Guettel, whom I just beginning to `discover,' is a composer (good), a
lyricist (fair), a singer (not really, but he tries) -- somebody definitely
worth attention.

Richard Rodgers' grandson (late 30s, I think) has written some great
Sondheimesque-Adamsian-his_own songs, the best of which is `Come to Jesus,'
`Saturn Returns' and `Icarus,' in that order.  His CD, `Myths & Hymns' --
with Audra McDonald, Mandy Patinkin, Annie Golden, others -- is just out.

The Goodman Theater has started a run of Guettel's 1996 opera, `Floyd
Collins,' about an early (1925) American media hero, a man rescued from
a cave `live and in color' on national radio.

Guettel is also the first (and only) jointly appointed
lyricist-in-residence for the Goodman and the Chicago Lyric Opera.

A man to keep and eye, and especially an ear, on in the years to come.

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