Peter Udell

Last updated

Peter Udell (born 1934) is an American lyricist and writer, best known for his collaborations with composer Gary Geld. [1] [2]

He started his career in popular music in the 1960s, writing lyrics for songs including "Sealed With A Kiss", "Save Your Heart for Me" and "Hurting Each Other".

Udell wrote the lyrics and co-wrote the book for the Broadway musicals Purlie (1970), Shenandoah (1975), Angel (1978), Comin' Uptown (1979) and Amen Corner (1983).

He received a Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for Shenandoah, and was also nominated for Best Original Score.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Jay Lerner</span> American lyricist and librettist (1918–1986)

Alan Jay Lerner was an American lyricist and librettist. In collaboration with Frederick Loewe, and later Burton Lane, he created some of the world's most popular and enduring works of musical theatre both for the stage and on film. Lerner won three Tony Awards and three Academy Awards, among other honors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerome Kern</span> American composer

Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A Fine Romance", "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "The Song Is You", "All the Things You Are", "The Way You Look Tonight" and "Long Ago ". He collaborated with many of the leading librettists and lyricists of his era, including George Grossmith Jr., Guy Bolton, P. G. Wodehouse, Otto Harbach, Oscar Hammerstein II, Dorothy Fields, Johnny Mercer, Ira Gershwin and Yip Harburg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oscar Hammerstein II</span> American librettist, lyricist, theatrical producer, and director of musicals (1895–1960)

Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American lyricist, librettist, theatrical producer, and director in musical theater for nearly 40 years. He won eight Tony Awards and two Academy Awards for Best Original Song. Many of his songs are standard repertoire for vocalists and jazz musicians. He co-wrote 850 songs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lionel Bart</span> British composer and writer (1930–1999)

Lionel Bart was a British writer and composer of pop music and musicals. He wrote Tommy Steele's "Rock with the Caveman" and was the sole creator of the musical Oliver! (1960). With Oliver! and his work alongside theatre director Joan Littlewood at Theatre Royal, Stratford East, he played an instrumental role in the 1960s birth of the British musical theatre scene after an era when American musicals had dominated the West End.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guy Bolton</span> Anglo-American playwright and writer of musical comedies (1884–1979)

Guy Reginald Bolton was an Anglo-American playwright and writer of musical comedies. Born in England and educated in France and the US, he trained as an architect but turned to writing. Bolton preferred working in collaboration with others, principally the English writers P. G. Wodehouse and Fred Thompson, with whom he wrote 21 and 14 shows respectively, and the American playwright George Middleton, with whom he wrote ten shows. Among his other collaborators in Britain were George Grossmith Jr., Ian Hay and Weston and Lee. In the US, he worked with George and Ira Gershwin, Kalmar and Ruby and Oscar Hammerstein II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Strouse</span> American composer and lyricist

Charles Strouse is an American composer and lyricist best known for writing the music to such Broadway musicals as Bye Bye Birdie, Applause, and Annie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sheldon Harnick</span> American lyricist and songwriter (1924–2023)

Sheldon Mayer Harnick was an American lyricist and songwriter best known for his collaborations with composer Jerry Bock on musicals such as Fiorello!, She Loves Me, and Fiddler on the Roof.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Cullum</span> American actor and singer

John Cullum is an American actor and singer. He has appeared in many stage musicals and dramas, including Shenandoah (1975) and On the Twentieth Century (1978), winning the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for each. In 1966 he gained his first Tony nomination as the lead in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, in which he introduced the title song, and more recently received Tony nominations for Urinetown The Musical (2002) and as Best Featured Actor in the revival of 110 in the Shade (2007).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Kerr</span> American historian

Walter Francis Kerr was an American writer and Broadway theatre critic. He also was the writer, lyricist, and/or director of several Broadway plays and musicals as well as the author of several books, generally on the subject of theater and cinema.

Martin Charnin was an American lyricist, writer, and theatre director. Charnin's best-known work is as conceiver, director, and lyricist of the musical Annie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joel Higgins</span> Actor, Singer

Joel Franklin Higgins is an American actor and singer with a stage career spanning over 40 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Craig Lucas</span> American playwright, screenwriter, theatre director, musical actor, and film director

Craig Lucas is an American playwright, screenwriter, theatre director, musical actor, and film director.

<i>Shenandoah</i> (musical) 1974 Broadway musical

Shenandoah is a 1974 musical with music by Gary Geld, lyrics by Peter Udell, and book by Udell, Philip Rose, and James Lee Barrett. It is based on Barrett's original screenplay for the 1965 film Shenandoah.

<i>Angel</i> (musical)

Angel is a Broadway musical that opened at the Minskoff Theatre in New York on May 4, 1978. It was based on Ketti Frings’ Pulitzer Prize winning 1957 theatrical adaptation of Thomas Wolfe's best-selling 1929 novel, Look Homeward, Angel.

<i>Look Homeward, Angel</i> 1929 novel by Thomas Wolfe

Look Homeward, Angel: A Story of the Buried Life is a 1929 novel by Thomas Wolfe. It is Wolfe's first novel, and is considered a highly autobiographical American coming-of-age story. The character of Eugene Gant is generally believed to be a depiction of Wolfe himself. The novel briefly recounts Eugene's father's early life, but primarily covers the span of time from Eugene's birth in 1900 to his definitive departure from home at the age of 19. The setting is a fictionalization of his home town of Asheville, North Carolina, called Altamont in the novel.

Henry Krieger is an American musical theatre composer. He most notably wrote the music for the Broadway shows Dreamgirls, The Tap Dance Kid (1983), and Side Show (1997).

Harold Clayton MacHackady, best known as Hal Hackady, and sometimes credited as Hal Hackaday, was an American lyricist, librettist and screenwriter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Lee Barrett</span> American writer

James Lee Barrett was an American author, producer and screenwriter.

<i>Look Homeward, Angel</i> (play)

Look Homeward, Angel is a 1957 stage play by the playwright Ketti Frings. The play is based on Thomas Wolfe's 1929 largely autobiographical novel of the same title.

Gary Geld is an American composer known for his work creating musicals and popular songs with his lyricist partner Peter Udell.

References

  1. Hischak, Thomas (2008). The Oxford Companion to the American Musical. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 763. ISBN   978-0195335330.
  2. Wilson, John S. (February 16, 1975). "The 'Shenandoah' Saga". The New York Times. Retrieved August 15, 2020.