Rick Cummins

---Member of the BMI/Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop from 1974-1988; ---THE LITTLE PRINCE (Composer, and co-author with lyricist John Scoullar), based on the book by Antoine de St. Exupery; developed at Playhouse by the River in 1983; opened Off-Broadway in 1993 with Daisy Eagan in the lead role; currently licensed exclusively by Dramatic Publishing in 4 versions for the stage (small or large-cast musical,small or large-cast play). One of the musical's best songs, "44 Sunsets" was chosen by Bruce Kimmel for his Varese-Sarabande album "BROADWAY BOUND: New Writers for the Musical Theatre." The small-cast play version of the Cummins-Scoullar adaptation was re-mounted as a puppetry version in 2010 with one live actor and life-sized puppets, at Cape May Playhouse and Bristol Riverside Theatre, It was selected to open Broadway's New Victory Theatre 2011 season, and is now on tour through the U.S. for the 2013-2014 seasons.

---TINY TIM'S CHRISTMAS CAROL (Composer, and co-author with lyricist Michael Harron), a unique and heart-warming adaptation of the Dickens classic tale. It was developed at East Stroudsburg University and opened in 1988 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Majestic Theatre (with 9 year-old Daisy Eagan in her theatrical debut); and at the Theatre at Riverside Church, and on tour in Long Island. It has since been performed at theatres through the U.S. and is well-known in Pennsylvania as "the Pocono Christmas tradition." It recently completed a 5-week 2012 holiday run at the Shawnee Playhouse in Stroudsburg.
---THAT'S LIFE! (Composer; songs written with Greer Woodward, June Siegel, and Dan Kael, and others), a musical revue, conceived by Helen Butleroff, about the contemporary Jewish experience in America, Playhouse 91, ran for 2 years Off-Broadway, nominated as Best Musical by the Outer Critics Circle group.
---PETS (Composer; written with Greer Woodward and others), Off-Broadway musical revue conceived by Helen Butleroff, about people and their beloved pets; licensed by Dramatic Publishing.
---SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE (Composer, Co-author with John Forster and lyricist Greer Woodward), presented for 2 seasons by Theatreworks USA, Promenade Theatre, Town Hall, other venues,and on U.S. tour with Theatreworks; published and licensed by Samuel French.
---HALF THE SKY (Composer), a thematic musical odyssey about gender bias, based on true stories from the media around the world; written with lyricists Greer Woodward, June Siegel, and Luis Santeiro, and librettist Marsha Sheiness. Initially developed at Donna Trinkoff's AMAS Musical Theatre under the title A VIRTUAL WOMAN, it was later revised and then chosen as the kick-off presentation in Chicago for the 2006 Best New Musicals Festival, staged readings presented by Theatre Building Chicago. A segment of HALF THE SKY was presented in New York at a theatre festival (directed by Graciella Danielle) by the League of Women Theatre Producers.
---AMOS AND OLGA (Composer, written with lyricist-librettist William Morrison, based on a play by Lucille Hauser); a traditional musical comedy farce about the dawn of gambling in Atlantic City 1976, and a love story about Amos,a two-bit real estate dealer, and Olga, an immigrant from the Russian circus; she now owns a slice of prime boardwalk property, which she refuses to relinquish. Performed at Playhouse by the River, and renamed THE GREAT AMERICAN GAME.
---IVERNA, based on Brian Friel's THE LOVES OF CASS McGUIRE, (written with lyricist-librettist William Morrison). When Cass McGuire naively decides to return from New York to her native Ireland, she finds out her bawdy manners and hard-drinking behavior are not as welcome as she imagined.
---HURRICANE ADA (Composer, written with lyricist, librettist Eustacia Cutler), loosely based on Shakespeare's "THE TEMPEST."

Rick has also extensively written incidental music for American classics(like DEATH OF A SALESMAN, THE GLASS MENAGERIE, THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK) Sam Shepard's ICARUS'S MOTHER, WAIT UNTIL DARK, and numerous scores for Shakespeare (A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, ROMEO AND JULIET, HAMLET, JULIUS CAESAR, THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, MACBETH, THE TEMPEST, and more. These scores have been performed in the U.S., Canada, and in Europe.

Rick was born and raised in Johnstown, PA. He was a Phi Beta Kappa student at the University of Pennsylvania, and subsequently earned an M.D. degree from the same Ivy League institution. After practicing medicine for a year in Philadelphia, he was accepted into the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop and moved to New York in 1974. From that time up to the present, he has lived a life of hard work and accomplishment as a dual-career New Yorker: writing for the theatre and practicing preventive medicine, ambulatory care, and occupational medicine. His patients have been at the Preventive Medicine Institute/Strang Clinic, at the Betances Family Medical Practice, and at the corporate headquarters of Mobil Oil Corp. and Bristol-Myers Squibb. After 38 years of medical practice, he recently retired, but continues as a composer and writer for theatre. He lives in Manhattan and in Marshalls Creek, PA.