Maureen FitzGerald

My name is Maureen FitzGerald, and like Paul Cezanne I mean to conquer Paris with an apple. Only instead of Paris, make that New York, and instead of an apple, a solid musical theater libretto.

I believe that ninety-nine percent of all failed musicals fail due to weak books, and have spent years learning to incorporate the essentials of straight playwriting into a reliable method of musical theater book-writing. Armed with that knowledge, my modest ambition was to save the American musical play. These days, my modest ambition is to save the American musical play … from Seth MacFarland. Wherever there’s a writer who claims to be writing a musical “for people who hate musicals,” I’ll be there. Wherever there’s a critic describing a show as “feeling just like an episode of Family Guy!” — and praising it for that, I’ll be there. Wherever there’s a producer telling some poor unsuspecting young writer about the “biggest hit of last year’s Fringe” being not so much a musical as “an anti-musical (that felt more like an episode of Family Guy!”) — while encouraging her to emulate that success, I’ll be there. With craft and substance; with elegance and wit; with a script that actually makes dramatic and emotional sense. Metaphorical apple in hand, I’ll be there.

To kick their sorry asses from here to Kingdom Come.