33 Facts About Adam Guettel

Adam Guettel is an American composer-lyricist of musical theater and opera.

Adam Guettel attended Yale University where he met future frequent collaborator Tina Landau.

Adam Guettel established himself as a composer writing the music and lyrics to the historical musical Floyd Collins which premiered off Broadway in 1996 and made its Broadway debut in 2025.

Adam Guettel was Tony-nominated for his work on the Aaron Sorkin play To Kill a Mockingbird and for his musical Days of Wine and Roses.

Adam Guettel performed as a boy soprano soloist in operas including Pelleas et Melisande and The Magic Flute, both at the Metropolitan Opera and the New York City Opera, and in another production of Pelleas with the Santa Fe Opera.

Adam Guettel was slated to play Amahl in the film remake of Gian Carlo Menotti's "Amahl and the Night Visitors".

Adam Guettel recalled how as a 14-year-old boy he showed Sondheim his work.

Later, Sondheim wrote and apologized to Adam Guettel for being "not very encouraging" when he was actually trying to be "constructive".

Adam Guettel is the son of composer, author and Juilliard School chairman Mary Rodgers, who died on June 26,2014, and grandson of legendary musical theater composer Richard Rodgers.

Adam Guettel's father, Henry Guettel, was a film executive and was the executive director of the Theatre Development Fund.

Adam Guettel's mother said that she offered him advice for around a year.

Adam Guettel attended Phillips Exeter Academy, School Year Abroad and Interlochen Center for the Arts.

Adam Guettel attended Yale University, where he met frequent collaborator Tina Landau.

Adam Guettel wrote a song for a revue Landau was directing, the first of many collaborations between the pair.

Adam Guettel recalls breaking his pencil point "about 45 times" during a run-through, taking notes on his problems with the way his score was being done.

Adam Guettel was "furious" and started punching a wall in the back of the theater, breaking his hand and wrist in three places.

Adam Guettel said this experience taught him that he must "let go" to be a strong collaborator.

At first, Adam Guettel was adapting the hymns and myths as separate projects, until Landau suggested they would work well together.

In summer 2007, Adam Guettel composed incidental music for a production of Anton Chekhov's play Uncle Vanya at the Intiman Playhouse in Seattle, Washington.

Adam Guettel has written bespoke songs, including several songs throughout Audra McDonald's discography.

Adam Guettel's 2018 album, Sing Happy includes "March is a Windy Month".

In 2003, it was announced that Adam Guettel would be writing a new piece for McDonald which would have opened Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall, but this piece never came to fruition.

In 1999, Adam Guettel performed a concert evening of his own work at New York's Town Hall with guests such as Kristin Chenoweth, Audra McDonald, Billy Porter, Jubilant Sykes and Theresa McCarthy.

At first, Adam Guettel resisted doing this concert at all, believing that his work had been heard enough in New York City, and he wanted to focus on writing something new, rather than having songs he had already written performed.

Adam Guettel has contributed original scores to several documentary films, including Arguing the World and Jack: The Last Kennedy Film.

Adam Guettel's mother suggested an adaptation that she had once pitched to her father, The Light in the Piazza by Elizabeth Spencer.

Adam Guettel spent much of the period from 2005 to 2007 working on a musical adaptation of The Princess Bride with original screenwriter William Goldman.

The project was abandoned when Goldman reportedly demanded 75 percent of the author's share, even though Adam Guettel was writing both the music and the lyrics.

Adam Guettel wrote the original score for the original Broadway production of the play To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he received a Tony Award nomination.

Adam Guettel has led such classes at DePauw University, DePaul University, New York University, Pace University, Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, Emerson College, Elon University, The Boston Conservatory, Southern Methodist University, Syracuse University, Wagner College and many others.

Adam Guettel received an honorary doctorate from Lehman College in 2007, and was made an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in 2019.

Adam Guettel is a founding board member of Vermonters for a Clean Environment.

Early on, Adam Guettel's music was almost immediately characterized by its complexity and chromaticism.