Female Composers?- Page 2
Female Composers?
#25re: Female Composers?
Posted: 8/6/08 at 9:12pm
Since this has devolved into lyricists, I can't believe no one has mentioned Dorothy Fields? Probably the greatest of them all! A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Mexican Hayride, Sweet Charity, Redhead, Seesaw. As well at the book to numerous others, including Annie Get your Gun. She was still going strong when she died in her late 60's.
It was reported that when Cy Coleman, her last collaborator, asked her to work with him, she became very emotional, and said something to the effect of "I thought no one would ever ask again."
#26re: Female Composers?
Posted: 8/6/08 at 9:16pm
Actually, wikipedia gives a different version of the Fields/Coleman encounter:
"In 1964, Coleman met Dorothy Fields at a party, and when he asked if she would like to collaborate with him, she is reported to have answered, "Thank God somebody asked". Fields was revitalised by working with the much younger Coleman, and by the contemporary nature of their first project, which was to become Sweet Charity, again with a book by Neil Simon, and starring Gwen Verdon, and introducing the songs If They Could See Me Now, I'm a Brass Band and Hey, Big Spender. The show was a major success and Coleman found working with Fields much easier than with Leigh. The partnership was to work on two more shows – an aborted project about Eleanor Roosevelt, and Seesaw which reached Broadway in 1973 after a troubled out-of-town tour. Despite mixed reviews, the show enjoyed a healthy run. The partnership was cut short by Fields' death in 1974."
Gaynor Colbourn
Swing Joined: 8/13/16
#27re: Female Composers?
Posted: 8/13/16 at 3:27pm
As part of the Butler Colbourn partnership, I can confirm that we are indeed female composers in Musical Theatre, and we have a hit show, The Fire of London. http://www.butlercolbourn.co.uk/page_3276611.html We are the only female writing partnership in GB, and are very proud that our musical is competing on a level footing with male composers.
Gaynor Colbourn
Swing Joined: 8/13/16
#28re: Female Composers?
Posted: 8/13/16 at 3:31pm
http://www.butlercolbourn.co.uk/page_3276611.html
You missed Butler Colbourn, we have a current box office smash hit with The Fire of London
#29re: Female Composers?
Posted: 8/13/16 at 3:56pm
I was just involved in NYMF, with a number of female composers and lyricists. My show had a female composer, and the Best Musicsl winner had a female lyricist.
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#31re: Female Composers?
Posted: 8/13/16 at 10:24pm
Back when they were mentioning female lyricists, I'm surprised Lynn Ahrens' name didn't come up. Her lyrics on ROCKY and THE GLORIOUS ONES notwithstanding, she's formed the words to some of the most beautiful songs heard on Bway in the last 25 years. (ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, RAGTIME, A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE.) And unlike most of the names mentioned here, she's still bloody well writing them today.
Gaynor Colbourn
Swing Joined: 8/13/16
#32re: Female Composers?
Posted: 8/14/16 at 3:18am
We are out there, we Female Composers,but from experience it is SO much harder to be recognised if you are a female composer in Musical Theatre.Our musical has been a box office hit in Wales, UK, and getting it on to Broadway is now our mission. Whatever gender anyone is shouldn't really matter, its the Show that talks to the world.
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