the ARIA award for best cast album in 1988. Other productions in Australia as Musical Director and Arranger include Songbook (1984) at the Stage Door Dinner Theatre, As You Like It for Melbourne Theatre Company (1984) and as Associate Musical Director and Deputy Conductor his credits include La Cage aux Folles and Me and My Girl for J.C. Williamsons (1985 and 1986).

For fourteen years leading up to the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games he managed a production company specialising in the creation of children's theatre for international companies such as Warner Bros., Turner Entertainment, Village Roadshow as well as the Sydney Organizing Committee for the 2000 Olympic Games. Together with his wife Penelope Richards he created over eighty original productions and appearance formats and provided employment to hundreds of artists and performers throughout Australia and South-East Asia. In 1994 this programme of entertainment received the MAXI award in the United States as the best entertainment of its kind staged in the Asia Pacific region.

Conrad is indebted to Eleanor Bergstein, Kevin Jacobsen, Col Joye and Amber Jacobsen for the faith, trust and confidence they have invested in him throughout this most exciting of journeys.