Search results
Jan 4, 2024 · (Photo: The Broadway Show) After Shrek the Musical opened on Broadway in 2008, playwright and lyricist David Lindsay-Abaire and composer Jeanine Tesori knew they wanted to collaborate on...
Dec 29, 2021 · Said David Lindsay-Abaire, with whom she adapted “Shrek” for Broadway, and who adapted his play “Kimberly Akimbo” with her: “She thinks like a playwright.
Feb 23, 2024 · Now, Tony winners Jeanine Tesori and David Lindsay-Abaire have found the time, revising their Shrek the Musical for a new tour, set to embark across the United States beginning February...
Oct 26, 2022 · The playwright David Lindsay-Abaire was trying to talk about his collaboration with the composer Jeanine Tesori and the director Jessica Stone on their musical, “Kimberly Akimbo,” and in...
- "Skater Planet"
- "Hello Darling"
- "Make A Wish"
- "Anagram"
- "Better"
- "Father Time"
- "Happy For Her"
- "This Time"
- "How to Wash A Check"
- "Good Kid"
David Lindsay-Abaire: Here’s what's most interesting to me—we had a completely different opening when we started, when we workshopped the first act at Sundance in 2017. It opened just like the play did. Kim was alone in the snow, on a bench, outside the skating rink waiting for her dad, and she sang about waiting and time. It was a beautiful song, ...
JT: "Hello Darling" for me was so important. I wanted to understand the rate of speech for someone like Pattie, and you were so good about giving her language. You basically said, “Well, here's how she would talk.” And aren't her lyrics from the play? DL: Exactly. Here's what's important to me about the song—it really tells the audience how the sho...
DL: Which brings us expertly into the next song because I think that's true here as well. I’m not giving myself credit; it's giving voice to the circumstances of the show. “Make a Wish” is obviously our version of an “I Want” song. I think this was one of the first songs that we wrote, right? JT: We have our notes from 2014 where I was starting to ...
JT: OK, I'm going to tell this one. “Anagram” is David Lindsay-Abaire and this is why. When we were talking about this song, David was worried because these kinds of songs are really challenging. They can get away from you. They can be too clever, they can be too long. David was doing what we call “noodles,” which I love, which is throwing things o...
DL: “Better” was also one of the early ones because it was among the songs on the first demos we did. JT: I will say, working with Bonnie Milliganon this in the basement at the Atlantic is one of my favorite memories because she got it right away. She is game to throw out ideas and so front-footed in her comedy. She activates scenes. She can be ver...
JT: “Father Time” is such a good example of the conflict between what you want from a song and what the song wants from you. They are not always the same thing. I had this feeling that the song should be a cappella for so long. And David kept saying, “maybe.” The famous maybe. It wasn't until we transferred to Broadway, we went in and did a page on...
DL: Up until this point, we’ve seen Buddy [played by Steven Boyer] behave terribly and break promises to his daughter. This is a moment in the car where he is trying to be a good dad, but struggling with the fear that his daughter may have a crush on a boy. In the play, it's a very specific scene because it’s three people trapped in a car and it's ...
DL: We had a totally different song at the Atlantic. It was a fine song, but that's a CBB. JT: Tell them about that, CBB. DL: I've done some movie work, and there’s a certain executive at a certain studio that would go through pages and write CBB. For the longest time, I did not know what that meant. Finally, one of the executives said, “CBB means ...
JT: “How to Wash a Check” was originally called “The Plan.” The lyrics were not different, but the music was very different. I did not like it, so I reset it, which I don't usually do. We tweaked the lyrics, but the lyrics were not the problem. The problem was the music. The song has turned into Peggy Leeon crack. And that made me happy. DL: The so...
JT: So, “Good Kid” is completely David Lindsay-Abaire's idea, and it would not be in the show if he hadn't said, “I think we're missing a song.” DL: There wasn't a moment for Seth to be by himself. We never had an on-stage moment where he decides to go through with Deborah's crazy plan for Kim. Kim is why he agrees to it. It's a nice, sweet moment ...
Nov 10, 2022 · But in reimagining the work with composer Jeanine Tesori, his collaborator on the stage version of Shrek, Lindsay-Abaire has crafted something uncommonly satisfying, a new musical so...
Jun 12, 2023 · The composer Jeanine Tesori, who wrote the score for “Kimberly Akimbo” with the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire, became the first female composer to win the...
