Your Favorite Amateur/Non-Broadway Composers??

[sephyr]

Who are some of your favorite composers who have never really made it to Broadway or who you know of locally? You can share his or her website and youtube videos :)

[henrikegerman]

In a very theatrical vein?: Rufus Wainwright.

[darquegk]

Wainwright is fantastic, I'd love to hear a musical from him. Ditto for Paul Steel if we're going obscure, and Alice Cooper, if we're going mainstream.

[anmiller07]

I know many people don't like him because all of his music sounds similar....but I really, really LOVE all of Scott Alan's compositions.

[tazber]

I like Scott Alan in small doses. David Friedman has written some wonderful songs.

[darquegk]

Benoit Jutras, one of the composers for Cirque du Soleil, does some fantastic work. One of my favorite records is a soundboard bootleg of the entire score to "Quidam." The cast recording, or soundtrack, or whatever you want to call it, for the show doesn't accurately reflect the music at all. It's partially a remix album and partially an album of reinterpretations of the music. But to really hear the way the compositions sound, you kind of have to watch the DVD or find a soundboard.

Have there been any other musicals or movies where the cast recording or soundtrack album only minutely reflects the actual score? The only one I can think of is "Turn Off The Dark."

[CalebMeyer]

I really love some of Jeff Blumenkrantz's stuff, especially his settings of Edna St. Vincent Millay's poetry. But I love everything Millay, so I might be a little biased...

[tomatlcm]

I really love Ryan Scott Oliver and Lance Horne but my favourite non broadway songwriters are the british Cabaret troupe Fascinating Aida. Their music is a mix of hilarious comedy and serious songs and theyve been going some 28 years so have a serious back catelogue of work. They've been getting quite big on the internet in britain with there songs "cheap flights" and "dogging"
Heres one below

cheap flights

[dreaming]

I don't think Andre Previn did a Broadway show and he would be up there on my list.

[yankeefan7]

Phillip Glass and Paul McCartney

[CaissieFan101]

Scott Alan. The end.

[EricMontreal22]

"In a very theatrical vein?: Rufus Wainwright."

Did you hear his opera?

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Andre Previn did in fact do a Broadway show - Coco, in 1969. Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, and starring Katherine Hepburn.

He also did an opera version of A Streetcar Named Desire...Eric, I know you're a big Tennessee Williams fan - are you familiar? I'm curious to know what it's like.

Threadjack alert.

[dreaming]

Jay-I'm familiar with that opera. (But it's an opera not a musical.)

I didn't know about Coco so I retract.

[Addison D.]

I'm a big fan of Steve Lutvak. Who's not an amateur, but is not yet a Broadway Composer.

All 39 of his YouTube videos are lousy--if I can find a decent link I will post it.

[CalebMeyer]

Did anyone here see Rufus Wainwright's opera, Prima Donna? Was it truly as bad as the NYTimes article made it out to be?

Sorry for threadjacking :)

[GlindatheGood22]

Kerrigan and Lowdermilk are absolutely wonderful.

[AEA AGMA SM]

"He also did an opera version of A Streetcar Named Desire...Eric, I know you're a big Tennessee Williams fan - are you familiar? I'm curious to know what it's like."

Lyric Opera of Chicago is doing a very short run of Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire in the spring, with Renee Fleming returning to the role of Blanche (she did the premiere production at San Francisco Opera). But in order to get tickets you basically have to become a season subscriber because they are only doing something like four performances.

I really liked it when I saw it, though I don't think it plays as well on disc as it does on stage. The San Francisco production was also recorded and released on DVD, which is now out of print, but still going for very reasonable prices on Amazon for both new and used copies from their re-sellers.

[Wynbish]

Adam Gwon

[ClapYo'Hands]

André Previn also wrote the music (to Johnny Mercer lyrics) for a musical adaptation of "The Good Companions". Whilst it's not a Broadway show, it did play in the West End with Judi Dench and was performed at the York Theatre in NYC in 2001. A cast recording is available.

[dreaming]

The opera of "A Streetcar Named Desire" will also make its New York debut this coming spring with that same cast at Carnegie Hall.

[theobsessed]

I know that all of these have been mentioned on this thread already, but Scott Alan, Ryan Scott Oliver, and Kerigan/Lowdermilk are some of my favorites. I've also recently started listening to a lot of Adam Gwon and he has some really exciting stuff.

If this thread had come out a few months ago I would've put Pasek and Paul, but now with A Christmas Story and Dogfight coming to Broadway it looks like they finally made it big, and I couldn't be more happy for them!

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Thanks AEA - I didn't know about the DVD, I must track it down.
I'd love to see Renee Fleming in the part!

[latitudex1]

There's a little contemporary musical theater blog, of course, and they're having a little feature on the top 20 new songs in musical theater (contemporarymusicaltheatre.wordpress.com). It's a pretty nice look at where we're heading in American musical theater for the next little while.

It's filled with post-Sondheim in the vein of Jason Robert Brown, William Finn and LaChuisa. Less tuneful or hummable melodies, completely composed through (every chord is unique, every note has a meaning), impactful ballads, difficult to sing, etc. It's a really fun, if angsty, time in musical theater if you're into that stuff. Gone are the toe-tapping days of yore, or the nasally Europop of a couple decades ago.

As far as favorites go, I really connect to Kooman and Dimond, Georgia Stitt, and Jonathan Reid Gealt.

[Addison D.]

A shout-out to my nominee--Steve Lutvak--in honor of Christopher Isherwood's enthusiastic review of 'A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder' in the NYT.


NYT Review

[jv92]

Non-Broadway composers? Carlisle Floyd (opera), Stevie Wonder, Laura Nyro (pop songwriters)

There are others, but those come to mind right away. I wouldn't call some of the songwriters who haven't "made it big" yet amateurs, though. They're writing on a professional level, yet "professional"producers haven't given them a chance yet.