Don Black (lyricist) - Musical Theatre

Musical Theatre

Black's stage credits include the musicals Billy (music:John Barry), Bar Mitzvah Boy (music:Jule Styne), Dear Anyone (music:Geoff Stephens), Budgie (music:Mort Shuman) and several Andrew Lloyd Webber shows: the 1979 song-cycle, Tell Me on a Sunday, which was performed by Marti Webb (whom Black also managed for a time); Aspects of Love, which propelled Michael Ball to stardom; and, together with Christopher Hampton, the musical adaptation of the Billy Wilder film Sunset Boulevard. The latter brought Black and Hampton a Tony Award for Best Book.

Tell Me on a Sunday was incorporated into "Song and Dance". This was later adapted for a Broadway production starring Bernadette Peters, for which she won a Tony award as Best Actress in a Musical. Sarah Brightman released Unexpected Song, from that musical, as a hit single.

In 2002 he worked with Indian composer A. R. Rahman on the musical Bombay Dreams. In 2004, Black's second musical collaboration with Hampton, Frank Wildhorn's Dracula, the musical, debuted on Broadway. He also collaborated with John Barry once more, on the musical Brighton Rock. Based on the Graham Greene novel, it debuted at the Almeida Theatre, London, in 2004. In 2006, Black created the lyrics for the musical adaptation of the book Feather Boy for the National Theatre in London.