Theatre Register

Hugh Wheeler

Shows · Hugh Wheeler

Book Writer 1912–1987

Hugh Callingham Wheeler (19 March 1912 – 26 July 1987) was a British-American novelist, screenwriter, librettist, poet and translator. Born in London, he moved to the United States as a young man, and became a naturalized citizen in 1942. He had attended London University. Under the noms de plume Patrick Quentin, Q. Patrick and Jonathan Stagge, Wheeler was the author or co-author of many mystery novels and short stories. In 1963, his 1961 collection, The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow was given a Special Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America. He won the Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical in 1973 and 1974 for his books for the musicals A Little Night Music and…

Also credited on7 works

Candide
A Little Night Music
Truckload
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Sweeney Todd (2005 Revival)
A Little Night Music (2009 Revival)
Sweeney Todd (2023 Revival)

These come off the person record, which names a work and not a production. So we can say this name is attached to the work and we cannot say which staging, or in what capacity. For a composer or a writer that is the whole career we hold; there is no cast list to find them in.

In the literature8 passages

  • Early in their collaborative process Sondheim and his librettist Hugh Wheeler “wanted to make a melodrama but with a twentieth-century sensibility,” and they wanted audiences to take the subject as seriously as audiences took nineteenth-century versions. 36 Sondheim wanted both the story and the music “to scare an audience out of its wits…ebooks/Block, Geoffrey/Enchanted Evenings_The Broadway Musical from 'Show Boat' to Sondheim and Lloyd Webber - Geoffrey Block.txt
  • It can be fun to take a standard, familiar character, or character type, and find ways to turn him on his head. I imagine that when Hugh Wheeler and Stephen Sondheim were developing Sweeney Todd , they had a fine time figuring out just how far they could go with Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett. After all, Sweeney was just a barber, and Mrs. Lovet…ebooks/Cuden, Steve/Beating Broadway_ How to Create Stories for Musicals That Get Standing Ovations - Steve Cuden.txt
  • On December 11, 1973, a new adaptation by Hugh Wheeler opened at the Brooklyn Academy of Music for forty-eight performances and soon transferred to the Broadway Theatre on March 5, 1974, for 740 performances; it was directed by Harold Prince and included additional lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Unaccountably (but admittedly it was a slow se…ebooks/Dietz, Dan/Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals, The - Dan Dietz.txt
  • But only one time in all those fifty-plus years has the Best Book prize gone to an author who rewrote. Hugh Wheeler won for reworking Lillian Hellman’s original 1956 book for the seventy-three-performance Candide.ebooks/Filichia, Peter/B007L4OWCU EBOK - Peter Filichia.txt
  • But as experimental as Sondheim has always been, he and bookwriter Hugh Wheeler actually made Sweeney Todd a very straightforward adaptation of Christopher Bond’s play. It’s one of the most faithful musical adaptations that any play has ever had.ebooks/Filichia, Peter/B007L4OWCU EBOK - Peter Filichia.txt
  • Sondheim, who was originally asked to work on Candide , finally did, but not until the now-famous 1973–1974 revival. His work, Hugh Wheeler’s new book, and Harold Prince’s environmental staging rescued the show. The new production ran 10 times longer than the original, and became a staple of musical theater all over the world. Wasn’t that…ebooks/Filichia, Peter/Strippers, Showgirls, and Sharks - Peter Filichia.txt

Passages naming this person, found by keyword across 178 books. A keyword match is not a biography, and a common name will pull in the wrong one.

What this page does not know

  • What this person played. No cast list we hold records a character against a performer.
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