Stephen Flaherty

Stephen Flaherty (born September 18, 1960) is an American composer of musical theatre and film.

He works most often in collaboration with the lyricist/book writer Lynn Ahrens.

They are best known for writing the Broadway musicals Ragtime, which was nominated for thirteen Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards, and won the Tony for Best Original Score; Once on This Island, which won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, the Olivier Award for London's Best Musical, and was nominated for a Grammy Award and eight Tony Awards; and Seussical, which was nominated for the Grammy Award.

Flaherty was also nominated for two Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards (with Lynn Ahrens) for his songs and song score for the animated film musical Anastasia.

Flaherty was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

He began studying piano at the age of seven.

When he was twelve, he knew he wanted to write musicals and by age fourteen he had already composed his first musical score.

He attended South Hills Catholic High School in Pittsburgh and later studied musical composition and piano at University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, graduating in 1982.

with a B.M. in Musical Composition.

He did additional graduate studies in Musical Theater at New York University.

As a college student, Flaherty played ragtime piano in a dance band.

This early job would serve Flaherty well later in life when he had the opportunity to compose the score for the Broadway musical Ragtime.

He moved to New York City in 1982 and joined the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop, founded by music director Lehman Engel, where he met Lynn Ahrens, who was to become his longtime collaborator.

He also studied Musical Theater in the graduate program at New York University during this time, where his teachers included Richard Maltby, Jr. and Arthur Laurents, among others.

The first Ahrens and Flaherty collaboration that was produced was a one-act children's show, The Emperor's New Clothes, for TheatreWorks USA in 1985.

Their next produced musical was Lucky Stiff, produced Off-Broadway in 1988 at Playwrights Horizons.

Their first Broadway musical was Once on This Island, in 1990, which transferred from Off-Broadway's Playwrights Horizons.

The musical was nominated for 8 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Book and Best Score.

In 1992, Flaherty and Ahrens were signed by Disney to write the animated musical Song of the Sea, a coming of age story about a humpback whale.

Though the film was never produced, several key development executives on the project would play a part in Flaherty and Ahrens' later film musical, Anastasia.

Also in 1992, Flaherty and Ahrens wrote the musical My Favorite Year, based on the film of the same title, with a book by Joseph Dougherty.

It was notably the first original American musical to be produced by Lincoln Center Theatre.

The London production of the show won the Olivier Award (London's Tony) for Best Musical in 1995.

The critically acclaimed Ragtime (also with a book by Terrence McNally) had its world premiere in Toronto in December 1996, its American premiere in Los Angeles in June 1997 and its Broadway premiere in January 1998, where it ran for two years.

It won four Tony Awards, including Best Book and Best Score (for Flaherty and Ahrens), the Drama Desk Award for Best Musical and was also nominated for two Grammy Awards for its two cast recordings.

Following the success of Ragtime, Flaherty and Ahrens returned to Broadway in 2000 with Seussical, based on the works of Dr. Seuss, and co-conceived with Eric Idle.

The original Broadway cast album was nominated for a Grammy, and Flaherty also received a Drama Desk nomination for Best Music.

When the stock and amateur rights to the show were released following the Broadway run and its subsequent national tour, Seussical immediately became the most performed show in America.

Flaherty would eventually go on to write three additional original musicals for Lincoln Center Theatre, all in collaboration with Ms. Ahrens: A Man of No Importance (2002, with a book by Terrence McNally), Dessa Rose (2005) and The Glorious Ones (2007).

He was nominated for Outstanding Music by the Drama Desk Awards on all three of these shows.

Its London production (2003) was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Musical.

In 2008, there was a critically acclaimed off-Broadway revival directed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge, who would also go on to direct the Tony-nominated revival of Ragtime the following year.

After writing three shows for Lincoln Center Theatre, Flaherty and Ahrens next returned to Broadway with the musical Rocky the Musical.

The show was revived on Broadway in November 2009, where it was again critically acclaimed and nominated for the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical.

The show premiered in Hamburg, Germany in October 2012.

The musical has a book by Thomas Meehan and Sylvester Stallone, based on Stallone's original screenplay.

Rocky premiered on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre, officially opening on March 13, 2014.

The show was later revived on Broadway in an immersive production at Circle in the Square in December 2017, where it was again nominated for 8 Tony Awards, winning for Best Revival of a Musical.

The cast recording of the revival was nominated for the Grammy in 2019.

It was Flaherty's first Grammy nomination as a producer.