Ep108 - It's All Happening with TOM KITT

We had the absolute pleasure of speaking with the incredible Tom Kitt, who is nominated for the 2023 Tony Award for Best Original Score Written for the Theatre for Broadway's Almost Famous! As huge fans of the show and score, we were thrilled to have an in-depth conversation about Tom's work with the piece. Tom Kitt is a two-time Tony, two-time Emmy, Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award winner.  As a musical theatre composer, he has written the music for six Broadway shows: Next to Normal (Tony Award), If/Then (Tony Nomination), Flying Over Sunset (Tony Nomination), High Fidelity, Bring it On, The Musical, and Almost Famous. His work for the stage has also been seen Off-Broadway at 2nd Stage (Next to Normal, Superhero), The Public Theater (The Visitor, Shakespeare in the Park) and he has worked at some of the most prestigious regional theatres including The Old Globe, Arena Stage, Berkeley Rep, The Signature Theater, and ART.  In addition, Tom’s Broadway credits as an orchestrator include: Next to Normal (Tony Award), The SpongeBob Musical (Tony Nomination), Jagged Little Pill (Tony Nomination), Almost Famous, Head Over Heels, Everyday Rapture, and American Idiot. Tom has also been active in the world of film and TV. As one of the vocal arrangers working on the Pitch Perfect films, Tom most notably helped create the classic “Riff-off.”  Tom also served as music supervisor/arranger/orchestrator for Grease Live and contributed songs for Royal Pains and Penny Dreadful.  He also provided music supervision for the NBC series, Rise and has written numerous songs for Sesame Street.  And he is known for his two original opening numbers for The Tony Awards, Live in 2019, written with David Javerbaum for James Corden, and the Emmy Award winning, Bigger in 2013, written with Lin-Manuel Miranda for Neil Patrick Harris.  Tom is also proud that his musical adaptation of Freaky Friday, co-written with Bridget Carpenter and Brian Yorkey was turned into an original movie musical for Disney Channel.  Most recently, Tom served as a Supervising Music Producer on the new Bobby Lopez/Kristen Anderson-Lopez/Steven Levenson/Thomas Kail musical television series, Up Here.