Working – Broadway's Best Shows

Broadway’s Best Women Composers & Lyricists

In the world of Broadway, where melodies and lyrics transport audiences to new realms of emotion, the spotlight has long shone on remarkable talents responsible for crafting the songs that define our favorite musicals. While the overwhelming majority of composers and lyricists are men, a roster of brilliant women has long been making waves, breaking barriers, and leaving an indelible mark on the Main Stem. Here, we celebrate Broadway’s Best Women Composers & Lyricists, highlighting the small but mighty group of women who composed for the stage in the 20th century.

Mary Rodgers

Rodgers is perhaps best known for the 1959 musical Once Upon a Mattress. Later writing credits included 1978’s Working. Her sardonic memoirs were published posthumously in 2022 with the help of her friend, New York Times critic Jesse Green, and they detail, with her signature sense of humor, how she found it nearly impossible to be both a composer and a parent, eventually transitioning into writing children’s books, such as the original Freaky Friday. Mattress will receive a production in January 2023 at City Center Encores!, starring Sutton Foster and Michael Urie, and directed by Lear DeBesonnet (Into the Woods).

Sarah Jessica Parker performs “Shy” from Mattress

Carol Hall

Carol Hall was one of the first composers to introduce country western styles to Broadway audiences, with her score for 1978’s The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. The musical was turned into a film starring Dolly Parton, and it turned Hall’s song “Hard Candy Christmas” into a holiday season standard. Her body of work is not entirely “adult” material – Hall contributed music to the landmark 1972 children’s album Free to Be You and Me, along with Mary Rodgers, and wrote songs for the early seasons of Sesame Street.

The original Broadway cast performs “Hard Candy Christmas”

Micki Grant

Micki Grant first rose to prominence as an actor, appearing in the Langston Hughes Broadway shows Tambourines to Glory and Jericho-Jim Crow in the 1960s. In 1972, she was the first woman, and the first African-American, to write both the music and lyrics for a musical, for Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope. She became a 3-time Tony nominee that season, as well as receiving an OBIE award. Grant, like Rodgers, later contributed songs to 1978’s Working, and also contributed writing to Your Arms Too Short to Box With God and Eubie.

“If I Could’ve Been”, the act 1 finale of Working, contributed by Grant:

The entirety of the Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope LP is on YouTube:

Lucy Simon

Lucy Simon began her songwriting career with her sister, Carly Simon. After contributing songs to the Off-Broadway revue A…My Name Is Alice, she composed the music for 1991’s The Secret Garden, for which she was nominated for a Tony. Garden was the first musical to have an all-female writing and directing team.

“Lily’s Eyes” from The Secret Garden

Elizabeth Swados

Elizabeth “Liz” Swados won an OBIE award and was nominated for 5 Tonys for her 1978 musical Runaways. Originating at the Public Theater, the unconventional revue told the stories of homeless youth in New York City who had run away from home. Swados also directed and choreographed the production. After the success of Runaways, Swados contributed the music to the Broadway musical Doonesbury, and later became an off-Broadway stalwart. She influenced generations of theater artists as a professor at NYU.

“I Can Have It All” from Doonesbury

The Encores! Off-Center revival of Runaways.

A soon-to-be member of this list is Shaina Taub, a celebrated composer-lyricist set to make her Broadway debut as both writer (and star?) of Suffs. The new musical is due to open at the Music Box Theatre in April 2024 after Purlie Victorious’s limited engagement ends in February.

The world premiere of Suffs at the Public Theater

Broadway’s Best Shows about America

by Katie Devin Orenstein

Celebrate the 4th of July weekend with Broadway’s Best Shows as we run through some of the top patriotic musicals in the can(n)on (get it?).

1776 is a musicalization of the 4th of July holiday’s origin story, as founding father John Adams suffers through a sweltering Philadelphia summer to try to get the Declaration of Independence completed and signed by the Continental Congress. The show highlights just how hard it was to make democracy happen – and the contradictions within, including the simmering fight between Northern and Southern states over slavery, in the song “Molasses to Rum.” While all the signees of the Declaration were men, 1776 makes sure to include Abigail Adams’ influence on the proceedings.

Ragtime tells an epic story about the American Dream at the turn of the 20th century, interweaving the lives of Black Americans, Eastern European Jewish immigrants, and the wealthy white people at the top of New York society. Ragtime is a moving story about America’s flaws and its immense potential.

Working, with a rousing opening number that takes its lyrics from Walt Whitman’s poem “I Hear America Singing,” is a love letter to everyday Americans, and the American melting pot. Its songs are from a variety of writers, including Stephen Schwartz, Mary Rodgers, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. The song “Steelworker” is actually by folk music legend James Taylor, in his Broadway songwriting debut:

Of Thee I Sing is a gentle satire of that which we celebrate on the 4th of July, American democracy. The first musical to win a Pulitzer Prize, way back in 1932, the show features songs by the Gershwin brothers, including “Who Cares?”, and a book by George S. Kaufman. The plot concerns a presidential campaign, and a candidate who suddenly starts to go up in the polls when he switches his platform to “LOVE”, proposing to his lady love at every campaign stop, instead of a stump speech!

Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson is a musical about early American politicians, using a contemporary music genre (in this case, punk and emo rock) – and it was on Broadway five years before Hamilton! With music and lyrics by OBIE winner Michael Friedman, the show chronicles controversial populist president Andrew Jackson’s rise and fall in the 1830s and 40s. With catchy tunes and a bit of onstage gore, BBAJ captures the essence of an angry, formative moment in American history:

Of course, no list of 4th of July-themed musicals would be complete without Hamilton. Here’s Leslie Odom, Jr., star of the upcoming play Purlie Victorious on Broadway, performing “Wait For It”