Exclusive: Emily Bear on Upcoming Barlow & Bear Broadway Musicals & More

At the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, Grammy winner and MOANA 2 co-composer Emily Bear performed an impressive solo set as part of the ASCAP Music Café at Acura’s House of Energy as her writing partner, Abigail Barlow, prepared to make her Broadway debut in SIX.

“I haven't been playing shows in a very long time, so it fills my cup in a very different way,” Bear told BroadwayWorld exclusively.

Her mom lives in Park City, and Barlow and Bear wrote some of their Grammy-winning THE UNOFFICIAL BRIDGERTON MUSICAL album there. “I'm actually here quite a bit,” Bear said. “I love Utah—huge fan—but never been for Sundance.”

Following her performance, which included a classical piano encore, she caught up with BroadwayWorld to answer a few questions about MOANA 2 and her upcoming projects, including multiple stage musicals she has in the works with Barlow that she can’t wait to share more about when she can.    

How did you feel when they told you MOANA 2 was going to change from a Disney+ series to be in theaters and be a movie?

Well, it was funny, because there had been rumors—we had heard that it might be turning into a movie. And we're like, what in the world, because, you know we were like, oh, maybe if this goes really well, in like 10 years they’ll hire us on a movie. And then it was getting more and more confirmed unofficially, but no one would say outright that it's a movie and it's coming out in November. And then I looked at my phone one day and I saw the Instagram post that Disney posted. And I was like… Then I realized that I had an email, like, 10 minutes earlier, being like, guess what, it's happening for real. Yeah, no, I freaked out. I was like, this is crazy. It's Disney. It's the stuff we grew up on. It's like the soundtrack of our lives. An honor to even be considered to be a part of it.

Did anything have to change from what you'd written for the series?

I don't know how the animators, the entire 700-person crew did it, but there was a feat of nature that that movie came out. It was amazing. Everything changed. But the people that did the animation, they deeply love what they do. It's a very different vibe than other experiences that I've had in the industry. It feels like a family, like everyone there is so passionate about creating the stories they want to tell. It was very amazing to be around for three years. Everyone at Disney, they've been there for like, 30 years, and they just love their job. That’s so rare.

What do you have coming up?

I’m working on a few very exciting Broadway shows that are in development. And there's a couple of films that I've scored that are coming out. One's coming out this summer at Tribeca, which is really fun—I get to go to that festival too. And then I think the second one, which I'm really, really, really excited about, is coming out later this year. What else? Oh yeah, I'm gonna put out music this year and do it properly, because I've been flirting with it for several years. Writing for TV and film and theatre is my bread and butter. It's what brings me joy and makes me feel the most fulfilled. But there is something really special about writing for your own taste, to tell your own story, just for your own enjoyment. I've been just collecting these things that I've been writing, so I’m gonna take them out and do something, because why not? They're just sitting in my Dropbox rotting, so why not?

Is there anything else that you would like to share with BroadwayWorld?

Just keep an eye out for some Barlow and Bear theatre projects!

Photo Credit: ASCAP