Drew Seeley, Loretta Devine, Valarie Pettiford, Lucie Arnaz, Linda Purl

bio/discography page one

So, who is this Wayne guy, anyway?

This is the page where you learn more about me than you ever wanted to know! 

The original cast of The Wild West

As a songwriter, my music is performed literally around the world. (I heard one of my songs in a bar on Mykonos!) I'm happy to say that more singers than I know personally sing my songs in their shows. (Always a good sign!)  I've written the scores to many shows including Freeway Dreams, The Wild West, Music Drives Me Crazy, Much Moore, Good Morning, Hollywood, and There's No Place Like Hollywood. With Jason Blume I wrote the music for the HBO cartoon Frog And Toad Are Friends, PBS's Frontline, the film Be Well (with MILTON BERLE), the Emmy-nominated Down For The Count and the Emmy-award winning Whatever Happened To Childhood? My song My Superman is featured in the show The Gay 90's and is on the original cast album from Varase-Saraband.  I'm working on TWO original musicals at the moment and I often write specialty material on demand.

The original cast of Good Morning, Hollywood

As producer/director I've presented 3 Broads 3 (starring LIZ TORRES, DEBORAH TRANELLI and BRENDA SILAS-MOORE, co-produced with TIM BURKE) and Coffin Capers for Knott's Berry Farm. I've worked extensively as an actor and director in the Los Angeles area for more years and through more jobs than I care to remember! 

Deborah, Liz and Brenda: 3 Broads 3

I love writing "specialty material": music and lyrics tailored especially for a performer - my idol is BILLY BARNES! - and I've worked with DEBBIE REYNOLDS, LIZ TORRES, ROSE MARIE, MICHAEL GREER and HOLLY WOODLAWN, among many others.

Liz Torres

Richard Deacon & Rose Marie

Michael Greer

I was one of the stars of the revue
"TOO OLD FOR THE CHORUS" by Mark Winkler, Marie Cain and Shelly Markham which ran for five months at the Celebration Theater in Los Angeles.
l-r: Me, Alvin Ing, Virginia McMath, Sammy Williams & Jo Hinds

"THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOLLYWOOD" which I wrote, also ran for five months at the Stella Adler Theater in L.A.  There is a lot to say about this show! see: JOURNAL

"I KNOW I CAME IN HERE FOR SOMETHING"

(The Middle-Aged Musical)

Book & Lyrics by CARL RITCHIE 

Music by WAYNE MOORE

 

Workshop production opened July 17, 2009 in the Lighthouse Dinner Theater at Copake Lake in upstate New York.  Tremendously successful:  held over three times.  More productions to follow!

 

l-r Brian Litscher, Me, Diedre Devere Bollinger, David L. Green, & Cathy Lee-Visscher.

"Clever and Funny" - The Compass

"A colorful, swiftly paced, zippity-doo-dah of a new musical" - Register Star

  In this new musical by Bill Dyer and Dick DeBenedictis, directed by Kevin Carlisle, I played "Boomie" a recently deceased homosexual who comes back to his own memorial to find out what his friends are saying about him!

  Every year to inaugurate the West Hollywood Book Fair, writer/director MICHAEL KEARNS puts together a staged reading featuring someone from the famed Algonquin Club in New York.  This time it's Noel Coward and I get to share the stage with Adreinne Barbeau, Martin Landau, Liz Torres, Ken Page and other luminaries.

As a fund-raiser, Actor's Equity transformed the lobby of the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood into a new venue to present the music of Ron Abel & Chuck Stefan.  I was asked to join the likes of Lucie Arnaz, Linda Purl, Valarie Pettiford and, my favorite, Loretta Devine. 

Broadway star MARSHA KRAMER and I did a song Ron & Chuck wrote for a musical adaptation of "Marty" and then I got to solo on a 2nd song from the show.

I have to share these reviews with you because I don't believe them myself:

"The stunner of the night came from Wayne Moore, a cabaret-theater multihyphenate who took control of two songs Abel wrote for an aborted attempt at the musicalization of "Marty." Moore, 59, has the build and the hang-dog look the part would require; his tenor, however, was a story unto itself. Moore used his rich and accurate vocal powers to immediately convey vulnerability, frustration and pathos in a duet and a solo number. Combination of singer and song was nearly magical."  

 Phil Gallo ("Daily Variety")

"A pair of first-rate numbers inspired by the 1955 film "Marty" took a different interpretive tack.  Marsha Kramer and Wayne Moore sang "Dogs Like Us" (based on a classic Ernest Borgnine line from the film) with a communicative theatricality perfectly framed for the small stage.  And Moore's version of "She Just Happened To Me" was the ideal follow-up, a poignant expression of the depth of everyday love, delivered with precisely the right touch of believability.  

Don Heckman, Special to The L.A. Times

 

Good lord!  So not only did I get to "hang" with Valarie and Loretta (and "frug" backstage with Lucie) I get reviews like that!  What a night.
 
 
I was proud to serve as Musical Director for the debut of several new musicals:

A dark musical farce
"24 Hours" - a Rock Musical set at a teenage crisis hotline.
  


Cast (l-r):  Ryan Champion, Lexie Dreyfus, Jeff Griggs
A special production of "The Phantom of the Opera" for the Alzheimers Association
Drew Seeley
 Drew (from Disney's "The Cinderella Story") was the star of the L.A. Production of "Merry-Go-Round" the world premiere of the Sherman Bros. newest show.

The melodies of Dvorak with new lyrics by Janet Barnet.  I arranged the music for piano and cello.

"WHEN QUEENS COLLIDE"

I'm writing the music for a new documentary called "Queens Of Drag."  To get good performance footage of the subjects, we staged a show for GLASS at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre.  I produced all the tracks they performed two and 10 of the songs were mine.  An unforgettable experience! 
 
After song-writing, I'm probably best known as 1/2 of a cabaret act called "Wayne & Brenda". (Pictures!) We've played in the best nightclubs around the world ... and many of the worst! BRENDA SILAS-MOORE (you'll see her name a lot on these pages!) and I have been performing together for nearly 25 years. And I'm happy to say nightclub lovers have followed us around from continent to continent during all that time.

Um, ... This was taken some time ago!




My favorite picture of Brenda

Brenda and I recently took an art class with SUSAN RIOS.  This is what we came up with.  Look for my drawing on a future CD!!

Susan is an amazingly talented artist who has become a great friend.  She painted a portrait of me that I used for the cover of my "What My Heart Already Knows" CD.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW PORTRAIT

On the next page are my producing credits and a discography.