John Weidman is a librettist and television writer for Sesame Street, for which he and the writing team have won more than a dozen Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing For A Children's Series. He collaborated on three stage musicals with Stephen Sondheim: Pacific Overtures, Assassins, and Road Show. He has worked with choreographer/director Susan Stroman three times: Big: The Musical, Contact, and Happiness. From 1999 to 2009 he was president of the Dramatists Guild of America. He has been nominated for the Tony Award for Best Book for a Musical three times.

John and I talked about the creation of his first play, Pacific Overtures, as well as . . .

How law school helped him become a better playwright.

Can all ideas be made into musicals?

Collaborating with Sondheim . . . and how to stand up for yourself when you’re working with a legend (before he became one himself!)

The most common problem he sees in modern musicals.

How to do deal with the ones that don’t work out the way you want them to.


One of the biggest tips I give to writers out there trying to get their shows produced is to submit their plays to festivals and contests and all sorts of different theatres all over the country. Get your play out into the world to as many places as possible: you never know who’s gonna read it. One of the great tools that can help you do this is a website called playsubmissionshelper.com. It gives you a list of all the different places that you can submit your play, deadlines, information on how to submit, etc. It’s the one place on the web that has this information listed in one area.

Keep up with me: @KenDavenportBway
www.theproducersperspective.com 
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