And also, adding orchestrations to the mix, the only other person to have written book, music, lyrics, and orchestrations to the same Broadway show is Dave Malloy, who wrote (and also starred in at various points) Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812.
"How could she just suddenly, completely disappear into thin water?" - The Little Mermaid
"And also, adding orchestrations to the mix, the only other person to have written book, music, lyrics, and orchestrations to the same Broadway show is Dave Malloy, who wrote (and also starred in at various points) Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812."
Nope. As was already written above (years ago), Rupert Holmes did all that for The Mystery of Edwin Drood back in 1985.
"Oh look at the time, three more intelligent plays just closed and THE ADDAMS FAMILY made another million dollars" -Jackie Hoffman, Broadway.com Audience Awards
So have there only been two women in history who have done this - Jill Santoriello (Tale of 2 Cities) and Jill Williams (Rainbow Jones)? (Just realized they are both named Jill, ha!)
If you're into fandoms or con culture, Lena Gabrielle did book/music/lyrics/orchestration for a number of Harry Potter tribute shows, including an opera for Renaissance instruments and a large-scale musical solely rehearsed over FaceTime before its premiere. I've worked with her repeatedly since then- she wrote the score for my NYMF musical, and contributed a song (now sadly removed) to the early, more burlesque-inspired "Night of the Living Dead."
It’s a daunting, terrible idea. And I’m gonna do it. After nine years of kicking around the idea and going through three different composers, I’m gonna do the thing by myself and write “The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari” solo.
I don't usually look at the date for entries as the first thing, so it was really funny to see the OP say "let me state the obvious" and then NOT mention LMM. Oh, well - guess I learned a lesson about what to read first.
"I think that when a movie says it was 'based on a true story,' oh, it happened - just with uglier people." - Peanut Walker, Shucked
RippedMan said: "I really liked Tale of 2 Cities "
The optics of a solo-female-written musical were completely obscured by the fact that it starred a convicted sex offender/pedophile (James Barbour).
There was some really promising material in TALE. If Santorello worked with a real bookwriter and co-lyricist, she could have had potential as a musical theatre writer. (It was also Warren Carlyle’s directorial debut.) It was way too LES MIZ.
ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "If Santorello worked with a real bookwriter and co-lyricist, she could have had potential as a musical theatre writer."
It didn't help that she had absolutely wank taste in follow-up material, something else that could've been remedied by a good, helpful collaborator. One of her latest pieces, It Happened in Key West, is a "romantic musical comedy" about an infamous necrophiliac [the circumstances of which she more or less hand-waved with a "they couldn't prove it"]. I wish I was kidding. Small wonder that she's more or less disappeared from the scene since then.
What’s this about It Happened In Key West? Could you elaborate on this controversy and her hand wave of it? This sounds like a whole ‘nother story...pm me if you don’t want to derail the thread.
Another day, another dollar is the reality of my mentality. Otherwise, don't even bother.- TLC
I thought I was being pretty clear, but I'd say the controversy was trying to make a "romantic musical comedy" out of the true story of a notorious necrophiliac - an X-ray technician who fell in love with a married woman with tuberculosis and grew so obsessed with her that, after she died, he dug up her body and lived with it for seven ****ing years. In the show itself, she tried to spin it more or less as "they couldn't prove he diddled the corpse" and make it into some kind of love story. That's not a romantic comedy, that's a disaster, and no amount of hand-waving can save it.
TonightsMarquee said: "HADESTOWN by Anaïs Mitchell
THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 by Dave Malloy
FIRST DAUGHTER SUITE by Michael John LaChiusa
RAGS PARKLAND... by Andrew R. Butler"
I would add an astrix to Anaïs Mitchell as Hadestown is more of a song cycle than a book musical. I would also argue that Rachel Chavkin should be credited as a book writer for the piece, akin to how Michael Mayer being credited along with Billie Joe Armstrong for American Idiot's book.
If we're gonna go with "there's another person on the creative team, and they SHOULD be credited for imposing order on chaos," that knocks out a lot of contenders, including Lin-Manuel Miranda who is very open about the level of collaboration he has with Alex Lacamoire going beyond normal composer/orchestrator duties.
Here's a really obscure one: Eaton Magoon Jr. He wrote the lyrics and music and co-wrote the book for TWO Broadway flop musicals, each set in Hawaii: ''13 Daughters'' (1961), about a Chinese merchant (played by Don Ameche!) and ran for only 28 performances, and ''Heathen!'' (1972), which opened and closed on the same night. Remarkably, Magoon only passed away in 2018 at age 96!
Here's a recording of ''Puka Puka Pants'' from ''13 Daughters''