John Sparks

The latest MMD Salon was a wonderful evening devoted to the craft of Musical Book writing, with speaker John Sparks from Chicago. John held us captive with his stories and wonderful advice. He stressed generous collaboration was essential and guarded against being too precious with work, but at the same time knowing when to say no. I had a long chat with him afterwards about Possessed, which he has read and listened to. I also told him that Steve and I were writing a new show and asked his advice about rights and methods of working. It is very different collaborating from the outset of a new show. When I started Possessed I was working alone on the book and lyric ideas before it ever got in front of a composer. This time we have been collaborating from the beginning. He seemed to think this was a much better way to go about things