Janine McGuire

Biography

Janine McGuire is a New York City-based musical theatre composer, writer, and producer. With collaborator Arri Lawton Simon, her latest musical is The Bubble, based on the 2006 Israeli film of the same name about two men from opposing sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict who fall in love. The pair’s other musicals include Express, about moments of connection in the NYC subway, and Kibby The Space Dog, a Theatre-For-Young-Audiences commission about a dog’s search for belonging.

Janine has been a member of the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop for 12 years and is a frequent guest moderator of the Librettists Workshop. Her work has been developed at The Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellowship, Fire Island Pines Arts Project, Goodspeed Musicals, The Johnny Mercer Writers Grove, New York Film Academy, New York Theatre Barn, New York Transit Museum, The Phoenix Theatre, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, Wichita Children’s Theatre & Dance Center, Wichita State University and The York Theatre. In 2023 Janine received the Jerry Harrington Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement in Musical Theatre for Libretto.

Originally from Bergen County, New Jersey, Janine attended Barnard College of Columbia University where she earned a B.A. in Music and founded NOMADS, a club for the production of new student-led theatrical works. She spent several years working at Disney Theatrical Group and producing independent theatre in NYC before enrolling in the BMI Workshop and writing professionally. She is a current Maestra mentor and is on staff at Concerts in Motion, an organization that brings live music and engagement to NYC’s most isolated communities.