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Lea Michele swung by Late Night with Seth Meyers on Monday night (Dec. 5) to chat about her role as Fanny Brice in the Broadway revival of Funny Girl.
“It’s wild,” she told host Seth Meyers. “This show has been following me throughout the course of my life; I first watched the movie when I was in Spring Awakening on Broadway and then I did so much of it on Glee, and now I’m a mom and a wife and I’m doing it. And I really feel like this is the perfect time in my life to be doing this show.”
The Scream Queens alum also compared her experience on the Great White Way to her stint performing numbers from the show on Glee, calling it a “dream come true” to step into the role made famous by Barbra Streisand in front of a live audience for seven shows a week.
And speaking of Babs, Michele revealed she recently received the screen and stage legend’s belated blessing in typical grandiose fashion. “I got to work the other day and my dresser…had this, like, gold envelope,” she said. “It was, I don’t know, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, like getting invited.”
“And I just knew, and I was like, ‘Is it from Barbra?’” the actress continued. “And she said it was. And it was very sweet, she wrote me this beautiful letter. But one thing she said in it…She was like, ‘It’s really wonderful when your dreams come true, isn’t it?’ And I just, like, fell to my knees and I called Ryan Murphy, my mom, Jonathan Groff and Michael Mayer.”
Following her sit-down with the host, Michele made a costume change to perform “I’m the Greatest Star” backed by the Funny Girl orchestra.
Watch Michele’s interview and performance below.
It’s been several years since Lea Michele and Darren Criss were in the New Directions, but that doesn’t mean they don’t still sing classic Glee songs together. In an adorable TikTok posted to the Funny Girl star’s account Monday (Dec. 5), the former costars jammed out in the car to Journey‘s “Don’t Stop Believin’.”
“Streetlights, people,” they sang from the back seat, big smiles on their faces as Criss nailed the high note.
“When you’re with your best friend and don’t stop believin’ randomly comes on the radio,” Michele captioned the nostalgic video.
Not so long ago, Michele and Criss starred together as New Directions teammates Rachel Berry and Blaine Anderson, respectively, on Ryan Murphy’s hit Fox show Glee. “Don’t Stop Believing” was a song performed often by the show choir after first being included in the series’ pilot.
In fact, Rachel Berry sang the song during one of her final auditions for Funny Girl, a fictional season four plot point on Glee that became reality earlier this year when Michele was cast as Fanny Brice in Broadway’s ongoing revival of the musical. She took over for Beanie Feldstein after a series of high profile casting changes, including fellow Glee alum Jane Lynch’s earlier-than-expected departure from the show.
Another fiction-turned-reality moment came when Criss came to see Michele perform in Funny Girl in October, paralleling the show moment when Blaine watches Rachel play Fanny from the audience. “The amount of times this guy has heard me sing Don’t Rain On My Parade,” the Scream Queens actress said at the time. “I love you.”
Watch Lea Michele and Darren Criss’ adorable TikTok below:
Broadway actor Quentin Oliver Lee has died following a battle with stage 4 colon cancer. He was 34.
Lee’s wife, Angie Lee Graham, confirmed his death Thursday in an Instagram post, saying, “He had a smile on his face, and was surrounded by those he loves. It was peaceful, and perfect.”
Lee’s Broadway credits included the 2017 production of Prince of Broadway and the 2021 revival of Caroline, or Change. He played the title role in a national tour of The Phantom of the Opera, and earlier this year was part of an Off-Broadway production of Oratorio for Living Things that had a two-month run after opening in March.
The Phantom of the Opera posted a tribute to Lee on its Instagram account: “The Phantom family is saddened to hear of the passing of Quentin Oliver Lee. Quentin brilliantly lead our North American tour in 2018. Our hearts are with Quentin’s family and friends.”
In June, the performer shared in a Caring Bridge journal entry that he was diagnosed with colon cancer at the end of May. Lee said he had COVID-19 at the beginning of May, but after two weeks, his symptoms didn’t go away, which led him to see a doctor. After his cancer diagnosis, he continued to post updates about his health journey.
After his death, Lee Graham took to the journal to post the same message she shared to Instagram to announce his passing. It read, in part, “He was an incredible man, husband, father, son, brother, friend, singer, actor, and disciple of Christ with great faith in his Father in Heaven. To say ‘he will be dearly missed’ doesn’t reflect the scope of the people and communities he has created and touched.”
This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.
Cameron Crowe believes the spirit of a place lingers long after the moment has passed. That’s what makes recording the Broadway Almost Famous cast album at New York’s iconic Power Station studio so special for him.
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“It’s like going back to the roots of why I love music and what I love about records,” Crowe told The Associated Press during a break in the recording session.
Working in the control room alongside fellow producers Tom Kitt and Scott M. Riesett, Crowe called the process “utterly authentic” as they directed the cast, chorus and band in different studios across multiple levels.
“I have this thing where I believe that the spirits of a place, the spirit of what’s happened in a room stay. The house you lived in, you can go visit. You can feel what happened to you when you lived there,” Crowe said.
Some of the most prominent rock and pop albums were recorded at the legendary studio, including Bruce Springsteen’s The River, David Bowie’s Scary Monsters and Tattoo You by The Rolling Stones.
Standing against the soundboard, Crowe wears that pride on his brow as he tells the latest version of his story through the music. More than another project, Almost Famous was a deeply personal coming-of-age-story for Crowe when he wrote and directed the 2000 film, loosely based on his experiences as a teenage music journalist.
“It was the movie we got to make because Jerry Maguire did really well. And so, the fact that that becomes what we get to take to Broadway just means the power of music.”
That power increased with the addition of original songs, allowing Crowe — with a huge heaping of help from composer Kitt — to transform the stage version into something more than his cinematic love letter to rock ‘n’ roll. Those songs allowed Crowe to tell a more personal story.
“I thought, if we are going to do something for the theater, for the stage, maybe it’s this personal story that’s filled with music that could make people feel that kind of elixir of the movie. And that was always our goal,” Crowe said.
Before the interview, Crowe sat beside Kitt for one more pass at “Something Real,” one of the songs written for the stage version that includes homage to Deep Purple’s “Highway Star.”
Next on the agenda was a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Ramble On.” Interestingly enough, the time-honored track blended well with the new songs in a morphing of classic rock and show tunes. Crowe credits Kitt with finding that “sweet spot” between the two genres.
“Tom understands what the songs of the day felt like,” he said. “He’ll write a song that feels like it could have been on Madman Across the Water,” the Elton John album.
But the admiration goes both ways. During another recording break, Kitt attributes Crowe with familiarizing him with music of the era.
“Cameron is someone who is just a walking encyclopedia when it comes to music,” Kitt said. “So, I was looking forward just learning from him and hearing new songs and new tonalities that were going to inform the work,” Kitt said.
Released by Sony Masterworks Broadway, the cast recording of Almost Famous will be available for digital purchase and streaming along with physical releases on CD and vinyl March 17. Of course, for now fans can always catch the show at the Bernard Jacobs Theatre on Broadway.
Britney Spears’ biggest hits are getting a fairy-tale makeover with the arrival of Once Upon a One More Time on Broadway.
Produced by Tony winners James L. Nederlander and Hunter Arnold, the musical comedy will open at the Marquis Theatre on June 23 following previews, which begin May 13. Directed and choreographed by Keone and Mari Madrid (Beyond Babel, Karate Kid), the show combines classic storybook characters — think Cinderella, Snow White, Little Mermaid and more — with hits from Spears’ extensive, award-winning music catalog.
The show is billed as being inspired by music performed and recorded by Spears, who is otherwise not known to be involved. According to a rep for the production, all of the musical compositions in the show are licensed through their publishers with the approval of the songwriters. The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to a lawyer for Spears for comment.
Described as a revisionist fairy tale, Once Upon a One More Time is a “musical adventure about claiming your own happily ever after,” according to the production. Singles like “Oops I Did It Again,” “Lucky,” “Circus” and “Toxic” serve as the soundtrack to a fairy-tale book club upended by a rogue fairy godmother, who decides to drop The Feminine Mystique into the laps of women who have known little else outside of “bird-made dresses and true love’s kiss.”
With an original story written by Jon Hartmere (Bare, The Upside), the production’s creative team includes David Leveaux (Nine, Romeo and Juliet) as a creative consultant, scenic designer Anna Fleischle (Hangmen, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie), costume and hair designer Loren Elstein (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead), lighting designer Kenneth Posner (Wicked, Beetlejuice), sound designer Andrew Keister (KPOP, On Your Feet!) and projection designer Sven Ortel (Newsies).
The show was originally slated for a pre-Broadway run in Chicago in 2019 at the James M. Nederlander Theatre, but delayed its opening to spring 2020. In March, the pandemic shut down theaters across the country, with producers deciding to cancel the show’s Chicago engagement.
Once Upon a One More Time would make its world premiere in December 2021 at Washington D.C.’s Shakespeare Theatre Company, where it eventually extended its limited engagement from Jan. 3 to 9 due to demand.
Spears, who is not credited as part of the creative or producer team, was present for an early reading in 2019, according to The Washington Post. Ahead of the musical’s abandoned Chicago run, during which Spears was still in her now-ended 13-year conservatorship, Playbill reported that the pop icon called the production “a dream come true for me.”
“I’m so excited to have a musical with my songs — especially one that takes place in such a magical world filled with characters that I grew up on, who I love and adore,” she continued in a statement at the time.
Before the musical’s D.C. run in 2021, Hartmere said he was “given access to all of Spears’ songs,” according to an interview with the Post. “The only thing I was told was that she loves fairies,” he said of Spears. “And I was like, ‘That’s it, that’s what we’ve got to go on.’”
“I knew the songs that everybody else knew,” he added. “I didn’t know the deep cuts. She literally has a song [called] ‘Cinderella.’ I was like, ‘All right, I have to do this.’”
The news comes on the pop icon’s 41st birthday.
This story was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
KPOP only just held its opening night on Broadway earlier this week, but the brand-new musical is ready to unveil the exciting details of its official cast recording.
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Next year, listeners worldwide will be able to bring the musical into their daily lives with the release of the KPOP – Original Broadway Cast Recording album via Sony Masterworks Broadway. After being in development since premiering Off-Broadway in 2017, KPOP finally made its Broadway debut this month at the Circle in the Square Theatre shining the spotlight on Korean culture and Korean, Korean-American, and overall AAPI representation on and off the stage.
The KPOP show also features K-pop stars including Luna (of girl group f(x) in the lead role as singer MwE), Kevin Woo (from U-KISS playing the leader of KPOP boy band F8), Min (from miss A who plays Riya in girl group RTMIS) and BoHyung (a member of SPICA and the vocal duo KEEMBO who plays Tiny D in RTMIS).
While the show features music, lyrics, production and arrangements by Helen Park, as well as music and lyrics by Max Vernon, the cast recording album will feature production by Harvey Mason Jr.
On his own and as one-half of the production duo The Underdogs, Harvey Mason Jr. has been close to the K-pop scene for years. The current CEO of the Recording Academy has produced hit K-pop singles like Girls’ Generation‘s “Mr.Mr.,” EXO‘s “Overdose,” BoA‘s “CAMO” and NCT 127‘s “Limitless.”
“I am such a fan of this music and this musical,” Mason Jr. says in a press release statement. “Having worked in the K-pop music space for over a decade, finally experiencing the music live on a Broadway stage has been so exciting. With the popularity and impact of this music, it’s the perfect time for the KPOP show and the cast album.”
With the mix of celebs living the real K-pop experience alongside seasoned and fresh Broadway talent, KPOP has stood out for its genuine attempt to approach the pressure, sacrifices and joy within the industry putting South Korea on the global-music map. Directed by Teddy Bergman, KPOP also features a book written by Jason Kim (who’s written on Girls), choreographer Jennifer Weber (The Hip Hop Nutcracker and & Juliet) and associate choreographer MJ Choi (founder and director of I Love Dance studio).
The KPOP – Original Broadway Cast Recording will drop on Feb. 24, 2023, via Sony Masterworks Broadway and is available for pre-order now.
KPOP‘s full cast recently performed the number “This Is My Korea” live on Good Morning America and released the song digitally ahead of KPOP’s official opening:
Hillary Clinton took to social media on Tuesday (Nov. 22) to give Lea Michele and the cast of Broadway’s Funny Girl her personal stamp of approval.
“Had the best time seeing @leamichele and company in @funnygirlbway this weekend. Don’t miss the show!” the politician wrote on Instagram beneath a photo of herself posing with the Glee alum, who plays Fanny Brice. In the snap, Michele wears a simple gray cardigan while the former Secretary of State and 2016 presidential candidate grins beside her wearing a nameplate necklace emblazoned with the name of her eight-year-old granddaughter, Charlotte.
Clinton’s visit to the August Wilson Theatre comes just one week after Michele and her cast mates unveiled the new Broadway cast recording from the revival, featuring studio versions of classics like “I’m the Greatest Star,” “Sadie, Sadie,” “People” and, of course, “Don’t Rain on My Parade.”
And while Funny Girl‘s leading lady has gotten plenty of famous visitors backstage lately, including Olivia Rodrigo, her Glee cast mates have generally been split about whether they’ll see the show.
On the one hand, Darren Criss, Becca Tobin and Michele’s bestie Jonathan Groff have all stopped by for a backstage visit. On the other, Tony winner Jenna Ushkowitz, Kevin McHale and Chris Colfer have all either politely dodged the question or made it clear they won’t be in the audience. (“I can be triggered at home,” quipped the latter when questioned by Michelle Collins about seeing the show.)
Check out Clinton’s post-show shout-out to Michele and the cast of Funny Girl here.
There’s plenty to mesmerize an audience onstage at Topdog/Underdog, the Pulitzer-winning play by Suzan-Lori Parks on Broadway now in a limited engagement (through Jan. 13, 2023). The production — starring Corey Hawkins (who portrayed Dr. Dre in Straight Outta Compton) and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (an Emmy-winner for HBO’s Watchmen) in roles originated by Mos Def (Yasiin Bey) and Jeffrey Wright, respectively — has received rave reviews for good reason: the story of two brothers (named Lincoln and Booth) bound by a gradually-revealed, traumatic family history and a love of the three-card monte street hustle, is by turns hilarious, haunting and heartbreaking, and Hawkins and Abdul-Mateen give performances that seem destined for Tony nominations.
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But audiences are talking about more than the spoken dialogue — they’re bopping along to the hip-hop and R&B playlist heard in the theater before the play even starts, between scenes, at intermission, and as the audience exits after the final bows. That collection of tracks is the handiwork of sound designer Justin Ellington, a theater veteran who’s also a composer, arranger, musician and academic. Topdog/Underdog’s creative team, led by director Kenny Leon, knew from the get-go that music “would play a huge role” in the show, says Ellington, so he worked to ensure that “storytelling was happening throughout the playlist, versus just feeling and theme.”
Justin Ellington
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The mix Ellington eventually landed on touches on diverse eras of hip-hop and R&B, adding to the timeless feel of the play’s action. “This is music we let into our homes to bring levity, balance…sometimes music is an escape, but it can also pull you in,” Ellington reflects. “This show does so much, so we’re constantly looking for balance, and the music helps settle us a bit throughout it.” He spoke to Billboard about some of the Topdog/Underdog playlist highlights, and what they add to an already multi-layered night at the theater.
“They Reminisce Over You,” Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth The pre-show mix is a tour through hip-hop/R&B classics and innovators, from Flying Lotus and Thundercat’s “MmmHmm” to D’Angelo’s “Devil’s Pie” to Marvin Gaye’s “Trouble Man.” But “’Reminisce Over You’ gets them every time,” says Ellington of the ‘90s classic. “That’s like the song that brings in a different generation. There are people that really love that song: it’s a touchstone in their lives.” And lyrically, “Wow, it’s on point. It’s offering a different perspective to the story you’re about to hear, preparing your ears for trial and tribulation among people and different forms of that. I think it’s one of the first songs in the mix where the lyrics are super present; there’s something about it that really stands out.”
“Alright,” Kendrick Lamar The first of two Lamar tracks on Ellington’s show playlist is also part of the pre-show mix. Ellington hopes the repeated “It’s gonna be alright” line sinks in with the audience before the play has even begun. “Sonically it’s in line with today’s contemporary music and hip hop – something that attracts young people,” he says. But “the sound of it really envelops all people. You can’t help but start to tap a toe, and some people are rapping along to it, like, ‘This is my song.’ At the end of the day, if I heard no music playing and saw this very diverse audience all moving and grooving in their own way — that’s the pleasure for me.”
“Grinding All My Life,” Nipsey Hussle Ellington knows that plenty of people who saw Topdog/Underdog when it premiered off-Broadway in 2001 have no idea who the late rapper Nipsey Hussle was — and, likewise, that most Nipsey fans may be totally new to the play. So he loved the idea of kicking off Act I with this track. “It makes audiences lean in a bit more,” he says. “Nipsey’s music comes on, and the world starts to change. For those who don’t know what the word ‘grinding’ represents outside of coffee, maybe that’ll be understood by the end of the show, or even by the end of the first scene.”
Lupe Fiasco, “Kick, Push”
At intermission, the audience has just learned that Lincoln, who’s vowed to get out of the three-card monte game for good, is ready to get back into it after all. “The character is basically saying, ‘I’m back,’” Ellington says. “I wanted to know the soundtrack that would motivate him to get out there and get back into his hustle — what would be this character’s energy?” Inspired in part by the skateboarders in the song’s music video — a metaphor, as Ellington sees it, “for moving forward, getting it” — he chose “Kick, Push” to kick off the intermission mix. It immediately makes heads start bobbing, with its dedication to “the homies out here grindin’…legally and illegally.”
“Move on Up,” Curtis Mayfield Another intermission mix track that stands out to Ellington. “It’s a long song – almost nine minutes — but the energy is up,” he says. “It probably has the fastest tempo of any song we play. Just this up-up energy. It’s a song from two generations before that people are super familiar with” — in part, he adds, because Kanye “Ye” West sampled it for his “Touch the Sky” — which ensures there’s no lull between acts. “It’s a bop,” and it’s also on theme, exploring the idea of striving for a better place than you’re in while still recognizing the obstacles to getting there and how to get past them.
“If I Should Die Tonight,” Marvin Gaye Director Leon gave Ellington fairly free creative rein in building the playlist, but the sound designer recalls this track may have been one of his few suggestions. “I know he’s a big Marvin Gaye fan, and we get to hear so much of that song with this dramatic entrance into the second act,” Ellington says. “It’s like a cinematic moment – we hear these lyrics that are just perfect for the moment: the angst, frustration, irritation, depth of love that [these characters have], this song just embodies it all.” Those familiar with the play, he points out, will recognize some literal meaning in the song title, too. “A lot of people know what we’re coming to, so you can be a little more bold [with music choice] and not worry about showing your hand too much,” he continues. “It’s just so perfect and heartbreaking.”
Kendrick Lamar, “The Heart Part 5” Once the play is over, the audience leaves the theater as this standout Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers track plays. “There’s something about the intensity of it – it starts with this tension, the same note playing over and over, this rhythm that’s pushing,” says Ellington. “And when he starts — ‘I come from a generation…’ — it’s setting it up like, “Listen to me,” and “me” could be Booth or Lincoln or the kid sitting next to you or yourself.” The track isn’t meant to speak directly to the stunning last scene of the play, but to “get people out of the theater with some kind of resonance of that intensity without speaking specifically to it. I don’t know what it would feel like if the show ends and it’s just applause and no sound at all – I feel like that would be draining,” Ellington explains. “Now we start to think about what we just saw – we start to process, because the feelings are deep and rich. Kenny [Leon] always says the show isn’t over until the ghostlight comes on – so that Kendrick song will always play all the way out.”
If you’ve seen a musical — or, well, anything involving music onstage or onscreen — in the past decade or so, chances are high that Tom Kitt had something to do with it.
The composer, lyricist, musical director, music supervisor, arranger and orchestrator has inhabited one or more of those roles for projects as diverse as Grease: Live!, the Pitch Perfect films (yes, you have him to thank for the “riff-off”), the musical adaptations of Bring It On, SpongeBob SquarePants, Jagged Little Pill and American Idiot. In 2009, he won a Tony Award for his score for the musical Next to Normal, which in 2010 also won the Pulitzer Prize for drama, and though he’s comfortable writing in any number of idioms, he’s become especially well known since then for his keen understanding of how to organically integrate pop and rock sounds into a theater setting.
Right now, Kitt is, as usual, juggling multiple high-profile projects. Most notably, he wrote the score and, with Cameron Crowe, co-wrote the lyrics for the new musical adaptation of Crowe’s beloved film Almost Famous, which just opened on Broadway. He’s brought his vocal arranging expertise to the buzzy new dance musical Only Gold (playing off-Broadway at MCC Theater through Nov. 27) featuring the music of singer-songwriter Kate Nash. And in between, he managed to write a showstopper for a true icon — Elmo — in the new off-Broadway Sesame Street the Musical.
Kitt describes juggling his myriad projects with trademark calm. “Theater is the ultimate collaborative art form,” he says. “You’re always serving many other visions — it’s just a question of what you’re bringing to the project. As long as you’re in an exciting creative world, these [different] things can feed one another, and I don’t feel overwhelmed in any way.” Having worked on shows that have run the gamut of Broadway success, he has a healthy sense of the business’ realities, and has learned how to keep his creative priorities straight. “What’s most important is I’m expressing myself in ways that feel profound and exciting to me,” Kitt says. “I came into this art form so inspired by all the people currently writing, the legends who wrote for the theater. I wanted to be part of that history and hopefully have people say that Tom Kitt musicals have been a part of their life in important ways.”
Casey Likes and Solea Pfeiffer in Almost Famous.
Matt Murphy
Almost Famous
Though Kitt studied economics in college he dreamed of becoming a singer-songwriter and was heavily influenced by classic 1970s albums like Born to Run, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Piano Man —touchstones that came in handy for the moment in which Almost Famous takes place. “I get to now live in that sensibility as a composer and arranger,” Kitt says. The Almost Famous score is mostly Kitt’s original music but does incorporate iconic songs from the movie like Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer,” and Kitt’s job, in part, was “to make it feel like one voice, one score.”
While it may be Crowe’s first time as a Broadway lyricist, Kitt describes him as a natural. “Cameron already is a poet, a lyricist, just in terms of what he’s put into the world,” Kitt says, adding that the lines from Crowe’s movies are themselves “earworms.” As a writing team, “we found our groove right away,” Kitt continues. Crowe would send Kitt the starting thoughts for a song in various forms, and Kitt would start composing from there, with the two “batting it back and forth ‘til we both felt like we were saying what we wanted to say.”
Starting with Next to Normal, and in the years since, Kitt says, he’s learned that while pop music often adheres to a defined form, in theater a pop song needs to serve the plot above all, providing the audience with new information. “It’s about really keeping yourself honest and not just saying, ‘I’m gonna write a pop song and It’s gonna adhere to this form,’ so we feel like we’re building something and don’t stay in the same place, or get there too early.”
Only Gold
Choreographer and director Andy Blankenbuehler is a longtime friend of Kitt’s; the two collaborated on Bring it On: The Musical (a now cult-favorite that opened on Broadway in 2012). This past summer, Blankenbuehler asked Kitt’s recommendation on a vocal arranger for Only Gold, and he volunteered his own services. “Kate Nash is a brilliant writer,” Kitt says. “Her songs are filled with visceral energy and beauty, and you can see how they’re going to be theatrical.” His duties for the show mostly happened before he got into rehearsal with Almost Famous. Blankenbuehler broke down the show by song, filling Kitt in on who would be available to sing each and what kind of tonality he wanted from the vocal arrangements. “I had great guidance going in, and then you hear it in the room and discover new things,” Kitt says.
Jacob Guzman, Ahmad Simmons, Ryan VanDenBoom, Voltaire Wade-Greene, Hannah Cruz, and Reed Luplau in MCC Theater’s 2022 Production of ONLY GOLD
Daniel J. Vasquez
Sesame Street the Musical
In recent years, Kitt has composed for Sesame Street: he wrote a song for Cookie Monster called “If Me Had a Magic Wand,” and a spoof of a famous song from Stephen Sondheim’s musical Sunday in the Park With George called “Look I Made a Splat.” The call for Sesame Street the Musical came through his agent, and it was fairly simple. “They said, ‘We want to craft a big 11 o’clock-style number for Elmo,” Kitt recalls, “and I knew it was a song about imagination.” He thought about the sensibility of classic Sesame Street songs like “Sing,” and asked himself, “What’s something expressive in that world for me to write?” The end product channels the sweetly melodic, anthemic feel of the classics Kitt wanted to channel, but he didn’t hear Elmo sing it until opening night of the show, “and it was everything I hoped it would be. I mean, who doesn’t want to write a song for Elmo? I jumped at the chance.”
The ASCAP Foundation recognized playwright, composer and lyricist Michael R. Jackson, creator of the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical A Strange Loop, with The ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award.
The award was presented to Jackson by ASCAP Foundation president Paul Williams, composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, The Prince of Egypt) and composer/lyricist Adam Guettel (The Light in the Piazza) at a private luncheon in New York City. Also on hand to honor Jackson were Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Dear Evan Hansen, La La Land) and ASCAP chief executive officer Elizabeth Matthews.
The annual award is given to encourage promising young ASCAP composers of musical theater and is funded by Mary Rodgers and the Rodgers Family Foundation. Previous recipients include Lin-Manuel Miranda; Pasek & Paul; and David Hein & Irene Sankoff (Come From Away).
“Michael R. Jackson is a fearless storyteller whose stellar work is a gift to audiences and the creative community,” Williams said in a statement. “We love having him as part of our ASCAP family and are excited for him to receive this well-deserved award.”
“In a cultural climate when so many have confused activism and/or being a savvy businessperson with artistry, it has been a brutal, lonely time to believe in making art for art’s sake,” Jackson said in a statement. “And yet, making art for art’s sake is the one life raft I’ve had since 23-year-old me first put pen to paper to begin writing A Strange Loop. Receiving the Richard Rodgers Award from ASCAP is deeply meaningful to me and gives me a much needed second wind to keep paddling the stormy high seas,” said Jackson.
A Strange Loop, which was billed as “the big, Black, and queer Great American Musical for all,” received 11 Tony nominations and won two – best musical and best book of a musical for Jackson.
In 2020, Jackson joined The ASCAP Experience for “The Making of a Groundbreaking Black Queer Musical.” The discussion about the creation of A Strange Loop with Kobalt Music’s Sue Drew is available on demand on @ASCAP YouTube.
Founded in 1975, The ASCAP Foundation is a charitable organization dedicated to supporting American music creators and encouraging their development through music education, talent development and humanitarian programs.