Duncan Sheik Never Got Enough Credit for What He Did for Musical Theatre

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by Chris Peterson

Duncan Sheik died last week at 56. And while a lot of the tributes are focused on “Barely Breathing” and Spring Awakening, I keep coming back to the thought that Sheik ever got enough credit for what Spring Awakening did for musical theatre.

And I know that sounds ridiculous, considering the show won eight Tonys, and Sheik himself won for the score and orchestrations. I still think it's true.

Because when we talk about the definitive musicals of the 2000s, it has to be right there near the top. Maybe at the top.

And if we're putting together some sort of Mount Rushmore of 21st-century Broadway composers, Duncan Sheik absolutely belongs in that conversation.

There were bigger commercial hits. Shows that probably made a hell of a lot more money. But I don't know how many musicals from that decade changed the sound of Broadway quite like Spring Awakening did.

That score was different.

You had a 19th-century German play dealing with a multitude of issues and adults completely failing young people. Then these kids would pull out handheld microphones, and suddenly we were somewhere else entirely.

Maybe we've lived with the show for so long now that we forget how unusual it sounded when it arrived. We know those songs. We know what came afterward.

At the time, though? That was a swing. Sheik took it.

And then he did something I appreciate even more.

Which brings me to American Psycho. I will defend that show forever.

Critics certainly weren't kind to it. Audiences didn't exactly come running either. The Broadway production closed quickly.

My little group of theatre friends? We loved the damn thing. Loved it.

We listened to that score constantly. Talked about it. Tried to figure out why other people weren't responding to it the way we were.

I still listen to it. It's cold. Electronic. Sexy. Occasionally, completely insane.

Which is pretty much exactly what American Psycho should sound like.

Was the show perfect? No. Who cares?

I'd take somebody trying something that strange over another perfectly respectable musical that disappears from my brain before I get home.

And that's what I liked about Sheik. He kept trying things.

Whisper House. Alice by Heart. Noir. Because of Winn Dixie. Different material. Different sounds. Some projects connected more than others.

That's fine. I don't want artists taking the safe route every time.

And that's part of what makes me sad of losing him so soon. I wasn't done being interested in what Duncan Sheik was going to write. In fact, I was looking forward to what was coming next.

His newest musical, Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen, begins performances Off-Broadway on September 25. It's based on Moyoco Anno's manga and follows a young woman in early-20th-century Paris working in a maison close while writing about the people around her.

Tell me that doesn't sound like material Duncan Sheik could do something interesting with.

I'm genuinely looking forward to hearing it. And now that's going to be a strange experience.

We're going to get new Duncan Sheik music without Duncan Sheik being here to see what people make of it. That's awful.

But when we're talking about Duncan Sheik now, I hope we give him the credit he deserves.

He didn't just write some great theatre music. He helped change what theatre music could sound like.