Emmy-winning composer Stephen J. Lawrence died December 30 at Clara Maass Medical Center in Belleville, N.J. Born September 5, 1939, in New York, Lawrence grew up in Great Neck on Long Island among a musical family. He “was one of those five-year-olds who could walk to the piano and play anything,” his wife told NPR. Lawrence’s dad “loved to show Stephen off,” she added. “His father would play a chord, and Stephen would call out the notes.” While studying music at Hofstra University, Lawrence began writing shows. Below is a clip of the overture and opening song (“Another Morning”) from his 1960 college musical The Delicate Touch, with book and lyrics by Francis Ford Coppola.
After college, Lawrence found work Off-Broadway, contributing material to the 1965 revue Just for Openers as well as orchestrations for Great Scot! (1965) and Now Is the Time for All Good Men (1967). He made his film debut with the score for the 1971 drama Jennifer on My Mind. The next year, he contributed songs to the Marlo Thomas album Free to Be … You and Me, including the title track (lyrics by Bruce Hart). Below is the title song sung by the New Seekers in the 1974 ABC-TV special. Lawrence also wrote for the 1974 Children’s Television Workshop series Feeling Good and the 1979 NBC-TV movie Sooner or Later, which included Rex Smith’s Top Ten hit “You Take My Breathe Away,” which you can watch below.
https://youtu.be/_26FOHoaC78
Lawrence spent most of the next few decades writing for Sesame Street, winning three Emmys from 10 nominations that the music department earned. Below is the 1981 song “Fuzzy and Blue (and Orange)” (lyrics by David Axelrod) sung by Grover, Herry Monster, and Cookie Monster. His other work in the 1980s included the CBS-TV special Dorothy in the Land of Oz (1980), the Off-Broadway revue A … My Name Is Alice (1984), and several films for Cannon Movies Tales, including Red Riding Hood (1987). Below is Isabella Rosselini singing “You Won’t Be Here in the Morning” (lyrics by Michael Korie).
In 1991, Lawrence wrote incidental music for Tracey Ullmann’s Broadway solo The Big Love and the animated musical The Tale of Peter Rabbit for HBO’s Storybook Musicals. Below is “So Near and Yet So Far” (lyrics by Sheldon Harnick) sung by Harry Barandes. He also contributed to the 1996 Off-Broadway revue A … My Name Will Always Be Alice and the 1996 Nickelodeon TV series The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss. He ended the decade by co-founding Quill Entertainment, which creates children’s musicals about U.S. history. Below is a montage of the company’s work.
Lawrence’s recent musical work includes the albums Elmo’s Coloring Book (2004) and Elmo Makes Music (2006) as well as the 2006 revue Hats! and 2009 children’s musical No Dogs Allowed, written with Sonia Manzano and Billy Aronson.