What I Do

I strive to write fun, funny, and moving musicals that embody my left-wing political beliefs.

My Work

Currently, Eric Grunin and I are working on Lucy, Bluebeard’s Last Wife, a 35 minute detective-thriller, horror-comedy musical.

In 2017, Eric Grunin and I created Bystander, an award-winning 10 minute musical, at the Hudson Guild Theater as part of NY SummerFest. It won Best Short Musical.  It was subsequently presented at Sound Bites 6.0 in 2018 where it won Best Music. It is currently being distributed by MTI.

I’ve had three short musicals produced as part of the Lincoln Center Across a Crowded Room program: Blue Cross Blues, (2017, book), Pyramid (2015, book and lyrics), and Our Woman Frank Thompson (2015, lyrics).  I had another short musical produced at the Short Play Festival at The Players Theater in the winter of 2017, (Uncomfortable Sex, lyrics).

My Life Story

I trod a crooked path.  I started writing poetry and songs at 14.  Writing is what I’ve always wanted to do.  I wrote through college (Swarthmore) where I became active in the anti-Vietnam War movement and law school (Columbia), which I attended because I wanted to be a radical lawyer.  I realized practicing law was not what I wanted to do, and, after passing the bar exam, I spent 6 years as an Assistant Director of film.  I didn’t like that either.  I went into computer programming, thinking it would afford me the time to write on the side, which turned out to be not so true.  But I spent the next 30 years doing one form or another of work with computers, spending 12 years as a lyricist in a small theater company along the way and trying unsuccessfully to write a novel. 

I retired in 2010 at 60, and now I get to do what I really want to do, write musical theater.  I’ve gotten training at the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop, the Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA), and the Dramatists Guild Institute. 

As wonderful as writing musical theater is …

The best things in my life are my family and friends: my beautiful wife Lisa, my wonderful daughters, Sarah and Julia, and the many friends who I love.