Closer than Ever - The Unique Six-Decade Songwriting Partnership of Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire

How do musical theater songs actually get written? What enables some composer and lyricist partnerships to last for decades?

Composer David Shire and lyricist Richard Maltby, Jr., two of the most gifted songwriters of our time, are revered among musical theater lovers for their ground-breaking off-Broadway revues Starting Here, Starting Now and Closer Than Ever, as well as for the Broadway musicals Baby and Big. Rosenblum sets out to increase appreciation for Maltby and Shire's large and impressive body of work and establish their place in musical theater history. This book chronicles their sixty-six-year (and counting) partnership, giving full behind-the-scenes accounts of their musicals, interspersed with deep-dive analyses of standout individual numbers. Other well-known artistic figures who feature prominently in the Maltby/Shire story include Stephen Sondheim, Hal Prince, Michael Stewart, Francis Ford Coppola, Craig Lucas, Mike Ockrent, Susan Stroman, John Weidman, Charles Strouse, Garth Drabinsky, Adam Gopnik, Jason Robert Brown, and Jonathan Tunick.

Using his experiences as a Broadway conductor, music journalist, and professor of musical theater composition, as well as his long-term personal and professional acquaintance with both Maltby and Shire, Joshua Rosenblum is uniquely suited to chronicle their lives, careers, and creative output. The songwriters, both of whom are engaging and articulate in describing what they do, are quoted liberally throughout the book in exclusive interviews, creating the impression that one is spending time with two inspiring creative artists who happen to be great company.

• Preface


• 1. Origins


• 2. The Fair-Haired Boys: The Sap of Life


• 3. Barbra


• 4. Dealing with Steve


• 5. I Have a Rich Wife: Love Match


• 6. How Bad Could I Be?


• 7. The First Thing They Give You is Writing the Obits


• 8. Lynne


• 9. Starting Here, Starting Now


• 10. "I Don't Remember Christmas"


• 11. He's the Arbiter, Really


• 12. Remember That Fats Waller Idea?: Ain't Misbehavin'


• 13. At the End of the Song, Everyone's Pregnant!


• 14. Baby


• 15. "The Story Goes On"


• 16. French is a Language That Doesn't Scan: Miss Saigon


• 17. One of the Finest Scores of the Year


• 18. Closer Than Ever


• 19. "The Bear, the Tiger, the Hamster and the Mole"


• 20. It Should Have Been Called "Small"


• 21. Big


• 22. "Little Susan Lawrence"


• 23. Bob Fosse's Wife, his Mistress, and his Daughter: Fosse


• 24. Next Thing I Knew I Was Writing the Show: Take Flight


• 25. Working with Other People


• 26. Produced by a Convicted Felon: Sousatzka


• 27. America Will Break Your Heart: Dancers at a Waterfall


• 28. Post-Partum: Baby Revival


• 29. Oh, That's What Those Songs Were About!


• 30. The Songwriters' Songwriters


• Appendix A: Starting Here, Starting Now - Musical Numbers and Sources


• Appendix B: Closer Than Ever - Musical Numbers and Sources


• Acknowledgements


• Bibliography


• Index