Ben Bonnema

Ben Bonnema is a Jonathan Larson Award-winning composer-lyricist. The New Yorker recently raved about his show THE APPLE BOYS, calling it "a bushelful of delights" and that he wrote "clever, catchy songs." It had its world premiere at HERE Arts Center in November 2018 (book by Jonothon Lyons). According to Alan Cumming, ?The Apple Boys have managed to reinvent the barbershop form for the 21st Century. They?re hilarious, clever and, of course, sound beautiful.? Ben wrote book, music & lyrics to Adult Swim's PETER PANIC, a full-length musical within a mobile game that's been played by nearly two million people (developed by James Marion). His slumber party musical, BOYS WHO TRICKED ME, was called "heart-healing musical theatre" by Joshua Barone of the New York Times, and had a three-week showcase production at the Musical Theatre Factory in midtown Manhattan (Feb 2015). Other full-length: ONE WAY with Christopher Staskel, which had a reading at Playwrights Horizons via the Musical Theatre Factory and was developed at Goodspeed Writers Colony & Rhinebeck Writers Retreat (it was also a 2017 Yale Institute Finalist and 2018 NAMT Finalist), and THE LOST GIRL with Arianna Rose (Buck Hill Skytop Music Festival). He contributed additional sound design and composition to Punchdrunk's award winning show SLEEP NO MORE and supplied additional orchestrations for Ana Gasteyer's solo album I'm Hip. As Music Associate to Marc Shaiman, he worked on the Disney film Mary Poppins Returns, starring Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda (Oscar Nom. for Best Score), as well as the Broadway show Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Ben holds an M.F.A. from NYU's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program and a B.A. in Music Composition from Whitworth University. He's a proud member of ASCAP, the Dramatist Guild, Local 802, and is a founding member of the Musical Theatre Factory.