Be Our Guest with Mindi Dickstein ( Little Women, Benny & Joon)

MINDI DICKSTEIN is an award-winning writer of plays and musicals best known as the lyricist for Broadway's LITTLE WOMEN (licensed by MTI, Original Broadway Cast album released by Ghostlight/Sh-k-boom Records), which continues to be performed worldwide, including recent premieres in Tokyo and London.  Current projects include book and lyrics for MAIDEN VOYAGE (New Works Provincetown), lyrics for WITNESSES (California Center for the Arts, 2022 San Diego Critics award for Best Production), lyrics for BEYOND WHAT CAN BE SEEN, based on The Little Prince and the life of Saint-Exupery, and lyrics for BENNY & JOON, based on the MGM film, which had its world premiere at The Old Globe (2017 San Diego Critics nominee for Best Musical), east coast premiere at Paper Mill Playhouse, and which has been developed at Transport Group, NAMT, Theatreworks Silicon Valley, and the Goodspeed Johnny Mercer and Rhinebeck retreats. Her work has been commissioned, produced, and developed widely, including by Disney (book for TOY STORY, based on the animated film), Second Stage (lyrics for SNOW IN AUGUST, based on the novel by Pete Hamill), Playwrights Horizons (book and lyrics for TRIP, based on Rip Van Winkle; Harold & Mimi Steinberg Commission), Theatreworks USA, Two River Theater, and the ASCAP Workshop. Her songs have been performed at The Kennedy Center, 54 Below, The Cutting Room, Gotham Hall (The Dramatists Guild’s “Great Writers Thank Their Lucky Stars”) and Lincoln Center (“Hear and Now: Contemporary Lyricists”), among others. Honors include a Larson Foundation Award, New York Foundation for the Arts and Massachusetts Artists Foundation Playwriting Fellowships, Jane Chambers Award (for her play, THE EXISTENTIAL GOURMET), and a Second Stage Constance Klinsky Award for Excellence in Musical Theater. Education: MFA, Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program (where she was an Oscar Hammerstein Fellow); BFA, NYU’s Department of Undergraduate Drama.  Member of ASCAP and The Dramatists Guild.