Book, Music, and Lyrics by One Person?

I had a fleeting thought yesterday regarding this subject, and my curiosity was peaked. How many full-scale BROADWAY musicals have actually had its entire score and book penned by the same author, either with or without another collaborator? Granted, everyone involved in creating the show usually has input in properties beyond their official title, but I'm talking about actually receiving credit. There must've been someone in decades past before my birth, but I'm wondering how rare of a practice it really is. And, yes, let me get the 4 obvious ones out of the way that first sprung to my mind:
Mel Brooks, Eric Idle, Jonathan Larson, Jill Santoriello.
Alright...now, go ahead!

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"And, yes, let me get the 4 obvious ones out of the way that first sprung to my mind:
Mel Brooks, Eric Idle, Jonathan Larson, Jill Santoriello."

Well, I'm not sure Idle counts since he is co-credited with John Du Prez for the Spamalot music.

In addition to Rupert Holmes, Frank Loesser is credited with the book as well as the music and lyrics for The Most Happy Fella. Noel Coward not only wrote the book, music, and lyrics for several musicals and operettas (though some of them played the West End but not Broadway), he also directed some of those, for instance, Sail Away, Conversation Piece and Bitter Sweet, among those that played on Broadway. And then he also wrote several revues completely by himself, directing them as well.

The Music Man and Here's Love are credited solely to Meredith Willson. Oliver! is credited solely to Lionel Bart. The Prince of Grand Street had book, music and lyrics by Bob Merrill, though it closed out of town. Merrill also wrote the book, music and lyrics for Hannah . . . 1939, which played Off-Broadway.

Rick Besoyan wrote the book, music and lyrics for Little Mary Sunshine and Babes in the Wood Off-Broadway and for The Student Gypsy on Broadway, directing the latter two as well, which may have been a mistake.

I believe Ivor Novello is credited with the book, music and lyrics of some operettas that played in the West End but not on Broadway.

There have been others, but very few hits have been the work of one person in the book, music and lyrics departments.

Forgot to mention Jonathan Larson. Also, William Finn is co-credited with the book for Falsettos. And Al Carmines wrote the books for some of his shows.

Well this is Off-Broadway but Kristen (or is it Kirsten) Childs wrote the book, music and lyrics to The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin.

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The Last 5 Years - JRB

Lionel Bart's "Oliver!" & "Blitz!".

as far as i know, his other shows have been a collaboration.

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While we had our "A Tale of Two Cities" over here with Jill Santoriello, in London, if you recall, another One-show-only-wonder-woman-composer-writer wrote another musical based off of an extremely famed classic novel - "GONE with the WIND." (Margaret..?)

"But they weren't one person, were they?"

I must have misread the following:

"How many full-scale BROADWAY musicals have actually had its entire score and book penned by the same author, either with or without another collaborator?"

The original book for "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown" was written by Clark Gesner and members of his cast, so the librettist was given a collective pseudonym.

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Updated On: 8/20/18 at 09:20 PM

About two dozen musicals in the 20's and 30's by George M Cohan

"Hey, bk, I apologize, but the OP doesn't quite seem to know what he wants, wouldn't you say? The thread's title is "Book, Music, and Lyrics by One Person?" One person is not two or more people."

I agree - it was confusing. And I'm confused enough as it is :)

No one ever remembers to mention George M. Cohan - perhaps because his inclusion (being arguably the single most successful and popular musical theater writer in Broadway history) completely annihilates the mistaken notion that "book, music and lyrics by" has any significantly higher failure rate than a collaborative show. I haven't done the math (since it would be an enormous history project) but I would bet - just from the knowledge that we know it's rarely done and we seem to be aware of most of the times it has been done - that there is no significantly greater failure percentage among shows by one writer or shows by several. Just as there are probably no greater failure percentages among shows by "seasoned producers" and shows by newish producers. These are mythic Broadway prejudices, endlessly recycled to assign blame to one thing or another when such a show fails. But when a show produced by and written by veterans fails (and there have hundreds and hundreds of them) nobody ever says "i guess it doesn't really matter how much experience you have or how successful you've been previously - you still have about a 7 out of 10 chance of having a flop!"

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.

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