Mark Janicello

Mark Janicello (born November 3, 1962) is an American singer, actor, writer, producer and author. He is known for playing Elvis Presley in two musicals that toured Europe, after gaining attention by winning a musical competition sponsored by Kentucky Fried Chicken. He also created, wrote, and acted in ''The Finellis Movie'' which he then adapted into a musical.

Early life

Mark Janicello was born on November 3, 1962, in Brooklyn, New York. He attended the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, earning a Bachelor's degree in 1984.

Career

Janicello began his career by singing in the subways of New York City in the mid-1980s as part of the MTA's Music Under New York program. In 1988, Janicello made his west coast debut playing Raoul de Gardefeu in the Opera at the Academy's co-production (with Long Beach Opera) of '' La Vie parisienne'' directed by Christopher Alden. In the late 1980s, Janicello began performing with the charitable foundation Music for All Seasons, singing in children's hospitals, prisons and old age homes.

In 1990, conductor Eve Queler heard Janicello and subsequently engaged him to perform in Donizetti's ''Roberto Devereux'', with which he made his Carnegie Hall debut. Janicello also performed for two seasons with the comedic opera troupe La Gran Scena Opera. In 1996 Janicello sang the world-premiere of the opera '' Nuit des Hommes'' by Per Nørgård.

Janicello's first performance in an operetta was as Camille, Count de Rossillon in the Paper Mill Playhouse production of Lehár's ''Die lustige Witwe''. He returned to ''Die lustige Witwe'' two more times in 2010 in Vienna, this time playing Count Danilo Danilovitsch with the Wiener Operettensommer. Other operetta roles have included among others, Orpheus in Orpheus in der Unterwelt and Alfred in ''Die Fledermaus.'' In October 2012, he co-starred in the musical ''Loving the Silent Tears'', directed by Vincent Paterson. He also appears on the musical's cast album. The Musical is based on the poetry of Supreme Master Ching Hai. In 2021, Janicello provided the German narration for the documentary film '' Eating Our Way to Extinction'', replacing Kate Winslet's English narration for German-speaking Europe.

The Elvis Presley decade

In 1992, Janicello was approached by the Music Under New York program to enter the KFC Musical Feast competition representing New York City. The competition was a nationwide search sponsored by Kentucky Fried Chicken. Janicello created a performance where he first sang "Recondita armonia" from ''Tosca'', dressed as a rock singer, and then aided by a quick costume change would switch back and forth between the songs "It's Now or Never" and "O Sole Mio" (which share the same melody) while switching vocal and performance styles between "Elvis and Luciano Pavarotti". He won the competition and was awarded the $15,000.00 first prize by head judge Bo Diddley. Janicello appeared with Bo Diddley on NBC's ''Today'' show. Janicello was invited to join the International Opera Studio (IOS) of the Zurich Opera in 1994. Peter Reichenbach, Artistic Director of Cinemusic Festival in Gstaad, Switzerland asked him to perform as Elvis Presley with composer Ben Weisman at the first annual Cinemusic Festival in 1995. After performing with him in Gstaad, Weisman gave Janicello the unreleased Elvis song "Will You Still Be There." Janicello, together with Weisman recorded, released, and promoted the song in 1996 and 1997.

On the back of the release of "Will You Still Be There", Stadttheater Klagenfurt hired Janicello to play Elvis Presley in their 1997 production, ''Elvis: A Musical Biography''. The musical moved from Klagenfurt to . In 2002, Janicello wrote a new musical about Presley's life, ''Elvis: Die Show, sein Leben'' which combined newly-composed songs with songs from Elvis' catalogue of hits which celebrated its world premiere at Theater Akzent in Vienna and an extended run of performances at the Deutsches Theater in Munich. The musical featured both "Will You Still Be There" and "Great Big Mama."

''The Finellis Movie'' and musical

In 2016, Janicello began work as author, executive producer, co-director, lyricist and leading actor on the award-winning comedy ''The Finellis''. Originally planned to be a television series, a proof-of-concept episode of ''The Finellis'' was a featured presentation at the 2016 Berlin Serienale. In January 2019, ''The Finellis'' went into production in Berlin with some new cast members, rewritten scripts. ''The Finellis Movie'', was released internationally on January 18, 2022. In late 2022, Janicello and composer Ulf Weidmann began turning ''The Finellis Movie'' into a stage musical which had its world-premiere production at Wonderville in London from June 3 through June 16, 2024.

Writings

Janicello's first work as Musical Author was ''The Chamelon Concert'' which celebrated its world premiere in September 1998 in Vienna's Theater AKzent. In 1999, Janicello wrote the script for ''Be My Love: The Mario Lanza Musical'' which celebrated its world premiere in Theater AKzent on October 7, 1999 the 40th anniversary of Lanza's death. ''Be My Love'' was a jukebox musical whose score contained popular Italian Folk Songs, well-known operatic arias and a number of Lanza's hit songs. In 2001, Janicello authored the book and worked as co-lyricist with Rolf Rettburg on his first completely original musical, ''Charlie: A New Musical''. ''Charlie''s music was composed by . ''Charlie'' had its world premiere in a German-language version in Vienna's Cabaret Stadnikow in March 2001. In 2004, an English-language version of ''Charlie'' was produced in Amsterdam, with additional songs by Kai Peterson.

In 2012, Janicello was engaged to write 6 articles about the marketing of art and artists for Hoop Doop Magazine. Since 2018, Janicello has worked as critic-at-large for BroadwayWorld.com reviewing stage productions in Berlin, northern Germany and London.

In Spring 2022, Janicello was commissioned to write a new play ''Take the Bins Out'', a 75-minute monologue for a visually-impaired actor. The play tells the story of Finley Whitmore, whose diagnosis of Retinitis pigmentosa, a congenital eye disorder, is wreaking havoc on his professional and personal life. ''Take the Bins Out'' celebrated its world premiere on August 4, 2023 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The Edinburgh production stars Milo Mooney, a visually-impaired actor/comedian as Finley and was directed by Janicello. ''The Finellis Musical'' with music by Ulf Weidmann and book and yrics by Janicello premiered at Wonderville in London in June 2024.

Personal life

Janicello has been vegan since 2004 and advocates publicly for a plant-based lifestyle. He joined Scientology in 1994 before leaving in 2003. He published a book about his experiences in Scientology, ''Naked in the Spotlight: My Life with Sex, Singing and Scientology'' which was published in German in 2011 and in English in 2016

Acting credits

Film

Television

Theatre

Opera and operetta

Music videos

Web projects

Awards and nominations

In the 2019–2020 Awards Season, ''The Finellis'' in its sitcom iteration and Janicello's work on the project were nominated for, and won numerous prizes at international film and TV festivals.

* 1988 – Janicello was awarded a $4,000 scholarship by The Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation. In addition to the cash prize, he was awarded singing lessons with operatic tenor Franco Corelli.
* 1992 – Janicello won the $15,000 Grand Prize in the KFC Musical Feast Competition and was named "The Best Street Performer" in America.
* 2016 – Janicello was awarded the Fips Fleischer Music Prize by the City of Leipzig, Germany for his many years of performances in that city He was awarded the prize by the Mayor of Leipzig Heiko Rosenthal.
* 2022 – Janicello was awarded the Honorary Title, "Best Gospel Elvis" at the Porthcawl Elvis Festival in Porthcawl, Wales, which is said to be the "largest Elvis Festival in the world".

Bibliography

Janicello's autobiography ''Naked in the Spotlight: My Life with Sex, Singing and Scientology'' was published in a German translation (''Nackt im Rampenlicht'') in April 2011 by Ibera Publishers of Vienna. The English version of ''Naked in the Spotlight'' was published in 2016.

References

External links

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''The Finellis''
official website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Janicello, Mark
1962 births
Living people
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
21st-century American male artists
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
American people of Italian descent
American operatic tenors
American former Scientologists
American columnists
Opera crossover singers
French-language singers of the United States
Writers from New York (state)
American male musical theatre actors
American male television actors
American film producers
American male non-fiction writers
University of North Carolina alumni