Frank Wildhorn is an American composer best known for his work in musical theatre and popular music. He is a Grammy, Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle nominee. Born in Harlem, New York, in 1958, Wildhorn grew up in Queens, New York until he moved to Hollywood, Florida, at the age of fourteen. Self-taught at piano, Wildhorn knew he wanted to pursue a career in music so he played in and wrote for a variety of bands during high school. Wildhorn attended the University of Southern California to study history and philosophy. He met Steve Cuden while studying at USC and began to write Jekyll & Hyde.
Frank Wildhorn was one of the most popular Broadway composers in the 1990s. In 1999, he became the first composer to ever have three shows running simultaneously on Broadway with Jekyll & Hyde, The Civil War, and The Scarlet Pimpernel. Although all three shows ended up closing with a combined loss of almost $20 million, Wildhorn’s shows have become a global sensation. Jekyll & Hyde is one of the longest running shows in South Korea and many of his shows are frequently produced across Europe and Asia. In 2004, Wildhorn collaborated with Don Black to create Dracula. The two would collaborate again on Bonnie and Clyde in 2009. In recent years, Wildhorn has done a lot of work in South Korea and Japan, producing musical concerts and new musicals in coding Death Note: The Musical (2015) and Mata Hari (2016).
Wildhorn has also written music for pop artists such as Natalie Cole, Kenny Rogers, Patti LaBelle, and Dennis DeYoung. His most famous pop hit was “Where Do Broken Hearts Go”, which was recorded by Whitney Houston in 1988. Wildhorn is the co-founder of GloabalVision Records and the Creative Director of Atlantic Theatre, a division of Atlantic Records that develops new American musicals.
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