Dana P. Rowe is an American composer. In childhood, he played classical and gospel piano, and he would listen to rock music behind his parents’ backs. At eight years old, he was cast in a professional production of Oliver!, and from then on, he knew he wanted to pursue a career in musical theatre. He attended the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where he majored in vocal and piano performance. After graduating, Rowe moved to New York City, where he played in rock bands before beginning his career as a musical theatre composer. Rowe is most notable for his collaborations with librettist John Dempsey. Together, Rowe and Dempsey wrote the musicals Zombie Prom (about a high school boy who returns from the dead after committing suicide at a nuclear power plant), The Fix (about an American politician who gets involved with the mafia), The Witches of Eastwick (based on the John Updike novel, about three small-town women who are seduced magically and sexually by the devil), and Brother Russia (about a less-than-mediocre troupe of traveling actors whose leader believes himself to be eccentric Russian figure Rasputin).
In addition to composing for musical theatre, Rowe is a motivational speaker, and he hosts Take It From the Top, a podcast featuring top arts professionals giving aspiring arts professionals advice on how to make it in such a difficult line of work. Rowe is openly gay and is married to Andrew Scharfmind.
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