Jeff Blumenkrantz is a Tony-nominated and Ebb Award-winning composer whose songs have been recorded and performed by such notable singers as Victoria Clark, Sutton Foster, Maria Friedman, Lauren Kennedy, Rebecca Luker, Audra McDonald, Megan Mullally and Alysha Umphress.
Jeff’s career as a songwriter began at Northwestern University, where he was a four-year contributor to the celebrated Waa-Mu Show.
While pursuing a career as an actor in New York, he completed The BMI Workshop two-year program, going on to become a member of the Advanced Workshop. He is the 2001 recipient of the BMI Advanced Workshop Harrington Award.
His one act musicals, Woman with Pocketbook, written with Annie Kessler and Libby Saines, and Precious Little Jewel, written with Libby Saines, have been performed at regional theatres and have both won the Ten Minute Musical Competition.
In 1989, his musical with Libby Saines and Annie Kessler, The Other Franklin, was chosen for the Dramatists Guild Musical Theatre Development Program. “I Won’t Mind,” a song from that show, was recorded in 2000 by Audra McDonald on her CD, How Glory Goes, and also was included in her PBS concert, Audra McDonald: Live at the Donmar. (Please visit the “I Won’t Mind” page for more information about the song.)
In 2002-2003, Jeff was a Fellow in the Dramatists Guild Musical Theatre Fellowship Program.
He received a 2003 Tony Award nomination for the songs he contributed to the score of Urban Cowboy, the musical.
In 2004, Jeff was commissioned by Carnegie Hall to contribute a song to The Seven Deadly Sins, a song cycle premiered by Audra McDonald at Zankel Hall in June of that year. Jeff’s song, entitled “My Book,” deals with the sin of Sloth. You can listen to the webcast of the concert on NPR.
In 2005, he participated in RIPFest, a movie musical festival where seven creative teams each created a ten minute movie musical with only two and a half weeks from conception to premiere. His film, Freefall, directed by Lonny Price with screenplay by David Simpatico, can be seen on youtube.com.
That same year, Jeff was one of twenty-odd writers who contributed material to the Transport Group’s highly-acclaimed production of The Audience.
He received another commission from Guggenheim Works and Process to write a musical setting of the Paul Muldoon poem “Myself and Pangur” for their Muldoon celebration.
2005 also marked the publication of The Jeff Blumenkrantz Songbook, a piano/vocal folio of twenty songs, and the first episode of The Jeff Blumenkrantz Songbook Podcast, a performance and interview show featuring Jeff’s songs sung by some of musical theatre’s great talents.
Along the way, Jeff has contributed special material for concert performances by Megan Mullally and Victoria Clark, and he served as the bandleader for the pilot episode of The Megan Mullally Show.
In 2008, Jeff pro/duced The BMI Workshop Songbook Podcast, which featured twenty new songs from the members and alumni of the famed musical theatre writers’ workshop. He also edited the accompanying songbook, which includes all the songs featured on the podcast.
Jeff is the proud recipient of the 2011 Fred Ebb Award.
He created the song cycle, Month Upon a Time, written over the course of a year, featuring 12 songs each dealing with a different month, inspired by ideas pitched to him by his Twitter followers. These songs are also featured on the podcast.
Early 2015 marked the release of his recording I’ve Been Played: Alysha Umphress Swings Jeff Blumenkrantz featuring Alysha Umphress (“Hildy” in the 2014 Broadway revival of On the Town) singing Jeff’s jazziest songs and arrangements. His songs can also be heard on such recordings as: Audra McDonald’s How Glory Goes, Sutton Foster’s Wish and An Evening with Sutton Foster – Live at the Café Carlyle, Rebecca Luker’s Greenwich Time, Victoria Clark’s 15 Seconds of Grace, Megan Mullally’s Big as a Berry, Over the Moon: The Broadway Lullaby Album, and Lauren Kennedy’s Here and Now.
Jeff was commissioned to write a Lincoln Center-themed song for the Lincoln Center Originals: Songwriters series, which he performed in the May 2015 concert. He had the honor of hosting the subsequent LCO: Songwriters concert in October of that same year.
Jeff’s one-act musical monologue, “Scaffolding,” was commissioned by Paulette Haupt/Premieres for the 2018 Inner Voices series. His musical, “Scaffolding,” which starred Rebecca Luker, with direction by Victoria Clark and musical direction by Benji Goldsmith, ran (alongside “Window Treatment” and “The Costume”) from October 20 – November 17, 2018 at New York’s The Barrow Group Theatre.
He composed the incidental music for the 2019 Classic Stage Company production of The Dance of Death, directed by Victoria Clark.
In 2022, Jeff contributed the song “Ovid” to the Prospect Theater Company’s Off Broadway review, Notes from Now.
Jeff gives frequent concerts of his songs at such venues as Birdland and 54 Below, performances from which can be seen on his Youtube channel.