As a gamer who has spent countless hours immersed in the world of musical theater and film, I can confidently say that the achievement of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul is nothing short of remarkable. Their EGOT status places them among the greats in the entertainment industry, and their journey to this point has been a thrilling ride for fans like me.
Ben Pasek and Justin Paul have recently joined an exclusive group by earning EGOT status, as they won an Emmy for exceptional original music and lyrics in their collaboration on “Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It?” from “Only Murders in the Building,” along with Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman.
I was thrilled to have won the trophy at the 2024 Creative Arts Emmys on the second night of the event, beating out some impressive competitors. Among them were Sara Bareilles for her work on “The Medium Time” from Girls5eva, the Saturday Night Live team for their Mother’s Day episode’s “Mother,” Hans Zimmer and his collaborators for “Love Will Survive” in The Tattooist of Auschwitz, and John Hawkes for “No Use” in True Detective: Night Country. However, on this special night, my partner and I emerged victorious!
This team had earlier secured an Academy Award for Best Original Song (for “City of Stars” from La La Land) and a Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album (Dear Evan Hansen), which also earned them a Tony for Best Original Score. Subsequently, they were awarded a Grammy for the Best Compilation Soundtrack (The Greatest Showman) and another Tony for their role as producers on A Strange Loop.
Pasek and Paul were once up for an Emmy award in 2018 for their original music and lyrics on the Christmas Story Live! song “In the Market for a Miracle,” but they didn’t win, as Brueggemann and his SNL team took home the prize with their piece “Come Back Barack” instead.
The “Pickwick Triplets” patter song is featured in the Broadway-set third season of Only Murders and is performed by star Steve Martin, whose character, Charles-Haden Savage, struggles to master the fast-paced tune. He finally gets it during the episode “Sitzprobe.”
The writers of “Only Murders” reached out to Pasek and Paul to help create a realistic musical aspect for their series’ “Death Rattle Dazzle,” with these two also inviting other prominent Broadway composers, such as Shaiman, Wittman, and Bareilles, to collaborate.
Last year, Paul had a chat with The Hollywood Reporter regarding the songwriting procedure for the series, encompassing “Pickwick Triplets” among others.
He shared with THR that discovering those couplets felt like an exciting, flavorful exploration. “We brainstormed numerous options for what to draw from, here’s our preferred set of lyrical tools,” he explained. “Together with [showrunner] John Hoffman, we had meticulously outlined the story we wanted to tell. Then came the delight of implementing it, selecting our favorite lines, trying to outdo each other and better those lines. It was a pleasure, and something I’m confident we wouldn’t have conceived on our own.
Pasek stated, “It was thrilling because John Hoffman and the writers designed various suspenseful moments in the show where we, as viewers, anticipate whether or not Steve Martin can successfully perform a challenging patter song filled with alliteration. Normally, songs used in TV shows get cut short, but in this musical, these songs are crucial to the storyline, keeping us on the edge of our seats. The ‘Pickwick Triplet’ and ‘Look For the Light’ scenes were particularly exciting due to this integration. Essentially, we had a chance to work together, experiment, and try to simplify the most complex parts of the song for Steve. He was fantastic and embraced the challenge wholeheartedly.
Pasek reminisced about the time when Shaiman and Wittman offered them their initial television opportunity during the second season of Smash.
He shared with THR that not only do we admire their work, but they’ve also been incredible, encouraging figures in our personal journey as a writer.
By securing their latest victory, Pasek and Paul have now become members of an exclusive group of individuals known as EGOT recipients. This esteemed club already includes greats like Richard Rodgers, Rita Moreno, Audrey Hepburn, Mel Brooks, Mike Nichols, Whoopi Goldberg, Robert Lopez from Frozen and The Book of Mormon, John Legend, Viola Davis, and Elton John. Notably, the latter three attained EGOT status as recently as the 2023 Emmys, which took place only eight months prior to this announcement.
The pair, like Lopez, are part of a group of relatively young individuals who have earned an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony), as Lopez, Pasek, Paul, and Legend accomplished this remarkable feat at the ages of 39.
The pair are the second to EGOT as a team, after Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.
Read More
Sorry. No data so far.
2024-09-09 05:25