ldquo;Any new work from the incomparable Jennifer Ashley Tepper is cause for celebration. This book feels especially essential in the way it celebrates and amplifies female writers who history has embarrassingly ignored. It does more than shine a light on under-appreciated artists, it gives them a stage and puts their talents on full display. Tepper has the singular ability to make history feel alive, legacy feel active, and art feel like the lifeblood of the human race. The book provides the electric thrills of a live performance and I am so grateful to be in the audience for this particular show.rdquo;--Joe Iconis, composer, lyricist, and playwright; Be More Chill
ldquo;As a woman with a career in the rarified world of musical theatre, I really appreciate Jennifer Ashley Tepperrsquo;s thrilling deep dive into the history and meaning of our work. This book is a rich and timely addition to our canon of musical theatre literature."--Lynn Ahrens, Tony Award-winning lyricist of Ragtime
ldquo;How wonderful that Jennifer Ashley Tepper has written such a loving and informative book about this fabulous collection of female theatre songwriters. Whether from today or years ago, the beautifully detailed stories highlight the highs and lows of the mysterious craft of musical theatre, and the women who created it.rdquo;--Liz Callaway, Emmy Award-winning actor and singer
ldquo;Jennifer Ashley Tepper has dedicated her life to telling stories that might otherwise fade away around this brilliant, live, ephemeral art form we call musical theatre. With Women Writing Musicals, she is putting the women back in the narrative where they belong, and highlighting generations of unsung innovators and theatre makers that have shaped the musicals we love."--Lin-Manuel Miranda, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer of Hamilton
ldquo;Reading Jennifer Ashley Tepperrsquo;s remarkable book, I was gobsmacked at the breadth and depth of women composing and writing musicals in America and found myself wondering, why didn#39;t I know about so many of them before? Well, thanks to her, now we do. It is galvanizing and humbling to learn that women have always found a way to create and get their work produced and forged incredible careers for themselves, even when there was no way. In concise, fascinating and illuminating histories, we learn about each woman#39;s work and career and, in the aggregate, we get to see how many of us there are and how long we#39;ve been part of the landscape of the American musical. Thanks to Tepper, our stories are unsung no more.rdquo;--Amanda Green, Tony Award-nominated writer of Hands on a Hardbody
ldquo;The stories about these amazing women are so inspiring! This book is a wonderful resource for actors, and an important read for anyone interested in theatre. How meaningful it is to put girl power where it belongs: in the spotlight. I loved it!rdquo;--Kristin Chenoweth, Tony and Emmy Award-winning actor and singer
ldquo;This book is a miracle. Jennifer Ashley Tepperrsquo;s painstaking research, attention to detail, and deep love of theatre has yielded a long overdue treasure trove of information about women who write musicals."--Kirsten Childs, Obie Award-winning writer of The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin
ldquo;This book set my heart and head aflame!! I cannot believe how many of these women I#39;d never heard of. What a tremendous gift Jennifer Ashley Tepper has bestowed upon us - a delicious coup d#39;oelig;il into the kaleidoscope of badass women who, for decades, have been shaping American Musical Theatre as we know it.rdquo;--Jenn Colella, Tony Award-nominated actor of Come From Away
ldquo;Where are all the female musical theatre writers? Turns out, theyrsquo;ve always been there, but theyrsquo;ve been hidden away behind a mist, like Brigadoon! However, an intrepid explorer named Jennifer Ashley Tepper has found them and is finally giving us their amazing herstories in this gem of a book!! Letrsquo;s give these creative and groundbreaking women their long overdue bravas!rdquo;--Seth Rudetsky, Sirius XM host, author of Seth's Broadway Diary and Musical Theatre for Dummies
ldquo;Who better than Jennifer Ashley Tepper to dive into an examination of the unsung women of Broadway? She has become this generationrsquo;s chief cheerleader and chronicler of Broadway, examining both the bricks and mortar of the street and the ethereal nature of the shows and people who have brought that street to life. This book is a gem - some of these women were known to me, some unknown, and some completely surprising. Once again, Tepper takes us on a glorious ride.rdquo;--Ted Chapin, Former president of The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, author of Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical Follies, co-founder of City Center Encores!
As an actress deeply rooted in the world of musical theater, I found Women Writing Musicals to be exciting and vital. Each story about an individual writer who contributed to the fabric of the art form was illuminating, inspiring, or both! Anyone passionate about theatre will be galvanized to champion musicals, songs, and scripts written by women after reading this indispensable book.--Laura Benanti, Tony Award-winning actor and singer
Broadway producer Tepper offers an informative and well-researched look at the women who created musicals on and off Broadway. Though information is scarce, there is evidence that many of the musicals of the 18th century were created and produced by actresses and singers. By the 20th century, women began to take a more active role in songwriting and writing books for Broadway. Most productions were produced with the backing or association of well-known men family members. For example, Mary Rodgers, daughter of composer Richard Rodgers, had a successful run with her award-winning Once Upon a Mattress. However, during the 1960s and 1970s, women slowly became more accepted as talented dramatists and songwriters, Tepper writes. This is especially true for women of font-style: italic;">Donrsquo;t Bother Me, I Canrsquo;t Cope), and Ntozake Shangersquo;s landmark musical poem For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf won Tony Awards and, later, was adapted into a film. Tepper has fashioned a winning book on the unsung heroines of Broadway musicals that will be appreciated by readers of womenrsquo;s studies and theater lore.-- "Library Journal"
In 2020, stuck in her Manhattan apartment, theater historian Tepper ldquo;began to think about other New Yorkers who worked in theatre, and lived through unprecedented historic events.rdquo; This led to ldquo;thinking specifically about female theatre makers who had overcome obstacles throughout the decades, and created notable worksmdash;and yet were not adequately represented in history.rdquo; Hence this book, an encyclopedic reference that offers appreciations of women ldquo;who wrote stage musicals that were produced on Broadway and off-Broadway, starting in the eighteenth century and through to present day.rdquo; Tepper has arranged this work chronologically, beginning with artists such as Ann Julia Hatton, whose 1794 Tammany; or The Indian Chiefldquo; is widely considered the first libretto written by a woman.rdquo; She then proceeds to early-20th-century pioneers and current-day artists such as Quiara Alegriacute;a Hudes, who wanted to ldquo;present Latinx characters on Broadway who were not gang membersrdquo; with her book for In the Heights; and Cyndi Lauper, who, with Kinky Boots, ldquo; became the first woman to ever win the Best Score [Tony] award as a sole writer without a collaborator.rdquo; Some entries are as short as a sentence. Prominent figures receive more space, figures such as Dorothy Parker, the ldquo;outspoken, sardonic, and unapologeticrdquo; wit whose credits included the book to Candide, and Dorothy Fields, who contributed books or lyrics to many musicals from the 1920s to the 1970s, including Annie Get Your Gun and Sweet Charity. Itrsquo;s a fun, important book, albeit one to dip into rather than read straight through. And there are odd, unexpected connections, such as that ldquo;future pop legendrdquo; Toni Tennillersquo;s 1972 Mother Earth was produced by 32-year-old Roger Ailes, who helped by ldquo;raising the money for it from Nixon supporters who were grateful he had helped Nixon get elected.rdquo; A long-overdue tribute to female lyricists and composers.-- "Kirkus Reviews"
Nobody knows the history of Broadway - or the women who make it sing - like Jennifer Ashley Tepper. At once reverent, dishy, and passionately researched, this is an essential book for any fan of the Great White Way.--Tim Federle, Emmy-nominated creator of High School Musical: the Musical: the Series
Tepper, creative director at 54 Below, a nonprofit cabaret club, provides an exhaustive tribute to women whose contributions to Broadway musical history have often been overlooked. Spanning from the 18th century to the present, the brief profiles feature such figures as Ann Julia Hatton, ldquo;the first woman to write a librettordquo; (for 1794rsquo;s Tammany); Elsie Janis, who starred in and wrote the lyrics for 1919rsquo;s Elsie Janis and Her Gang onBroadway, which featured out-of-work WWI veterans; and the all-female creative team behind 1922rsquo;s Just Because. Carolyn Leighrsquo;s lyrics to the mid-20th-centurymusicals Peter Pan and Little Me helped to make her one of the first ldquo;female musical theatre writers to enter the permanent canon of the art form, rdquo; while Quiara Alegriacute;a Hudes wrote the book to Lin-Manuel Mirandarsquo;s hit musical In the Heights, helping to break new ground by ldquo;paint[ing] a portrait of real modern-day Latinx people and their everyday struggles.rdquo; Tepper is thorough in her researchhellip;. Itrsquo;s a valuablehellip;. accounting of a lesser-known corner of Broadway history.-- "Publishers Weekly"