Happy Birthday to Grammy-winning composer Henry Krieger, born Feb. 9, 1945, in New York City. Growing up in Westchester Co., he attended Scarborough Day School. After a short college career, including studies at American University and Columbia University, he began composing for Off-Off-Broadway, where he met writer Tom Eyen. Their first show was The Dirtiest Musical in Town, a 1975 revision of Eyen’s 1970 revue The Dirtiest Show in Town. Nell Carter’s performance, particularly the showstopper “Can’t You See?,” inspired the duo to write a musical about black backup singers.
Originally called One Night Only, the show was renamed Project #9 when Joseph Papp workshopped it. A year later, it caught the eye of Michael Bennett, who workshopped it as Big Dreams, with Jennifer Holliday as Carter’s replacement. After more workshops, rewrites, and roadblocks, Dreamgirls opened Dec. 20, 1981, at Broadway’s Imperial Theatre. It received 13 Tony nominations (including score), winning six awards. Holliday’s performance of “And I Am Telling You” topped Billboard’s R&B chart and earned her a Grammy award. The cast album also earned a Grammy for Krieger and Eyen. The show saw a short Broadway revival in 1987 and made its West End premiere in 2016, earning five Olivier nods. Below is Holliday at the 1982 Tonys.
Krieger returned to Broadway with the musical The Tap Dance Kid, which had lyrics by Robert Lorick and a book by Charles Blackwell, based on Louise Fitzhugh’s novel Nobody’s Family Is Going to Change. The show opened Dec. 21, 1982, at Broadway’s Broadhurst Theatre and received six Tony nominations, winning two. Its cast album also earned Krieger and Lorick a Grammy nomination. Below is Alfonso Ribeiro, Hinton Battle, and The Tap Dance Kid company in “Fabulous Feet” at the 1983 Tonys.
More than a decade later, Krieger was back on Broadway with the musical Side Show, lyrics and book by Bill Russell. The show opened Oct. 16, 1997, at the Richard Rodgers Theatre and received four Tony nominations, including score. The show had a short Broadway revival in 2014. Krieger’s subsequent work with Russell includes the original musical Everything’s Ducky (2000), later renamed Lucky Duck, and Kept (2002), based on the novel Camille. Below are Emily Skinner and Alice Ripley in “I Will Never Leave You” at the 1998 Tonys.
The film version of Dreamgirls was released Dec. 15, 2006. It received eight Oscar nominations, including for three of its four original songs: “Listen,” “Love You I Do,” and “Patience.” The soundtrack topped the Billboard 200, R&B/Hip-Hop, and Soundtrack album charts and garnered numerous nominations, including a BAFTA nod for best film music, a Golden Globe nod for best original song (“Listen”), and Grammy nods for best soundtrack and song (“Love You I Do”), winning for the latter. Below is Jennifer Hudson, Beyoncé, and Anika Noni Rose performing a medley of “Love You I Do,” “Listen,” and “Patience” at the 2007 Oscars.
Among Krieger’s other stage work is: the 1988 pop opera Dangerous Music (with Eyen) at the Burt Reynolds Jupiter Theatre, which starred with Laurie Beechman, Shaun Cassidy, Donna Murphy, and Jodi Benson; the 1998 puppet operetta Love’s Fowl (with Susan J. Vitucci) at New York Theatre Workshop; songs for the 2006 revue Hats! (with Susan Birkenhead) at New Denver Civic Theatre; the 2008 family show Up in the Air (with Russell) at the Kennedy Center; and the 2008 musical Romantic Poetry (with John Patrick Shanley) at Manhattan Theatre Club’s City Center Stage I.