Susan Birkenhead
Susan Birkenhead | |
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Origin | United States |
Occupation | Lyricist |
Years active | 1978–present |
Susan Birkenhead is an American lyricist.
Birkenhead made her Broadway debut as one of a team of songwriters contributing to Working (1978), for which she received her first Tony Award nomination.[1] Her second was earned for Jelly's Last Jam (1992), which won her the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics[2] and a Grammy Award nomination. Additional Broadway credits include Triumph of Love (Drama Desk nomination) and additional lyrics for the Cole Porter tunes in the 1998 revival of High Society.[3]
Birkenhead's Off-Broadway and regional theatre credits include What About Luv?, a musical adaptation of the Murray Schisgal play Luv, for which she won the Outer Critics Circle Award; Pieces of Eight with Jule Styne and Michael Stewart; Fanny Hackabout Jones with Erica Jong and Lucy Simon; The Night They Raided Minsky's with Charles Strouse and Evan Hunter, the new musical Minsky's based on the same; and, in collaboration with Henry Krieger, two potentially Broadway-bound projects based on hit films, The Flamingo Kid and Moonstruck (with a book by screenwriter John Patrick Shanley).
Birkenhead is one of several lyricists who contributed to Hats!, a musical inspired by the Red Hat Society, which is enjoying an open-ended run at Harrah's New Orleans, after premiering at the New Denver Civic Theatre.[4] The musical had a limited engagement at the Royal George Theatre in Chicago starting in April 2007.[5][6]
Radio Girl, a musical based on Kate Douglas Wiggin's Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, premiered at the Goodspeed Musicals' Norma Terrace Theatre with music by Henry Krieger, lyrics by Birkenhead, and a book by Daniel Goldfarb. The show ran in 2010 from July 29 to August 22.[7]
She also wrote the lyrics for the musical version of Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees, with music by Duncan Sheik and a book by Lynn Nottage. It premiered at the Off-Broadway Atlantic Theater Company on May 12, 2019, which was followed by a London production in 2023.
Awards and nominations
Year | Award | Category | Work | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
1978 | Tony Award | Best Original Score | Working | Nominated |
1992 | Jelly's Last Jam | Nominated | ||
Drama Desk Award | Outstanding Lyrics | Nominated | ||
1998 | Triumph of Love | Nominated |
References
- ^ Working Playbill (vault), accessed March 28, 2016
- ^ Jelly's Last Jam Playbill (vault), accessed March 28, 2016
- ^ High Society Playbill (vault), accessed March 28, 2016
- ^ Dodge, Marcia Milgrom; Dodge, Anthony; Bartlett, Rob. "Introduction" Hats!: The Musical, Samuel French, Inc., 2009, ISBN 0573696721, p. 4
- ^ Oxman, Steven. "Review: ‘Hats!’" Variety, April 30, 2007
- ^ "HATS! The Red Hat Society Musical". Archived from the original on 2007-04-29. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
- ^ Jones, Kenneth. "Goodspeed's 'Radio Girl', New Musical by Henry Krieger and Susan Birkenhead, Begins July 29" Playbill, July 29, 2010
External links
- Susan Birkenhead at the Internet Broadway Database
- Susan Birkenhead at the Dramatists Guild
- Susan Birkenhead at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
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- Fred Ebb (1969)
- Stephen Sondheim / Bertolt Brecht (1970)
- Stephen Sondheim (1971)
- John Guare (1972)
- Stephen Sondheim (1973)
- Al Carmines (1974)
- Charlie Smalls (1975)
- Edward Kleban (1976)
- Martin Charnin (1977)
- Carol Hall (1978)
- Stephen Sondheim (1979)
- Tim Rice (1980)
- Stephen Sondheim / Maury Yeston (1982)
- Howard Ashman (1983)
- Stephen Sondheim (1984)
- Roger Miller (1985)
- Stephen Sondheim (1988)
- David Zippel (1990)
- William Finn (1991)
- Susan Birkenhead (1992)
- Denis Markell and Douglas Bernstein (1993)
- Stephen Sondheim (1994)
- Jonathan Larson (1996)
- Gerard Alessandrini (1997)
- Lynn Ahrens (1998)
- Gerard Alessandrini (1999)
- Stephen Sondheim (2000)
- Mel Brooks (2001)
- Jason Robert Brown (2002)
- Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman (2003)
- Stephen Schwartz (2004)
- Eric Idle (2005)
- Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison (2006)
- Steven Sater (2007)
- Stew (2008)
- Stephen Sondheim (2009)
- John Kander and Fred Ebb (2010)
- Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt Stone (2011)
- Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová (2012)
- Tim Minchin (2013)
- Robert L. Freedman and Steven Lutvak (2014)
- Lin-Manuel Miranda (2015)
- Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (2016)
- David Yazbek (2017)
- Peter Kellogg (2018)
- David Yazbek (2019)
- Michael R. Jackson (2020)
- No Award (2021)
- Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss (2022)
- Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman (2023)
- David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna (2024)
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