NYT: Benj Pasek and Justin Paul Join the EGOT Club. What Does That Mean?

Many people were introduced to the idea of an EGOT — winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony — through “30 Rock.” But it’s an actor from the 1980s who deserves the credit.

https://www.nytimes.com/article/egot-winners-history.html?unlocked_article_code=1.JU4.opVY.aVV1kE3LUB3r

I agree on both counts, that song is a banger but most of their music is middling and very generic, but I guess that has worked in their favor for their careers, so who am I to criticize?

What it means is they have been wasting their time writing for Movies & TV instead of for the stage.

If Pasek was 3 months younger, he also would have beaten Robert Lopez's record of being the youngest EGOT winner.

I also wish we'd get more work like Dogfight from them (it's never too late for a revival), but I really enjoyed their work on Only Murders and Spirited.

The impact (derogatory) these two have had on current musical theater sound has is one thing I wish we could reverse.

In the minority, maybe, but I don't like it when two awards for the same project counts towards EGOT. From Ben and Cynthia's Emmy wins for a promotional appearance, to P&P, among others, winning a Grammy for the same product they put on Broadway.

Congratulations to these two geniuses, they have written incredible songs over the years. And, as quizking said above “Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It?” is an absolute BANGER of a song.

Plus, there’s been more focus on the “Triple Crown of Acting” being more prestigious in recent years (Oscar, Emmy, Tony) because of the questionable ways people can get EGOTS

smidge said: "I agree with you on Ben & Cynthia’s Emmy wins. But a Musical Theater recording Grammy is bound to have a lot of overlap with the Tonys."

Also, if you ignore the Dear Evan Hanson Tony win, they still have one of each of the awards for four entirely different properties, so I don't think this situation is at all comparable to the others mentioned in this thread.

They've all discussed it in several articles.

https://broadwaydirect.com/how-the-catchy-only-murders-in-the-building-song-was-written/

"Marc Shaiman: [The producers] came to us knowing it would be about the Pickwick triplets and an entire song about how could infants possibly murder their mother? They gave us names of what the three triplets would be. That was it, and we were off to the races. There were four of us in a room, and I was like, “How is this going to work?” I mean, it works great with Scott and I. It turns out it was just as easy and we got even more ideas. We were all on a Google Doc so we could type or delete what someone else had done.

SW: It was like playing Scrabble.

MS: It was like playing a game. It really was. We all love perfect rhymes. We wouldn’t allow anything but a perfect rhyme, and then finding the alliteration and rhymes at the same time. And then how many words are there that can relate to an infant and murder and then other odd works? Pisher, a yiddish word, got in there.

How long did it take?

SW: We had two writing sessions.

MS: At the end of the second one, Justin and I started playing with musical ideas. Then [I felt like I was] naked and I just came out of a very cold ocean. I had trouble writing music in front of three people. Words are so specific. Music is just a different thing. After a while, Justin said, “Well, why don’t you just take a crack at the whole thing and send it to me?” And that’s what I did. Justin is the one who first sang “Which of the Pickwick triplets did it?” with that melody and rhythm, and that set us off. I wrote music to it and what I thought it would be. Justin took that and changed a few chords and a few things. [We got] almost no notes. [The producers] had given us all enough information, and we just delivered what they wanted."



https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/only-murders-pickwik-triplettes-1236106909/

Scarywarhol said: "They've certainly been in the ~ego~ club for a long time."

This.