DANIEL GREEN MUSIC

composer, lyricist, music director

News

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The Tale of the Gifted Prince

After a long journey of its own, The Tale of the Gifted Prince will premiere at Theatre Calgary in February 2026!

Empire records

Daniel music directed the world premiere of Empire Records at the McCarter Center last fall.

WINDOW TREATMENT

Critics loved Window Treatment, and now the recording has been released! Check it out on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube.

Full FRontal

Check out a playlist of music Daniel wrote for Full Frontal with Samantha Bee.

BRoadway

Daniel is currently sub conducting and playing piano at The Last Five Years, The Great Gatsby, Aladdin, and Wicked.

about//

Daniel Green is a composer, lyricist, and music director.

He was recently the associate music director of Almost Famous on Broadway. Previously he was the associate conductor of In Transit and Rocky on Broadway, and has also subbed on Broadway for The Last Five Years, The Great Gatsby, Back To The Future, Parade, Ain't Too Proud, An American In Paris, Aladdin, Big Fish, Matilda, Peter and the Starcatcher, The Addams Family, and Wicked. Other credits include Empire Records (McCarter), Ride (Old Globe), Ever After (Alliance Theatre), Theory of Relativity (Goodspeed), and Between the Lines (Second Stage).

As a writer, Daniel won the Holof Lyricist Award with David H. Bell for The Museum of Broken Relationships, which was developed at the Eugene O’Neill National Music Theatre Conference and later presented at the Aspen Theatre Festival and Speakeasy Theatre in Boston. His solo musical Window Treatment, written with Deborah Zoe Laufer, was produced at the TBG Theatre Off-Broadway. And after being featured in in festivals around North America, including the NAMT Songwriter's Showcase and the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop, his show The Tale of the Gifted Prince, written with Lezlie Wade, will have its world premiere production at Theatre Calgary in 2026.

Other writing honors include a NAMT grant from the National Fund for New Musicals; a retreat at Running Deer Musical Theatre Lab; a Weston Playhouse New Musical Award nomination, and inclusion in NEO at the York Theatre. Other composing credits include Fanny Brice (Asolo Rep Theatre); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Northwestern University); and Twelfth Night (Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival). Daniel is a graduate of Northwestern University and the BMI Musical Theatre Advanced Workshop.

About

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Media

Checking out beautiful @theatrecalgary for the first time in person. Imagining dreams coming true.

📷: @lezlie.wade

Honored to make my conducting debut at @thelastfiveyears today, subbing for the incredible Paul Mutzabaugh. Shout-out to Paul - I’m not sure anyone has ever worked harder to set a sub up for success. Thanks to @adriennelwarren @nickjonas and the team for having me, especially my old classmate-turned-Broadway-powerhouse @yesimwhitneywhite (go Cats!)

Everyone knows I have no chill when it comes to the music of @jasonrobertbrownstagram , so being a small part of this production is a thrill. The world is far from perfect right now, but every time I get to play this score it feels like a miracle has happened.

#iamnotalwaysintime #pleasedontexpectthatfromme

After 13 years, it brings me immense pleasure to announce the world premiere of THE TALE OF THE GIFTED PRINCE at Theatre Calgary in February 2026.

Thanks to Stafford Arima for championing this project, Somerled Arts for their eternal support, Darren Lee for his patient stewardship, all the brilliant and generous actors who have brought this piece to life over the years, my friends and family who have put up with me talking about this since 2012, and my steadfast collaborator Lezlie Wade, who never stopped believing in this story.

01 - THE TALE OF THE GIFTED PRINCE
02 - Theatre Calgary details
03 - Calgary Herald article
04 - Reading at Northwestern in 2015
05 - Concert presentation at The Pitch in summer 2014
06 - our very first table read in spring 2014

Bumping this to the grid for posterity - I've been running races all year and I just finished 9+1, which means next year I get to run the 2025 NYC Marathon! Excited and only a little daunted. Thanks to @jaemajoy for inspiration, general running wisdom and helping give me the time to log all those hours in Prospect Park. Training starts now! Well, maybe after Thanksgiving.

#nycmarathon #excusestobuyshoes

A bit of "Where Do You Go," by Joe Thalken and Tom Jones. Sung by Gavin Creel. RIP.

Even as @empirerecordsbway enters tech, another musical is taking shape at SUNY Cortland, written by @deborahzoelaufer.playwright and yours truly. Happy first day of rehearsal to BY ANY OTHER NAME!

Next up! Excited to work with this amazing team and live my 90s dreams. #rexmanningday @empirerecordsbway

I say goodbye to a frisbee, slippers, a toy two-decker bus…

What a joy to spend two weeks writing music and not just playing it. What a privilege to have it put up by Speakeasy Stage and produced by Wendy Macdonald & Scott Evans at Somerled Arts. What a pleasure to collaborate on it with David Bell. (What a cheat code to get that music gorgeously orchestrated by Geoffrey Ko!) And what an honor to have it all performed by this beautiful company of engaged and committed artists. You are all fashionistas - may our relationship never be broken.

Until next time… Pack up, send off, let go. #museumofbrokenrelationships

Opened my second show at the Old Globe last night, with these amazing artists. Feeling lucky and grateful to them all and especially grateful to @jaemajoy - who's taken on solo parenting the last several weeks to allow me to be here. Annie Londonderry's got nothing on you ❤️

#ridemusical #acrossamerica

Next up! It's a delight to be back at @theoldglobe working on this new musical, with a super talented cast and team. Balboa Park, I missed you. Looking forward to this.

#ridethemusical

10 years of being married to @jaemajoy today. Fifteen years together. I don't know how to not be corny about it.

Every day feels like a gift.

Happy Anniversary ❤️

Not only my first time under seven minutes, but a huge new PR in this year's 5th Avenue Mile! Training paying off - well that and the Vaporflys...

Got to run with @jaemajoy due to a quick toddler pass-off between heats. And now...coffee. #5thavenuemile #nyrr

I had the opportunity to revisit some 90s music today and I remembered this gem by Toad the Wet Sprocket. I'm no singer but I had to sit down and belt out a few bars.

#whateverifear
#90sforever

Every time I came to work at @paradebway the last several months (subbing for the incredible @andrewresnick18 ), I walked through the alley and passed this leftover Almost Famous sticker. It’s a reminder of the transient nature of Broadway theaters - each production looks so permanent from the audience’s point of view, but is packed up astonishingly quickly as soon as it closes. Out with the old, in with the new. Sawdust and spangles and dreams.

That’s how you have to live it, too, I think. 100% commitment while you’re there - how can you not give all of yourself to your art? - and then gracefully onto the next. I don’t know. I’m still working on that part.

I played my last show at Parade last night, and ironically, it really made me miss Almost Famous. I played a little from that score on the Parade piano pre-show, an amalgamated offering to the gods of the Jacobs Theatre. It’s a beautiful tune by @tomkittmusic and @cameronbcrowe . The lyrics go like this:

“The darkness is gone. Yesterday’s gone. There’s a new day coming.”

📹: @mairidp

Way back in 2018 - in the Before Times - I had the opportunity to collaborate with Deborah Zoe Laufer on an original piece for the Inner Voices series called Window Treatment. The series commissions completely sung-through versions of someone’s inner monologue. Deborah wrote an amazing script, I had a blast setting it, and then Farah Alvin came in and gave an absolutely virtuosic performance. It’s one of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen someone do.

That performance was captured in the recording studio, along with Brandon Wong’s wonderful vibraphone playing, and I’m happy to say that the recording is finally available on all streaming platforms. I’m enormously proud of it and I would love for you to check it out. Link in bio! It’s written as one continuous piece, but a few favorite highlights if you’re dipping in:

5:31 Maybe You Had A Dentist Appointment
12:11 What Happened In My Life?
27:01 Maybe It Would Be Someone In Another Apartment

Thanks to my pal Portia Krieger for directing, Paul Masse for music directing, Farah and Brandon for their indelible performances, and Deborah for being the genius she is.

“Deborah Zoe Laufer’s hilarious script plumbs every scrap of comic potential lurking in the mind of a relatively benign stalker. Daniel Green’s music is packed with sly homages, from rippling Chopinesque arpeggios to castanet-clicking habaneras— there’s even a nod to Les Miz—and director Portia Krieger piles on the comic beats so deftly that we never pause to pity this obsessive oddball.” ~ TimeOut NY

#innervoices #originalmusicals

Supporting the WGA the best way I know how, with musical theatre. Pay writers! Apologies to Alan Menken and Jack Feldman, and thanks to @racheldoesstuff for the Scriptnotes lyric at the end. #andtheworldwillknow

The NPR podcast “How I Built This” interviews successful founders and entrepreneurs, and at the end of every episode, the host asks each guest whether they think their success is due more to hard work or luck. People have various interesting answers, but when I think about my own life, I always feel like there’s an important third plank missing. I’ve been lucky, sure, and I’ve put in some work, but the most important reason I’ve been able to achieve anything in my career is due to the kindness and generosity of people who have helped me along the way. To call that luck is to deny them agency - they had to make the choice to be generous, to be mentors, to help me when there was nothing in it for them.

Howie Joines embodied that spirit as much as anyone I’ve ever met. My feed is full of stories and testimonials from the countless people that Howie gave opportunities to over the years. I think I first met him when I was subbing at Matilda - it was a difficult book and I was pretty nervous at my first show, but he came up to me at intermission and was full of compliments at how well I was doing, true or not. Over the years I worked with him, first as a potential hire and later with him helping me to hire others - he was never dismissive, never gossiped, always professional, always thinking about who he could lift up. When I first heard he was sick it was hard to believe because he was so famously fit - I’m sure he could have benched me with one hand. But right up to the end he was working and continuing to get people staffed. I’m literally starting a new gig this weekend that I got thanks to Howie.

The last news I’d heard was actually that he was getting better - there was a promising new treatment that was working wonders - which makes this news even more of a punch in the gut. But I’m so happy to see that the way he touched my life is echoed a thousand times over throughout the industry. I’ve benefited many times from the generosity of Howie, but I haven’t paid it forward often enough. I hope I can honor him by being more like he was. Because success in life often comes down to luck, hard work, and people like Howie Joines.

Almost Famous is a beautiful show with a beautiful message that deserved better than what it got. I look forward to its Encores redemption in twenty years. In the meantime, you can listen to the album out today! It’s an honor to be on another Broadway cast album, especially rocking out on my B3 organ.

To our legendary cast, I am an obsessive Band-Aid of every single one of you. Musicians, every night was an honor. And thank you especially to @tomkittmusic and @cameronbcrowe for everything. Great art is about conflict and pain and guilt and LONGING. And let’s face it, we got a big head start. #youarehome

I had no plans to go into musical theatre. I didn’t even know that much about musical theatre. Then in my freshman year at Northwestern way back in 2004, I saw a transcendent production of Parade. It knocked me out. I never knew theatre, or music, could be like that. I went back four times. I changed my major.

That score has stayed with me, as it has for so many people, for almost twenty years. I’ve been shamelessly stealing from Jason Robert Brown in my own composing ever since, as anyone who knows me can attest. And even as I’ve charted a professional path in NYC, I’ve remained a fan with no chill, cheering in the audience for Bridges, Last Five Years, Songs For A New World, Honeymoon in Vegas. But the audience is where I’ve remained, until now. When this revival was announced, I thought “I’ll never forgive myself if I don’t ask.” And to my eternal gratitude, they gave me a shot.

Last night was an absolute career highlight and the culmination of an 18 year old’s dream. Thanks to everyone who helped me and made it possible. Happy Memorial Day. ❤️ #likeaglassoflemonade

Latergram from the excellent wedding of @williboboy and @uncle_annie ❤️

Looking for a fun date idea? ❤️ Something nerdy and educational? 🤓 Or just an excuse to drink great wine? 🍷 @libby.winters has you covered. She came over recently and gave me and @jaemajoy a private class about Piedmont wine - she brought COOL STORIES, she brought MAPS, she brought BAROLO. (Along with so much other great wine that I doubt she made any money on the night, sorry Libby.) She knows everything, we had the absolute best time and I already can’t wait to do it again - maybe in a small group? Anyway, book her asap. #docg #almostfamousthemusical #wineclassisinsession

For no reason other than I’m thinking about it today, I want to give a shout out to Bryan Perri. He took a chance way back when I was a sub at Wicked, bringing me onto other projects including Almost Famous. He supported and championed me from day one through the end of our run, even during some dark days.

He’s a fashion icon, a gym rat, and an appreciator of the finer things in life. Despite the fact that he sometimes tries to hide it, he’s also a deeply serious and disciplined musician and conductor, as at home with a symphonic orchestra as with a harmonica and Elton John.

I’ve learned so much from him and he’s showed me what a trusting collaboration looks like, where I don’t have to worry that my next mistake might be my last. Broadway is better off with him on a podium. And so are we.

#honestandunmerciful

“I’m not good at goodbyes.

Goodbye.”

#almostfamousthemusical #closing #aseatbythewindow

She wasn’t good with kids. She’d had some bad experiences with them when she was a young puppy, before we owned her, that left her with a healthy distrust of small bodies and grubby hands.

Truth be told she wasn’t that great with other dogs, either. We joked that she was a definite Slytherin. Sometimes her natural wariness was overcome by her desire to play, and she would orbit around with a new pal in the park during off-leash hours. But inside she worried about her food, about her bed, about anything that could be taken away from her.

She worried a lot. She wouldn’t hurt a fly because flies terrified her. We’d find her cowering in the bathroom and soon enough we’d hear the telltale buzz. I would whack it and show her the corpse for her satisfaction. She’d hear a noise in the hallway and bark frantic warnings until l opened the door to show her no one was coming in - then she’d turn tail, relieved and embarrassed, to wait for the next crisis.

Despite her anxiety, she loved meeting new people. Tall strangers were instant friends, especially since they might have treats. Her distinctive greeting-howl became well known throughout the neighborhood - she was a Prospect Park celebrity, even to strangers who knew her only by reputation. She’d spot a familiar figure from a hundred yards away, trumpet her introduction, and then we’d hear: “It’s Shirley!!”

But she was happiest at home. Curled up on the couch - when allowed, which she always was - in her favorite corner spot, or dreaming in Jaema’s lap. I always said that I was Shirley’s favorite person, but Jaema was The Sun. Everything she did revolved around her. Or maybe we were a pack and Jaema was the leader. Shirley loved keeping the pack together. She couldn’t stand it when we were on a family walk and one of us would break off to run an errand or go to work.

And now what do we do without our little shadow, our grumpy terror, our anxious guardian, our first child? She got sick so suddenly and unexpectedly, at only six years old. (Continued in comments)

“They don't even know what it is to be a fan. To blindly love some silly little piece of music... or an album cover... or some band so much that it hurts.”

I was a fan of Almost Famous. I loved the movie passionately from college onward, felt like it spoke to me in a way that only I understood - which, of course, is how millions of people felt about it. Then in 2018 I got a last minute call to work on a reading. Cameron Crowe was there. Tom Kitt was there. Many of our cast now treading the boards at the Jacobs were already there. I was in heaven. It was all happening.

“Good-looking people have no spine! Their art never lasts! They get the girls, but we're smarter. ‘Cause great art is about conflict and pain and guilt and longing.”

Some musicals get a bad rap for being cynical movie adaptations. Almost Famous was all about the music. Some musicals get criticized for using a jukebox catalogue. Almost Famous had a beautiful original score, with some of my personal favorite Tom Kitt writing. Some musicals are accused of getting lost in adaptation or not honoring the spark of the original. Almost Famous the musical was written by its creator, Cameron Crowe, and not only that but was written based on his own life. It was nothing but personal; that’s what made it so universal.

I did reading after reading, workshop after workshop, then a magical production at the Old Globe in San Diego, where we opened to rave reviews. Riding high, set to transfer to Broadway in 2020… then an agonizing two year pandemic wait. And when we did finally open on Broadway, the reviews were not as kind. Suddenly we were not cool. But guess what?

“The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what we share with someone else when we’re uncool.”

Even when I thought I was, I knew I wasn’t. Thank you to everyone who has not been afraid to be uncool and share this niche experience with me. Everyone else, you have until January 8 to come hop on the bus. I wish it were longer. I wish I had a river I could skate away on.

I hope the next show comes along sooner than later, but this was once in a lifetime. #tobeginwith #everything

Happy 1st birthday Arthur ❤️ in honor of you, I’ll play percussively, smile at strangers and try to be in an unreasonably good mood. What a year. What a life. Thanks for teaching me every day how to be a dad.

Channeling my inner Keith Emerson for the Almost Famous Broadway cast recording!

1. Hammond B3
2. Yamaha Synth
3. Rhodes
4. Wurlitzer

#comeandplay

"What do you love about music?"
"To begin with... Everything."

That moment in the show brings me home every time. No matter what mood I'm in or how my day is going, I hear that cue, I modulate to E flat and I bask in the joy of Almost Famous.

Last night was a gift. Today I can't wait to share it with you. #almostfamousmusical

Arthur and Shirley in the leaves. Photo and child credit @jaemajoy

Conducted my first @almostfamousbwy performance tonight! Everyone lived to tell the tale 🎹 #welcometothecircus

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SHEET MUSIC

Sheet music is now free! Email me to request yours

Press

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WINDOW TREATMENT

Music by Daniel Green

Libretto by Deborah Zoe Laufer

TBG Theatre, 2018

“Three musical theatre teams create a thirty-minute sung monologue for one character apiece, and it's great fun to see what the composers do with these restrictions. 'Window Treatment," with lyrics by Deborah Zoe Laufer and music by Daniel Green, is like Hitchcock's "Rear Window" as a rom-com gone wrong, starring a charmingly manic Farah Alvin. Each piece memorably demonstrates the unique power of song to capture the mercurial intensity of inner life.”