John William McDaniel (born February 26, 1961, St. Louis, Missouri, United States) is an American theatre producer, composer, conductor, and pianist.
He first studied piano with his mother, Jane, and graduated from Kirkwood High School (St. Louis), then earned a BFA degree in Drama from Carnegie Mellon University.
On March 4, 1999, a revival of Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun opened at the Marquis Theatre, with McDaniel as vocal arranger and supervising musical director, which ran until September 2001.
[14][15][16] In 2023, he orchestrated and conducted Carol Burnett's 90th Birthday celebration on NBC, working with Bernadette Peters, Billy Porter, Jane Lynch, Kristin Chenoweth, Darren Criss & Katy Perry.
McDaniel is the composer on a Broadway bound musical version of Huxley's "Brave New World", with lyrics by Bill Russell and a book by Ben Andron.
This is an adaptation of the 1946 film of the same name, which deals with George Bailey, a man whose imminent suicide on Christmas Eve brings about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody.
[17]McDaniel, who is openly gay,[18][19] having lived in NYC for 25 years, currently resides in south Florida with his partner, Charlie, and their dog: Clarence.