Robert W. Schneider (he/him/his) has been called a “renaissance man of the theatre” by his previous bio….which he wrote himself.

He is an award-winning Director, Producer, Author, Educator, and Podcast Host residing in New York City, where he is the Artistic Director of The J2 Spotlight Musical Theater Company. While he has been praised by many publications and media outlets, Robert’s greatest achievement is that he is always able to get three dipping sauces automatically added to all Burger King orders.

As Artistic Director of The J2 Spotlight Musical Theater Company, Robert directed their award-winning productions of Seesaw, A Class Act (1st NYC Revival), A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine (1st NYC Revival), and The Baker’s Wife, in which he collaborated with Stephen Schwartz on an intimate re-telling of the story. For their inaugural production of Seesaw, Robert received the Broadway World Award for Best Off-Off Broadway Musical and Director.

Since working as an Original Programming Producer at the Tony Award winning Feinstein’s/54 Below, Robert has directed and produced over one hundred concerts for the venue and was nominated by Broadway World as Best Cabaret Director of the Decade (he lost to Faith Prince...I mean she has a Tony, so why she needed to take this away from him, he’ll never know).

For the past six years, audiences around the world have been introduced to Rob’s love of musical theatre through his podcast Behind The Curtain: Broadway’s Living Legends, where he interviews artists who have been working on Broadway for thirty plus years. Guests on the podcast have included Nathan Lane, Susan Stroman, Matthew Broderick, Lainie Kazan, Andre DeShields, Daphne Ruben-Vega, John Weidman, Lee Roy Reams, Joe Mantello, and Casey Nicholaw. When he asked Stephen Sondheim to be on the show, an excited Sondheim said “No!” Sondheim was then not asked to be on Rob’s other podcasts Gay Card Revoked, This Was a Thing, and Fifty Key Stage Musicals: The Podcast.

He received his MFA in Direction for the Musical Theatre Stage from Pennsylvania State University and his BA in Political Science from California Lutheran University. Robert is a proud member of SDC, AEA, AGVA, ATHE and has a box at UPS.