It is no secret that the musical theatre songwriting dream team of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul are having a terrific year. Just months after winning the Oscar for Best Original Song, "City of Stars," from the movie musical La La Land, the duo hit the awards circuit once more. This time at the 2017 Tony Awards, where their latest Broadway venture, Dear Evan Hansen, stole the spotlight - winning 6 Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Original Score. The success of Dear Evan Hansen and La La Land placed Pasek and Paul half-way towards the elusive EGOT (the quadfecta of awards received: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony).
It should also come as no surprise that this young team has a few years of collaboration under their belts, dating back to their undergraduate years at the University of Michigan. From Edges to Dogfight, Pasek and Paul's music and lyrics elicit powerful emotions. This match proved perfect when tasked with musicalizing the classic children's novel James and the Giant Peach by the legendary Roald Dahl.
In the early 2000s the Dahl Estate granted the rights to musically adapt James and the Giant Peach to playwright and iTheatrics founder, Timothy Allen McDonald. The search was on for the perfect songwriting collaborators. Based on several reccomendations, including one from celebrated author Lynn Ahrens and MTI's Chairman and CEO Freddie Gershon, McDonald approached the young song-writing duo of Pasek and Paul and presented them with three pivotal moments in the story to musicalize. A week later, a thoroughly impressed McDonald knew he had the perfect team to create this musical. Through workshops, re-writes, and festival unveiling, the show premeired in 2013 at the Seattle Children's Theatre to both critical and financial success.
