Stephen Flaherty
Flaherty in 2025
Born	(1960-09-18)September 18, 1960 (age 65) Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania, U.S.
Education	University of Cincinnati (BM) New York University
Occupation	Composer
Years active	1982–present
Website	www.ahrensandflaherty.com

Stephen Flaherty (born September 18, 1960) is an American composer ofmusical theatre and film. He works most often in collaboration with the lyricist/book writerLynn Ahrens. They are best known for writing the Broadway musicalsRagtime, which was nominated for thirteen Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards, and won the Tony forBest Original Score;Once on This Island, which won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, the Olivier Award for London's Best Musical, and was nominated for a Grammy Award and eight Tony Awards; andSeussical, which was nominated for the Grammy Award. Flaherty was also nominated for twoAcademy Awards and twoGolden Globe Awards (with Lynn Ahrens) for his songs and song score for the animated film musicalAnastasia.

Flaherty was born inPittsburgh,Pennsylvania. He began studying piano at the age of seven. When he was twelve, he knew he wanted to write musicals and by age fourteen he had already composed his firstmusical score. He attended South Hills Catholic High School^[1] in Pittsburgh and later studied musical composition and piano atUniversity of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, graduating in 1982. with a B.M. in Musical Composition. He did additional graduate studies in Musical Theater atNew York University.^[2][3]

As a college student, Flaherty played ragtime piano in a dance band.^[4] This early job would serve Flaherty well later in life when he had the opportunity to compose the score for theBroadway musicalRagtime.

He moved to New York City in 1982 and joined theBMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop, founded by music directorLehman Engel, where he metLynn Ahrens, who was to become his longtime collaborator.^[2][5] He also studied Musical Theater in the graduate program atNew York University during this time, where his teachers includedRichard Maltby, Jr. andArthur Laurents, among others.^{[citation needed]} The first Ahrens and Flaherty collaboration that was produced was a one-act children's show,The Emperor's New Clothes, for TheatreWorks USA in 1985.^[6][7] Their next produced musical wasLucky Stiff, producedOff-Broadway in 1988 at Playwrights Horizons.

Their firstBroadway musical wasOnce on This Island, in 1990, which transferred from Off-Broadway's Playwrights Horizons.^[5][8] The musical was nominated for 8 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Book and Best Score. The London production of the show won the Olivier Award (London's Tony) for Best Musical in 1995. The show was later revived on Broadway in an immersive production atCircle in the Square in December 2017, where it was again nominated for 8 Tony Awards, winning for Best Revival of a Musical. The cast recording of the revival was nominated for the Grammy in 2019. It was Flaherty's first Grammy nomination as a producer.

In 1992, Flaherty and Ahrens were signed by Disney to write the animated musicalSong of the Sea, a coming of age story about a humpback whale.^[9] Though the film was never produced, several key development executives on the project would play a part in Flaherty and Ahrens' later film musical,Anastasia.

Also in 1992, Flaherty and Ahrens wrote the musicalMy Favorite Year, based on the film of the same title, with a book by Joseph Dougherty. It was notably the first original American musical to be produced by Lincoln Center Theater. Flaherty would eventually go on to write three additional original musicals for Lincoln Center Theater, all in collaboration with Ms. Ahrens:A Man of No Importance (2002, with a book by Terrence McNally),Dessa Rose (2005) andThe Glorious Ones (2007). He was nominated for Outstanding Music by the Drama Desk Awards for all three of these shows.

The critically acclaimedRagtime (also with a book by Terrence McNally) had its world premiere in Toronto in December 1996, its American premiere in Los Angeles in June 1997, and its Broadway premiere in January 1998, where it ran for two years. It won four Tony Awards, includingBest Book andBest Score (for Flaherty and Ahrens), the Drama Desk Award for Best Musical and was also nominated for two Grammy Awards for its two cast recordings. Its London production (2003) was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Musical. The show was revived on Broadway in November 2009, where it was again critically acclaimed and nominated for the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. In October 2024 it was produced as a two-week gala production at New York City Center, directed by Encores! Artistic Director Lear deBessonet, and again received rave reviews. The production was subsequently produced by Lincoln Center Theater at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, again directed by Lear deBessonet, officially opening on October 16, 2025. The production marked the show's third appearance on Broadway and Flaherty's fifth show at Lincoln Center Theater.

Following the success ofRagtime, Flaherty and Ahrens returned to Broadway in 2000 withSeussical, based on the works ofDr. Seuss, and co-conceived withEric Idle. The original Broadway cast album was nominated for a Grammy Award, and Flaherty also received a Drama Desk nomination for Best Music.

When the stock and amateur rights to the show were released following the Broadway run and its subsequent national tour,Seussical immediately became the most performed show in America. In 2008, there was a critically acclaimed off-Broadway revival directed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge, who would also go on to direct the Tony-nominated revival ofRagtime the following year.

After writing three shows for Lincoln Center Theater, Flaherty and Ahrens next returned to Broadway with the musicalRocky the Musical. The show premiered inHamburg, Germany in October 2012. The musical has a book byThomas Meehan andSylvester Stallone, based on Stallone's original screenplay.^[10][11]Rocky premiered on Broadway at theWinter Garden Theatre, officially opening on March 13, 2014. The musical was directed byAlex Timbers, with choreography bySteven Hoggett and Kelly Devine. The show was nominated for 4 Tony Awards and 7 Drama Desk Awards including Outstanding Musical.

Flaherty and Ahrens’ next musical,Little Dancer, featured direction and choreography bySusan Stroman. Inspired by the famous sculpture,Little Dancer, Aged 14 byEdgar Degas, the musical had a reading in 2010 at Lincoln Center Theater and a developmental lab production in June 2010. The show premiered at the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater in October 2014. The cast includedRebecca Luker,Boyd Gaines andTiler Peck. The musical is inspired by true events and focuses on the relationship between a young ballerina and 19th century French painter and sculptorEdgar Degas. Much of the action is set in theParis Opera Ballet. A re-working of the show, titledMarie, Dancing Still (after the name of the young ballerina), had its west coast premiere at Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre in March 2019. The show, reverting to its original title, received its London premiere on July 27, 2025 in a special concert presentation at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, withSusan Stroman again directing and choreographing, and featuringJulian Ovenden as Degas andTiler Peck as Marie.

Flaherty's next Broadway musical wasAnastasia, featuring lyrics by Ahrens, a book by Terrence McNally, and based on the1956 and1997 Twentieth Century Fox films. The show opened on Broadway in April 2017 after premiering at Hartford Stage in Connecticut the previous year. It was nominated as Outstanding Musical of the season by the Drama Desk, Drama League and Outer Critics Circle Awards, and ran two years on Broadway. The show was subsequently produced internationally in Madrid, Stuttgart, The Netherlands, São Paulo, Mexico City, Tokyo, Copenhagen, Finland, Austria and Italy, and has had several US tours. It will have its Australian debut in December of 2025.

During the 2017—2018 Broadway season Flaherty and Ahrens had the rare honor of having two shows running on Broadway at the same time,Anastasia and the revival ofOnce on This Island.

FollowingAnastasia, Flaherty and Ahrens wrote the musical stage adaptation ofJames Agee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novelA Death in the Family and its subsequent stage adaptation, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playAll the Way Home byTad Mosel,^[12] withRagtime directorFrank Galati, who adapted the text and directed. The new musical, titledKnoxville, was originally to have had its world premiere at theAsolo Repertory Theatre in April 2020. The production was halted, however, due to the pandemic. It was finally produced two years later, in April 2022, at the Asolo.^[13] It starredJason Danieley as the Author.^[14]Knoxville was subsequently produced by the Clarence E. Brown Theatre in Knoxville, Tennessee in September 2024, in a revised version under the direction of Josh Rhodes.

For his work in film, Flaherty was nominated for two Academy Awards with lyricist Ahrens (for Best Song and Best Score, the latter shared withDavid Newman) and two Golden Globe Awards for his first film,Anastasia (1997). He also composed the film score and wrote the songs for its animated sequel,Bartok the Magnificent (1999). He wrote the original film score for the documentaryAfter the Storm (2009), which follows a group of teenagers as they perform Ahrens and Flaherty'sOnce On This Island in New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina. He composed the song score and co-wrote the film score forLucky Stiff (2014), which was based on his and Ms. Ahrens' stage musical of the same name. In 2020, he and Ms. Ahrens contributed a song to the documentaryNasrin, which was nominated for the Hollywood Music In Media Award.

Occasionally Mr. Flaherty writes with other collaborators. His "chamber-scale musical,"Loving Repeating: A Musical of Gertrude Stein, written with hisRagtime director,Frank Galati, premiered in Chicago in February 2006, in a co-production between the About Face Theatre and the Museum of Contemporary Art.^[11] The musical won Chicago's Joseph Jefferson Award as the “Best New Work” of the year. An earlier version of the show was initially titledA Long Gay Book, and had its premiere atNorthwestern University in May 2003.^[12]

Flaherty collaborated with the director-choreographerChristopher Gattelli on a new "dance-theatre musical",In Your Arms, which premiered at theOld Globe Theatre, San Diego, California, September 24, 2015. The show consists of 10 vignettes on the topic of “romantic destiny”, which were written byDouglas Carter Beane,Nilo Cruz,Christopher Durang,Carrie Fisher,David Henry Hwang,Rajiv Joseph,Terrence McNally,Marsha Norman,Lynn Nottage andAlfred Uhry, all of which were set to music by Flaherty. All the vignettes are danced without words. Lynn Ahrens wrote the lyrics for the title song. The show starredDonna McKechnie andGeorge Chakiris and eighteen powerhouse dancers. The musical had a staged workshop during the summer of 2014 at New York Stage and Film & Vassar'sPowerhouse Theater at Vassar College..

For the concert hall, Flaherty wrote the music for "With Voices Raised" (text by Lynn Ahrens, orchestration byWilliam David Brohn), for orchestra, chorus, tenor soloist and narrators, which was commissioned by the Boston Pops Orchestra in 1999. It had its world premiere in Boston on July 4, 1999, which was nationally televised, featuring Senator Ted Kennedy as one of the speakers. It was subsequently released on the Pops' recording "A Splash of Pops" on the RCA Victor Label, July 13, 1999.

Other concert commissions from the Boston Pops Orchestra include "A Soldier's Carol" (2014, text by Lynn Ahrens), for orchestra, chorus and narrator, which was Flaherty's final collaboration with orchestratorWilliam David Brohn, who won the Tony Award for his orchestrations toRagtime; and "From Sea To Shining Sea," which premiered in Boston on June 5, 2025 (text by John de Graaff, adapted by Lynn Ahrens, orchestration by Bill Elliott), also for orchestra, chorus and narrator, commissioned in honor of Maestro Keith Lockhart's 30th anniversary with the Pops.

Additionally, Flaherty wrote the music for the "American River Suite", with lyrics by Bill Schermerhorn, which was commissioned byMacy's. The piece premiered in April 2009 atCarnegie Hall by theNew York Pops and sung byIdina Menzel,Anika Noni Rose, and the children's chorus from the Choir Academy of Harlem. It was also broadcast nationally on the Fourth of July of that same year. He has also received several commissions from Carnegie Hall, theGuggenheim Museum, among others.

With Lynn Ahrens, Flaherty received the Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2014, was inducted into theAmerican Theater Hall of Fame in 2015. He was nominated to theSongwriters Hall of Fame in 2018.

Flaherty married Trevor Hardwick on October 26, 2016, in New York City.^[15]

Sources:^{[16][17][18][19]}

Musicals

• Lucky Stiff (1988)
• Once on This Island (1990; Broadway revival 2017)
• My Favorite Year (1992)
• Ragtime (1998; Broadway revivals 2009, 2025)
• Seussical (2000; revival 2007)
• A Man of No Importance (2002)
• A Long Gay Book (2003), an early version ofLoving Repeating^[20][21]
• Dessa Rose (2005)
• Loving Repeating (2006)^[20]
• Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life (2005), music also by others^[22]
• The Glorious Ones (2007)
• Rocky the Musical (2012)
• Little Dancer (musical) (2014)
• In Your Arms (2015)^[23]
• Anastasia (2016), stage version of the 20th Century Fox animated film^[24]
• Knoxville (2022)^[25]

Incidental music

• Proposals (1997)^[26]

Contributions

• "I Eat", contribution toThe Seven Deadly Sins: A Song Cycle forAudra McDonald, performed at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall on June 2, 2004^[27]

Film scores

• Anastasia (1997)
• Buster & Chauncey's Silent Night (songs - 1998)
• Bartok the Magnificent (1999)
• After the Storm (2009)^[28][29]
• Lucky Stiff (2014)

Sources:^[17][18][19]

• Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty official website
• Stephen Flaherty at theInternet Broadway Database
• Stephen Flaherty at theInternet Off Broadway Database
• Stephen Flaherty atIMDb
• Interview, 2009, Time Out New York

• 1960 births
• American film score composers
• American male film score composers
• American musical theatre composers
• Animated film score composers
• Broadway composers and lyricists
• Drama Desk Award winners
• Laurence Olivier Award winners
• Living people
• American male musical theatre composers
• Musicians from Pittsburgh
• Songwriters from Pennsylvania
• Tony Award winners
• University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music alumni

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