The Exact Process I Use to Write Musical Theatre Songs

How I Write Songs for Musical Theatre

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I’ve written tons of songs for musicals over the past 16+ years, and many of you have taken that to mean that songs just pop out of me…but that’s not quite how it works. Yes, I have a process that I follow efficiently, but it never really gets any easier. But, since so many of you have asked, here is the exact process I use to write songs for musical theatre - whether working alone or with a collaborator!

Time Stamps:

0:00 - The Exact Process I Use to Write Musical Theatre Songs
0:53 - Ideation & Planning
3:36 - Starting Place Possibilities
7:04 - Example
9:02 - Messy Middle Next Steps
11:43 - End of the Process

#MusicalTheatre #Writing #Musicals
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Michael Radi (any/all) is a Composer-Lyricist, Librettist, Performer, Vocal Coach, Musical Theatre Writing Coach, Musical Director, and the Founder of the Musical Theatre Writing Collective currently residing in New York City. They are an alumnus of the esteemed Lehman Engel BMI Musical Theatre Workshop as a lyricist, and has written six full-length musical theatre pieces in addition to ongoing projects. His original musical The King’s Legacy, which received its world premiere production in August 2019 at the Bristol Valley Theater in Naples, NY, and has also been presented in Industry Reading format both in fall of 2019 as part of the Dramatists Guild Friday Night Footlights and in November 2016. Michael’s original one-person show ’S Wonderful: An Evening with George Gershwin also played its premiere production at BVT in 2021. Other current projects include a musical adaptation of The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow, a queer pop-punk adaptation of Hamlet, and a mother-daughter coming of age musical set in the world of competitive baton twirling, based loosely off of their family's history with the sport.

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Musical Theatre Writer Guy was written and filmed on the traditional and unceded territory of the Munsee Lenape and Canarsie People.

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