Last night I went to a free (!) panel called "Pen and Swill: The Art of Writing Musicals" put on by New Dramatists and NYMF.

It was an hour-long panel discussion featuring:

Marsha Norman (Pulitzer and Tony award winner) who is currently working on the book for The Color Purple.

David Lindsay-Abaire who is currently writing the books to the musicals of Shrek, High Fidelity, and Betty Boop.

Rinne Groff who is a current resident playwright at New Dramatists.

Karen Hartman who is a current resident playwright at New Dramatists.

Julia Jordan who is a current resident playwright at New Dramatists.

Cheryl L. Davis who wrote, among others, Barnstormer (with composer Douglas J. Cohen).

It's great just to sit and listen to people in the business talk about what they do. It wasn't a "how-to" session, which I wasn't expecting, but more of a chat session.

It was interesting to hear the ones who wrote just book talk about their relationships with the composers and lyricists. Most liked to write the entire play first, to be in charge of plot and character development entirely and then give it over to the composer/lyricst to plunder material for songs. They didn't seem to want to develop the piece in tandem with the composer/lyricists -- too many cooks!

It made me feel better to hear someone like Marsha Norman talk about the constant evolutionary process of creating a musical -- they are on their third "opening number" for The Color Purple! She also described a musical as a "love story with a great final scene". She also brought up the challenges of writing a musical nowadays when everyone is so knowledgeable about all aspects of the world. South Pacific was written at a time when most people found that area of the world mysterious. Nowadays the only "far away place" left is the past, which is why so many musicals take place there.

They all agreed that when looking for a piece that would be suitable to musicalize, one should look for something that has an emotional heart, not too complex and somewhat iconic. And unlike in plays, when a character walks on stage in a musical, that is who they are and their character will remain pretty much unchanged until the end of the musical. You can't really do murder mysteries, because when a person sings, that is his/her inside voice so secrets are harder to keep from an audience. Interesting!

Thanks to a great panel!

From the program:

About New Dramatists

In 1949 a committee of playwrights led by Michaela O'Hara founded New Dramatists in order to "find gifted playwrights and give them the time, space and tolls to develop their craft, so that they may fulfill their potential and make lasting contributions to the theatre." For 56 years, New Dramatists has achieved this mission through our playwright development program, which includes our play and musical reading series, international playwright exchanges, administrative support for our resident playwrights, playwriting grants and awards, fellowships for emerging writers, and our ongoing advocacy efforts on behalf of playwrights in the national theatre community. These programs benefit approximately 50 talented playwrights and support well over 100 play and musical workshops, seminars, artist exchanges, and panel discussions each season. Beyond creating uncountable works for American stages, our writers have earned an array of awards including 13 Pulitzers, 23 Tonys and 59 Obies. In June of 2001, New Dramatists was awarded a special Tony Honor for Sustained Excellence in the American Theatre. In May of 2005, the Village voice Obie Committee awarded New Dramatists the Ross Wetzsteon Award.

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