Michael John LaChiusa

After writing the music for several plays and working as librettist on operas with composers Anthony Davis and Robert Moran, LaChiusa donned both hats and earned an OBIE for two works premiering during the 1993-94 season, "First Lady Suite" (his first collaboration with Public Theatre producer George C Wolfe) and "Hello Again," directed and choreographed by Graciela Daniele. Proving himself as impressive a composer as a lyricist, he penned catchy pop melodies and retained a playful tone throughout the former even when the drama turned dark, making the potentially alienating subject matter of four presidential wives remarkably accessible. The latter, a sophisticated, mostly sung-through adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's "La Ronde," drew comparisons to the operetta stylings of Sondheim and was, despite its pervasive sense of fun, more downbeat than its predecessor as LaChiusa charted the heartsick course of characters relentlessly pursuing matters of the heart and loins.The next season saw LaChiusa (as composer and lyricist only) reteam with Wolfe on "The Petrified Prince," adapted by Edward Gallardo from an unproduced screenplay by Ingmar Bergman. The audacious merger of Broadway and Off-Broadway creative talent brought Harold Prince in as director and Garth Drabinsky (as a producer), but the over-produced (though frequently enjoyable) result was a campy mess, borrowing from a wide range of familiar musicals without discovering its own identity. Remarkably, LaChiusa escaped relatively unscathed. His witty and literate lyrics accompanied by a mix of non-melodic phrases and ripe musical theater ballads again had critics calling him a "next-generation" Sondheim. He then reteamed with choreographer-director Daniele, contributing additional material to "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" (1996), based on the novella by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. He shared his first Tony nomination for Book of a Musical with Daniele and Jim Davis.A self-described "cultural raider," LaChiusa drew from impressively diverse sources for "Marie Christine," calling upon early jazz, African percussion, marches, vaudeville, blues and even French comic opera for his retelling of "Medea" directed and choreographed by Daniele. Set against a backdrop of voodoo in 19th-century New Orleans and Chicago, it fell short of capturing the mesmerizing power of the Greek tragedy and also failed as a showcase for three-time Tony winner Audra McDonald, perhaps due to a dearth of "hummable" melodies in the complex score. "The Wild Party," the second of two musicals debuting that season based on the 1928 narrative poem by Joseph Moncure March, reteamed him with Wolfe, who this time co-wrote the book and directed, in addition to producing. Although not in the business of supplying overly catchy tunes, LaChiusa did provide two enjoyable solos for Eartha Kitt among strongly rhythmic numbers more reminiscent of jazz improvisations than songs. Though many claim his music cannot be digested in a single hearing, detractors decry his non-melodic style as anathema to the future of the Broadway musical.