In this excerpt from the ShowbizU interview, Elise Dewsberry and Tim Kashani discuss essential advice for young musical‑theatre writing teams. They stress three core principles: first, maintain the highest possible craft standards and avoid settling for sloppy or mediocre writing, because emerging writers lack the leeway afforded to established artists; second, reject low‑quality conventions such as slant rhyme, false rhyme, and meandering structure, insisting that teams strive for excellence in every element of their work; and third, internalize the foundational rules of musical‑theatre writing before attempting to break or subvert them. The conversation is framed as practical, encouraging guidance for aspiring writers seeking to break into the industry.
What are some of the top 3 things that you could inject into a young team that wants to make it into this industry?
I would say first and foremost, really believing that doing your best, having your craft at the highest level possible is important, and not playing to the lowest common denominator. A lot of people sometimes think they can get away with accepting slant rhyme and false rhyme and sloppy writing and meandering structure because because they see a lot of it out there in the world. And we try to convince them that that's no reason to accept less than your best, and you should always be striving to be at the very, very top of your art form. Especially because, you know, it's one thing for somebody who's already an established pop musician to be able to write, to compose, or do something else on Broadway, and people will either forgive their craft flaws or embrace them because of the artist that they already are. But if you're a young up-and-coming writer, you're not necessarily necessarily going to get that kind of leeway. So we really stress craft.
Know the rules before you break them.
Yes, yes, and break them for a reason. Break them because you know the effect it's going to have to break them, not just because you're sloppy and lazy. That's the big difference. And the next thing that I would really encourage people to do is because it's such a collaborative art form, we really, really encourage teams to work on an idea together. Tends to have— there's sort of two different ways things tend to happen. Sometimes a book writer will get an idea and will labor over the outline and the draft before they even go looking for a team, because they want it to be perfect before they find a team. And we find that that is counterproductive, because then your lyricist and your composer aren't as invested in the project as you are. It isn't as much a child of their genius as it is yours as a book writer. And it can be hard to get them to be as passionate and as and on the same page as you are about what you're trying to write. So, we really encourage early collaboration for that reason. I think it makes a lot of sense. And then, the other way that people go sometimes is they get so excited about the possibility for their show that they just start writing songs. And the number of contacts I get from people saying, "Well, our musical's done. We've got all the songs. We just have to write the book." And I understand— Has that ever worked? Well, I mean— I know of your song cycles, but— Yeah, and I would never say— I don't want to say that something can't work. A lot of strange things have worked in this world, but it's not a recipe for success. Who's the main character? What are they— the main 3, you know, what does he want? What does he do to get it? And does he get it or not? It sounds simple, but if you don't start there, then you're in trouble because you don't actually have a reason for your show. You need to know who your lead character is, what do they want more than anything else in the world, and how much are they willing to go through to get it? And then you have to make sure that everything in your story allows your lead character to go through the journey he needs to do that. Then later you can go back and figure out where does that sing and where are the most exciting places for it emotionally to let that take over the book and let it sing. But those are the biggest ones that I would say.
