Class Description

Instructor: John Dietrich (Lyricist) Semester: Fall 2025 10-Week Session As Stephen Sondheim states, “there are only three principles necessary that a lyric writer follow: Content Dictates Form, Less is More, God is in the Details, all in the service of Clarity." Sondheim’s principles are both inspiring and important, but what do they mean? One must first have an understanding of the craft and artistry of lyric writing to fully appreciate their brilliance. Each week, we will spend the first half of class reflecting on the lives, philosophies, and words of important musical theatre lyricists, then combine our delving into these artists' works with a study of the craft of lyric writing: learning about song form, rhyme, rhyme scheme, scansion, structure, phonetics, repetition and prosody. We will examine how others did it, while simultaneously uncovering how we do it. The second half of the class will involve the presenting of your own work, which will be the result of weekly assignments and prompts. All of the writing assignments will be in the context of writing for the musical theatre and will require specific character, situation, and storytelling choices. Week 1: Irving Berlin: How to Determine the Structure of a Song, the Vocabulary of Song Form, and the Introduction of the AABA Form. Week 2: Cole Porter: The Definition and Use of Rhyme and What Is a List Song. Week 3: Ira Gershwin / Dorothy Fields: The Introduction of AB Song Form. Week 4: Oscar Hammerstein II: Opening Numbers in a Musical. Week 5: Stephen Sondheim Part I: Recognizing More Complicated Song Forms and the Introduction of the "I Want" Song. Week 6: Fred Ebb: The Introduction of the Strophic Song Form and What Is an Anthem in Musical Theatre. Week 7: Stephen Sondheim Part II: Ending Act I, Character-Driven Songs and What Is Pastiche? Week 8: Harnick / Loesser / Ashman and More: How to Write a Comedy Song. Week 9: Ahrens: Diving Deeper into Character and Ethnicity in Musical Theatre Songs. Week 10: Contemporary Lyricists Including Lin-Manuel Miranda, David Yazbek, and Michael R. Jackson and Rock/Pop Songs in Musical Theatre. John Dietrich has had a career immersed in musical theatre storytelling working as a professional Director, Choreographer, Writer and Educator. This has included a 17-year relationship with Radio City Entertainment, where he was the Director/Choreographer for the world-famous Rockettes as well as for the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.