Stephen Clark (2 February 1961 – 15 October 2016) was a British playwright, librettist and lyricist, best known for the musicals ''

Zorro Zorro (Spanish language, Spanish for 'fox') is a fictional character created in 1919 by American pulp magazine, pulp writer Johnston McCulley, appearing in works set in the Pueblo of Los Angeles in Alta California. He is typically portrayed a ...

'' and '' Love Story''.

Early life

Clark was born in Nottingham, the son of playwright and television writer Brian Clark.

Career

Clark attended musical theatre masterclasses led by

Stephen Sondheim Stephen Joshua Sondheim (; March 22, 1930November 26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. One of the most important figures in twentieth-century musical theater, Sondheim is credited for having "reinvented the American musical" with sho ...

at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

in 1991. He first received notice with the musical ''Eyam'', with music by Andrew Peggie, concerning the village of the same name during the 17th century bubonic plague. ''Eyam'' was performed in Oxford and at the

Bridewell Theatre Bridewell Theatre is a small theatre based in Blackfriars in London. It is operated as part of the St Bride Foundation Institute, named after nearby St Bride's Church on Fleet Street Fleet Street is a major street mostly in the City of Lo ...

in London. Clark contributed lyrics to the revised version of ''

Martin Guerre Martin Guerre, a French peasant of the 16th century, was at the centre of a famous case of imposture. Several years after Martin Guerre had left his wife, child and village, a man claiming to be him appeared. He lived with Guerre's wife and so ...

'', which received the 1997

Olivier Award for Best New Musical The Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical is an annual award presented by the Society of London Theatre in recognition of achievements in commercial London theatre. The awards were established as the Society of West End Theatre Awards in ...

. For the

English National Opera English National Opera (ENO) is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera. ENO's productions are sung in English ...

, his English libretto for ''

La Traviata ''La traviata'' (; ''The Fallen Woman'') is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on ''La Dame aux camélias'' (1852), a play by Alexandre Dumas ''fils'' adapted from his own 18 ...

'' was produced in 2006. Clark's music theatre adaptation of ''The Mahabharata'', music by

Nitin Sawhney Nitin Sawhney , D.Mus (; born 1964) is a British musician, producer and composer. A recipient of the Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement award in 2017, among multiple international awards throughout his career. Sawhney's work combines Asian a ...

, opened in 2007 at Sadler's Wells Theatre, London. He wrote the lyrics and co-wrote the book for ''

'', produced on the West End in 2008 and nominated for Best New Musical at the 2009 Olivier Awards. In 2010, the Chichester Festival Theare produced ''Love Stor''y, with Clark writing book and co-writing lyrics with composer

Howard Goodall Howard Lindsay Goodall (; born 26 May 1958) is an English composer of musicals, choral music and music for television. He also presents music-based programmes for television and radio, for which he has won many awards. In May 2008, he was na ...

. ''Love Story'' transferred to the West End and was nominated for Best New Musical at the Olivier Awards. He contributed to three Singapore-produced musicals, ''

Sing to the Dawn ''Sing to the Dawn'' is a story by Chinese-American author Minfong Ho, which was originally published as a short story and was awarded first prize by the Council of Interracial Books for Children in New York City in 1975. It was later extended to ...

'' (1996), ''

Forbidden City The Forbidden City () is a Chinese palace, palace complex in Dongcheng District, Beijing, China, at the center of the Imperial City, Beijing, Imperial City of Beijing. It is surrounded by numerous opulent imperial gardens and temples includ ...

'' (2002) and ''The LKY Musical'' (2015). His plays include ''Making Waves'' and ''Stripped''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Stephen British librettists English musical theatre lyricists 1961 births 2016 deaths