Lawrence Rush

Lawrence Rush is a composer, lyricist, bookwriter, singer and actor. He has written several full length musicals, dozens of children's musicals and many songs as well as art songs and choral music. His musicals, "Pride & Prejudice - the Musical" and "Winter of the Fall" were both Richard Rodgers Award finalists. "Winter of the Fall" had several readings as well as a workshop production at Illinois Wesleyan University in 2009. "Pride & Prejudice - the Musical" had an Equity staged reading in 2019, directed by Stephen Nachamie and was chosen by FWD Theatre Project for a workshop and public reading in Chicago. It has had numerous productions around the country and in the U.K. as well as a Broadway star-studded concert at 54 Below and a radio play version directed by Gabriel Barre. Lawrence was co-composer for the musical, "Under the Influence" which was produced by Portland's Fuse Theatre Ensemble and won the composers a Drammy Award for best original music. He co-composed and arranged "Rules for Girls" which ran at two Los Angeles theaters and was nominated for an L.A. Weekly Theater Award for Best Musical. He also composed "A Maiden’s Consent" - a bi-lingual musical written for the National Theater of the Performing Arts, which twice toured the U.S., and is also the composer/lyricist of the musicals, "A Laughing Matter", "Gilgamesh" and "A Magical Goose Called Sam". He was a contributing composer/lyricist for TADA!’s "Everything About a Day, Almost". He is a member of the BMI Advanced Musical Theater Workshop and The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc.

Lawrence’s songs have been performed in cabarets and concerts throughout the U.S. His cabaret show "The Way to Your Heart, the words and music of Lawrence Rush" ran at Don’t Tell Mama! in New York City. His art song, "Altar" was commissioned by Marble Collegiate Church for its World AIDS Day service, and his "Elizabeth Barrett Browning Sonnets" were performed in Innsbruck, Austria and Berlin, as well as in the U.S. several times. His choral composition, "Sim Shalom" received the Shalshelet award for new Jewish choral music, and is performed regularly at synagogues in New York City. He made his Carnegie Hall composition debut in 2013 with his piano work “Transitions”.

Lawrence is currently working on a multi-media work about Edgar Allan Poe. He is also an arranger, musical director, stage director, professional singer and actor (San Francisco Opera, many roles in opera and musical theater) and teacher.