Cinco Paul, who wrote the book, music and lyrics of Schmigadoon! without a collaborator, is the newest recipient of the ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award, the foundation announced on October 2.
The award honors ASCAP composers and lyricists who make a significant Broadway or Off-Broadway debut, and is funded by the Estate of Mary Rodgers and the Rodgers Family Foundation. Its earlier recipients make a fair map of the last two decades of the American musical: Lin-Manuel Miranda for Hamilton, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul for Dear Evan Hansen, David Hein and Irene Sankoff for Come From Away, and Michael R. Jackson for A Strange Loop.
Paul’s debut arrived fully formed. The stage Schmigadoon! at the Nederlander Theatre won the Tony for Best Musical, and Paul took the Tonys for Best Book and Best Original Score. Writing all three elements of a Broadway musical alone is rare, and the foundation sets him beside two fellow ASCAP members who did it, Miranda and Jonathan Larson (Rent).
“Cinco Paul is a master storyteller and writer, and no one is more deserving of this award,” said Paul Williams, president of the ASCAP Foundation.
The theater was a late turn in a long screen career. With his writing partner Ken Daurio, Paul wrote the first three Despicable Me films, Horton Hears a Who!, The Lorax and The Secret Life of Pets. He then co-created Apple TV’s Schmigadoon! and served as its showrunner, writing every song across its two seasons, which brought him an Emmy and a Grammy nomination. Coming next are a new musical series for Apple TV and Sweet Jesus, a stage musical written with Bekah Brunstetter.
The announcement lands days before A Celebration of Rodgers & Hart, the all-star evening of the team’s songs at Carnegie Hall on Monday, October 5.
Tickets for Schmigadoon! at the Nederlander Theatre are on sale now.