Pasek and Paul

Pasek and Paul (Benj Pasek and Justin Paul) are a musical theatre writing team living in New York City.

They are the winners of a 2007 Jonathan Larson Award, which is named after the late Rent composer and honors achievement by composers, lyricists and librettists. Tina Landau and Stephen Schwartz were among the judges panel for the 2007 year. At age 21, Benj and Justin became the youngest recipients in the history of the foundation and were awarded a 20,000 dollar cash prize, the highest amount ever given to a team.

Benj and Justin began their collaboration as freshmen at the University of Michigan and completed their BFA degrees in musical theatre in December 2006. The team's musical revue, EDGES, has been performed over 60 times at various professional venues and colleges throughout the country including New York University, Carnegie Mellon University, Westminster Choir College, Emerson College, University of Miami, Northwestern University, Boston Conservatory, and many more. EDGES was purchased by Music Theatre International is currently available for licensing.

Pasek and Paul are writers for John Tartaglia's Disney Channel television series "Johnny and the Sprites." The series premiere featured a song by Pasek and Paul titled "I Just Can't Get Enough."

They contributed music to Off-Broadway's upcoming "White Noise, [A Cautionary Musical] ," which won Talkin' Broadway's 2006 Summer Theatre Festival Citation for Outstanding Original Score.

They have played sold-out shows at Joe's Pub at New York's Public Theatre and Ars Nova in New York City featuring a host of Broadway talents including Shoshana Bean, Billy Porter, Gavin Creel, Cheyenne Jackson, Steven Pasquale, Karen Mason, Celia Keenan-Bolger, and many more.

They were invited to participate in the first ever Johnny Mercer Songwriting Festival funded by the American Musical Theatre Project and are currently developing several original book musicals.

The Connecticut professional premiere of EDGES: A SONG CYCLE was part of the MTC MainStage 2007/08 Season, running February 1-17,2008 in Westport, CT.

Edges had its Canadian Premiere on October 6 and 13, 2007, at the Toronto Centre for the Arts. Both shows were sold out and a third was added to accommodate those who were unable to get tickets for the original performances. The show, starring Gabi Epstein, Eric Craig, Sara Farb, and Jordan Bell, will be remounted in the fall of 2008. http://www.edgestoronto.com/

External links

* [http://www.pasekandpaul.com Pasek and Paul website]
* [http://www.mtcmainstage.org MTC MainStage website, producer of EDGES in February 2008]