The Washington Post: “The singing is remarkable… you come for the songs. The invigorating blast of an overture. The catchy recurring title song. The somber ‘Like It Was.’ The epic ‘Opening Doors,’ on the thrills and setbacks of striving in your 20s, which Sondheim said was his most autobiographical song. The unashamedly sentimental ‘Our Time,’ sung when the trio is literally seeing stars in their eyes as they prepare to change the world.”

DC Theater Arts: “Music director Nathan Beary Blustein’s band plays extraordinarily well, doing full justice to the typically complex score of a Sondheim musical.”

Photo: Cameron Whitman

Kennedy Center TYA (DC): FINN (Music Director, November 23–December 22, 2024) • World Premiere Kennedy Center Commission

Signature Theatre (Arlington, VA): SOFT POWER (Sub Conductor, August 27–September 4, 2024)

Adventure Theatre MTC (Bethesda, MD): SING DOWN THE MOON (Music Director, April 26–May 26, 2024)

Ford’s Theatre (DC): LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (Keyboard, March 15–May 18, 2024; Sub Conductor, May 14–May 18)

Recently:

Kennedy Center TYA (DC): THROUGH THE SUNKEN LANDS (Transcriber/copyist, March 2–March 17, 2024) • Signature Theatre (Arlington, VA): RAGTIME (Keyboard, October 22, 2023–January 7, 2024) • BEETLEJUICE National Tour (DC, San Jose, Salt Lake City, Denver, Minneapolis, Hartford, March 2023–May 2024) • Keegan Theatre (DC): SEUSSICAL (Music director/conductor, June 17–July 22, 2023) – HELEN HAYES NOMINATION – OUTSTANDING MUSIC DIRECTION

Design by Jacob Cooper

Woolly Mammoth Rehearsal Hall (DC)

Book, music, and lyrics by five-time Obie award winner Al Carmines. Directed by Patrick McLaughlin.

Joan follows the story of Joan of Arc, set in 1970's Greenwich Village, with Joan recast as a Queer radical hippie.

I’ve served as a the music director for Joan’s first performance since 1975. For this project, I have restored and transcribed the exuberant, virtuosic, and uninhibited score—which was only preserved in the Off-Broadway musical’s cast recording.

In July 2022 I studied baton conducting technique with music director Ted Sperling. Along the way our cohort got to meet and learn from guest appearances by Broadway conductors, arrangers, orchestrators, performers, designers, and contractors.

Our project score was Into the Woods—which I had just done at American University.

(Most of) our cohort is pictured here, after a performance of (what else?) Into the Woods on Broadway.

Photo: Alexander Bennett

TheatreBloom: “[T]his performance features the sensational talent of seven core performers who have extraordinary voices and a remarkable handle on how to deliver emotions while singing…Musical Director Nathan Beary Blustein, in addition to conducting the pit and playing keys, gets astonishing sounds out of this ensemble of seven.”

DC Theater Arts: “…Nathan Beary Blustein’s smooth and well-executed musical direction.”

Photo: Juliana Quirino

Cabaret • Into the Woods • The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee • Too Much Unhappy [arrangements and orchestrations] • Miss You Like Hell • The Boy Detective Fails

Photo: Olivia Bloch