James Harvey is a musical theatre writer, composer, and performer whose "voice and...ideas are vital to the continual evolution of musical theater" (Alexander Gemignani). He has performed his one-man musical comedy show, The Bald Faced Truth, throughout the US and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and it is available to stream in its entirety here. For several years James hosted "The Second Cousins Show," a popular East Village variety show.

 

James wrote and starred in Kafkaesque!, a hit Off-Broadway musical, described as a “riotous, modern, unique musical comedy” (stageandcinema.com). He wrote the book, music, and lyrics for The Crack in the Ceiling, which was presented at the New York Musical Theatre Festival and the New York International Fringe Festival, where it received the award for Best Musical. James is currently developing several new shows, including Prime Day and a musical inspired by the time a Furry convention and a group of Syrian refugees stayed at the same Vancouver hotel in 2016. 

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​A sought-after music director and accompanist, James has collaborated with such luminaries as Alan Cumming, Catherine Cohen, Larry Owens, Matt Rogers, and Bowen Yang. James studied music composition at New York University on a scholarship from composer Alan Menken (Beauty and the Beast, Newsies, Little Shop of Horrors) and is a member of the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop. He can be heard playing piano on the cult hit podcast, "What Makes U Sing With Larry Owens," and has written several songs for "The Story Pirates Podcast."

 

James is a published author and his acclaimed 2023 tome, Facebook Posts, is available for purchase. His avant-garde podcast, "Pocket Dial," completely disappeared from the internet after he stopped paying the web hosting fees. James is a 2023 Fred Ebb Award Finalist and has the distinction of being the first Jewish man to write a musical.