Favorite Active Musical Theatre Composer?
Favorite Active Musical Theatre Composer?
Alex Kulak2
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/11/16
#1Favorite Active Musical Theatre Composer?
Posted: 11/24/16 at 10:16pm
Who's your favorite Musical Theatre Composer/Songwriter who's working today?
For me, it's a tie between Andrew Lippa and Jason Robert Brown
Cupid Boy2
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/5/13
#2Favorite Active Musical Theatre Composer?
Posted: 11/24/16 at 10:30pm
Jeanine Tesori. I admire the breadth of projects she's taken on and how skillfully she has adapted her sound to fit them. Beyond the work, she just seems like such a cool, humble person in interviews.
#3Favorite Active Musical Theatre Composer?
Posted: 11/24/16 at 11:06pm
Oddly I read this as favorite FEMALE active theatre composer which made the OP's examples make me do a double take haha.
Female Jeanine Tesori is also my pick anyway.
Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated
BroadwayConcierge
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/24/15
#5Favorite Active Musical Theatre Composer?
Posted: 11/24/16 at 11:16pm
Deeply interested in how Tim Minchin continues, and my chance to work with Lena Gabrielle has made me invested in her, but I'm seconding Tesori as current best in show.
After Eight
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
#7Favorite Active Musical Theatre Composer?
Posted: 11/26/16 at 7:36am
BroadwayConcierge said: "Lin-Manuel Miranda.
"
Really? All of Hamilton is on 1 note and the songs in Moana have only 4 chords, which means you can sing "let it go" on all of them, and also every top100 song of the last 5 years.
I would say Boublil and Schonberg, their music is glorious.
#8Favorite Active Musical Theatre Composer?
Posted: 11/26/16 at 12:22pm
Jeanine Tesori. Her range as a composer is unparalleled, in my opinion.
#9Favorite Active Musical Theatre Composer?
Posted: 11/26/16 at 12:31pm
I don't think I have a favorite composer. I have favorite scores, and favorite songs, but there isn't one composer whose body of work stands out from those of others. And it seems like all of my favorite musicals are by composers who only wrote one musical that I really like (or one musical, period).
Updated On: 11/26/16 at 12:31 PM
#10Favorite Active Musical Theatre Composer?
Posted: 11/26/16 at 12:52pm
Sondheim and Tesori. Caroline or Change was a masterpiece.
Just give the world Love. - S. Wonder
TheGingerBreadMan
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/7/12
#11Favorite Active Musical Theatre Composer?
Posted: 11/26/16 at 1:01pm
Tesori and JRB. Neither of them have done a show that I'm not fond of.
#12Favorite Active Musical Theatre Composer?
Posted: 11/26/16 at 2:14pm
Jeanine Tesori and Michael John LaChiusa for me.
#13Favorite Active Musical Theatre Composer?
Posted: 11/26/16 at 2:31pm
Jeanine Tesori and Jason Robert Brown are my favorites. Jeanine Tesori has such an incredible range and she has wriiten, in my opinion, two of the greatest musicals of the 21st century (Caroline, or Change and Fun Home). Jason Robert Brown is such a lush and wonderful composer. I don't really have anything to say about him. He's just fantastic.
I also really love Dave Malloy's work. The Great Comet and Ghost Quartet have some really interesting things going on, musically.
Lin Manuel Miranda is probably Broadway's baby right now and he deserves to be. Hamilton's score is a masterpiece. It's a masterclass in musical storytelling.
#14Favorite Active Musical Theatre Composer?
Posted: 11/26/16 at 6:55pm
My favorites, in no order, Miranda, Tesori, Pasek and Paul, Malloy, Ryan Scott Oliver, Ahrens and Flaherty, and LaChiusa. I'm excited to see more from Minchin!
"I saw Pavarotti play Rodolfo on stage and with his girth I thought he was about to eat the whole table at the Cafe Momus." - Dollypop
#16Favorite Active Musical Theatre Composer?
Posted: 11/29/16 at 4:08pm
perfectlymarvelous said: "Jeanine Tesori and Michael John LaChiusa for me. "
Agree 100%. Tesori and LaChiusa for sure.
mamaleh
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/11/04
#17Favorite Active Musical Theatre Composer?
Posted: 11/29/16 at 4:11pm
Jason Robert Brown and Pasek & Paul
BroadwayRox3588
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/5/16
#18Favorite Active Musical Theatre Composer?
Posted: 11/29/16 at 5:15pm
Jeanine Tesori and Pasek & Paul
#19Favorite Active Musical Theatre Composer?
Posted: 11/29/16 at 5:17pm
Tom Kitt
Brian Yorkey
Jeanine Tesori
LaChiusa
You Can Disagree Without Being Disagreeable
#20Favorite Active Musical Theatre Composer?
Posted: 11/30/16 at 7:01am
William Finn
Tim Minchin
Stephen Sondheim
Alan Menken
....but the world goes 'round
#21Favorite Active Musical Theatre Composer?
Posted: 11/30/16 at 8:08am
Tom Kitt & Brian Yorkey, Benj Pasek & Justin Paul, and Jeanine Tesori.
#22Favorite Active Musical Theatre Composer?
Posted: 11/30/16 at 8:45am
Yes, I should have also had Alan Menken on my list!
#23Favorite Active Musical Theatre Composer?
Posted: 11/30/16 at 11:24am
I have to go with Jason Robert Brown and Jeanine Tesori. As most have said, what I admire most about Tesori is that EVERYTHING she has done has it's own personal, individual sound. I will say, I absolutely HATE Shrek The Musical, but that has little to do with the score and more to do with the book, but everything else she's done is just so fantastic. As for JRB- I love how he's able to inject so much heart into his scores. One of my favorite scores of his (I know I'm in the minority) is Honeymoon in Vegas. It's just so lush and rich! I'm also a HUGE fan of his often forgotten Parade score.
I love Alan Mencken but I would love to see him tackle a truly original music that isn't an adaptation of anything. His film scores are unparalleled, though.
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