Joe Patrick Ward

Joe Patrick Ward is an American playwright, composer and lyricist. Ward has scored music for film and television, and has written songs (both music and lyrics) for several stage plays and musicals. He is a recipient of the Los Angeles Ovation Award for Best World Premiere Musical, and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and NAACP Theatre Award for Best Production.

Joe Patrick Ward
Joe Patrick Ward is an American playwright, actor and composer/lyricist for theater, television and film.
NationalityAmerican
OccupationPlaywright, lyricist, and composer
Notable work
The Grave White Way
Judy's Scary Little Christmas
The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife

Film and television

Ward composed music soundtracks for the films Blues for Willadean (2012),[1] Southern Baptist Sissies (2013),[2] and A Very Sordid Wedding (2017).[3] For television, he scored all episodes of the comedy Sordid Lives: The Series (2008) for LogoTV.[4] He also had songs commissioned for the Animated Feature division of Warner Brothers Studios.[5]

Stage

Ward wrote the music and lyrics for the off-Broadway musical Hysterical Blindness (And Other Southern Tragedies That Have Plagued My Life Thus Far).[6][7] The play was produced at 15 Van Dam (now the SoHo Playhouse) in 1994 and ran for seven months. The show was written with Ward’s friend, Emmy-Award winning character actor Leslie Jordan, who also starred in the production.[8]

In 2001 Ward first staged The Grave White Way,[9] an original musical for which he wrote the book, music and lyrics. The show follows five dead stage actors attempting to gain admittance into Heaven by performing a revue of the flop musicals that condemned them to the musical theatre purgatory known as "The Grave White Way". The songs within the show satirize the history of bad musical theater from the 1930s to the present. One of the show's unique gimmicks was casting a theatre celebrity in every performance, including "Wicked" composer Stephen Schwartz, stage legend John Raitt, original Broadway "Dreamgirl" Loretta Devine, and Tony winners Billy Porter and Gregory Jbara.[10] Variety called the show a “witty spoof of Broadway flops with a limitless future".[11]

Ward also wrote the music and lyrics for the musical Judy's Scary Little Christmas with co-writers David Church and James Webber.[12] The show is a spoof of 1950’s television variety shows and contains campy humor based on the sensationalized personal lives of its main characters Judy Garland, Bing Crosby, Liberace, Ethel Merman, Richard Nixon, Lillian Hellman and Joan Crawford. Originally produced in Los Angeles in 2002, the show received nominations for Best Musical from L.A. Weekly and the Los Angeles Ovation Awards.[13] Connie Champagne, who portrayed "Judy Garland" in the production, won the Ovation Award for "Best Actress in a Musical". The play is published by Samuel French[14] and is frequently produced in cities across the United States. A recording of the original Los Angeles cast was released on CD in 2005.[15]

In 2003, Ward wrote original songs for the theatrical production The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife[16] (also published by Samuel French).[17] With a book by Del Shores, the play addresses the subject of domestic abuse. Originally produced at the Zephyr Theatre in Los Angeles, the show won "Best Production” from both the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards and the NAACP Theatre Awards.[18] All five of the play’s original actors, including Beth Grant, Dale Dickey, David Steen, and future Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer, reprised their stage roles for the film version, which was retitled Blues for Willadean. Ward’s songs in the film (and play) were sung by Billboard Dance Recording Artist Debby Holiday, who portrayed “The Blues Singer”.[5]

References
  1. Harvey, Dennis (5 October 2012). "Review: 'Blues for Willadean'". Variety magazine.
  2. "Southern Baptist Sissies: Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter.
  3. "'A Very Sordid Wedding': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter.
  4. Terrace, Vincent (9 April 2009). The Year in Television, 2008: A Catalog of New and Continuing Series, Miniseries, Specials and TV Movies. McFarland. p. 126. ISBN 9780786443918 – via Google Books.
  5. "Del Shores Finally Finds Backing for Battered-Women Movie 'Trailer Trash Housewife' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter.
  6. "Theatre Reviews". New York Magazine. 13 June 1994. p. 97 – via Google Books.
  7. "Review/Theater; A Hollywood Soul's Trip From Tennessee". The New York Times. 28 May 1994.
  8. Jordan, Leslie (3 June 2008). My Trip Down the Pink Carpet. Simon and Schuster. p. 71. ISBN 9781416955559 – via Google Books.
  9. FOLEY, F. KATHLEEN (20 May 2001). "Making the Most of the Worst Musicals". The Los Angeles Times.
  10. "L.A. Is The Grave White Way With Celeb Guests May 11-June 17 - Playbill". Playbill.
  11. Hirschhorn, Joel (20 May 2001). "Review: 'The Grave White Way'". Variety magazine.
  12. Foley, F. Kathleen (29 November 2002). "Comedy and musicals make a theater merry". The Los Angeles Times.
  13. "L.A. Ovation Award Winners Announced". Theatre Mania.
  14. Gilray, Bruce W.; Witter, Richard T. (22 May 2017). And Then There was Nun. Samuel French, Inc. p. 121. ISBN 9780573697883 – via Google Books.
  15. "Sound Advice: Songs of Love - Tributes - Holiday Music: The Pretty, the playful, the potent and the potato - 12/1/05". www.talkinbroadway.com.
  16. Miller, Daryl H. (4 April 2003). "'Trailer Trash' serves up humor with tragedy". The Los Angeles Times.
  17. "Trials And Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife, The". www.samuelfrench.com.
  18. Shores, Del; Ward, Joe Patrick (22 May 2017). The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife: A Play in Three Acts. Samuel French, Inc. ISBN 9780573663727 – via Google Books.
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