Interview: VERSES AND VOICES at 54 Below Highlights Songwriter Ellen Winter

On Friday November 21, 2025 at 9:30 pm, join 54 Below for the second installation of Voices and Verses, a brand-new series highlighting emerging musical theater songwriters with pay-what-you-wish concerts. This edition features Ellen Winter making their 54 Below debut. Winter is the co-composer of 36 Questions and bandleader of bold off-Broadway (The Beastiary, Cold War Choir Practice, Hurricane Diane). With one foot firmly planted in the theater world and the other in indie-pop, Winter and her band weave together a night blending genre, storytelling, and flirty debauchery. Selections include dramatic interpretations of songs from her albums YIKES, Every Feeling I’ve Ever Felt braided with original music from several new works in progress – with a Sondheim song (or three) thrown in. As an extrovert with too much love to go around, Winter will be joined on stage by fellow weirdos of the Broadway, off-Broadway, and music-making-in-a-gay-kind-of-way communities. (Guests announced so far include Tsebiyah Mishael Derry (SKiNFoLK: An American Show, Collective Rage), Morgan Siobhan Green (Be More Chill, White Girl In Danger), Jessie Shelton (Hadestown, 36 Questions) and Jae W.B. (Bruise & Thorn).

Read a conversation with Winter about the show.

How does it feel to be highlighted as an emerging songwriter in this Verses and Voices series?

I’m delighted to be in the company of such talented peers and have this opportunity to perform with some of my favorite musicians. It’s an exciting time to be making music and making theater!

How did you get your start in songwriting?

Being a restless kid whose parents thankfully put them in piano lessons and then when they got bored, put them in voice lessons which weirdly had me circle back around to piano so I could practice “Broadway Baby” at home. Once I got a loose handle on major / minor chords and hit adolescence, it was over for me. Nothing fuels songwriting like angst. 

Do you have any advice for other up-and-coming songwriters?

Go to concerts! Go to theater! See your friends’ stuff! Send that email to the creator you admire! Believe in what you do with enough confidence to get excited, but also with enough curiosity to receive to feedback. You are not your work! If you get stuck, make it a game! Play music with your friends! Connect to your love of the thing. They don’t call it “playing music” for nothing. 

For anyone who's not familiar with your work, how would you pitch yourself? Is there a song or two you've written that you would recommend people check out to get a better sense of your style?

I’ve got a pop sensibility with a background in jazz / electronic music and a penchant for theatrics. I want to make music that moves us. I’m also a collaborator through and through! If you’ve got three minutes, I’d recommend listening to the tune “Mantras” - if you’ve got three hours, I’d recommend checking out the podcast musical 36 Questions starring Jonathan Groff and Jessie Shelton. 

What projects are you working on right now?

I’ve got a single and music video dropping on November 14th that’s a collaboration with a wild animator, Fran Moore, called “So Disgusting!” I'm deeply proud of it. There’s also an album of piano / vocal versions of tunes from my first two indie-pop albums that will begin to trickle out this winter. In the world of theater, I’m cooking up a synth-fueled musical about Franz Mesmer (of the word “mesmerize”) that explores his theory of Animal Magnetism with collaborators Chris Littler, Kelly Tieger, Jonathan Groff, and Machel Ross. Machel and I have also been working with Nina Ross, Bubba Weiler, and Sekai Abenì on a music theater project inspired by the Amish practice of Rumspringa. And I’m answering these questions while at Ucross with the brilliant Jess Kahkoska as we put pen to paper on a music festival adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  

Can you tease anything specific you have planned out for your Verses and Voices show right now that you'd like to share with us?

I hope to make you wiggle in your seats. If we sing together, that’s a bonus. If anything, I hope to blur the distinctions between pop music and theater - I love Britney Spears and Sondheim and The Dare.

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

If you’re reading this, I urge you to put on one song that makes you want to dance today and give yourself permission to do just that.

Learn more about Ellen Winter at ellenwinter.com