Pasek and Paul
Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, known together as Pasek and Paul, are an American songwriting duo and composing team for musical theater, films and television.[1][2] Their works include A Christmas Story, Dogfight, Edges, Dear Evan Hansen, and James and the Giant Peach. Their original songs have been featured on NBC's Smash and in the films La La Land, for which they won both the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Original Song for the song "City of Stars", and The Greatest Showman.[3][4][5] Their work on the original musical Dear Evan Hansen has received widespread critical acclaim and earned them the 2017 Tony Award for Best Musical and Best Original Score. In 2022, they won the Tony Award for Best Musical for serving as producers for the Broadway production of Michael R. Jackson's Pulitzer Prize-winning musical A Strange Loop.
Pasek and Paul
Musical Theatre
Benj Pasek
Justin Paul
June 9, 1985
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
- Composer
- lyricist
- Composer
- lyricist
While Pasek usually writes lyrics and Paul usually writes music, they share credit for both elements.[6] Both are graduates of the University of Michigan[7] and winners of the American Theatre Wing's 2007 Jonathan Larson Grant,[8] which honors achievement by composers, lyricists and librettists.
History[edit]
Start at the University of Michigan[edit]
Pasek and Paul started working together as freshmen at the University of Michigan.[9] Both got "background" roles in the school's musical theater production, which inspired them to write Edges, a song cycle about the trials and tribulations of moving into adulthood and the search for meaning. Edges premiered in Ann Arbor, Michigan on April 3, 2005.[7]
On May 14, 2006, the duo made their New York City premiere: a benefit concert of original songs titled Become: The Music of Pasek & Paul. Presented by Jamie McGonnigal,[10] performers included Gavin Creel, Cheyenne Jackson, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and Steven Pasquale.[11] They also contributed to the 2006 off-Broadway musical White Noise: A Cautionary Musical, which won Talkin' Broadway's 2006 Summer Theatre Festival Citation for Outstanding Original Score.[12]
In December 2006, they completed their BFA degrees in musical theatre.
Personal lives[edit]
Pasek is the son of Temple University professor Kathy Hirsh-Pasek.[62] His alma mater is the University of Michigan and Friends' Central School.[6] He is gay.[6]
Paul's alma mater is the University of Michigan and Staples High School. Paul is married; he and his wife have a daughter, born in 2016.[6]