Lucy O'Brien

Biography

Hello! I'm Lucy, & I'm a composer, music director, arranger, pianist and singer.
I'm living in Melbourne, Australia at the moment, but plan to return to NYC USA when I can.

I specialise in new musicals - and I want to make my main focus musical dramaturgy. I finished up at NYU's Graduate Music Theatre Writing Program in 2020, with assistance from NYU (scholarship), the Australia Council for the Arts (professional development grant), and the Australian American Association (professional development grant).

Most recently in Australia, I've been a dramaturg/music director on the new show 'Voyagers' by Andrew Strano (they/them) and Loclan Mackenzie-Spencer (he/him), with direction from Casey Gould (he/him).

Most recently in the USA, my new musical 'Madam President', with book by Gabrielle Burch (she/her) & lyrics by Jessie Field (she/her), received a summer workshop at New Musicals Lab Virginia, at Christopher Newport University. It was directed by Ilana Toeplitz (The Prom!! she/her) & Liz Stinman (she/her, impressive mom of two!), and featured Broadway talents such as Ines Nessara & Megan Haley Masako.

Compositions & writing include:
- 'Adventurers!' (A Dungeons and Dragons Musical) with book & lyrics by Alex Higgin-Houser ('Haymarket', he/him) at Underscore Theatre Company's new work festival, Chicago, 2020;
- 'The Fox' with book & lyrics by Jamie Buxton (she/her): this work was made possible by the Ceiling Project 2020, London, UK. Dir. by Grace Taylor;
- 'Jack of Two Trades' with Andrew Strano, 2017: this work was made possible by the Jeanne Pratt Artist in Residence Program & Monash University, dir. by Nate Gilkes;
and there are more on my website!

Music direction/creative team roles include:
- Co-Arranger, with Emily Chiu, for 'On the Line' by Amy Burgess & Rachel Dean, 2021, USA
- MD for Watch This' 'Company', 2015-16, Melbourne & regional tour
- MD for Room8/Australian Shakespeare Company's 'Godspell', 2015-2017, Melbourne, Sydney, regional tour
- MD for Tony Bartuccio's 'Menopause the Musical', 2015, national tour

I work with Music Theatre Workshop - a non-profit organisation set-up to assist musical theatre artists with workshopping, feedback, and education - and Hope - a new musicals organisation committed to workshopping new Australian pieces.

I love giving feedback and guidance on new work.
If you're another Aussie music director, I'd love to hear from you - let's chat!