The Jeff Blumenkrantz Songbook, Vol. 1, the debut publication of music by Tony-nominated composer Jeff Blumenkrantz, is now available. This 132-page piano/vocal folio features "I Won't Mind" (as recorded by Audra McDonald) plus 18 never-before-published songs, including "My Book" (the Sloth song from Audra McDonald's Carnegie Hall song cycle, The Seven Deadly Sins), "Lament" (as recorded by Megan Mullally), the comic duet "Moving Right Along," several settings of Edna St. Vincent Millay poems, and more. Blumenkrantz's music has become a staple of the NY concert scene, heard frequently in the Lincoln Center American Songbook Series and the New Voices Concerts at Symphony Space. Many of the selections in this book have appeared in the concert song lists of such singers as Audra McDonald, Megan Mullally, Victoria Clark, Rebecca Luker, Emily Skinner, Judy Kuhn and Michael Winther. His writing for the theatre includes the one-act musicals Woman with Pocketbook and Precious Little Jewel, as well as contributions to the scores of Broadway's Urban Cowboy (Tony nomination for Best Original Score) and Off-Broadway's The Audience. Blumenkrantz is a recipient of the BMI-Harrington Award and the Dramatists Guild Jonathan Larson Musical Theatre Fellowship and has received commissions from Carnegie Hall and the Guggenheim Works and Process Series.Known also for his acting work, Jeff Blumenkrantz cut his musical theatre teeth onstage, performing in such Broadway productions as Into the Woods, Threepenny Opera, Damn Yankees, How to Succeed…, and A Class Act. He can also be seen on DVD as Simeon in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and as Maximillian in Candide (NY Philharmonic).
A native of West Long Branch, New Jersey, Blumenkrantz developed his love for musical theatre as a young member of Center Drama Workshop at the JCC in Deal, where he performed in productions with his mother, Nancy. That love for theatre was cemented after five summers at Stagedoor Manor, the Catskills theatre camp featured in the 2003 Todd Graff film, Camp. After completing a degree in theatre from Northwestern University, Blumenkrantz moved to New York and soon after made his Broadway debut with the original company of Into the Woods. Around the same time, he joined the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Writers Workshop, where he met lyricist-collaborators Annie Kessler and Libby Saines. It was there that he sharpened his songwriting skills while pursuing acting full-time.In 2000, Audra McDonald recorded the Blumenkrantz/Kessler/Saines song "I Won't Mind" for her CD How Glory Goes, and upon its release, his songwriting came into the foreground, where it has since remained.
He is currently working on an original full-length musical, Hush, with playwright Tina Howe (Coastal Disturbances, Pride's Crossing, Painting Churches) and director Lonny Price (A Class Act, Master Harold… and the Boys, Urban Cowboy).The Jeff Blumenkrantz Songbook is available exclusively at Colony Records in New York City and online at http://www.jeffblumenkrantz.com.
