are there any triple threat writers out there?
are there any triple threat writers out there?
eatlasagna
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/6/04
#1are there any triple threat writers out there?
Posted: 9/18/08 at 10:10pmso the san diego musical theater is going to produce Blood Brothers next year and i saw that the music, book and lyrics were all written by Willy Russell... i don't recall ever seeing a show with someone doing all of that... how rare is that on Broadway... and are there any actual Tony Award winners out there who have won for doing all three rather than just one or the other?
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
#2re: are there any triple threat writers out there?
Posted: 9/18/08 at 10:12pm
Larson wrote RENT (though there's someone uncredited who gets royalties for doctoring the script, I believe)
Jill Santoriello wrote TALE OF TWO CITIES
#2re: are there any triple threat writers out there?
Posted: 9/18/08 at 10:14pm
Jonathan Larson wrote both book and score to RENT and won Tony Awards (and a Pulitzer) for both.
Rupert Holmes also penned both score and book for THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD and was awarded Tonys for both as well.
I am a firm believer in serendipity- all the random pieces coming together in one wonderful moment, when suddenly you see what their purpose was all along.
eatlasagna
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/6/04
#3re: are there any triple threat writers out there?
Posted: 9/18/08 at 10:17pmwow i completely blanked out on RENT... that should've been really obvious to me!
#4re: are there any triple threat writers out there?
Posted: 9/18/08 at 10:17pm
The Music Man with book, music and lyrics by Meredith Wilson
The Last Five years with book, music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown
Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse both wrote the book, music and lyrics to The Roar of the Greasepaint - The Smell of the Crowd and Stop the World - I Want to Get Off. Newley also starred in both. I think he directed both, also.
"One no longer loves one's insight enough once one communicates it."
The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.
The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.
Drewprecht
Understudy Joined: 10/6/05
#5re: are there any triple threat writers out there?
Posted: 9/18/08 at 10:47pm"Blood Brothers" - Book, Lyrics and Music by Willy Russell
#6re: are there any triple threat writers out there?
Posted: 9/18/08 at 10:48pmDon't forget Willy Russell's Blood Brothers!
#7re: are there any triple threat writers out there?
Posted: 9/18/08 at 11:08pmMichael John LaChiusa, sometimes
commasplice
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/29/04
#8re: are there any triple threat writers out there?
Posted: 9/18/08 at 11:15pmJill Williams, for "Rainbow Jones" (and supposedly the first woman to do so, but I haven't found confirmation of that from someone other than Williams herself)
shesamarshmallow
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/23/06
#9re: are there any triple threat writers out there?
Posted: 9/18/08 at 11:16pmWell. Twilight in Manchego at NYMF this year has book, music and lyrics all by Matt Gould. And The Plant That Ate Dirty Socks at Theatreworks USA had book, music and lyrics by Joe Iconis.
broadwayunderstudies.com - most underrated performers on broadway
#10re: are there any triple threat writers out there?
Posted: 9/18/08 at 11:33pm
Larson wrote RENT (though there's someone uncredited who gets royalties for doctoring the script, I believe)
Billy Aronson is credited for the original concept and additional lyrics. I believe Lynn Thomson is in fact uncredited. She served as the dramaturge. She sued at one point for a percentage of the profits claiming co-authorship, but I don't remember the outcome of if an agreement was ever reached.
ashley0139
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/3/05
#11re: are there any triple threat writers out there?
Posted: 9/19/08 at 12:03amAndrew Lippa wrote music, lyrics, and book for Wild Party.
"This table, he is over one hundred years old. If I could, I would take an old gramophone needle and run it along the surface of the wood. To hear the music of the voices. All that was said." - Doug Wright, I Am My Own Wife
#12re: are there any triple threat writers out there?
Posted: 9/20/08 at 8:36pm
I believe Lynn Thomson is in fact uncredited. She served as the dramaturge. She sued at one point for a percentage of the profits claiming co-authorship, but I don't remember the outcome of if an agreement was ever reached.
The fact that she's still credited for dramaturgy on everything, including the officially licensed MTI material, indicates she got at least something. Which is a damn shame, considering she wrote at least 10% of the final material, which legally qualifies her for co-author credit and royalties. Of course, the grieving Larson family wasn't willing to take any of the spotlight off their darling boy, who is known to have ripped off a few other people pre-posthumously (witness the account of Sarah Schulman, and look into the story of Steven Wishnoff (sp?), who wrote an outline for a modern LA BOHEME that was the spitting image of a show that became popular not long after--remember, the final version of RENT resembled almost nothing of Aronson's initial version for which Larson composed).
"There is no problem so big that it cannot be run away from."
~ Charles M. Schulz
Updated On: 9/20/08 at 08:36 PM
jagfkb
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/29/07
#13re: are there any triple threat writers out there?
Posted: 9/20/08 at 8:45pmFor Drood, didn't he also orchestrate the show?
#14re: are there any triple threat writers out there?
Posted: 9/20/08 at 9:18pmLionel Bart - Oliver!
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
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blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
#15re: are there any triple threat writers out there?
Posted: 9/20/08 at 9:25pm
"Oliver!" - book, music & lyrics by Lionel Bart
"The Most Happy Fella" - book, music & lyrics by Frank Loesser
"Here's Love" and "The Music Man" - book, music & lyrics by Meredith Willson
Bob Merrill was also a "triple threat", though he never actually contibuted all 3 disciplines to the same show. He wrote music & lyrics for shows such as "Carnival", "New Girl In Town", "Take Me Along" - lyrics only for "Funny Girl", and "Sugar" - and book & lyrics for "Prettybelle". And he also wrote a few screenplays.
Similarly with Stephen Sondheim - though he has never contibuted to the Book for his various musicals, penning music & lyrics only - he has co-written a play with George Furth ("Getting Away With Murder") and a screenplay with Anthony Perkins ("The Last Of Sheila").
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stevenwishnoff
Swing Joined: 11/29/10
#16re: are there any triple threat writers out there?
Posted: 11/29/10 at 1:02amI meant to respond to this a year ago (or more) and then a friend showed it to me again recently. I AM the Steven Wishnoff referred to, and yes many years ago I was working on an adaptation of Boheme that had many similarities to the show Rent. Of course it did - it was inspired by the same source material. And of course, this being a somewhat differecnt world, Mimi's "Consumption" was translated to a more immediately identifiable killer: AIDS. However, my show was different in both tone (musically) and approach. Rent is a magnificent piece of theater, and Mr. Larsen was a wonderful and wonderfully talented man. There was no theft - only two minds finding inspiration in the same place. While I only met J. Larsen once (he was very sweet and funny as I recall) I am friends with and have worked with many, many of the people who have appeared in Rent over the years. I have never once thought there was any kind of theft of material. Not once. Not ever.
#17re: are there any triple threat writers out there?
Posted: 11/29/10 at 1:13am
Wow. That doesn't happen on this board very often. (Bravo, Mr. Wishnoff!)
Next Carol Channing is going to sign up to tell us she never ate corn.
And no one grew into anything new, we just became the worst of what we were."
viola13
Broadway Star Joined: 1/17/07
#19re: are there any triple threat writers out there?
Posted: 11/29/10 at 3:22amThank you for taking the time to post Mr. Wishnoff!
#20re: are there any triple threat writers out there?
Posted: 11/29/10 at 5:55amMichael John LaChiusa is best and most prolific of our current triple threat guys - by quite a distance.
Faced with these Loreleis, what man can moralize!
#21re: are there any triple threat writers out there?
Posted: 11/29/10 at 6:25pm
Scrooge: The Musical is a 1992 stage musical with book, music and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse.
And it's a great book/score.
iluvtheatertrash
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/9/04
#22re: are there any triple threat writers out there?
Posted: 11/29/10 at 8:20pm
The young Daniel Zaitchik wrote the American musical version of Picnic at Hanging Rock which has been in development at the O'Neill, Lincoln Center, etc.
It's an absolutely stunning work --- and the score is as lush and lovely as 'Piazza'.
"I know now that theatre saved my life." - Susan Stroman
#23re: are there any triple threat writers out there?
Posted: 11/29/10 at 9:27pm
Good on you Mr. W.
Buffy musical episode "Once More With Feeling"
Teleplay, music, lyrics, and direction by series creator Joss Whedon.
Now when are we getting a Buffy Broadway musical?
With Irma you gotta do something!
Smaxie
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/26/05
#24re: are there any triple threat writers out there?
Posted: 11/29/10 at 9:40pmDon't forget Joseph Brooks, book, music and lyrics and director for the singular entertainment, In My Life.
Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.
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