THEATER
Michael Roberts is the creator of the hit Off-Broadway comedy GOLF: THE MUSICAL. After its critically-acclaimed 2003-2004 Off-Broadway run at the John Houseman Theater, GOLF was revived Off-Broadway twice, and has played in twenty-five US states, and numerous countries, including Japan, New Zealand, Germany, Finland, Canada and Scotland.
Following the success of GOLF, Roberts was asked by two-time TONY nominee Joel Blum to create a one-man show about Bob Hope. Roberts responded with the play THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES, which premiered at Peoria's Prairie Theater in 2006, with a second production in Marin, CA in 2010.
Roberts and playwright Charlie Schulman collaborated on a show about French 19th-Century flatulence artist Joseph Pujol, THE FARTISTE, which won the award for Best Musical at the 2006 New York International Fringe Festival. The show transferred Off-Broadway in the 2011-2012 season, and was followed by a concert performance at The Charing Cross Theatre on London's West End.
During this period, Roberts also composed the incidental music for MY SECRET GARDEN at New York's 45th Street Theater, and The Storm Theatre's TIDINGS BROUGHT TO MARY. He also arranged and produced incidental music for the touring version of the Off-Broadway hit JEWTOPIA. In 2013, GREED: A Musical For Our Times, opened at The Playroom Theater in New York’s Time Square and then transferred to the larger New World Stages, starring Tony-nominee Stephanie D'Abruzzo.
In 2018 Roberts and Schulman debuted their new musical GOLDSTEIN Off Broadway at New York’s legendary Actor’s Temple Theater in Times Square. The show starred Broadway veterans Megan McGinnis, Aaron Galligen Sterle, Jim Stanek and Julie Benko. This work found Roberts in a more serious vein, with its story of conflict within a Jewish immigrant family. In Autumn of 2017, Broadway legend Betty Buckley recorded a song from the show (“Beloved”). The show received a Off-Broadway Alliance nomination for Best Musical.
In May, 2019 Michael debuted a new 10-minute musical at The Writer's Voice 10 Minute Play Festival at the Marjorie S Deane Little Theater in New York City.
FILM/TV
Roberts was staff composer for Rupert Holmes’ Emmy-Award-Winning sitcom “Remember WENN”, which appeared on the AMC Network from 1996-1998. (Roberts also made cameo appearances in two episodes.) Additional work with Holmes from that period includes music for the Dennis Leary film “Love Walked In (Tri-Star/Sony). Other television music from that period included work for Bravo and The Golf Channel. He also composed music for short films, including The AFS Story and the award-winning Lemonade Stand.
PIANIST/MUSIC DIRECTION
Michael Roberts has worked as a pianist and music director for a wide variety of acts, including Rupert Holmes, Betty Buckley, Kerry Butler, Leslie Gore, Lou Christie, Bobby Sherman, Bobby Rydell, Peter Noone/Herman’s Hermits, The Tokens, The Drifters and The Coasters, as well as comedians Jackie Mason and Joan Rivers. Roberts was, for fifteen years, music director for THE BROADWAY KIDS, which had numerous Off-Broadway incarnations, including productions at the Barrymore Theater and The Lambs Theater, and also composed special material for the group. He most recently was music director for Ride The Blue Wave, a special ongoing cabaret series at New York's Don't Tell Mama.
GUEST LECTURER
Roberts is a guest lecturer at New York University, American University, and University of Pittsburgh. He is on visiting faculty of Spalding University.