Adam Guettel

Adam Guettel (; born December 16, 1964) is an American composer-lyricist of musical theater and opera. Born into a musical theater family, he is the son of Mary Rodgers and the grandson of Richard Rodgers. Guettel has received two Tony Awards and two Drama Desk Awards.

Guettel attended Yale University where he met future frequent collaborator Tina Landau. He established himself as a composer writing the music and lyrics to the historical musical '' Floyd Collins'' which premiered off Broadway in 1996 and made its Broadway debut in 2025. For his musical romance '' The Light in the Piazza'' (2005) he won two Tony Awards for Best Original Score and Best Orchestrations. He was also Tony-nominated for his work on the Aaron Sorkin play ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' (2019) and for his musical '' Days of Wine and Roses'' (2024).

Early life, family, and education

Guettel was born on December 16, 1964, to film executive Henry Guettel and writer/composer Mary Rodgers, daughter of famed composer Richard Rodgers, and was raised on the Upper West Side of New York City. He performed as a boy soprano soloist in operas including '' Pelléas et Mélisande'' and ''The Magic Flute'', both at the Metropolitan Opera and the New York City Opera, and in another production of ''Pelléas'' with the Santa Fe Opera. He was also slated to play Amahl in the film remake of Gian Carlo Menotti's " Amahl and the Night Visitors". Guettel played bass guitar in rock groups, but felt he wasn't good enough at the instrument, and that even if he was "even a bass solo is not that satisfying. It is like putting a sail on a car." Soon, turning to musical theatre composition, he was mentored by Stephen Sondheim. Guettel recalled how as a 14-year-old boy he showed Sondheim his work. Guettel was "crestfallen" since he had come in "sort of all puffed up thinking ewould be rained with compliments and things", which was not the case since Sondheim had some "very direct things to say". Later, Sondheim wrote and apologized to Guettel for being "not very encouraging" when he was actually trying to be "constructive". Years later, Sondheim included Guettel's song "The Riddle Song" from '' Floyd Collins'' on his list of "songs he wished he'd written".

Guettel is the son of composer, author and Juilliard School chairman Mary Rodgers, who died on June 26, 2014, and grandson of legendary musical theater composer Richard Rodgers. His father, Henry Guettel (died October 7, 2013), was a film executive and was the executive director of the Theatre Development Fund. When Guettel took up music composition in his mid-teens, he was encouraged by his family. His mother said that she offered him advice for around a year. "After that, he was so far beyond anything I could ever have dreamed of, I just backed off." Richard Rodgers, who died when Guettel was 15, overheard an early composition, said he liked it, and asked him to play it louder. Guettel has qualified the compliment, noting that "He was literally on his deathbed on the other side of the living-room wall." In his high school and collegiate years and into his early twenties, Guettel worked as a rock and jazz musician, singing and playing bass, before realizing "that writing for character and telling stories through music was something that I really loved to do, and that allowed me to express love".

Guettel attended Phillips Exeter Academy, School Year Abroad (SYA France) and Interlochen Center for the Arts. He attended Yale University, where he met frequent collaborator Tina Landau. Guettel wrote a song for a revue Landau was directing, the first of many collaborations between the pair. While at Yale, Guettel took time off from school to work as John Mauceri's assistant and the DX7 consultant on the broadway musical '' Song and Dance.''

Career

1987–1999: Early work and ''Floyd Collins''

After graduating from Yale University in 1987, Guettel's first major project was the score of ''The Legend of Oedipus'', a retelling of the story of Oedipus directed by Nikos Psacharopoulos, head of the Williamstown Theater Festival. Guettel and Landau collaborated on an adaptation of ''A Christmas Carol'' produced by Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island 1989. According to Guettel, the production was a difficult experience. He recalls breaking his pencil point "about 45 times" during a run-through, taking notes on his problems with the way his score was being done. When Guettel told the musical director they needed more rehearsal time, they replied that there was no time. Guettel was "furious" and started punching a wall in the back of the theater, breaking his hand and wrist in three places. Guettel said this experience taught him that he must "let go" to be a strong collaborator. Marjoree Samoff, producing director of the American Music Theater Festival saw the show and commissioned Guettel and Landau to write a new piece together.

Landau began to search for a subject for the two to work on. "The Spark" came when Landau and Guettel discovered a 1976 '' American Heritage'' article titled "Dark Carnival", a recounting of the story of Floyd Collins. Guettel claims his fascination with Collins' story came from a personal link. "This is right when I'm starting my career in musical theatre with Richard Rodgers as my Grandfather... I think I was writing it, on some level, to process the likelihood that I wouldn't match his career, to answer if there's nobility in failing at something noble" Guettel adds that his confidence in the idea came from his mentor Stephen Sondheim believing it was good idea for a musical. Sondheim was a fan of ''Ace in the Hole'', a film loosely based on Collins' story and said it's a "fun idea for a show". '' Floyd Collins'' was originally staged at the American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia, in 1994, in a workshop where Guettel not only wrote the music and lyrics, but also starred as Floyd's brother, Homer. On the subject of adapting the true story of Floyd Collins, Guettel stated "We're true to the spirit of the story, but we are circling it for the most dramatic angle". The musical opened at Playwrights Horizons on February 9, 1996. In ''The New York Times'' review of the show, critic Ben Brantley noted "Mr. Guettel establishes himself as a young composer of strength and sophistication, weaving strands from the Americana of Copland and the uneasy dissonance of Sondheim". Later, Guettel would say that it was his time working on ''Floyd'' which made him certain that he would spend his life writing music for the theatre.

The second project he developed with Landau and Sperling was a song cycle titled ''Saturn Returns'' (recorded as ''Myths and Hymns''). The piece musicalizes pieces of mythology, including the stories of Hero and Leander, Icarus, Medusa, as well as classic hymns. Discussing its genesis, Guettel stated "I had been writing these myths just because I was just starting out as a writer, and you don't know what to write. I did stuff that was tried and true. That was enough to keep me busy. Then I came across this book in an old antique shop... And it was just the words to a bunch of hymns... For some reason out of this Upper West Side Jew comes all of this music to these hymn lyrics". At first, Guettel was adapting the hymns and myths as separate projects, until Landau suggested they would work well together. "And we realized in some ways that the hymns are who we would have ourselves be, and the myths are basically who we are, and that they can kind of antiphonally talk to each other", said Guettel, in a 2021 ''New York Times'' interview on the online MasterVoices production of the piece. The piece was performed at The Public Theater and was later recorded by Nonesuch records with performances by Billy Porter, Mandy Patinkin, Kristin Chenoweth, and Guettel himself.

2000–2020: ''The Light at the Piazza'' and other work

In addition to writing music and lyrics for musical theatre, Guettel has written incidental music for plays such as ''Lydie Breeze'' (2000), as well as film scores. In summer 2007, Guettel composed incidental music for a production of Anton Chekhov's play ''Uncle Vanya'' at the Intiman Playhouse in Seattle, Washington.

Guettel has written bespoke songs, including several songs throughout Audra McDonald's discography. Her 1998 album ''Way Back to Paradise'' includes his songs "Come to Jesus" (from ''Myths and Hymns''), "A Tragic Story", "Baby Moon" and "The Allure of Silence". Her 2000 album's namesake is the closing number of '' Floyd Collins'', "How Glory Goes", and also includes "Was That You". Her 2006 album is named after his song "Build a Bridge" and also includes "Dividing Day" (from ''The Light in the Piazza''). Her 2018 album, ''Sing Happy'' includes "March is a Windy Month" (from '' Millions''). In 2003, it was announced that Guettel would be writing a new piece for McDonald which would have opened Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall, but this piece never came to fruition.

In 1999, Guettel performed a concert evening of his own work at New York's Town Hall with guests such as Kristin Chenoweth, Audra McDonald, Billy Porter, Jubilant Sykes and Theresa McCarthy. At first, Guettel resisted doing this concert at all, believing that his work had been heard enough in New York City, and he wanted to focus on writing something new, rather than having songs he had already written performed. It was Robert Hurwitz, the president of Nonesuch Records at the time, who insisted Guettel do the concert. Guettel has also contributed original scores to several documentary films, including ''Arguing the World'' and ''Jack: The Last Kennedy Film''. In 2004, Guettel contributed vocals to Jessica Molaskey's P.S. Classics album ''Make Believe'', dueting with Molaskey on his grandfather's song "Glad To Be Unhappy".

After ''Floyd Collins,'' Guettel reportedly hoped to work on a love story. His mother suggested an adaptation that she had once pitched to her father, '' The Light in the Piazza'' by Elizabeth Spencer. After six years working on the project, Guettel's musical ''The Light in the Piazza'' opened on Broadway in 2005. The show, which starred Victoria Clark and Kelli O'Hara, met with mixed critical notices, but on June 5, 2005, Adam Guettel won the Tony Award for Best Original Score and the Tony Award for Best Orchestrations. He spent much of the period from 2005 to 2007 working on a musical adaptation of '' The Princess Bride'' with original screenwriter William Goldman. As of January 2007, Guettel had written the music for ten songs for the project. An orchestral suite from the score was performed at the Hollywood Bowl in November 2006, and Lincoln Center conducted a workshop of ''Bride'' in January 2007. The project was abandoned when Goldman reportedly demanded 75 percent of the author's share, even though Guettel was writing both the music and the lyrics.

In July 2009, the Signature Theatre of Arlington, Virginia, commissioned Guettel to write a new musical for their 2011–2012 season, under the auspices of their American Musical Voices Project. This would reportedly be a musical adaptation of the Danny Boyle film ''Millions''. Other projects in development included an opera based on the short stories of Washington Irving.

Guettel wrote the original score for the original Broadway production of the play ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' (2018), for which he received a Tony Award nomination.

Another major aspect of Guettel's career is his work as a teacher. Since 1995, he has taught masterclasses and seminars in musical theatre performance and songwriting, considering this to be an important complement to his work as a composer. He has led such classes at DePauw University, DePaul University, New York University, Pace University, Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, Emerson College, Elon University, The Boston Conservatory, Southern Methodist University, Syracuse University, Wagner College and many others.

Guettel received an honorary doctorate from Lehman College in 2007, and was made an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in 2019. He is a founding board member of Vermonters for a Clean Environment.

2020–present: Return to musicals

In January 2023, Atlantic Theater Company announced an eight-week world premiere production of Guettel's adaptation of '' Days of Wine and Roses,'' with music, lyrics, and orchestrations by Guettel, book by Craig Lucas (Guettel's collaborator on ''The Light in the Piazza,'' almost 20 years previously), and direction by Michael Greif. The production starred Kelli O'Hara and Brian D'Arcy James and was the first full production of a new musical by Guettel since ''Piazza.'' ''Days of Wine and Roses'' moved to Broadway, premiering on January 6, 2024, for a 16-week run.

Shortly after ''Days of Wine and Roses'' closed on Broadway, it was announced that Guettel's musical '' Millions'' would make its world premiere at the Alliance Theater. The production will be directed by Guettel's longtime collaborator, Bartlett Sher.

In June 2024, it was announced that '' Floyd Collins'' would come to Broadway as a part of Lincoln Center Theater's 40th Anniversary season. Guettel was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical for this production.

Recording work

Guettel has had a lengthy recording career. He began the career as a session musician, playing bass on the records ''Duke Ellington's Pousse-Cafe, Ellis Larkin Plays,'' and the original broadway cast recording of Andrew Lloyd Webber's '' Song and Dance.'' Since then, he has moved on to producing. He has produced the original broadway cast albums of the two most recent productions of his own musicals, '' Days of Wine and Roses'' and '' Floyd Collins'', as well as producing the 2025 Broadway Cast Recording of ''Once Upon a Mattress.''

Style and influences

Early on, Guettel's music was almost immediately characterized by its complexity and chromaticism. His major influences include Igor Stravinsky, Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Benjamin Britten, and Stevie Wonder. Stephen Sondheim has referred to Guettel's work as "dazzling." In an interview, Guettel stated a portion of his influences that included I. M. Pei, Louis Kahn, Vincent Scully, Jane Jacobs, Igor Stravinsky, Stevie Wonder, Adam de la Halle, Harry Nilsson, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Björk, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Benjamin Britten, William Inge, Stephen Sondheim, Jody Williams, and Marvin Gaye.

Major works

Film

Television

Theater

Music and lyrics

Other projects
* An album of ''Myths and Hymns'' was recorded featuring Mandy Patinkin, Kristin Chenoweth, and Billy Porter. A virtual production was mounted by MasterVoices in 2020.
* After contractual negotiations for ''The Princess Bride'' failed between Guettel and Goldman, the show was scrapped.
* Guettel has also been reported to be working on several other pieces, including an opera based on the works of Washington Irving and a musical based on H. G. Wells's ''The Invisible Man''.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

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Adam Guettel Papers
at the Library of Congress
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Adam Guettel's website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guettel, Adam
American musical theatre composers
American male musical theatre composers
American musical theatre lyricists
American people of German-Jewish descent
Broadway composers and lyricists
Jewish American songwriters
Phillips Exeter Academy alumni
Songwriters from New York (state)
Tony Award winners
Drama Desk Award winners
Nonesuch Records artists
Yale University alumni
1964 births
Living people
Musicians from Manhattan
People from the Upper West Side
21st-century American Jews