Adam Guettel

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Adam Guettel is a composer/lyricist living in New York City. His musical, The Light in the Piazza (cast album on Nonesuch Records), with a book by Craig Lucas, premiered on Broadway at Lincoln Center Theater's Vivian Beaumont Theater in April 2005, following a world premiere at Seattle's Intiman Theater in Summer 2003, and a second engagement at Chicago's Goodman Theater in early 2004 (where it received three Joseph Jefferson Awards including Best Musical). The Light in the Piazza received six 2005 Tony Awards including two for Guettel—Best Original Score, Best Orchestrations—and a Grammy nomination for best cast recording. Piazza also received five Drama Desk Awards, including two for Guettel: Best Music and Best Orchestrations.

Adam Guettel wrote music and lyrics for Floyd Collins (cast album on Nonesuch Records), which received the 1996 Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical and earned him the Obie Award for Best Music. Floyd Collins has been presented at Playwrights Horizons, New York; Prince Theatre, Philadelphia; Goodman Theatre, Chicago; Old Globe, San Diego; Bridewell, London; and elsewhere.

His other works include Love's Fire, a collaboration with John Guare for The Acting Company, and Saturn Returns, a concert at Joseph Papp Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival. Saturn Returns was recorded by Nonesuch Records under the title Myths and Hymns. Four of Guettel's songs were featured on Audra McDonald's Nonesuch Records debut album, Way Back to Paradise (1998), and Mr. Guettel performed a concert evening of his work at New York's Town Hall in 1999. Film scores include Arguing the World, a feature documentary by Joe Dorman, and the score for Jack, a two-hour documentary for CBS by Peter Davis (1994).

Adam Guettel is currently working on four new musicals and an opera. He has performed material from these new projects for a week at the Hippodrome Casino in London and during a week's residency at 54 Below in New York in February 2013. Accolades for Mr. Guettel include the Stephen Sondheim Award (1990), the ASCAP New Horizons Award (1997), and the American Composers Orchestra Award (2005).

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Latest Release

  • December 15, 2023

    The original cast album of Adam Guettel’s Broadway musical Days of Wine and Roses, with a book by Craig Lucas, stars Kelli O’Hara and Brian d’Arcy James. This searing musical is based on the 1962 film and original 1958 teleplay of the same name, about a couple falling in love in 1950s New York and struggling against themselves to build their family. Days of Wine and Roses marks the reunion of Guettel and Lucas, who last collaborated on the six-time Tony Award–winning musical The Light in the Piazza. “Repeated listenings compound the amazement,” the New York Times says of Guettel’s work, which “has always offered that kind of challenge—initially leaving a feeling of: Beautiful, but wait, I need to hear it again—and those up for it have a way of coming away shining like Moses down from the Mount. The new score has the same effect.”

News

  • January 29, 2024

    Days of Wine and Roses, which opened on Broadway last night to rave reviews, was featured on NPR's Morning Edition today. NPR contributor Jeff Lunden talks with composer Adam Guettel, script writer Craig Lucas, stars Kelli O'Hara and Brian d'Arcy James, and director Matthew Greif about the creation of the musical. You can the piece here. All of the artists were also in a New York Times feature over the weekend. "I come off the stage feeling emotional, but elated and proud and breathless—literally breathless—from the freedom to be given a challenge like this and to be trusted with it … I’ve never been so passionate about anything in my life," O'Hara tells the Times. "Astonishing … superb," exclaims the New York Times Critic's Pick review. "Guettel’s anxious, spiky, sumptuous score … grabs hold of us and doesn’t let go."

  • December 15, 2023

    The original cast album of Adam Guettel’s Broadway musical Days of Wine and Roses, with a book by Craig Lucas, starring Kelli O’Hara and Brian d’Arcy James, is out digitally today; the CD is due in the spring. This searing musical is based on the 1962 film and original 1958 teleplay of the same name, about a couple falling in love in 1950s New York and struggling against themselves to build their family. Days of Wine and Roses marks the reunion of Guettel and Lucas, who last collaborated on the six-time Tony Award–winning musical The Light in the Piazza. “Repeated listenings compound the amazement,” the New York Times says of Guettel’s work, which “has always offered that kind of challenge—initially leaving a feeling of: Beautiful, but wait, I need to hear it again—and those up for it have a way of coming away shining like Moses down from the Mount. The new score has the same effect.”

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About Adam Guettel

  • Adam Guettel is a composer/lyricist living in New York City. His musical, The Light in the Piazza (cast album on Nonesuch Records), with a book by Craig Lucas, premiered on Broadway at Lincoln Center Theater's Vivian Beaumont Theater in April 2005, following a world premiere at Seattle's Intiman Theater in Summer 2003, and a second engagement at Chicago's Goodman Theater in early 2004 (where it received three Joseph Jefferson Awards including Best Musical). The Light in the Piazza received six 2005 Tony Awards including two for Guettel—Best Original Score, Best Orchestrations—and a Grammy nomination for best cast recording. Piazza also received five Drama Desk Awards, including two for Guettel: Best Music and Best Orchestrations.

    Adam Guettel wrote music and lyrics for Floyd Collins (cast album on Nonesuch Records), which received the 1996 Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical and earned him the Obie Award for Best Music. Floyd Collins has been presented at Playwrights Horizons, New York; Prince Theatre, Philadelphia; Goodman Theatre, Chicago; Old Globe, San Diego; Bridewell, London; and elsewhere.

    His other works include Love's Fire, a collaboration with John Guare for The Acting Company, and Saturn Returns, a concert at Joseph Papp Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival. Saturn Returns was recorded by Nonesuch Records under the title Myths and Hymns. Four of Guettel's songs were featured on Audra McDonald's Nonesuch Records debut album, Way Back to Paradise (1998), and Mr. Guettel performed a concert evening of his work at New York's Town Hall in 1999. Film scores include Arguing the World, a feature documentary by Joe Dorman, and the score for Jack, a two-hour documentary for CBS by Peter Davis (1994).

    Adam Guettel is currently working on four new musicals and an opera. He has performed material from these new projects for a week at the Hippodrome Casino in London and during a week's residency at 54 Below in New York in February 2013. Accolades for Mr. Guettel include the Stephen Sondheim Award (1990), the ASCAP New Horizons Award (1997), and the American Composers Orchestra Award (2005).

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