Biography
Stephen Flaherty earned a Tony Award as a composer of musicals through an extended creative alliance with lyricist Lynn Ahrens. Their joint catalog features the Broadway production Ragtime and the Fox animated feature Anastasia among its most widely recognized entries.
Flaherty entered the world in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1960. He started piano lessons at seven and wrote his initial musical score at fourteen. In 1982 he completed his degree at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, pursued further studies in musical theater at New York University, and established permanent residence in New York City.
The composer’s first project with singer, songwriter, and lyricist Lynn Ahrens took shape in 1985 for Theatreworks USA, an organization devoted to theater for young audiences. Their off-Broadway musical Lucky Stiff reached the stage in 1989 with music by Flaherty and book and lyrics by Ahrens; the show later enjoyed a short West End run in 1997. Flaherty and Ahrens supplied material both individually and jointly to Schoolhouse Rock! shorts. Their first Broadway musical, the one-act Once on This Island, opened in 1990, appeared on a Masterworks Broadway cast recording, and collected eight Tony nominations, among them best musical, book, and score.
The partnership’s most prominent achievement up to that time arrived in 1997 with the Twentieth Century Fox animated release Anastasia. Drawing on the legend surrounding the daughter of Russia’s Tsar Nicholas II, the film brought Flaherty two Academy Award nominations—one for Best Original Musical or Comedy Score shared with Ahrens and David Newman, the other for Best Original Song “Journey to the Past” shared with Ahrens. Flaherty and Ahrens also supplied songs for the straight-to-video sequel Bartok the Magnificent in 1999.
Meanwhile, the Ahrens-Flaherty musical Ragtime had its world premiere in Toronto in 1996, played Los Angeles the following year, and reached Broadway in January 1998. An epic drawn from E.L. Doctorow’s 1975 novel and centered on class dynamics in early-twentieth-century New York, its score fused the era’s ragtime idioms with additional thematic strands such as Eastern European folk music. The production received twelve Tony Award nominations and secured four wins, including the score for Flaherty and Ahrens and the book for Terrence McNally.
Later musicals by the songwriting team encompassed Seussical in 2000, A Man of No Importance in 2002, Dessa Rose in 2005, the musical revue Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life in 2005, and The Glorious Ones in 2007. Beyond these collaborations, Flaherty composed the American River Suite with lyricist Bill Schermerhorn and, with Ahrens, created the Degas-inspired musical Little Dancer, which appeared at Kennedy Center in 2014. Their Rocky: The Musical opened on Broadway the same year.
Two decades after the animated film, a stage adaptation of Anastasia with book by Terrence McNally premiered on Broadway in April 2017. Its cast recording, Anastasia: The New Broadway Musical, was issued on the Broadway label two months later and entered the Billboard Cast Albums chart at number one. A revival of Once on This Island followed in December 2017; its February 2018 cast recording debuted at number two on the same chart.
Flaherty entered the world in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1960. He started piano lessons at seven and wrote his initial musical score at fourteen. In 1982 he completed his degree at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, pursued further studies in musical theater at New York University, and established permanent residence in New York City.
The composer’s first project with singer, songwriter, and lyricist Lynn Ahrens took shape in 1985 for Theatreworks USA, an organization devoted to theater for young audiences. Their off-Broadway musical Lucky Stiff reached the stage in 1989 with music by Flaherty and book and lyrics by Ahrens; the show later enjoyed a short West End run in 1997. Flaherty and Ahrens supplied material both individually and jointly to Schoolhouse Rock! shorts. Their first Broadway musical, the one-act Once on This Island, opened in 1990, appeared on a Masterworks Broadway cast recording, and collected eight Tony nominations, among them best musical, book, and score.
The partnership’s most prominent achievement up to that time arrived in 1997 with the Twentieth Century Fox animated release Anastasia. Drawing on the legend surrounding the daughter of Russia’s Tsar Nicholas II, the film brought Flaherty two Academy Award nominations—one for Best Original Musical or Comedy Score shared with Ahrens and David Newman, the other for Best Original Song “Journey to the Past” shared with Ahrens. Flaherty and Ahrens also supplied songs for the straight-to-video sequel Bartok the Magnificent in 1999.
Meanwhile, the Ahrens-Flaherty musical Ragtime had its world premiere in Toronto in 1996, played Los Angeles the following year, and reached Broadway in January 1998. An epic drawn from E.L. Doctorow’s 1975 novel and centered on class dynamics in early-twentieth-century New York, its score fused the era’s ragtime idioms with additional thematic strands such as Eastern European folk music. The production received twelve Tony Award nominations and secured four wins, including the score for Flaherty and Ahrens and the book for Terrence McNally.
Later musicals by the songwriting team encompassed Seussical in 2000, A Man of No Importance in 2002, Dessa Rose in 2005, the musical revue Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life in 2005, and The Glorious Ones in 2007. Beyond these collaborations, Flaherty composed the American River Suite with lyricist Bill Schermerhorn and, with Ahrens, created the Degas-inspired musical Little Dancer, which appeared at Kennedy Center in 2014. Their Rocky: The Musical opened on Broadway the same year.
Two decades after the animated film, a stage adaptation of Anastasia with book by Terrence McNally premiered on Broadway in April 2017. Its cast recording, Anastasia: The New Broadway Musical, was issued on the Broadway label two months later and entered the Billboard Cast Albums chart at number one. A revival of Once on This Island followed in December 2017; its February 2018 cast recording debuted at number two on the same chart.
Albums
