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Jeffrey Whitty | |
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| Born | Jeffrey Daniel Whitty (1971-09-30)September 30, 1971 (age 53) Coos Bay, Oregon, United States |
| Occupation | Screenwriter,playwright, actor |
| Education | University of Oregon(BA) New York University(MFA) |
| Notable works | Avenue Q,The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler,Can You Ever Forgive Me? |
| Notable awards | Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical,Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, theLos Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Screenplay,AARP's Movies for Grownups, theSatellite Awards, and theFilm Independent Spirit Awards. Nominations:BAFTA andAcademy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay |
Jeffrey Daniel Whitty (born September 30, 1971) is an Americanplaywright, actor, andscreenwriter.
For the stage musicalAvenue Q, he won theTony Award for Best Book of a Musical.
For his work on theFox Searchlight filmCan You Ever Forgive Me? (2018), he was nominated for theBAFTA andAcademy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and won numerous awards including theWriters Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, theLos Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Screenplay,AARP's Movies for Grownups, theSatellite Awards, and theFilm Independent Spirit Awards.[1]
Avenue Q was his first produced musical andCan You Ever Forgive Me his first produced screenplay.
Whitty was born September 30, 1971, inCoos Bay, Oregon, where he was raised as the fifth of six children. After graduating from theUniversity of Oregon in 1993, he moved toNew York City and received a master's degree fromNew York University'sGraduate Acting Program in 1997.[2] After two decades in New York he moved to Los Angeles in 2013.
He won the 2004 Tony Award for Best Book of a musical forAvenue Q, written with composersRobert Lopez andJeff Marx, which opened at Broadway'sJohn 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'sWest End, as produced byCameron Mackintosh.
Whitty wrote thelibretto to the musical adaptation ofArmistead Maupin'sTales of the City novels, with music byJake Shears and John Garden of the musical groupScissor Sisters.[3] The musical was workshopped at theEugene O'Neill Theater Center's 2009 National Music Theater Conference. It opened in a limited run atAmerican Conservatory Theater in San Francisco on May 18, 2011, and, after extending twice, closed on July 10. It was directed byJason Moore with a cast that featuredJudy Kaye, Betsy Wolfe,Mary Birdsong andWesley Taylor.[4] Whitty won the 2011 Bay Area Critics Circle award for his work.[5]
Whitty wrote the libretto forBring It On: The Musical, a "free adaptation" of the popular film series with an original story by Whitty, with music byTom Kitt andLin-Manuel Miranda and lyrics byAmanda Green and Miranda. Direction was byAndy Blankenbuehler with music direction byAlex Lacamoire.[6] The musical premiered at theAlliance Theatre,Atlanta,Georgia on January 16, 2011.[7] The musical subsequently went on a multi-city national tour beginning at theAhmanson Theater in Los Angeles on October 30, 2011. A revised version opened for a limited run at Broadway'sSt. James Theatre on August 1, 2012, and was nominated for the 2013Tony Award for Best Musical.
In 2015, Whitty premiered his original vision ofHead Over Heels (musical) at the outdoor 1100-seatAllen Elizabethan Theatre at theOregon Shakespeare Festival. His co-writer and music supervisor was Carmel Dean. Whitty devised thejukebox musical as a hybrid of SirPhilip Sidney'sThe Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia and the back catalog of 80's pop starsThe Go-Go's. After it opened on June 13, Whitty's version of the musical sold out its five-month run within two weeks.New York Times drama criticCharles 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 directorMichael Mayer took over directing duties, installingTom 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 ofHead Over Heels opened at theCurran Theatre inSan Francisco, bound for a Broadway run that opened July 26th, 2018, with a script "substantially revised" byJames MacGruder.[10] In March 2023, Whitty published an essay entitled "Grand Theft Musical" alleging severe mistreatment on the part of the producers ofHead Over Heels, his agent, and his lawyer, including—variously—exploitation, threats, harassment, and theft of royalties.[11][12]
In 2018, Fox Searchlight Pictures releasedCan You Ever Forgive Me, with a screenplay by Whitty andNicole Holofcener, adapted from a memoir byLee Israel. The film was directed byMarielle Heller and starredMelissa McCarthy as Israel andRichard 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 includeThe Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler which was commissioned by and received its world premiere atSouth Coast Repertory in January, 2006;The Plank Project (a parody of documentary theater pieces likeThe Laramie Project); the multi-play cycleBalls;The Hiding Place, a romanticManhattan comedy which received its New York debut at theAtlantic Theater Company; the dark comedySuicide Weather.
Whitty is an occasional actor, having appeared in New York productions of plays byAmy Freed, includingThe Beard of Avon andFreedomland, as well as small roles in the films Garmento,Lisa Picard is Famous, and a cameo inShortbus. Among his theatrical credits include stints at theGoodman Theater in Chicago,Philadelphia Theatre Company, andPlaywrights Horizons andNew York Theatre Workshop in New York City. In 2012 for a 25-performance run he played the title role in his ownThe Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler in a production by New York company Exit, Pursued by a Bear, withBilly Porter playing the co-leading role of Mammy.[13] Both roles had been created for and played by women until this production.
His older brotherGeorge Whitty is a noted jazz musician and producer, and the winner of multipleGrammy andEmmy Awards.
Jeff Whitty now lives onCape Cod.[14]
After he left Oregon on a hippie bus bound for NYC (sight-unseen) with two grand in his pocket, Jeff lived in Manhattan for two colorful decades. After spending the next decade in Los Angeles, Mr. Whitty pulled up stakes for the vagabond lifestyle. He currently resides on Cape Cod.
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