Amanda Green - Career

Career

Born in New York City, Green was raised on the Upper West Side with brother Adam by parents Phyllis Newman and Adolph Green. From an early age she was exposed to major talents of Broadway musical theatre, including Leonard Bernstein, Jule Styne, and Cy Coleman, all of whom were regular guests in the household. At the age of nine, she starred as Maria in her summer camp's production of West Side Story, and decided to focus on performing.

After graduating from Brown University,Green attended an actors' training program at Circle in the Square and then spent two seasons at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. She began writing songs and performing in Manhattan cabarets like Joe's Pub.

In the mid-1990s, inspired by Lyle Lovett's writing, she moved to Nashville to write country music.

In Los Angeles Green wrote the lyrics for two musicals, Once Upon a Primetime (2002) and Up the Week Without a Paddle (2000),which earned her a nomination from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle.

In New York a concert of Green's original revue Put a Little Love in Your Mouth!, was performed at off-Broadway's Second Stage Theater in March 2003, and featured Julia Murney, Mario Cantone and Billy Strich. A recording of a live performance has been released on compact disc. She also wrote the lyrics for and co-starred with Nancy Opel in For the Love of Tiffany: A Wifetime Original Musical, which enjoyed a sold-out run at The Wings Theater as part of the New York International Fringe Festival in August 2003. In July 2004 Green and her mother co-hosted a concert titled Bernstein, Comden and Green: A Musical Celebration, at The Venetian Theatre in Katonah, New York, with performers Sylvia McNair, Judy Kaye, Jason Graae and Hugh Russell. In 2009 Green appeared in concert at Feinstein's at Loews Regency, in New York, with performers Jenn Coella, Ann Harada, and Norm Lewis.

Green enrolled in the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop, where she met Tom Kitt, who suggested the two collaborate on a musical stage adaptation of the cult film High Fidelity. In a move reminiscent of the days when Broadway musicals routinely tested the waters out-of-town first, the show had a one-month run at Boston's Colonial Theatre before heading to New York City. After eighteen previews, the production opened on December 7, 2006 at the Imperial Theatre where, hampered by poor reviewsit closed after only fourteen performances.

Green and Kitt are writing original songs for a movie musical version of Debbie Does Dallas. A new musical, Bring It On: The Musical, with music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Tom Kitt and Green and book by Jeff Whitty premiered at the Alliance Theatre, Atlanta, Georgia on January 16, 2011.

Green has recently written a number of songs with Phish leader Trey Anastasio, one of which ("Burn That Bridge") was performed live by Anastasio in May 2010. Green and Anastasio have written the music, with lyrics by Green and the book by Doug Wright for a stage musical version of Hands on a Hard Body. The musical had its world premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse in April 2012, and is expected to run on Broadway in the 2012-13 season.

She is the recipient of a 2004 Jonathan Larson Award and grant for excellence in songwriting, and a contributing writer to Playboy Magazine.