Jeff Whitty

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For the educational theorist, see Geoff Whitty.
Jeffrey Whitty
BAFTA and Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay

Jeffrey Daniel Whitty (born September 30, 1971) is an American playwright, actor, and screenwriter.

For the stage musical Avenue Q, he won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical.

For his work on the

Film Independent Spirit Awards.[1]

Avenue Q was his first produced musical and Can You Ever Forgive Me his first produced screenplay.

Early life and education

Whitty was born September 30, 1971, in

Graduate Acting Program in 1997.[2]
After two decades in New York he moved to Los Angeles in 2013.

Career

He won the 2004 Tony Award for Best Book of a musical for Avenue Q, written with composers Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, which opened at Broadway's John Golden Theatre in 2003 and ran commercially in New York City for sixteen years. Among dozens of international productions and two national tours, the musical ran for six years on London's West End, as produced by Cameron Mackintosh.

Whitty wrote the libretto to the musical adaptation of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City novels, with music by Jake Shears and John Garden of the musical group Scissor Sisters.[3] The musical was workshopped at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's 2009 National Music Theater Conference. It opened in a limited run at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco on May 18, 2011, and, after extending twice, closed on July 10. It was directed by Jason Moore with a cast that featured Judy Kaye, Betsy Wolfe, Mary Birdsong and Wesley Taylor.[4] Whitty won the 2011 Bay Area Critics Circle award for his work.[5]

Whitty wrote the libretto for

Tony Award
for Best Musical.

In 2015, Whitty premiered his original vision of

New York Times drama critic Charles Isherwood praised Whitty's book as "deliciously witty, bawdy and full of loopy appeal — and written mostly in skillfully wrought iambic pentameter yet."[8]

In 2016, Whitty left the production when director Michael Mayer took over directing duties, installing Tom Kitt as music supervisor and firing all of Whitty's collaborators. A statement from the producers read: “Jeff Whitty’s original book was tied to specific language and arrangements of the Go-Go’s music. Incoming director Michael Mayer had a different vision for ‘Head Over Heels’ and Whitty chose to leave the production. All concerned wish one another success in their future endeavors.”[9] Mayer and Kitt's quite different version of Head Over Heels opened at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco, bound for a Broadway run that opened July 26th, 2018, with a script "substantially revised" by James MacGruder.[10] In March 2023, Whitty published an essay entitled "Grand Theft Musical" alleging severe mistreatment on the part of the producers of Head Over Heels, his agent, and his lawyer, including—variously—exploitation, threats, harassment, and theft of royalties.[11][12]

In 2018, Fox Searchlight Pictures released Can You Ever Forgive Me, with a screenplay by Whitty and Nicole Holofcener, adapted from a memoir by Lee Israel. The film was directed by Marielle Heller and starred Melissa McCarthy as Israel and Richard E. Grant as Jack Hock, Israel's accomplice. The movie, its creative team and cast won a multitude of awards, with Whitty and Holofcener's screenplay garnering awards from the Writers Guild of America, the Independent Spirit Awards, the Satellite Press Association, the Los Angeles Critic Circle and many more, as well as BAFTA and Oscar nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Whitty's plays include The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler which was commissioned by and received its world premiere at South Coast Repertory in January, 2006; The Plank Project (a parody of documentary theater pieces like The Laramie Project); the multi-play cycle Balls; The Hiding Place, a romantic Manhattan comedy which received its New York debut at the Atlantic Theater Company; the dark comedy Suicide Weather.

Whitty is an occasional actor, having appeared in New York productions of plays by

Billy Porter playing the co-leading role of Mammy.[13]
Both roles had been created for and played by women until this production.

His older brother

Emmy
Awards.

Jeff Whitty now lives in West Hollywood, California.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Film - Adapted Screenplay in 2019". Awards.BAFTA.org. British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
  2. ^ "NYU Graduate Acting Alumni". 2011. Archived from the original on 2012-07-05. Retrieved 2011-12-08.
  3. ^ Article Archived 2012-10-07 at the Wayback Machine Entertainment Weekly March 2, 2001
  4. ^ Hetrick, Adam."'Tales of the City' Musical Will Star Judy Kaye, Betsy Wolfe, Mary Birdsong and Wesley Taylor" Archived 2011-03-21 at the Wayback Machine playbill.com, March 18, 2011
  5. ^ Kenneth Jones Rita Moreno, Jeff Whitty, Seussical, Bill Cain Among Winners in SF Bay Area Critics Awards April 11, 2012 Archived January 2, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ "Variety, September 22, 2009".
  7. ^ Jones, Kenneth; Hetrick, Adam. "Something to Cheer About: Bring It On: The Musical Begins Atlanta Run Jan. 16 After Ice Delay" Archived 2011-02-02 at the Wayback Machine playbill.com, January 16, 2011
  8. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 2022-09-15.
  9. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 2022-09-15.
  10. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 2022-09-15.
  11. ^ Culwell-Block, Logan (2023-03-22). "Playwright Jeff Whitty Details 'Exploitation' During Development of Broadway's Head Over Heels in Online Tell-All". Playbill. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
  12. ^ "Intro". GTMusical. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
  13. ^ Bri, Hi-fi (March 21, 2012). "Hi-Fi Bri: Dinner & Great Theatre At THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF HEDDA GABLER".

External links

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