Joe Patrick Ward is an American playwright, composer and lyricist. Ward has scored music for film and television, and has written songs (both music and lyrics) for several stage plays and musicals. He is a recipient of the Los Angeles Ovation Award for Best World Premiere Musical, and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and NAACP Theatre Award for Best Production.
Ward composed music soundtracks for the films Blues for Willadean (2012), [1] Southern Baptist Sissies (2013), [2] and A Very Sordid Wedding (2017). [3] For television, he scored all episodes of the comedy Sordid Lives: The Series (2008) for LogoTV. [4] He also had songs commissioned for the Animated Feature division of Warner Brothers Studios. [5]
Ward wrote the music and lyrics for the off-Broadway musical Hysterical Blindness (And Other Southern Tragedies That Have Plagued My Life Thus Far). [6] [7] The play was produced at 15 Van Dam (now the SoHo Playhouse) in 1994 and ran for seven months. The show was co-written with Ward’s longtime friend, Emmy-Award winning character actor Leslie Jordan, who also starred in the production. [8] Ward directed Jordan in a subsequent production of "Hysterical Blindness" at the Circle Theatre in Fort Worth, Texas.
In 2001 Ward first staged The Grave White Way , [9] an original musical for which he wrote the book, music and lyrics. The show follows five dead stage actors attempting to gain admittance into Heaven by performing a revue of the flop musicals that condemned them to the musical theatre purgatory known as "The Grave White Way". The songs within the show satirize the history of bad musical theater from the 1930s to the present. One of the show's unique gimmicks was casting a theatre celebrity in every performance, including "Wicked" composer Stephen Schwartz, stage legend John Raitt, original Broadway "Dreamgirl" Loretta Devine, and Tony winners Billy Porter and Gregory Jbara. [10] Variety called the show a “witty spoof of Broadway flops with a limitless future". [11]
Ward also wrote the music and lyrics for the musical Judy's Scary Little Christmas with co-writers David Church and James Webber. [12] The show is a spoof of 1950’s television variety shows and contains campy humor based on the sensationalized personal lives of its main characters Judy Garland, Bing Crosby, Liberace, Ethel Merman, Richard Nixon, Lillian Hellman and Joan Crawford. Originally produced in Los Angeles in 2002, the show received nominations for Best Musical from L.A. Weekly and the Los Angeles Ovation Awards. [13] Connie Champagne, who portrayed "Judy Garland" in the production, won the Ovation Award for "Best Actress in a Musical". The play is published by Samuel French [14] and is frequently produced in cities across the United States. A recording of the original Los Angeles cast was released on CD in 2005. [15]
In 2003, Ward wrote original songs for the theatrical production The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife [16] (also published by Samuel French). [17] With a book by Del Shores, the play addresses the subject of domestic abuse. Originally produced at the Zephyr Theatre in Los Angeles, the show won "Best Production” from both the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards and the NAACP Theatre Awards. [18] All five of the play’s original actors, including Beth Grant, Dale Dickey, David Steen, and future Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer, reprised their stage roles for the film version, which was retitled Blues for Willadean. Ward’s songs in the film (and play) were sung by Billboard Dance Recording Artist Debby Holiday, who portrayed “The Blues Singer”. [5]
Harold Arlen was an American composer of popular music, who composed over 500 songs, a number of which have become known worldwide. In addition to composing the songs for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, including "Over the Rainbow", Arlen is a highly regarded contributor to the Great American Songbook. "Over the Rainbow" was voted the 20th century's No. 1 song by the RIAA and the NEA.
Judy Kuhn is an American actress, singer and activist, known for her work in musical theatre. A four-time Tony Award nominee, she has released four studio albums and sang the title role in the 1995 film Pocahontas, including her rendition of the song "Colors of the Wind", which won its composers the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
Roger Edens was a Hollywood composer, arranger and associate producer, and is considered one of the major creative figures in Arthur Freed's musical film production unit at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during the "golden era of Hollywood".
Delferd Lynn Shores is an American film director and producer, television writer and producer, playwright and actor.
For Me and My Gal is a 1942 American musical film directed by Busby Berkeley and starring Judy Garland, Gene Kelly – in his film debut – and George Murphy, and featuring Martha Eggerth and Ben Blue. The film was written by Richard Sherman, Fred F. Finklehoffe and Sid Silvers, based on a story by Howard Emmett Rogers inspired by a true story about vaudeville actors Harry Palmer and Jo Hayden, when Palmer was drafted into World War I. The film was a production of the Arthur Freed unit at MGM.
They're Playing Our Song is a musical with a book by Neil Simon, lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager, and music by Marvin Hamlisch.
Greenwillow is a musical with a book by Lesser Samuels and Frank Loesser and music and lyrics by Loesser. The musical is set in the magical town of Greenwillow. It ran on Broadway in 1960.
Ruthless! The Musical is an all-female musical with music by Marvin Laird and book and lyrics by Joel Paley that spoofs Broadway musicals, like Gypsy and Mame, and movies such as The Bad Seed and All About Eve. The musical premiered Off-Broadway in 1992.
Jason Graae is an American musical theater actor, best known for his musical theater performances but with a varied career spanning Broadway, opera, television and film. He has won four Bistro Awards, two Ovation Awards, two New York Nightlife Awards, the Theatre Bay Area Award for Best Actor in a Musical and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Joel Hirschhorn Award for Outstanding Achievement in Musical Theatre.
9 to 5: The Musical is a musical based on the 1980 film of the same name, with music and lyrics by Dolly Parton. It features a book by Patricia Resnick, based on the screenplay by Resnick and Colin Higgins. The musical premiered in Los Angeles in September 2008, and opened on Broadway in April 2009. It received 15 Drama Desk Award nominations, the most received by a production in a single year, as well as four Tony Awards nominations. The Broadway production however was short-lived, closing in September 2009. A national tour of the US was launched in 2010, followed by a UK premiere in 2012. It opened in the West End in February 2019 and then launched a UK Tour in 2021.
The Celebration Theatre is a 501(c)(3) non-profit theatre company in Los Angeles, founded in 1982. The company is located in West Hollywood, on the west end of Theatre Row, and specializes in works representing the LGBTQ+ experience.
Diana Dale Dickey is an American character actress who has worked in theater, film, and television. She began her career on stage, performing in the 1989 Broadway version of The Merchant of Venice, before appearing in popular revivals of A Streetcar Named Desire, Sweeney Todd and more off-Broadway and in regional theaters. She's the recipient of two Ovation Awards for her stage work in Los Angeles.
Paul Howard Gordon is a composer of popular songs and music for the theatre.
Judy's Scary Little Christmas is an original musical written by James Webber and David Church, with music and lyrics by Joe Patrick Ward. It is a spoof on television variety shows of the 1950s, satirizing celebrities’ public images and private lives. The fictional story employs a metaphysical plot twist and spiritual redemption through a ghost The show contains campy humor based on the sensationalized personal lives of the celebrities, with satirical references to pop culture and politics of the 1950s
Ross Golan is a multi-award-winning, multi-platinum selling, American songwriter, record producer and playwright.
David Steen is an American playwright, actor and writer.
The Sacred Fools Theater Company is a Los Angeles-based theatre company and nonprofit organization. Founded in January 1997, it's a member organization of the LA Stage Alliance.
Jennifer Leigh Warren is an American stage, television, film, and voice-over actress/singer who first came to the world's attention for her work in professional musical theater. She is best known for originating the role of Crystal in the Howard Ashman /Alan Menken hit musical Little Shop of Horrors, for her performance in the original Broadway cast of the Michael John LaChiusa musical Marie Christine and for her show stopping performance in the role of Alice's Daughter in the original Broadway musical "Big River" with the song "How Blest We Are" written especially for her by Roger Miller.
Jason Dottley is an American actor, singer, writer, director and producer. He appeared in the 2008 television series Sordid Lives: The Series in the role of actor Ty Williamson.
Blues for Willadean is a 2012 American drama film written and directed by Del Shores and starring Beth Grant and Octavia Spencer. It is based on Shores’ 2003 play The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife.