Peter Rodgers Melnick
Encyclopedia
Peter Rodgers Melnick is a composer for film, television and musical theatre.
and Linda Rodgers, and grandson of Richard Rodgers
.
Melnick grew up in New York City
. He graduated from The Choate School (which later merged with Rosemary Hall
to become Choate Rosemary Hall
) and attended Harvard College
, Berklee College of Music
, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
. He also studied jazz with the Jaki Byard
.
Melnick now lives in Montecito, California
, with wife, Laini and their two children.
, The Only Thrill, Convicts, and Farce of the Penguins
. His television credits include the PBS's, Cinema's Exiles: From Hitler to Hollywood, Indictment: The McMartin Trial
, Grand Avenue, and Lily Dale by Horton Foote
.
More recently Melnick he has returned to musical theater.
His first produced musical was Adrift in Macao, featuring script and lyrics by Christopher Durang
. Melnick then collaborated with Bill Russell
on The Last Smoker in America
, a musical comedy about a dysfunctional family struggling with a new law forbidding smoking. It opened in Columbus, Ohio
in fall 2010.
Melnick and Russell have also worked together on two musical one-acts, Patter for the Floating Lady, based on the eponymous Steve Martin
, and A Bad Spell, adapted from a Virginia Moriconi short story Simple Arithmetic.
Film scores
Television scores
Biography
Melnick is the son of Daniel MelnickDaniel Melnick
Daniel Melnick was an American film producer and movie studio executive who started working in Hollywood as a teenager in television and then became the producer of such films as All That Jazz, Altered States and Straw Dogs...
and Linda Rodgers, and grandson of Richard Rodgers
Richard Rodgers
Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...
.
Melnick grew up in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. He graduated from The Choate School (which later merged with Rosemary Hall
Rosemary Hall (Greenwich, Connecticut)
Rosemary Hall was an independent girls school in Greenwich, Connecticut, in Fairfield County, Connecticut. It was later merged into Choate Rosemary Hall and moved to the Choate boys' school campus in Wallingford, in New Haven County, Connecticut....
to become Choate Rosemary Hall
Choate Rosemary Hall
Choate Rosemary Hall is a private, college-preparatory, coeducational boarding school located in Wallingford, Connecticut...
) and attended Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
, Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...
, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama is an independent music and dramatic arts school which was founded in 1880 in London, England. Students can pursue courses in Music, Opera, Drama and Technical Theatre Arts.-History:...
. He also studied jazz with the Jaki Byard
Jaki Byard
Jaki Byard was an American jazz pianist and composer who also played trumpet and saxophone, among several other instruments. He was noteworthy for his eclectic style, incorporating everything from ragtime and stride to free jazz...
.
Melnick now lives in Montecito, California
Montecito, California
Montecito is an unincorporated community in Santa Barbara County, California. As a census-designated place, it had a population of 8,965 in 2010. This does not include areas such as Coast Village Road, that, while usually considered part of Montecito, are actually within the city limits of Santa...
, with wife, Laini and their two children.
Career
Some of Melnick’s earlier film score credits include L.A. StoryL.A. Story
L.A. Story is a 1991 American romantic comedy film, written by and starring Steve Martin. Set in Los Angeles, California, it relates a series of episodes in the romantic life of an L.A. TV weatherman. It includes surreal sequences in which he is offered romantic advice flashed to him by a freeway...
, The Only Thrill, Convicts, and Farce of the Penguins
Farce of the Penguins
Farce of the Penguins is a 2007 American direct-to-video parody of the 2005 documentary March of the Penguins. The motion picture features Samuel L. Jackson as narrator, with the two main characters being voiced by Bob Saget, who also wrote and directed the film, and Lewis Black...
. His television credits include the PBS's, Cinema's Exiles: From Hitler to Hollywood, Indictment: The McMartin Trial
Indictment: The McMartin Trial
Indictment: The McMartin Trial is a made for TV movie that originally aired on HBO on May 20, 1995. Indictment is based on the true story of the McMartin preschool trial.-Summary:...
, Grand Avenue, and Lily Dale by Horton Foote
Horton Foote
Albert Horton Foote, Jr. was an American playwright and screenwriter, perhaps best known for his Academy Award-winning screenplays for the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird and the 1983 film Tender Mercies, and his notable live television dramas during the Golden Age of Television...
.
More recently Melnick he has returned to musical theater.
His first produced musical was Adrift in Macao, featuring script and lyrics by Christopher Durang
Christopher Durang
Christopher Ferdinand Durang is an American playwright known for works of outrageous and often absurd comedy. His work was especially popular in the 1980s.- Life :...
. Melnick then collaborated with Bill Russell
Bill Russell
William Felton "Bill" Russell is a retired American professional basketball player who played center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association...
on The Last Smoker in America
The Last Smoker in America
The Last Smoker in America is a four-character, one-act musical comedy featuring book and lyrics by Bill Russell and music by Peter Melnick. The musical had its world premiere at Contemporary American Theatre Company in Columbus, Ohio in the fall of 2010 in anticipation of an Off-Broadway opening.-...
, a musical comedy about a dysfunctional family struggling with a new law forbidding smoking. It opened in Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
in fall 2010.
Melnick and Russell have also worked together on two musical one-acts, Patter for the Floating Lady, based on the eponymous Steve Martin
Steve Martin
Stephen Glenn "Steve" Martin is an American actor, comedian, writer, playwright, producer, musician and composer....
, and A Bad Spell, adapted from a Virginia Moriconi short story Simple Arithmetic.
Works
Musical theatre scores- Adrift in Macao (2005)
- The Last Smoker in America (2010)
Film scores
- Vampire Knights (1987)
- Homesick, film short (1988)
- Get Smart, Again!Get Smart, Again!Get Smart, Again! is a made-for-TV movie based on the 1965-1970 NBC/CBS television series, Get Smart!, which originally aired February 26, 1989 on ABC . It has subsequently been released twice on DVD by different publishers...
(1989); TV movie - Out of Sight, Out of Mind (1990)
- Bad Attitudes (1991); TV movie
- L.A. StoryL.A. StoryL.A. Story is a 1991 American romantic comedy film, written by and starring Steve Martin. Set in Los Angeles, California, it relates a series of episodes in the romantic life of an L.A. TV weatherman. It includes surreal sequences in which he is offered romantic advice flashed to him by a freeway...
(1991) - Convicts (1991)
- Only YouOnly You (1992 film)Only You is a 1992 film starring Andrew McCarthy, Kelly Preston, and Helen Hunt.- Plot :Clifford Godfrey is a doll house designer who is dumped by his fiance a few hours before they are to depart for a vacation in Mexico. Clare Enfield, a travel agent, informs Godfrey that his tickets are...
(1992) - In the Name of the Father, film short (1992)
- Running Mates (1992); TV movie
- Arctic BlueArctic BlueArctic Blue is a 1993 action-adventure-thriller.-Plot:Eric Desmond is an amateur marshal in the wilderness of Alaska who has to deal with a homicidal trapper Ben Corbett , his fellow trappers and a greedy politician.-Cast:...
(1993) - 12:0112:01 (1993 film)12:01 is a 1993 television film directed by Jack Sholder, and starring Helen Slater, Jonathan Silverman, Jeremy Piven, and Martin Landau. It originally aired on the Fox Network in the United States....
(1993); TV movie - Indictment: The McMartin TrialIndictment: The McMartin TrialIndictment: The McMartin Trial is a made for TV movie that originally aired on HBO on May 20, 1995. Indictment is based on the true story of the McMartin preschool trial.-Summary:...
(1995); TV movie - For HopeFor HopeFor Hope is a 1996 ABC TV movie starring Dana Delany and directed by Bob Saget. Based on Saget's sister Gay, the movie showed the experience of a young woman fatally afflicted with the disease scleroderma...
(1996); TV movie - Grand Avenue (1996); TV movie
- No One Could Protect Her (1996)
- Two Mothers for ZacharyTwo Mothers for ZacharyTwo Mothers for Zachary is a 1996 ABC television film. It was directed by Peter Werner and stars Valerie Bertinelli and Vanessa Redgrave. It is a true story adaptation of the Bottoms v. Bottoms family custody battle brought by a mother who disapproves of her daughter's lesbianism and the impact on...
(1996); TV movie - Every 9 Seconds (1997); TV movie
- Jitters (1997); TV movie
- The Only Thrill (1997)
- Time to Say Goodbye?Time to Say Goodbye?Time to Say Goodbye? is a 1997 dramatic film directed by David Hugh Jones. The film is centered around the decision of an elderly family patriarch to end his life, when faced with the degradation of Alzheimer's disease.-Cast:...
(1997) - Becoming DickBecoming DickBecoming Dick is a 2000 comedy film starring Harland Williams and directed by Bob Saget.-Plot:Richard Breggs is a struggling actor living in an apartment with his girlfriend. After a conversation with a friend, Richard decides that he is too much of a "nice guy" and that the key to success is to...
(2000); TV movie - MermaidMermaid (2000 film)Mermaid, released in 2000, is a television movie based on the real-life story of Desiree Leanne Gill as she learns to accept her father's death.- Plot :...
(2000); TV movie - Taking Back Our Town (2001); TV movie
- Call Waiting, film short (2004)
- Farce of the PenguinsFarce of the PenguinsFarce of the Penguins is a 2007 American direct-to-video parody of the 2005 documentary March of the Penguins. The motion picture features Samuel L. Jackson as narrator, with the two main characters being voiced by Bob Saget, who also wrote and directed the film, and Lewis Black...
(2006)
Television scores
- The KGB, the Computer and Me (1990); TV documentary
- Testing Dirty (1990); TV series: ABC Afterschool Specials
- Magic (1991); TV series
- Lily Dale (1996); TV series: Hallmark Hall of FameHallmark Hall of FameHallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The second longest-running television program in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2011...
- Edgar Allan Poe: Terror of the Soul (1995); TV series documentary: American MastersAmerican MastersAmerican Masters is a PBS television show which produces biographies on the artists, actors and writers of the United States who have left a profound impact on the nation's popular culture. It is produced by WNET in New York City...
- Robert Rauschenberg: Inventive Genius (1999); TV series documentary: American MastersAmerican MastersAmerican Masters is a PBS television show which produces biographies on the artists, actors and writers of the United States who have left a profound impact on the nation's popular culture. It is produced by WNET in New York City...
- Tak for Alt: Survival of a Human Spirit (1999); documentary
- Cinema's Exiles: From Hitler to Hollywood (2009); TV documentary
External links
- Peter Rodgers Melnick at the Internet Off Broadway DatabaseLortel ArchivesThe Lortel Archives, or the Internet Off-Broadway Database is an online database that catalogues theatre productions shown off-Broadway.The archives are named in honor of actress and theatrical producer Lucille Lortel.-See also:...