Robert Lopez (born February 23, 1975) is an American composer and lyricist of musicals. He is best known for creating the Broadway musical Avenue Q with collaborator Jeff Marx. Together, they wrote all the show's 21 songs. Lopez and Marx both write lyrics and they both write music, together, in the same room, at the same time.
Avenue Q won the 2004 Tony Award for Best Musical. Lopez/Marx's musical score earned them a 2004 Tony Award. A third 2004 Tony Award was awarded to Avenue Q bookwriter Jeff Whitty.
The musical's Original Cast Album, on the RCA/Victor label, was nominated for a Grammy Award. To date, it has sold over 150,000 copies.
Lopez and Marx met in the famed BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop. Their very first project together, a spec Muppet movie, Kermit, Prince of Denmark, which was very loosely based on Hamlet, won the Kleban Award for lyrics. They recently wrote a number of songs for a musical episode of the NBC sitcom Scrubs which will air on January 18.
Finding Nemo - The Musical, which Lopez wrote in collaboration with his wife, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, opened at Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park in November 2006. The opening number, "In The Big Blue World," was adapted and included as the big finish of Epcot's The Seas with Nemo and Friends ride.
Lopez has also collaborated with his brother Billy Lopez on several episodes of Nickelodeon's hit series, The Wonder Pets.
He is currently working on a new musical project with Matt Stone and Trey Parker, creators of South Park.
Lopez grew up in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. He attended Hunter College High School and received a B.A. in English from Yale University, at which he was a member of the Yale Spizzwinks(?). He lives in Manhattan with his wife and daughter.
External links
- The Official Avenue Q website
- www.lopezmarx.com, Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx's website
- Internet Broadway Database listing for Robert Lopez
- Internet Broadway Database listing for Avenue Q: personnel, etc.
- Production: Avenue Q - Working in the Theatre Seminar video at American Theatre Wing.org, September 2003
- The Official Yale Spizzwinks(?) website