Weidman was born in New York City, the son of Peggy Wright and librettist and novelist Jerome Weidman. He received a B.A. from Harvard University with a major in East Asian history and a J.D. from Yale Law School.
Theatre
He has written the books for a wide variety of stage musicals.
He collaborated on three stage musicals with Stephen Sondheim. The first book for a musical that he wrote was Pacific Overtures, as an intern for Hal Prince.The musical premiered on Broadway in 1976, and was revived in 2004 at Studio 54. Assassins first opened Off-Broadway in December 1990 at Playwrights Horizons, and later opened in the West End in October 1992 at the Donmar Warehouse. The musical was revived on Broadway in 2004 in a Roundabout Theater Company production.Road Show, after several title changes, opened Off-Broadway at the Public Theatre in 2008. The musical had productions at the Goodman Theatre and Kennedy Center in 2003 prior to the Off-Broadway production.
"I think they respond to an assault on a national figure that feels frightening and that feels close to home and in some way that an attack on the man we define as the pre-eminent American feels like an attack on all Americans."
"There's a character in Assassins who is so filled with rage that he wants to crash a plane into the White House, and that seemed just crazy before 9/11. It doesn't seem so crazy anymore."
"This is a land where anyone can grow up to be president, but you know what? We only have one president, and there are a lot of people who wanted to be president who didn't grow up to be president,"
"The story was kind of decorated with John Wilkes Booth and Charles Guiteau, and all the people who had attacked the president. And we just started talking about those people,"
"I have no sympathy for any of them. I think what Steve and I tried to do was to present them in ways that would invite the audience to see them not as freaks from another world, but to recognize things in them which we see in other people who are not crazed murderers."
"The outpouring of emotion in response to Kennedy and Lincoln's assassinations were assumed to have been comparable, but the same thing happened when Garfield was killed, the same thing happened when McKinley was killed. I think it's about the office,"
"What was really drawing me to the material was entirely unresolved feelings I still had from the age of 17. The Kennedy assassination was something that to me made no sense."
"We never gave them a song to express the unadulterated pain and grief which I think many of us feel when these kinds of things happened."
"In 1990, '91, most Americans felt comfortable, a certain sense of complacency, I think they felt safe,"
"It's 100 feet long and 35 feet wide and pretty popular. Last year was the first year we had it and we do see people using it. We put it on the east side of Colby Park (6900 School St.) and try to keep the snow off it. If it starts cracking, we'll put a little more water on it."
CSC Artistic Director John Doyle chats with long-time collaborator and award-winning writer of Assassins, Road Show and Pacific Overtures, John Weidman. Consider supporting our work at http://www.classicstage.org/supportCC
published: 12 Nov 2020
DG Conservatory: Bookwriting Seminar with John Weidman
'The fifth event in the new DG Conservatory series - a bookwriting seminar with celebrated librettist, and former DG president, John Weidman.
**JOHN WEIDMAN has written the books for a wide variety of musicals, among them Pacific Overtures, Assassins and Road Show, all with scores by Stephen Sondheim; Contact, co-created with director/choreographer Susan Stroman; Happiness, score by Scott Frankel and Michael Korie; Anything Goes (new book with Timothy Crouse, score by Cole Porter); and Take Flight and Big, scores by Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire. He has also received more than a dozen Emmy Awards for Outstanding Writing for a Children's Program for Sesame Street. From 1999 to 2009, he served as president of The Dramatists Guild of America.
published: 19 Apr 2013
John Weidman & J.T. Rogers
Be sure to subscribe for all new episodes!
J.T. Rogers joins John Weidman for a conversation about the librettists’ role in a collaboration for The Legacy Project:Volume III.
Produced by the Dramatists Guild Foundation, the Legacy Project is a series of interviews featuring prominent contemporary American playwrights, lyricists, and composers. Each interview offers an intimate look into the lives and creative process of these writers of the theater.
The Legacy Project was originally conceived by Jonathan Reynolds. Producers include Nancy Ford, Carol Hall, Peter Ratray and Jonathan Reynolds. The interviews are filmed and directed by Jeremy Levine and Landon Van Soest of Transient Pictures. The Dramatists Guild Foundation’s Media Advisor is Leonard Majzlin.
The Legacy Project: Volume I...
published: 16 Dec 2016
Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman about Road Show, part one
July, 27, 2019 following matinee Road Show in the New York City Center composer Stephen Sondheim and librettist John Weidman joined Encores! Off-Center Artistic Director Anne Kauffman and Director Will Davis to discuss the making of this production.
published: 31 Jul 2019
Musical book writers PETER STONE and JOHN WEIDMAN
Librettists Peter Stone (1776, THE WILL ROGERS FOLLIES) and John Weidman (BIG, PACIFIC OVERTURES) discuss the art of writing librettos for musicals..
Tape Date: 1997-01-01
published: 29 Aug 2019
Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman about Road Show, part two
July, 27, 2019 following matinee Road Show in the New York City Center composer Stephen Sondheim and librettist John Weidman joined Encores! Off-Center Artistic Director Anne Kauffman and Director Will Davis to discuss the making of this production.
published: 31 Jul 2019
Jude part 1 with John Weidman
published: 06 Dec 2019
Bounce: A New Musical by Stephen Sondheim vesves John Weidman
Later called Roadshow Act 1. Overture Stephen Sondheim 2:53 2 Act 1. Bounce Stephen Sondheim Richard Kind / Howard McGillin 4:07 3 Act 1. Opportunity .
Opening night of Road Show, the Stephen Sondheim/John Weidman musical that tells of historys Mizner brothers.
ROAD SHOW by Stephen Sondheim vesves John Weidman February 16 – March 13, 2016 at Signature Theatre For tickets and more info visit ➞ bit.ly/sigroadshow .
CSC Artistic Director John Doyle chats with long-time collaborator and award-winning writer of Assassins, Road Show and Pacific Overtures, John Weidman. Conside...
CSC Artistic Director John Doyle chats with long-time collaborator and award-winning writer of Assassins, Road Show and Pacific Overtures, John Weidman. Consider supporting our work at http://www.classicstage.org/supportCC
CSC Artistic Director John Doyle chats with long-time collaborator and award-winning writer of Assassins, Road Show and Pacific Overtures, John Weidman. Consider supporting our work at http://www.classicstage.org/supportCC
'The fifth event in the new DG Conservatory series - a bookwriting seminar with celebrated librettist, and former DG president, John Weidman.
**JOHN WEIDMAN ...
'The fifth event in the new DG Conservatory series - a bookwriting seminar with celebrated librettist, and former DG president, John Weidman.
**JOHN WEIDMAN has written the books for a wide variety of musicals, among them Pacific Overtures, Assassins and Road Show, all with scores by Stephen Sondheim; Contact, co-created with director/choreographer Susan Stroman; Happiness, score by Scott Frankel and Michael Korie; Anything Goes (new book with Timothy Crouse, score by Cole Porter); and Take Flight and Big, scores by Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire. He has also received more than a dozen Emmy Awards for Outstanding Writing for a Children's Program for Sesame Street. From 1999 to 2009, he served as president of The Dramatists Guild of America.
'The fifth event in the new DG Conservatory series - a bookwriting seminar with celebrated librettist, and former DG president, John Weidman.
**JOHN WEIDMAN has written the books for a wide variety of musicals, among them Pacific Overtures, Assassins and Road Show, all with scores by Stephen Sondheim; Contact, co-created with director/choreographer Susan Stroman; Happiness, score by Scott Frankel and Michael Korie; Anything Goes (new book with Timothy Crouse, score by Cole Porter); and Take Flight and Big, scores by Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire. He has also received more than a dozen Emmy Awards for Outstanding Writing for a Children's Program for Sesame Street. From 1999 to 2009, he served as president of The Dramatists Guild of America.
Be sure to subscribe for all new episodes!
J.T. Rogers joins John Weidman for a conversation about the librettists’ role in a collaboration for The Legacy Proj...
Be sure to subscribe for all new episodes!
J.T. Rogers joins John Weidman for a conversation about the librettists’ role in a collaboration for The Legacy Project:Volume III.
Produced by the Dramatists Guild Foundation, the Legacy Project is a series of interviews featuring prominent contemporary American playwrights, lyricists, and composers. Each interview offers an intimate look into the lives and creative process of these writers of the theater.
The Legacy Project was originally conceived by Jonathan Reynolds. Producers include Nancy Ford, Carol Hall, Peter Ratray and Jonathan Reynolds. The interviews are filmed and directed by Jeremy Levine and Landon Van Soest of Transient Pictures. The Dramatists Guild Foundation’s Media Advisor is Leonard Majzlin.
The Legacy Project: Volume III is made possible through the support of DGF Board Member Roe Green & The Roe Green Foundation.
Be sure to subscribe for all new episodes!
J.T. Rogers joins John Weidman for a conversation about the librettists’ role in a collaboration for The Legacy Project:Volume III.
Produced by the Dramatists Guild Foundation, the Legacy Project is a series of interviews featuring prominent contemporary American playwrights, lyricists, and composers. Each interview offers an intimate look into the lives and creative process of these writers of the theater.
The Legacy Project was originally conceived by Jonathan Reynolds. Producers include Nancy Ford, Carol Hall, Peter Ratray and Jonathan Reynolds. The interviews are filmed and directed by Jeremy Levine and Landon Van Soest of Transient Pictures. The Dramatists Guild Foundation’s Media Advisor is Leonard Majzlin.
The Legacy Project: Volume III is made possible through the support of DGF Board Member Roe Green & The Roe Green Foundation.
July, 27, 2019 following matinee Road Show in the New York City Center composer Stephen Sondheim and librettist John Weidman joined Encores! Off-Center Artistic...
July, 27, 2019 following matinee Road Show in the New York City Center composer Stephen Sondheim and librettist John Weidman joined Encores! Off-Center Artistic Director Anne Kauffman and Director Will Davis to discuss the making of this production.
July, 27, 2019 following matinee Road Show in the New York City Center composer Stephen Sondheim and librettist John Weidman joined Encores! Off-Center Artistic Director Anne Kauffman and Director Will Davis to discuss the making of this production.
Librettists Peter Stone (1776, THE WILL ROGERS FOLLIES) and John Weidman (BIG, PACIFIC OVERTURES) discuss the art of writing librettos for musicals..
Tape Date...
Librettists Peter Stone (1776, THE WILL ROGERS FOLLIES) and John Weidman (BIG, PACIFIC OVERTURES) discuss the art of writing librettos for musicals..
Tape Date: 1997-01-01
Librettists Peter Stone (1776, THE WILL ROGERS FOLLIES) and John Weidman (BIG, PACIFIC OVERTURES) discuss the art of writing librettos for musicals..
Tape Date: 1997-01-01
July, 27, 2019 following matinee Road Show in the New York City Center composer Stephen Sondheim and librettist John Weidman joined Encores! Off-Center Artistic...
July, 27, 2019 following matinee Road Show in the New York City Center composer Stephen Sondheim and librettist John Weidman joined Encores! Off-Center Artistic Director Anne Kauffman and Director Will Davis to discuss the making of this production.
July, 27, 2019 following matinee Road Show in the New York City Center composer Stephen Sondheim and librettist John Weidman joined Encores! Off-Center Artistic Director Anne Kauffman and Director Will Davis to discuss the making of this production.
Later called Roadshow Act 1. Overture Stephen Sondheim 2:53 2 Act 1. Bounce Stephen Sondheim Richard Kind / Howard McGillin 4:07 3 Act 1. Opportunity .
Openi...
Later called Roadshow Act 1. Overture Stephen Sondheim 2:53 2 Act 1. Bounce Stephen Sondheim Richard Kind / Howard McGillin 4:07 3 Act 1. Opportunity .
Opening night of Road Show, the Stephen Sondheim/John Weidman musical that tells of historys Mizner brothers.
ROAD SHOW by Stephen Sondheim vesves John Weidman February 16 – March 13, 2016 at Signature Theatre For tickets and more info visit ➞ bit.ly/sigroadshow .
Later called Roadshow Act 1. Overture Stephen Sondheim 2:53 2 Act 1. Bounce Stephen Sondheim Richard Kind / Howard McGillin 4:07 3 Act 1. Opportunity .
Opening night of Road Show, the Stephen Sondheim/John Weidman musical that tells of historys Mizner brothers.
ROAD SHOW by Stephen Sondheim vesves John Weidman February 16 – March 13, 2016 at Signature Theatre For tickets and more info visit ➞ bit.ly/sigroadshow .
CSC Artistic Director John Doyle chats with long-time collaborator and award-winning writer of Assassins, Road Show and Pacific Overtures, John Weidman. Consider supporting our work at http://www.classicstage.org/supportCC
'The fifth event in the new DG Conservatory series - a bookwriting seminar with celebrated librettist, and former DG president, John Weidman.
**JOHN WEIDMAN has written the books for a wide variety of musicals, among them Pacific Overtures, Assassins and Road Show, all with scores by Stephen Sondheim; Contact, co-created with director/choreographer Susan Stroman; Happiness, score by Scott Frankel and Michael Korie; Anything Goes (new book with Timothy Crouse, score by Cole Porter); and Take Flight and Big, scores by Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire. He has also received more than a dozen Emmy Awards for Outstanding Writing for a Children's Program for Sesame Street. From 1999 to 2009, he served as president of The Dramatists Guild of America.
Be sure to subscribe for all new episodes!
J.T. Rogers joins John Weidman for a conversation about the librettists’ role in a collaboration for The Legacy Project:Volume III.
Produced by the Dramatists Guild Foundation, the Legacy Project is a series of interviews featuring prominent contemporary American playwrights, lyricists, and composers. Each interview offers an intimate look into the lives and creative process of these writers of the theater.
The Legacy Project was originally conceived by Jonathan Reynolds. Producers include Nancy Ford, Carol Hall, Peter Ratray and Jonathan Reynolds. The interviews are filmed and directed by Jeremy Levine and Landon Van Soest of Transient Pictures. The Dramatists Guild Foundation’s Media Advisor is Leonard Majzlin.
The Legacy Project: Volume III is made possible through the support of DGF Board Member Roe Green & The Roe Green Foundation.
July, 27, 2019 following matinee Road Show in the New York City Center composer Stephen Sondheim and librettist John Weidman joined Encores! Off-Center Artistic Director Anne Kauffman and Director Will Davis to discuss the making of this production.
Librettists Peter Stone (1776, THE WILL ROGERS FOLLIES) and John Weidman (BIG, PACIFIC OVERTURES) discuss the art of writing librettos for musicals..
Tape Date: 1997-01-01
July, 27, 2019 following matinee Road Show in the New York City Center composer Stephen Sondheim and librettist John Weidman joined Encores! Off-Center Artistic Director Anne Kauffman and Director Will Davis to discuss the making of this production.
Later called Roadshow Act 1. Overture Stephen Sondheim 2:53 2 Act 1. Bounce Stephen Sondheim Richard Kind / Howard McGillin 4:07 3 Act 1. Opportunity .
Opening night of Road Show, the Stephen Sondheim/John Weidman musical that tells of historys Mizner brothers.
ROAD SHOW by Stephen Sondheim vesves John Weidman February 16 – March 13, 2016 at Signature Theatre For tickets and more info visit ➞ bit.ly/sigroadshow .
Weidman was born in New York City, the son of Peggy Wright and librettist and novelist Jerome Weidman. He received a B.A. from Harvard University with a major in East Asian history and a J.D. from Yale Law School.
Theatre
He has written the books for a wide variety of stage musicals.
He collaborated on three stage musicals with Stephen Sondheim. The first book for a musical that he wrote was Pacific Overtures, as an intern for Hal Prince.The musical premiered on Broadway in 1976, and was revived in 2004 at Studio 54. Assassins first opened Off-Broadway in December 1990 at Playwrights Horizons, and later opened in the West End in October 1992 at the Donmar Warehouse. The musical was revived on Broadway in 2004 in a Roundabout Theater Company production.Road Show, after several title changes, opened Off-Broadway at the Public Theatre in 2008. The musical had productions at the Goodman Theatre and Kennedy Center in 2003 prior to the Off-Broadway production.
Sondheim’s brilliance, along with book writer John Weidman, is in how each motivation of the assassin is varied in scope ...Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by John Weidman, presented by San Jose Playhouse.
His strength is a 94 ... His older brother Sean played at BC from 2016-19, while his dad John was an Eagle from 1988-90.Sullivan Weidman, West Virginia guard - 75 ... Weidman appeared in eight games last year and featured in 31 plays against Duquesne ...
Renaissance Man Co., operated by founders Aaron Weidman and JohnFitzgerald, referred to as John Lewis in the complaint filed June 4, opened their lounge on site at the Wrigley mid-summer 2023 before abruptly closing four months later that November.
Misdemeanor sentencings in Isabella CountyTrialCourt.. Kyshia M ...John C ... Garlitz, 38, Weidman, driving with a suspended license second or subsequent, $325 fine and costs, one day in jail ... Tetzlaff, 58, Weidman, dog at large, $200 fine and costs. John N.
This collaboration marks a significant step in expanding the reach of Charles Carlini Presents' captivating live experiences to audiences worldwide ...John J ... " data-original-title title>John J ... James Weidman ... " data-original-title title>James Weidman ... .
SobowSquare asked the court to forbid the city “from conducting its own private forensic examination of any electronic devices or accounts, including but not limited to JohnTabor’s and Anne Weidman’s devices and accounts.”.
James Weidman ... " data-original-title title>James Weidman who could not make the second of the album's two recording dates ... SteveJohns ... " data-original-title title>Steve Johns ably handling the rhythm ... James Weidman ... Steve Johns.