Theatrical Composer

Stephen Joshua Sondheim (b. March 22 1930) is an American musical and film composer and lyricist, winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Award (seven, more than any other composer), multiple Grammy Award, and a Pulitzer Prize. He has been described by Frank Rich in the The New York Times as "the greatest and perhaps best-known artist in the American musical theatre." His most famous scores include (as composer/lyricist) A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Follies, A...

Sherman Edwards (April 4, 1919 - March 30, 1981) was a Jewish-American songwriter. He was born in New York City. Edwards taught history at high school before entering the entertainment industry. He was married to Ingrid Edwards, a dancer in Kiss Me, Kate. Edwards wrote: Edwards' crowning achievement was the musical 1776 for which he wrote both lyrics and music. The show depicts the meeting of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia culminating with the signing of the Declaration of...

Jeanine Tesori (formerly known as Jeanine Levenson) is a composer of musicals. She is perhaps best known for the Broadway musical Thoroughly Modern Millie; she composed eleven new songs for the show and added them to three from the movie version; four previously written songs from the 1920s were also added to the musical's score. She also composed the music for the Broadway musical Caroline, or Change, with lyrics by Tony Kushner. She contributed music to the 1998 Broadway production of William...

Lionel Bart (August 1, 1930 – April 3, 1999) was an English composer of songs and musicals, best known for Oliver! Bart was born Lionel Begleiter the youngest of seven surviving children in East London to Galician Jew, and grew up in Stepney. His father worked as a tailor in a garden shed in London E1. The family had escaped the pogroms in Galicia which was then part of the Austrian Empire. Lionel later changed his name to Bart derived from the name of the silk screen printing firm he and...

Lucy Simon (born 1940) is the older sister of musician Carly Simon. She began her professional career at the age of sixteen as a duo with sister Carly. Lucy Simon made her Broadway debut as the composer of The Secret Garden, for which she was nominated for a 1991 Tony Award for Best Original Score and a 1991 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music. She also wrote songs for the off-Broadway show A...My Name is Alice. Her parents were Richard L. Simon, co-founder of the publishing house Simon ...

Burton Lane (February 2, 1912, New York City - January 5, 1997, New York City) was an American composer and lyricist. Lane (real name Burton Levy) was best known for his Broadway musical, Finian's Rainbow (1947) and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1965). He also wrote the music for the less successful Broadway shows, Hold On to Your Hats (1940), Laffing Room Only (1944), Junior Miss (1957), and Carmelina (1979), the latter with lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, who had also written lyrics to Lane...

Richard M. Sherman (born June 12, 1928) (see also: "Sherman Brothers") is an American songwriter who specializes in musical film with his brother Robert B. Sherman. Some of the Sherman Brothers' best known writing includes the songs from Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, Winnie the Pooh, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Slipper and the Rose and the theme park song, "It's a Small World (after all)". Richard Morton Sherman was born on June 12, 1928 in New York City to parents, Rosa (pronounced: "Rose"...

Jim Steinman (born November 1, 1947 in New York City, New York) is an American record producer, composer, and lyricist responsible for several hit songs. He has also worked as an arranger, pianist, and singer. His work has included songs in the adult contemporary, rock and roll, dance/techno, pop, musical theater, and film score genres. His work includes the Meat Loaf album Bat out of Hell and Bat out of Hell II: Back into Hell, and producing albums for Bonnie Tyler. His most successful chart...

Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902, Arverne, Queens, New York City – December 30, 1979, New York City) was an American compose of the music for more than 900 songs and 40 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricist Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II. His compositions have had a significant impact on popular music down to the present day, and have an enduring broad appeal. Rodgers and Marvin...

Eric Idle (born March 29, 1943) is an English comedian, actor, author and composer of comedic songs. He wrote and performed as a member of the internationally renowned British comedy group Monty Python. Idle was born in South Shields, County Durham (now Tyne and Wear) in Harton Village, the son of Nora Barron (Sanderson) and Ernest Idle. His father had served in the Royal Air Force and survived World War II, only to be killed in a hitch-hiking accident on Christmas Eve of the first Christmas...

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948) is a highly successful British composer of musical theatre, and also the elder brother of cellist Julian Lloyd Webber.Webber started composing at the age of six and published his first piece when he was 9. Lloyd Webber has enjoyed great popular success, with several musicals that have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of variations, two film score, and a...

Irving Berlin (May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was a Russia-born naturalized American composer and lyricist, and one of the most prolific American songwriter in history. Berlin was one of the few Tin Pan Alley/Broadway songwriters who wrote both lyrics and music for his songs. Although he never learned to read music beyond a rudimentary level, with the help of various uncredited musical assistants or collaborators, he eventually composed over 3,000 songs, many of which (e.g. "God Bless...