More books of musicals should come from a "writer's room"

Fascinating feature on Amber Ruffin process in Entertainment Weekly.

She says: "Matthew Lopez and I spent a lot of time with our interns and assistants and us all typing away," she recounts. "It felt like a writer's room. I do think we were onto something with that. I have to be in a writer's room most of the time. I don't think people who write musicals do that. But I'm here to tell you, they should."

Is she right?

Hope those interns got paid for their ideas…

It might work for some, not for others. There is no "right" way to write, only whats right for that person.

It’s really not a bad idea. Though writing a musical already functions a little bit like a writer’s room if you have a separate composer, lyricist, bookwriter, director, and producer.

IF they could fairly determine royalties/wages and crediting, having 4-5 people working on the book could solve some of the problems of representation and parity. One person is overseeing the overall writing (like the showrunner), but then you can have multiple perspectives to write for characters of different perspectives. Because each writer brings different strengths.

The key challenge is ownership. In TV/film, you’re writing for hire. In the theatre, the authors of the show own the copyright.

We’ve seen some bad flops with a committee of bookwriters (Gettin the Band was developed out of improv, Paradise Square had people being hired and fired constantly, etc) but it’s a system that COULD work if you set out with that model as the original intention.

I agree and like this idea. Obviously some hierarchy makes sense to ensure vision, cohesion, etc., but there are a lot of benefits to the approach for certain shows.

On a related note, I may get laughed out of here for saying this, but despite the shows's flaws, the book for Gettin' the Band Back Together was the funniest I've ever seen. When I found out it was created by a collective of professional improvisors, I wasn't surprised.

pmensky said: "While multiple writers are used on TV series, I was under the impression that there is one head writer who will establish the plot, its arc, character descriptions, and major plot points expected to occur throughout the season."

Yes with a musical you would still need one writer who is the "muscle" and who could cherrypick what they'd like to use or make on-the-fly revisions.

Every TV writers room differs. I think it’s more accurate to say there is one person who has ultimate say as to what the arc, plot points and stories are for the season. Some shows will have one person who decides that. Others will have a room where the ideas come together and then one person says yay or nay.