Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Pasek and Paul) are on a roll. This year they have been given a Broadway and a Off-Broadway show. On July 16th their show Dogfight will have its world premiere at Second Stage Theatre. Two-time Tony award winner Joe Mantello and choreographer Tony award winner Christopher Gattelli (Newsies) are involved. The musical was the recipient of the 2011 Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theater given by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. A Christmas Story: the Musical! opened at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre in 2010. Tony award-winning director John Rando and choreographer Warren Carlyle joined to launch a national tour in 2011, now a Broadway engagement for the 2012 holiday season. It is safe to say Pasek and Paul are on a role.
T2C: How does it feel to have both a Broadway and an Off Broadway show in the same season?
P&P: It is truly overwhelming, nerve-racking and totally thrilling. It wasn’t too long ago that we were still in college at the University of Michigan, studying musical theatre and idolizing the Broadway performers and writers we now have a chance to work with and get advice from. Since leaving school, we’ve been given incredible opportunities to develop new work and hone our craft. This has been a year where we continually pinch ourselves, seeing two of our shows premiere in New York. We never could have expected this and we feel incredibly blessed.
T2C: Your music in Dogfight is reminiscent of Adam Guettel. Who do you feel you sound like and who inspired you.
P&P: While there are definitely people that we listen to for inspiration, Adam Guettel being among them, we try to tailor our songs to the characters in the shows we’re writing for above all else. If a character cries out to sound a certain way, that dictates the style in which we write. In terms of musical theatre writers, Sondheim, Ahrens and Flaherty, Stephen Schwartz , Lopez and Marx, David Zippel and John Bucchino are hugely inspiring to us. We’re also greatly influenced by Bock and Harnick, Frank Loesser, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cy Coleman and a host of other folks as well. There are certain pop writers we listen to as well, including Sara Bareilles, John Mayer, Gabe Dixon, Rob Mathes, Stevie Wonder and Ben Folds.
T2C: Your music for Dogfight to A Christmas Story: the Musical! to James and the Giant Peach has such different styles. Do you have a specific style yet?
P&P: I think our style is still emerging, but ultimately, we are trying to write music and lyrics that match the tone of the world of the musical we’re writing. James and the Giant Peach, based on a British children’s story with lots of fantastical elements, will undoubtedly have a different sound than A Christmas Story: The Musical which is set in the 1940’s Midwest. We try to be more conscious of serving the story and the characters than of developing our own sound, but we definitely try to maintain our own voice that we hope comes through despite changing styles to match the story being told.
T2C: Where do you get your ideas?
P&P: We get our ideas from anywhere and everywhere. Our musicals might be based on pre-existing source material, as Dogfight, James and the Giant Peach and A Christmas Story: The Musical all are. Our song cycle from college, EDGES, has songs based on real life experiences that happened to us and to our friends. Our next show that we’re beginning to develop is loosely based on real life events that happened at Benj’s high school. The more that we delve into the world of writing, the more we try to find ideas that lend themselves to songs. By that, we mean that the emotion of the story has enough weight to merit the characters expressing themselves through song as opposed to just dialogue. We’re always on the lookout for those kinds of stories, which usually have a deep emotional undercurrent where the characters are a bit larger than life.
T2C: You’ve written for Disney, Theatreworks USA and now A Christmas Story: the Musical! Do you have an affinity for writing for children?
P&P: We never set out to write specifically for children, but we do find that when doing so, we’re able to be more playful in our writing. Children are also more prone to accept fantasy worlds, which are generally very good for writing musicals. They don’t question when a monster starts belting or a flying puppet breaks into song. When characters transition from speaking to singing, there is a break in reality. When the world established is already a far cry from reality, as a lot of work for children is, it becomes easier to be less literal in the writing and make the characters sing.
T2C: What would you like to work on? In other words your dream show?
P&P: While in college, we actually made a list of properties that would be dream projects for us to write one day. On that list, among the top five, were A Christmas Story and James and the Giant Peach. We feel we’ve gotten to work on two of our “dream shows” already. We don’t have anything specifically in mind that we want to adapt at this time, but we’re always open to the next great idea that could lend itself to musical adaptation.
T2C: What would you like to work on? In other words your dream show?
P&P: While in college, we actually made a list of properties that would be dream projects for us to write one day. On that list, among the top five, were A Christmas Story and James and the Giant Peach. We feel we’ve gotten to work on two of our “dream shows” already. We don’t have anything specifically in mind that we want to adapt at this time, but we’re always open to the next great idea that could lend itself to musical adaptation.
T2C: What are you working on now?
P&P: We’re doing our last round of rewrites for A Christmas Story: The Musical. We’re also at the beginning stages of developing a completely original musical with playwright Steven Levenson.
Posted by Suzanna Bowling
on July 14, 2012. Filed under ENTERTAIMENT,NEWS,Secrets of Times Square,Theatre.
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