Blog Filter By The Writing Process

You’ve seen her Emmy- and Golden Globe Award-winning television show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, you’ve downloaded her songs, you’ve bought her sheet music. (I know you have – you’ve asked me to transcribe her sheet music for you, and she has generously allowed me to do that.) You’ve even seen her in her viral, break-through, Youtube channel... As her hit show sets off on its fourth and final season, I sat down with the one and only Rachel Bloom... and asked her the nine most pressing questions I had. Here’s what she said:

The article 9 Questions for Rachel Bloom appeared first in 

Musical Theater Today, Volume 2.

Writer’s block. It’s the worst. It’s haunting, it’s emotionally complicated, and it fills us with crippling self-doubt. It’s a tricky beast that comes for us all at some point during the musical theatre writing process, but it does not, by any stretch, have to break us. I’ve learned that the easiest cure all for writer’s […]

The post 5 Tips to Tackle Writer’s Block appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

The process of rewriting in musical theatre (or anything for that matter) is a tedious one. You finish a draft of this monster you’ve been crafting for however long, you’re super jazzed about it, you think it’s ready to approach The Broadway, but then. Well. Something is wrong. The dots aren’t connecting. The ending doesn’t […]

The post Consider Rewriting. No, Seriously. appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

If you’re like me, you started writing your first musical when you should have been paying attention in math class. You slaved over your “serious” adaptation of whatever short story your English class was reading. You thought it was brilliant, but three years later, you threw the completed first draft away, fearing someone might actually […]

The post Advice From The Greats to People Like Us appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

This past year, my playwriting teacher required every student to fill a shoebox with items that were inspirations or resources for their current plays. She referred to this shoebox as our playwriting altar. It was a place we could turn to if we were feeling stuck or uninspired or confused about our work. These shoeboxes […]

The post Playwriting Altar–an Inspiration Treasure Trove appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

I am officially one proud Father. Before we give my Mother a heart attack, let me clarify: I don’t have a baby. I haven’t lived through a nine month pregnancy that culminated in a long, painful delivery process that brought a new life into the world. I won’t be changing diapers, fighting through late night […]

The post One Proud Father appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

Q: Thank you so much submitting to this interview! I’m a big fan of your songwriting! A: Aw, shucks… well, I love the way you sing my songs. It’s like you know exactly what I’m thinking. Q: [blush] So we’re here to chat about your new song cycle Month Upon a Time. A: Actually, it’s […]

The post Actor Jeff Blumenkrantz Interviews Songwriter Jeff Blumenkrantz appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

Pasek and Paul have been well known names in American musical theatre for some time, thanks to the ongoing success of shows such as EDGES, along with their work on SMASH and even the recent OLD NAVY TV campaign. Their popularity in London continues to grow, with their 2012 musical DOGFIGHT receiving its European premiere […]

The post INTERVIEW: Pasek and Paul and Peter Duchan on Dogfight, Adaptations, and Contemporary Theater appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

If you didn’t figure it out from this post of mine, I’m a dramaturg. But there’s very little discussion of what that actually means on this blog, or mostly anywhere. If you google it, you get a lot of dense, academic answers that fail to actually explain in any practical terms what a dramaturg does. […]

The post I’m Gonna Give You A Dramaturgy! Or, What the F*@k is Dramaturgy? appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

One of the greatest problems in constructing a musical is the structure. Despite having the topic, plot and characters all in place, the hardest decision seems to be in what order to let it unravel. Traditional musical theatre post-Oklahoma! developed a fairly rigid structure that few book writers strayed from – the reason mainly being, […]

The post Interval Issues: A show of two halves appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

The desire to feel progressive and productive is a natural one that most writers feel. We want to know that our work is moving towards a satisfying goal. And sometimes that journey can seem a little bit hazy in regards to whether or not a project is going anywhere. But do not worry, I promise […]

The post Caught Up in the Labeling appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

The act of musical composition involves one basic activity: choosing good notes. The choice is critical. The first notes heard by the listener set the tone for the entire song or symphony. Good notes are the well-spring for a wonderful composition. Bad notes signal bad music. A composer can’t make good music out of bad […]

The post You Want To Compose? This Is How It’s Done. appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

In many creative aspects we are taught from a young age that versatility is key to success. Actors and performers spend half of their life worrying about finding their niche, and later worry about being typecast and stuck in a particular casting bracket. There is great debate to be had in this topic – some […]

The post Versatility – the key to success for musical theatre composers? appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

Holy balls. Holy fat, sweaty, icky, stinky, stinky, stinky balls… I was on a train for 3 days. I spent all 3 days wide awake… my total sleep count for all three days was 9 hours. I’m awesome. What’s more awesome is that the trip was spent productively doing a few things… First and most […]

The post INSPIRATION EXPRESS: This Blog Comes To You From A Cross Country Train Ride appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

Being into musical theatre isn’t all that different from being into comic books. Everyone has their favorite Green Lantern (John Stewart) or Mama Rose (Patti LuPone), there’s always something to nitpick when the movies come out, epic costumes are crucial to your daily survival, and normal people never know what you’re talking about. I can’t […]

The post DREAM PAIRINGS: New Musical Theatre Writers and the Comics They Should Adapt appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

I thought I’d try something different in this blog and write about one example of how I used the music that inspires me from other genres to create something new in musical theater.  The moment I was writing in this case was the last ensemble number for my musical “Tiananmen,” where the students, in a […]

The post Mendelssohn + Spiritual + Pop Harmony = This? appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.