TOO Episode 214 - Conversation with Broadway Composer, Tom Kitt

in this episode, Adam and Budi sit down with Broadway composer, Tom Kitt, to talk about his extensive career from Next to Normal, SpongeBob, and The Tony's.

Tom Kitt is a two-time Tony, two-time Emmy, Pulitzer Prize, and Grammy Award winner.  As a musical theater composer, he's written music for six Broadway shows: Next to Normal (Tony Award), If/Then (Tony Nomination), Flying Over Sunset (Tony Nomination), High Fidelity, Bring it On, The Musical, and Almost Famous. His work for the stage has been seen Off-Broadway at 2nd Stage (Next to Normal, Superhero), The Public Theater (The Visitor, Shakespeare in the Park) and has worked at some of the most prestigious regional theaters in America.  Tom’s Broadway credits as an orchestrator include: Next to Normal (Tony Award), The SpongeBob Musical (Tony Nomination), Jagged Little Pill (Tony Nomination), Almost Famous, Head Over Heels, Everyday Rapture, and American Idiot. 

For Film and TV, as one of the vocal arrangers working on the Pitch Perfect films, Tom notably helped create the classic “Riff-off.”  Tom served as music supervisor/arranger/orchestrator for Grease Live and contributed songs for Royal Pains and Penny Dreadful.  Music supervisor for the NBC series, Rise and writer of numerous songs for Sesame Street.  He also composed two original opening numbers for The Tony Awards, Live in 2019, for James Corden, and the Emmy Award-winning, Bigger in 2013, written with Lin-Manuel Miranda for Neil Patrick Harris.  Tom is proud that his musical adaptation of Freaky Friday was turned into an original movie musical for Disney Channel.  Tom served as a Supervising Music Producer on the new musical television series, Up Here. 

Tom has worked on numerous original cast recordings, winning a Grammy award for his work on Jagged Little Pill.  His debut album, Reflect featured several Broadway artists with whom Tom collaborated to create a song cycle touching on the challenges brought on by the pandemic.  During the pandemic, he helped to form MUSE (Musicians United for Social Equity) and NYC Next.  His work with NYC Next featured A Moment for Broadway in Duffy Square in October of 2020 bringing members of the Broadway community together for the first time since the March 2020 shutdown, as they performed Stephen Sondheim’s iconic song, Sunday.