Theatrical Lyricist

Alan Jay Lerner (August 31, 1918 – June 14, 1986) was an American Broadway lyricist and librettist. Together with Frederick Loewe, he created some of the world's most popular and enduring works of musical theatre. Lerner wrote the lyrics for some of the theatre's most...

The Beach Boys is an American rock and roll band. Formed in 1961, it gained popularity for its close vocal harmonies and lyrics reflecting a California youth culture of surfing, girls, and cars. Brian Wilson's growing creative ambitions later transformed them into a...

Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935–August 16, 1977), sometimes written Aron, was an American singer, musician and actor. He is a cultural icon, often known as "The King of Rock 'n' Roll", or simply "The King". Presley began his career as one of the first performers...

Ira Gershwin (6 December 1896 – 17 August 1983) was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century. With George he wrote more than a dozen Broadway shows,...

Oscar Hammerstein II (born Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein) (July 12, 1895 – August 23, 1960) was an American writer, producer, and (usually uncredited) director of musicals for almost forty years. He was twice awarded an Oscar for "Best Original Song," and much...

Stephen Joshua Sondheim (b. March 22 1930) is an American musical and film composer and lyricist, winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Award (seven, more than any other composer), multiple Grammy Award, and a Pulitzer Prize. He has been described by Frank Rich in...

Thomas Stearns Eliot, OM (26 September, 1888–4 January, 1965), was a poet, dramatist, and literary critic. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948. He wrote the poems The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The Waste Land, The Hollow Men, Ash Wednesday, and Four...

Queen are an English rock band formed in 1970 in London by guitarist Brian May, lead vocalist Freddie Mercury, and drummer Roger Taylor, with bassist John Deacon joining the following year. Queen rose to prominence during the 1970s and are Britain's most successful...

Irving Berlin (May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was a Russia-born naturalized American composer and lyricist, and one of the most prolific American songwriter in history. Berlin was one of the few Tin Pan Alley/Broadway songwriters who wrote both lyrics and music for...

Eric Idle (born March 29, 1943) is an English comedian, actor, author and composer of comedic songs. He wrote and performed as a member of the internationally renowned British comedy group Monty Python. Idle was born in South Shields, County Durham (now Tyne and Wear...

Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902, Arverne, Queens, New York City – December 30, 1979, New York City) was an American compose of the music for more than 900 songs and 40 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his...

Benjamin Charles Elton (born 3 May1959) is an English comedian, writer and director. He became a stand-up comedian and comedy writer shortly after leaving university in 1980, and was a central figure in the alternative comedy scene in the 1980s. More recently he has...

Lorenz "Larry" Hart (May 2, 1895 - November 22, 1943) was the lyricist half of the famed Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart. Some of his more famous lyrics include, "Blue Moon", "Isn't It Romantic?", "Mountain Greenery", "The Lady Is a Tramp", "Manhattan", ...

Fats Waller (born Thomas Wright Waller on May 21, 1904 December 15, 1943) was an American jazz pianist, organist, composer and comedic entertainer. A skilled pianist -- widely recognized as a master of stride piano -- Waller was one of the most popular performers of...

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE (15 October 1881 – 14 February 1975) was a comic writer who enjoyed enormous popular success during a career of more than seventy years and continues to be widely read over 30 years after his death. Despite the political and social...

Brian Douglas Wilson (born June 20, 1942 in Hawthorne, California) is an American musician best known as the lead songwriter, bassist, and singer of the American pop band The Beach Boys. Wilson was also the band's main producer, composer, and arranger. The lead vocal...

Jerry Herman (born Gerald Herman on July 10, 1931 in New York City) is an American composer/lyricist of the Broadway musical theater. He composed the scores for the hit Broadway musicals Hello, Dolly!, Mame, and La Cage aux Folles. Raised in Jersey City by musically...

Adolph Green (December 2, 1914 – October 23, 2002) was an American lyricist and playwright who, with long-time collaborator Betty Comden, penned the screenplays and songs for some of the most beloved movie musicals, particularly as part of Arthur Freed's production...

Betty Comden and Adolph Green were the writing duo (billed as Comden and Green) who penned the screenplays and songs for some of the most beloved musicals, particularly as part of Arthur Freed's production unit at MGM during the genre's heyday. Betty Comden was born...

Ira Levin (August 27 1929 – November 12 2007) was an American novelist, playwright, and songwriter. Levin graduated from the Horace Mann School and New York University, where he majored in philosophy and English. After college, he wrote training films and scripts...

Lionel Bart (August 1, 1930 – April 3, 1999) was an English composer of songs and musicals, best known for Oliver! Bart was born Lionel Begleiter the youngest of seven surviving children in East London to Galician Jew, and grew up in Stepney. His father worked as a...

Frank Henry Loesser (June 29, 1910, New York City – July 26, 1969, New York City) was an American composer and lyricist. He died of lung cancer at age 59. During World War II, he wrote 1942's "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition". Formerly a successful lyricist...

Sir Timothy Miles Bindon Rice (born November 10, 1944) is an English Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award winning lyricist, author, radio presenter and television gameshow panelist. Rice was born in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England, and...

Fred Ebb (April 8 1933 September 11 2004), was a musical theatre lyricist who had many successful collaborations with composer John Kander. The Kander and Ebb team frequently wrote for such performers as Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera. Ebb was born in Manhattan to...

Edgar Yipsel Harburg (April 8 1896 – March 4 1981), known as E. Y. Harburg or Yip Harburg, was an American lyricist who worked with many well-known composers. He is best known for writing the lyrics to The Wizard of Oz, including those of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". ...

Jim Steinman (born November 1, 1947 in New York City, New York) is an American record producer, composer, and lyricist responsible for several hit songs. He has also worked as an arranger, pianist, and singer. His work has included songs in the adult contemporary, rock...

Jonathan Larson (February 4, 1960 – January 25, 1996) was an American Tony Award-winning composer and playwright who lived in New York City and authored musicals, including Rent and Tick, Tick... BOOM!. These musicals tackle serious issues such as multiculturalism,...

Christopher Bond (fl. 1970s) is a British playwright whose 1973 retelling of the Victorian tale Sweeney Todd formed the basis of Stephen Sondheim's musical of the same name, with book by Hugh Wheeler. He currently lives in West Cornwall. A noted fan of horror/comedy ...

Alain Boublil is a librettist, born in Tunisia in 1941, best known for his collaborations with the composer Claude-Michel Schönberg.These include: Alain Boublil’s first musical, La Révolution Française, was the first-ever staged French rock opera. It debuted in 1973...

Roger Dean Miller (January 2, 1936 – October 25, 1992) was an American singer, songwriter and musician, best known for his mid-1960s country/pop hits such as "King of the Road", "Dang Me," and "England Swings." He also wrote the music and lyrics for the Tony-award...