Musical theater works include: an original musical CHANCE: A Musical Play About Love, Risk & Getting It Right produced as a workshop by The York Theatre, NYC followed by the world premiere at The Alcove Theater, SF produced by New Musical Theater of San Francisco and was selected for The Fresh Fruit Festival in NYC, 2016 where it received several Fruity Awards for outstanding achievement. CHANCE was then selected for the prestigious New York Musical Festival (NYMF) for a full production. A Fine & Private Place in collaboration with Erik Haagensen, premiered Off Broadway at The York Theatre in 2006 and was published by Samuel French. The work, originally developed at The Eugene O’Neill Center Opera/Music Theater Conference, received a production at Goodspeed Opera and The American Stage Company in Teaneck, NJ. Other musical theater works include: Salford Road: A Musical Photograph, winner of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe First Award, the show was written with Grammy Award Winning producer Stefan Rudnicki and distinguished Welsh author and poet Gareth Owen; My Father’s Son with librettist Enid Futterman (awarded a CBS Development Grant); Night City Diaries, a cabaret piece based on poet Arthur Rimbaud produced by Playwright’s Horizons; and, The Bluebird: A Christmas Musical, commissioned by the Sun Valley Repertory Theater in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Richard’s most recent work Quantum Janis now in development, has been workshopped at The Ko Theater Festival, presented at the New York New Works Festival and shown as a staged reading at The York Theatre.
Richard composed incidental music for Obie award winning Lee Nagrin’s groundbreaking WHORL at the St. Mark’s Church & La Mama as well as music for Ms. Nagrin’s SKYFISH and BIRD DEVIL. He composed music for Mabou Mines’ STARCOCK as well as the 10 minute musical DEAR SOMEONE commissioned by The Public Theater with a libretto by Jack Eric Williams.
Richard’s works have been performed at The Woodstock Opera House, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, The Public Theater, The Chelsea Theater Center, Washington Square Church, The Alcove Theater in San Francisco and in many community theaters.
Richard has written music for television productions at WNYC, WGBH, WCVB and was nominated for an Emmy Award for his score for the nationally syndicated Dr. Timothy Johnson show. He is also the recipient of NYS Council of the Arts CAPS Award for music composition, several NEA Production Grants and several Meet the Composer Grants.
Richard holds an MFA in Musical Theater Writing from NYU Tisch School of the Arts where his principal teachers included Richard Maltby Jr., Peter Stone, Sheldon Harnick, Martin Charnin and composer Richard Peaslee. He is a member of ASCAP and The Dramatist’s Guild.