Benj Pasek and Justin Paul are the newest artists to realize EGOT standing, profitable the Emmy for greatest authentic music and lyrics for his or her Solely Murders within the Constructing composition, alongside Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, “Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It?.”
The duo, who took residence the trophy Sunday, through the second night time of the 2024 Inventive Arts Emmys, beat out fellow nominees Sara Bareilles for Girls5eva‘s “The Medium Time”; the Saturday Night time Reside workforce of Eli Brueggemann, Maya Rudolph, Auguste White, Mike DiCenzo and Jake Nordwind for “Mom” from the variability collection’ Mom’s Day episode; The Tattooist of Auschwitz‘s Hans Zimmer, Kara Talve, Walter Afanasieff and Charlie Midnight for “Love Will Survive” and True Detective: Night time Nation‘s John Hawkes for “No Use.”
The duo beforehand received the very best authentic track Oscar for “Metropolis of Stars” from La La Land and the very best musical theater album Grammy for Expensive Evan Hansen, which additionally received them a Tony for greatest authentic rating. They later received a greatest compilation soundtrack Grammy for The Biggest Showman and greatest musical Tony for his or her work as producers on A Unusual Loop.
Pasek and Paul had been beforehand nominated for a greatest authentic music and lyrics Emmy in 2018 for the Christmas Story Reside! track “Within the Marketplace for a Miracle,” the place they misplaced to Brueggemann and his SNL colleagues for “Come Again Barack.“
The “Pickwick Triplets” patter track is featured within the Broadway-set third season of Solely Murders and is carried out by star Steve Martin, whose character, Charles-Haden Savage, struggles to grasp the fast-paced tune. He lastly will get it through the episode “Sitzprobe.”
The Solely Murders writing workforce contacted Pasek and Paul to assist make the collection’ “Loss of life Rattle Dazzle” musical really feel as actual as attainable, with the pair additionally bringing different well-known Broadway songwriters, together with Shaiman, Wittman and Bareilles, into the fold.
Paul spoke to The Hollywood Reporter final yr in regards to the technique of writing songs for the present, together with “Pickwick Triplets.”
“Discovering these couplets was like a really enjoyable, juicy experiment,” he advised THR. “We got here up with an enormous lengthy listing of prospects of what to tug from, right here’s our palette that we wish to work with lyrically after which going about telling the story that we had actually damaged down fairly completely with [showrunner] John Hoffman. After which it was simply the enjoyable of executing it, discovering our favourite traces, how can we preserve besting one another, besting that line. It was a pleasure and definitely one thing that I do know we’d by no means have give you on our personal.”
Pasek added, “What was so enjoyable was that John Hoffman and the writers actually engineered this second to have a number of moments within the present the place you as an viewers member are ready for the payoff to see whether or not or not [Martin] can do it. And infrequently when songs are utilized in TV exhibits, in our expertise, you’re chopping a track off, and even among the songs from this musical are extra within the background, whereas motion is happening elsewhere. And what was so thrilling, significantly in regards to the “Pickwick Triplet” second, and in addition “Look For the Gentle,” is that these songs are so integral to the plot of what’s occurring within the musical. So actually, as an viewers member, you’re ready to see whether or not or not Steve Martin can get by way of a really, very tough patter track filled with alliteration and filled with dexterity. And so it allow us to actually get to be in a sandbox, the place we bought to essentially play and collaborate and attempt to reverse engineer the toughest factor to truly sing after which current that to Steve, who was unbelievable and was so up for the problem and attacked it with such rigor and dedication. Steve’s dedication to studying the track was actually not dissimilar to [his character] Charles-Haden Savage, in that he had an actual tongue tornado to must get by way of and he actually approached it with such care and diligence.”
Pasek additionally recalled how Shaiman and Wittman gave the duo their “very first TV job” on the second season of Smash.
“Not solely are we simply followers of their work, however they’ve additionally simply been great, supportive writers in our lives,” he advised THR.
With their win, Pasek and Paul be a part of an elite membership of EGOT recipients that features Richard Rodgers, Rita Moreno, Audrey Hepburn, Mel Brooks, Mike Nichols, Whoopi Goldberg, Frozen and The E-book of Mormon‘s Robert Lopez, John Legend, Viola Davis and Elton John, who achieved EGOT standing on the 2023 Emmys, which had been handed out simply eight months in the past.
The duo additionally be a part of Lopez as among the youngest folks to ever EGOT, with Lopez, Pasek, Paul and Legend all reaching the feat on the age of 39.
The pair are the second to EGOT as a workforce, after Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.