' Michael John LaChiusa (born July 24, 1962) is a Tony Award-nominated American musical theatre composer, lyricist, and librettist best known for complex, musically challenging shows such as Hello Again (1994), Marie Christine (1999), The Wild Party (2000), and See What I Wanna See (2005).

Biography

LaChiusa grew up in Chautauqua, New York, the eldest of three boys in an Italian Catholic family. His parents had a "[v]ery mentally abusive" relationship; Michael was not close to his father, but was encouraged by his mother to pursue his interest in music. He taught himself to play piano at the age of seven, and had little professional music training. LaChiusa was influenced early on by the music of "modern American composers" such as John Corigliano, John Adams, and Philip Glass, as well as the musical theatre composers George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, and Stephen Sondheim. LaChiusa graduated high school early and enrolled in a television journalism program, but dropped out after a semester.

In 1980, LaChiusa came to New York City, where he took gigs as a music director and accompanist while trying to find songwriting work. In the mid-1980s, he joined the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop, where he was strongly influenced by a series of mentors; at BMI, he segued from writing "camp" songs to more serious work. In 1993, The Public Theater's producer George C. Wolfe presented LaChiusa's First Lady Suite. A year later, Lincoln Center produced his musical Hello Again Off Broadway. A series of interconnected stories about love based on Arthur Schnitzler's play La Ronde, Hello Again was nominated for ten Drama Desk Awards, including three (Outstanding Book of a Musical, Outstanding Music, and Outstanding Lyrics) for LaChiusa.

In 1995, LaChiusa wrote additional book material for the Broadway musical Chronicle of a Death Foretold (an adaptation of Gabriel García Márquez's 1981 novella of the same name.) For the book, written with Graciela Daniele and Jim Davis, LaChiusa received a Tony Award nomination for Best Book of a Musical.

During the 1999-2000 season, LaChiusa had two large-scale musicals premiere on Broadway: Marie Christine and The Wild Party. Marie Christine, a retelling of the Medea myth set in 19th-century Louisiana, starred Audra McDonald and attracted controversy due to its grim subject matter and demanding score—The New York Times reported that "even the formidable and classically trained McDonald could sing it only six times a week, rather than the standard eight." Marie Christine closed after 42 performances; LaChiusa later said that the show "in my mind should have been performed for three performances[...]Only three. It's huge, and it's intensely difficult". The Wild Party was based on the 1928 poem of the same name by Joseph Moncure March, and starred Toni Collette, Mandy Patinkin, and Eartha Kitt. The Wild Party struggled commercially; after receiving seven Tony nominations but failing to win a single one, producers closed the show. For both Marie Christine and The Wild Party, LaChiusa received Tony nominations for Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score.

In 2003, Little Fish, an uncharacteristically cheerful one-act musical of LaChiusa's based on two short stories by Deborah Eisenberg, premiered Off Broadway. The show's failure sent LaChiusa into a funk; he recalled, "I went, 'My God, they don't want the hard stuff and more challenging material here in this city from me. They don't want something nice and fun, either. What am I supposed to do?'"

In August 2005, LaChiusa published an article in Opera News that disparaged several successful, upbeat Broadway musicals of the 2000s, among them The Producers and Hairspray, which LaChiusa dubbed a "faux-musical". He continued, "Instead of choreography, there is dancing. Instead of crafted songwriting, there is tune-positioning. Faux-musicals are mechanical; they have to be. For expectations to be met, there can be no room for risk, derring-do or innovation." The article provoked shocked responses from several of LaChiusa's colleagues, who saw it as an attack.

In Fall 2005, LaChiusa's show See What I Wanna See, based on the stories "In a Grove," "The Dragon," and "Kesa and Morito" by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, had a successful Off Broadway run at the Public Theater. For the show, LaChiusa was nominated for Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Music and Outstanding Lyrics.

In September 2008, he was quoted in Opera News Online as working on an adaptation of Bizet's opera Carmen with Tony winner Audra McDonald in mind.

In April 2009, the Signature Theatre Company will premiere Giant, a musical adaptation of Edna Ferber's 1952 novel of the same name with music and lyrics by LaChiusa and book by Sybille Pearson, who wrote the book for the 1983 musical Baby (musical).

LaChiusa is an adjunct professor at the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.

Personal life

In 2004, LaChiusa told The Washington Post that he was a "gay man, happily single".

Shows

Broadway productions

• Chronicle of a Death Foretold (additional material only) (1995)
• Marie Christine (1999)
• The Wild Party (book with George C. Wolfe) (2000)

Off Broadway productions

• First Lady Suite (1993)
• Hello Again (1994)
• The Petrified Prince (book by Edward Gallardo) (1994)
• Little Fish (2003)
• See What I Wanna See (2005)
• Bernarda Alba (2006)

Other works

• Triplets in Uniform book and lyrics by Jeffrey Essmann (1989) Music-Theater Commissioned By Meryl Vladimer for the CLUB La MaMa
• Buzzsaw Berkeley, book by Doug Wright (1989)
• Artificial Reality book and lyrics by Jeffrey Essmann (1991)
• Four Short Operas: Break, Agnes, Eulogy For Mr. Hamm, Lucky Nurse (1991)
• Bella, Belle of Bylorussia, book and lyrics by Jeffrey Essmann (1992)
• Desert of Roses libretto for opera by Robert Moran (1992)
• From the Towers of the Moon libretto for opera by Robert Moran (1992)
• Tania libretto for opera by Anthony Davis (1992)
• Broken Sleep (one-act), book by Donald Margulies (1997)
• Lovers and Friends (Chautauqua Variations) (2001)
• The Nutcracker, book by Amon Miyamoto (2002)
• The Highest Yellow, book by John Strand (2004)
• The Seven Deadly Sins: A Song Cycle, "The Christian Thing To Do", contribution to song cycle for Audra McDonald (2005)
• The Cello Project, contribution to song cycle for Peter Sachon, cellist (2005)
• pre.view, choreography by Taye Diggs and Andrew Palermo (2006)
• Send (who are you? i love you) (2006)
• Hotel C'est L'Amour, conceived by Daniel Henning (2006)
• Giant (2009)

Cabaret/Performances/Appearances

• The Girly Show, Lincoln Center's American Songbook Series (May 17, 2004)
• The Girly Show, Cinespace, Hollywood (August 15, 2005)
• Platform Series, Lincoln Center Theatre (March 29, 2006)
• Little Fish in Concert, Joe's Pub (July 10, 2006)
• Week 14 of 365 Plays/365 Days, Joe's Pub (February 17 & 17, 2007)
• Cabaret Gourmet, Angel Orensanz Foundation (April 16, 2007)
• The After Party with Jeffery Essmann, Laurie Beechman Theatre (June 8, 2007)
• Kate Shindle, Birdland (September 16, 2007)
• The Usual Freak Show, written and performed by Jeffrey Essmann (2007)

Television/Film

• The Wonder Pets, (2006)
• Broadway: The Golden Age, (2003)

References

Further reading

• Mordden, Ethan (2004). The Happiest Corpse I've Ever Seen. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

External links

• Internet Broadway Database page for Michael John LaChiusa
• Michael John LaChiusa - Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing.org
• Composers and their stage works (Michael John LaChiusa