Susan Birkenhead

American lyricist

Susan Birkenhead

Origin| United States
Occupation(s)| Lyricist
Years active| 1978–present

Musical artist

Susan Birkenhead is an American lyricist.

Birkenhead made her Broadway debut as one of a team of songwriters contributing to Working (1978), for which she received her first Tony Award nomination.[1] Her second was earned for Jelly's Last Jam (1992), which won her the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics[2] and a Grammy Award nomination. Additional Broadway credits include Triumph of Love (Drama Desk nomination) and additional lyrics for the Cole Porter tunes in the 1998 revival of High Society.[3]

Birkenhead's Off-Broadway and regional theatre credits include What About Luv?, a musical adaptation of the Murray Schisgal play Luv, for which she won the Outer Critics Circle Award; Pieces of Eight with Jule Styne and Michael Stewart; Fanny Hackabout Jones with Erica Jong and Lucy Simon; The Night They Raided Minsky's with Charles Strouse and Evan Hunter, the new musical Minsky's based on the same; and, in collaboration with Henry Krieger, two potentially Broadway-bound projects based on hit films, The Flamingo Kid and Moonstruck (with a book by screenwriter John Patrick Shanley).

Birkenhead is one of several lyricists who contributed to Hats!, a musical inspired by the Red Hat Society, which is enjoying an open-ended run at Harrah's New Orleans, after premiering at the New Denver Civic Theatre.[4] The musical had a limited engagement at the Royal George Theatre in Chicago starting in April 2007.[5][6]

Radio Girl, a musical based on Kate Douglas Wiggin's Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, premiered at the Goodspeed Musicals' Norma Terrace Theatre with music by Henry Krieger, lyrics by Birkenhead, and a book by Daniel Goldfarb. The show ran in 2010 from July 29 to August 22.[7]

She also wrote the lyrics for the musical version of Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees, with music by Duncan Sheik and a book by Lynn Nottage. It premiered at the Off-Broadway Atlantic Theater Company on May 12, 2019.

## Awards and nominations[edit]

Year  | Award  | Category  | Work  | Result

|
|
|
|

1978  | Tony Award | Best Original Score | Working | Nominated
1992  | Jelly's Last Jam | Nominated
Drama Desk Award | Outstanding Lyrics | Nominated
1998  | Triumph of Love | Nominated

## References[edit]

1. ^ Working Playbill (vault), accessed March 28, 2016
2. ^ Jelly's Last Jam Playbill (vault), accessed March 28, 2016
3. ^ High Society Playbill (vault), accessed March 28, 2016
4. ^ Dodge, Marcia Milgrom; Dodge, Anthony; Bartlett, Rob. "Introduction" Hats!: The Musical, Samuel French, Inc., 2009, ISBN 0573696721, p. 4
5. ^ Oxman, Steven. "Review: ‘Hats!’" Variety, April 30, 2007
6. ^ "HATS! The Red Hat Society Musical". Archived from the original on 2007-04-29. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
7. ^ Jones, Kenneth. "Goodspeed's 'Radio Girl', New Musical by Henry Krieger and Susan Birkenhead, Begins July 29" Playbill, July 29, 2010

## External links[edit]

* Susan Birkenhead at the Internet Broadway Database
* Susan Birkenhead at the Dramatists Guild
* Susan Birkenhead at the Internet Off-Broadway Database

* v
* t
* e

Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics

1969–1975|

* Fred Ebb (1969)
* Stephen Sondheim / Bertolt Brecht (1970)
* Stephen Sondheim (1971)
* John Guare (1972)
* Stephen Sondheim (1973)
* Al Carmines (1974)
* Charlie Smalls (1975)

1976–2000|

* Edward Kleban (1976)
* Martin Charnin (1977)
* Carol Hall (1978)
* Stephen Sondheim (1979)
* Tim Rice (1980)
* Stephen Sondheim / Maury Yeston (1982)
* Howard Ashman (1983)
* Stephen Sondheim (1984)
* Roger Miller (1985)
* Stephen Sondheim (1988)
* David Zippel (1990)
* William Finn (1991)
* Susan Birkenhead (1992)
* Denis Markell and Douglas Bernstein (1993)
* Stephen Sondheim (1994)
* Jonathan Larson (1996)
* Gerard Alessandrini (1997)
* Lynn Ahrens (1998)
* Gerard Alessandrini (1999)
* Stephen Sondheim (2000)

2001–present|

* Mel Brooks (2001)
* Jason Robert Brown (2002)
* Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman (2003)
* Stephen Schwartz (2004)
* Eric Idle (2005)
* Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison (2006)
* Steven Sater (2007)
* Stew (2008)
* Stephen Sondheim (2009)
* John Kander and Fred Ebb (2010)
* Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt Stone (2011)
* Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová (2012)
* Tim Minchin (2013)
* Robert L. Freedman and Steven Lutvak (2014)
* Lin-Manuel Miranda (2015)
* Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (2016)
* David Yazbek (2017)
* Peter Kellogg (2018)
* David Yazbek (2019)
* Michael R. Jackson (2020)
* No Award (2021)
* Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss (2022)
* Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman (2023)

Authority control databases

International|

* FAST
* ISNI
* VIAF

National|

* France
* BnF data
* Israel
* United States

Artists|

* MusicBrainz

Other|

* SNAC

This theatrical biography is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

|

* v
* t
* e

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template