This past weekend I saw a community theatre production of Shrek the Musical, which is a show I’m no stranger to: I performed in it in high school and have since seen it performed at professional theaters, colleges, and local theaters. It’s one of my favorite shows, and I don’t think it gets enough credit. Most would probably assume it’s just the musicalized version of the cheesy cartoon, but its creative team made it much more than that. Shrek the Musical deals with important issues such as alienation, isolation, and body image, and it makes you question the perceptions we have of others. Watching it again brought me back to when I was first introduced to Shrek in my freshman year of high school. For me, Shrek was the musical that fostered my love of Broadway. It was how I was introduced to Sutton Foster—now my favorite actress of all time—and it also introduced me to one of my biggest role models: composer Jeanine Tesori.
In addition to Shrek, Jeanine Tesori has composed the music for numerous Broadway shows, including Caroline or Change, Violet, and the 2015 Tony Winning Best Musical, Fun Home. She’s known to be the most successful female Broadway composer of all time. She is both a trailblazer for women in the world of Broadway and an immensely talented creative. I love her music because the sounds she creates always reflect the show’s distinct setting. The sounds of Jeanine Tesori’s shows are so different that you wouldn’t guess they’re written by the same person. The music of Violet is bluesy, reflecting its setting of Spruce Pine, North Carolina, while Fun Home’s music is a darker pop/rock score with an ode to the 1970’s, reflecting the funeral home in Pennsylvania where it takes place. Shrek, on the other hand, features a classic Broadway-style sound and has catchy group numbers and other heartwarming ballads.
A scene from when I did Shrek in high school
In my sophomore year of high school, my choir teacher announced that our class’s final project would be to research a composer and present a project on them. Naturally, I decided that I would pick Jeanine Tesori—that is until my choir teacher told me that Jeanine Tesori “isn’t classical enough,” and she handed me a list of old, white, dead male composers to pick from instead. I was outraged that I not only couldn’t pick the composer I wanted, but that I also had no women to pick from. I grudgingly picked Stephen Sondheim.
The following year, my teacher assigned the same project, and after my outrage the year before, she said we could choose any composer. I was finally getting a chance to present on my role model. I thought, Why don’t I reach out to Jeanine and ask if I can interview her? I figured I would probably never hear back, but it was worth a shot. I messaged her on Twitter of all places, and less than an hour later, Jeanine responded to me and said that she would be delighted to let me interview her. I couldn’t believe it.
Meeting Jeanine Tesori
Interviewing Jeanine was an unforgettable experience. It shocked me that such a successful woman (and a Tony winner!) would be so generous to share her life experiences with a high school junior. It meant so much to me, and I’ll never forget the time she took with me. She shared that she is frequently the only woman in the room when she’s working on a Broadway show, and that she feels an enormous responsibility with that. She believes that women on top need to help other women get there, so she tries to be an exemplar of that. She also has women who she looks up to as well: in the same way that I look up to her, she told me she looks up to Linda Twine, musical director of Big River and The Color Purple.
We live in a world where only 17% of roles on Broadway creative teams are held by women, but Jeanine Tesori is one of the few women who have made it to the top and is trying to help others get there too. She is using her talent and her platform to lift up others, meanwhile inspiring a new generation of women while doing it. That’s why I admire her so much: she has shown me firsthand how crucial it is to see someone like you reflected where you want to be. It’s now my goal to work on Broadway and use my work to advocate for more women and other minorities to be on Broadway’s creative teams, something first modeled to me by my role model Jeanine Tesori.
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