Zina Goldrich | |
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| Background information | |
| Genres | Musical theatre |
| Occupation(s) |
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| Born | New York City, U.S. |
| Alma mater | UCLA BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop University of Southern California |
Zina Goldrich (born 1964) is an American composer known for her work in musical theatre in collaboration with the lyricist Marcy Heisler. Her best-known works as composer include "Ever After The Musical", "Taylor The Latte Boy" and "Alto's Lament".
Zina Goldrich was born in New York in 1964, at the age of 13 she moved to Los Angeles with her family. Her father was a trumpet player and he used to play with The Mel Lewis/Thad Jones Jazz Orchestra, one of the most important jazz Big Bands in New York and probably in the world, in the Seventies.
Zina Goldrich studied privately for most of her life. She started studying music at the age of three and piano at five. In fifth grade (age 10 to 11) she started writing songs for her school band. She studied at the Beverly Hills High School, which had a very good Drama department. After high school, she studied at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She then studied musical theatre in New York at the "BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop" taught by composers like Maury Yeston. Later on, she attended the "Scoring for Motion, Picture and Television" program at the University of Southern California.
When she moved to New York, she got her first job in the orchestra of the world tour of "A Chorus Line". She played keyboards on Broadway for "Avenue Q", "Bombay Dreams" and "Oklahoma!". She assisted Maury Yeston in "In The Beginning", "Grand Hotel" and "Titanic".
Zina Goldrich has been collaborating with the lyricist Marcy Heisler since 1992. The duo is working on "Ever After The Musical", which is an adaptation of Ever After , the Drew Barrymore 1998 Cinderella movie produced by 20th Century Fox. The musical had its world premiere at the Paper Mill Playhouse on May 21, 2015, (in previews) for a limited run to June 21, 2015. Directed by Kathleen Marshall, the cast featured Christine Ebersole, Tony Sheldon, Charles Shaughnessy, James Snyder and Margo Seibert.
Goldrich and Heisler wrote the Off-Broadway show "Junie B.Jones" a musical version of the popular character created by author Barbara Park, produced by Theatreworks USA, which received a 2005 Lucille Lortel Award nomination for Outstanding Musical. An expanded version of the musical was staged in late 2005 at the Lucille Lortel theater; both the original and expanded productions received reviews in The New York Times. They also wrote "Dear Edwina" (Drama Desk Nomination-Best Music) as well as "Goodspeed's The Great American Mousical", directed by Julie Andrews.
Zina Goldrich and Marcy Heisler collaborated with some of the biggest stars of Broadway, such as Kristin Chenoweth, who sang "Taylor The Latte Boy" on The Rosie O'Donnell Show and The Late Late Show as well as at the Metropolitan Opera House. The song has been performed by other singers including Susan Egan and John Tartaglia. "Alto's Lament", the Goldrich and Heisler song associated with Megan Hilty is about an alto who longs to sing melody for a change from harmony. They also wrote "Baltimore" for Audra McDonald and "Gone" for Taylor Louderman.
The duo has performed at Carnegie Hall, Birdland, and other venues including the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., with The Marcy and Zina Show.
Zina Goldrich was a staff songwriter for Walt Disney Feature Animation and on television, she composed for ABC's "The Middle", "Wonderpets", "Johnny and the Sprites", "Pooh's Learning Adventures" and "Peg + Cat", on PBS.
Zina is currently working on new shows: "Yay, People Yay!" with multi-Emmy Award winning writer, David Javerbaum and "Hollywood Romance" with Emmy Award-winning bookwriters Gabrielle Allan and Jen Crittenden.
Marcy and Zina have been the recipients of the Fred Ebb Award, the ASCAP Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award, Jamie De Roy and Friends Award, a Jonathan Larson Award, and the Kanin/Seldes Award - Marcy Heisler won the Kleban Award.
When it comes to composing a new song, she prefers having the lyrics first in order to follow or go against the meaning of what the character is saying. Zina describes her style as "Melodic, chromatic, jazzy, warm and surprising". She wants to satisfy the audience in an unexpected and unpredictable way.
Zina Goldrich's music is influenced by Frank Loesser, Richard Rodgers, George Gershwin, Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein. Outside musical theatre, Ms. Goldrich was influenced by Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder as well as jazz music in general, because of the environment she grew up in.
Maury Yeston is an American composer, lyricist and music theorist.
Junie B. Jones is a children's book series written by Barbara Park and illustrated by Denise Brunkus. Published by Random House from 1992 to 2013, the story centers on "almost six-year-old" Junie B. Jones and her adventures in kindergarten and first grade.
Grand Hotel is a musical with a book by Luther Davis, music and lyrics by Robert Wright and George Forrest, and additional music and lyrics by Maury Yeston.
Phantom is a musical with music and lyrics by Maury Yeston and a book by Arthur Kopit. Based on Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera, the musical was first presented in Houston, Texas in 1991.
Victoria Clark is an American actress, musical theatre singer and director. Clark has performed in numerous Broadway musicals and in other theatre, film and television works. Her soprano voice can also be heard on various cast albums and several animated films. In 2008, she released her first solo album titled Fifteen Seconds of Grace. A five-time Tony Award nominee, Clark won her first Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical in 2005 for her performance in The Light in the Piazza. She also won the Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, and the Joseph Jefferson Award for the role. She won a second Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical in 2023 for her performance in Kimberly Akimbo.
Nine is a musical initiated by and with music and lyrics by Maury Yeston and a book by Arthur Kopit. It is based on the 1963 film 8½.
Johnny and the Sprites is an American children's musical television show that aired every weekend on the "Playhouse Disney" block on Disney Channel. The show was created by, produced by, and starred John Tartaglia. The show's theme song was written by Stephen Schwartz. Each episode of the show features a musical number, many of which are written by various notable Broadway composers such as Gary Adler, Bobby Lopez, Laurence O'Keefe, Michael Patrick Walker, and others. The Sprites and all of the other creatures that inhabit Johnny's world were designed by Michael Schupbach. The set was designed by Laura Brock.
Dear Edwina is a musical by Zina Goldrich (music) and Marcy Heisler. A children's one-hour musical, it concerns a young girl who gives her neighborhood friends and family advice through singing in a musical show. It is set in the town of Paw Paw, Michigan.
December Songs is a song cycle by Maury Yeston, best known as the musical theatre composer-lyricist responsible for the music and lyrics of Nine, Titanic, Phantom, Death Takes a Holiday, and part of Grand Hotel. The work is a "retelling" of Franz Schubert's Winterreise,, with a cabaret sensibility. The songs in both December Songs and Winterreise are linked as a sequence of reflections by the singer taking a lonely walk in winter, thinking back on his or her lost love. The piece crosses over the line from classical music to Broadway to cabaret. Where the Schubert masterpiece features words by Wilhelm Müller portraying a jilted young man's wandering the snows of the Vienna woods and ultimately sinking into madness, the Yeston lyrics depict a contemporary young woman wandering a snowy Central Park in New York City and finding recovery and hope on her journey. December Songs pictures in richly varied melodies and striking yet unforced poetic images a worldly young woman, jilted and adrift in a wintry New York City, reading all she sees for commentary on her broken heart. Recorded six times in English, and once each in French, German, and Polish.
Marcy Heisler is a musical theater lyricist and performer. As a performer, she has performed at Carnegie Hall, Birdland, and numerous other venues throughout the United States and Canada. Heisler was nominated for the 2009 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics for Dear Edwina.
"Taylor, the Latte Boy" is a contemporary song by Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich. It is based on their experience with a barista at Starbucks. It is best known for being performed by Kristin Chenoweth on her album As I Ambut was first released by Susan Egan on her 2004 album Coffee House.
Titanic is a musical with music and lyrics by Maury Yeston and a book by Peter Stone. It is based on the story of the RMS Titanic which sank on its maiden voyage on April 15, 1912.
Larry Hochman is an American orchestrator and composer. He has won four Emmy Awards for his original music on the TV series Wonder Pets! and a Tony Award for his orchestrations for The Book of Mormon.
Death Takes a Holiday is a musical with music and lyrics by Maury Yeston and a book by Peter Stone and Thomas Meehan. The story is adapted from the 1924 Italian play La Morte in Vacanza by Alberto Casella, which was adapted in English for Broadway in 1929 by Walter Ferris. That play was made into a 1934 film of the same name starring Fredric March, which was remade in 1998 as Meet Joe Black, starring Brad Pitt. The story of the musical is about lonely Death, who takes the form of a handsome young prince to understand human emotion. He falls in love with an engaged young woman and learns about love and sacrifice.
Kristin Chenoweth Live at the Met was a concert by American singer and actress Kristin Chenoweth at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center in New York City on January 19, 2007. The concert was sold out, and critics praised Chenoweth's "soprano of crystalline clarity", vivacious humor and "acting range".
Daryl Roth is an American theatre producer who has produced over 90 productions on and off Broadway. Most often serving as a co-producer or investor, Roth has also been a lead producer of Broadway shows such as Kinky Boots, Indecent, Sylvia, It Shoulda Been You, and The Normal Heart.
Kristin Chenoweth at Carnegie Hall was a concert by American singer and actress Kristin Chenoweth in the Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall in New York City on September 10, 2004. The sold-out concert was Chenoweth's debut in the landmark venue as a solo act.
Ever After is a 2015 musical, with book and lyrics by Marcy Heisler and music by Zina Goldrich, based on the 1998 film of the same name written by Susannah Grant, Andy Tennant, and Rick Parks. It is loosely based on fairy tale Cinderella. The musical premiered at the Paper Mill Playhouse in May 2015.
Kristin Chenoweth Live at Walt Disney Concert Hall was a concert by American singer and actress Kristin Chenoweth at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California, on February 26, 2006. The sold-out concert was Chenoweth's debut in the newly opened venue.