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#1

Female Composers?

I'm trying to think of some, but none come to mind.
#2

re: Female Composers?

Betty Comden? Did she and Green do both lyrics and music?
"My dreams, watching me said, one to the other...this life has let us down."
#3

re: Female Composers?

Jeanine Tesori (Violet, Caroline or Change, Shrek)
#5

re: Female Composers?

Carol Hall (Best Little Whorehouse in Texas) did music and lyrics.
#6

re: Female Composers?

Lisa Lambert (The Drowsy Chaperone), also music and lyrics.
#7

re: Female Composers?

Lucy Simon (The Secret Garden). I'm on a roll here.
#8

re: Female Composers?

Amanda Green does both music and lyrics, no?
"Get mad, then get over it." - Colin Powell
#9

re: Female Composers?

Mary Rodgers (Guettel), daughter of Richard R,odgers and mother of Adam Guettel.

For some reason, female lyricists seem to be more common than female composers. I can think of Betty Comden, Carolyn Leigh, and Carole Bayer Sager right off the bat.

Updated On: 8/6/08 at 01:15 PM

#10

re: Female Composers?

No, I think that Comden and Green were just lyricists, often with Jule Styne. But you can check this on http://www.ibdb.com

Updated On: 8/6/08 at 01:19 PM

#11

re: Female Composers?

Comden and Green were definitely lyricists, not composers.

I'm of the opinion that Jeanine Tesori is one of the best composers working today (along with Adam Guettel and Scott Frankel). She is definitely the best female composer working on Broadway at the time.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
#12

re: Female Composers?

I agree with you ray! Tesori, Guettel and Frankel are my favorite composers. Though I will add Jason Robert Brown and Michael John LaChiusa.

J*
#13

re: Female Composers?

Tesori did Thoroughly Modern Millie as well.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I? I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
#14

re: Female Composers?

Not all the songs though! they used some of the old songs from the Julie Andrew's movie!

J*
#15

re: Female Composers?

Polly Pen has, ahem, penned several off-Broadway cult favorites, such as "Goblin Market" and "Bed and Sofa."

Updated On: 8/6/08 at 01:38 PM

#18

re: Female Composers?

Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich. Who have written the musicalized version of Ever After.
Experience live theater. Experience paintings. Experience books. Live, look and listen like artists! ~ imaginethis
LIVE THAT LESSON!!!!!!
#19

re: Female Composers?

Brenda Russell & Allee Willis did the music to The Color Purple with Stephen Bray.
#20

re: Female Composers?

Jill Williams (supposedly the first woman to have written the book, music, and lyrics to a Broadway show, with the flop-a-riffic Rainbow Jones)
#21

re: Female Composers?

TMM only used 2 or 3 songs from the original movie with Julie Andrews, Tesori did much of the score herself.
#22

re: Female Composers?

Jill Santoriello (A Tale of Two Cities)
Georgia Stitt (The Water)
Kirsten Childs (The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin)
Lisa DeSpain (Storyville - her lyricist is Kristen Anderson-Lopez, wife of Robert "Avenue Q" Lopez)
Leslie Arden (The Boys Are Coming Home)
Melissa Manchester (I Sent a Letter to My Love)
Julie Mandel (Two)
Margaret Martin (the most recent Gone With the Wind)
Elizabeth Swados (Runaways, Doonesbury, among others)
Helen Miller (Inner City)
Barbara Damashek (Quilters)
Jill Dowse (Thatcher the Musical)
Marguerite Monnot (Irma La Douce)
Kay Swift (Fine and Dandy)
Debra Barsha (Radiant Baby)
Ruth Wallis (Boobs: The Musical)
Mary Murfitt (Cowgirls)
Claudia Perry (Queen of Hearts)
Angela Peterson (The Dragonslayers)
Phylliss K. Robinson (Angel Levine)
Ann Ronell (Count Me In)
Naomi Caryl Hirshhorn (Spoon River Anthology)
Julie Shannon (The Christmas Schooner)
Nancy Shayne (Marcy in the Galaxy)
Nancy Ford (I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It On the Road, The American Girls Revue, among others)
Carole King (Really Rosie)
Victoria Wood (Acorn Antiques)
Dianne Adams (The Wind in the Willows)

Debra Monk and Cass Morgan are two of the composers of Pump Boys and Dinettes
Debra Monk and Mary Murfitt are two of the composers of Oil City Symphony
Portia Nelson is one of the composers of Almost Crazy
Nell Benjamin is one of the composers of Legally Blonde and Cam Jansen
Melissa Morris is one of the composers of Evil Dead: The Musical
Ilene Reid is one of the composers of Bingo
Nancy White is one of the composers of Anne and Gilbert
Judy Hart Angelo is one of the composers of Preppiess
Caryl Brahms is one of the composers of Cindy-Ella or I Gotta Shoe
Ann Duquesnay is one of the composers of Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk
Marian Grudeff is one of the composers of Baker Street

(why, yes, I did cheat and use Wikipedia for some of this, how ever could you tell?)
#24

re: Female Composers?

"Has nobody mentioned Julie Styne?!"

As in the composer of Gypsy and Funny Girl? Male.

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