Who

Guettel is a musical composer and theater-world enfant terrible responsible for the mega-hit The Light in the Piazza.

Backstory

Hailed as a young Stephen Sondheim, Guettel (it rhymes with "metal") is descended from musical theater royalty—his grandfather is Richard Rodgers of Rodgers & Hammerstein fame, his mom is composer/author Mary Rodgers, and his father Henry ran the Theater Development Fund. Guettel didn't initially pursue theater, but puttered around with jazz groups and rock bands after Exeter and Yale. In 1996 he finally moved to the stage with the musical Floyd Collins, based on the story of a man trapped in a cave in Kentucky. His 2005 opera-like musical comedy The Light in the Piazza at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theatre—based on Elizabeth Spencer's 1960 novella and written and composed by Guettal over four years—cemented his reputation and won six Tonys, with Guettal himself taking home a Tony for Best Score. The show enjoyed a 14-month run, wrapping its stay at Lincoln Theater in July 2006.

Recently

He was set to work on a musical adaptation of The Princess Bride with William Goldman, the screenwriter who penned the original movie. By early 2007, though, Guettel was off the project, having sparred with Goldman over ownership of the show; Goldman reportedly insisted on taking 75 percent of the authors' share, which Guettel wouldn't agree to. Elsewhere, Guettal was one of nine composers commissioned by Met Opera chief Peter Gelb to create an original piano-vocal score, which, the idea goes, could eventually be turned into a larger production.

Vice

Guettel's spoken publicly about his love for drugs and drinking, claiming to have first smoked a joint at age 13 ("the happiest moment of my life"). So far he's made two trips to rehab.

Personal

Guettal lives in a loft on Grand Street and is an incorrigible flirt. "He has the sexual proclivities of a satyr," his mother once told a reporter. He says he also suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder.

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