Patrick Cook Elected to BMI Foundation Board of Directors
The Board of Directors of the BMI Foundation has announced BMI Director of Musical Theatre and Jazz Patrick Cook as its newly elected member. Formed by BMI employees in 1985, the BMI Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to furthering the creation, performance, and study of contemporary American music.
“Pat’s wealth of experience as both a talented musical theater professional and composer qualifies him highly to lead in our efforts on behalf of music education and community programs in this country,” Deirdre Chadwick, BMI Foundation President, commented. “We are delighted to welcome him to the Board.”
Patrick Cook, noted musical theatre composer, actor, and author, is the Director of Musical Theatre and Jazz for Broadcast Music, Inc. Mr. Cook has been associated with the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop for more than a quarter century, both as a member of the Workshop and as its Artistic Director for the past 15 years. Under Pat’s leadership, the Workshop has been honored with both a special Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award. Numerous award-winning Broadway productions have been written by members of the workshop.
Pat worked for many years in his early career as an actor, appearing on Broadway in A Mother’s Kisses with Beatrice Arthur, in the National Tour of 1776, and Off-Broadway in Dark of the Moon and Early Morning. He was a regular on PBS’s Feeling Good with Bill Cosby. As a composer, he wrote the score for The Mandrake at AMDA and incidental music for Romeo and Juliet and As You Like It at Equity Library Theatre. Pat also worked as a staff arranger at Radio City Music Hall. In the early 1980s, he was the resident pianist at Marty’s on 3rd Avenue where he played with such greats as George Shearing, Mel Tormé, Joe Williams, and Teddy Wilson. Patrick’s father, Joseph Cook, was also a writer, whose many credits included writing the pilot for The Flintstones.
Pat’s musical Captains Courageous, written with his longtime collaborator Frederick Freyer, originated at the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop and was produced by Manhattan Theatre Club (directed by Lynne Meadow), where it was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award for best musical. Captains was developed at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, produced at Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C. (directed by Graciela Daniele), and presented again at Goodspeed-at-Chester (directed by David Warren). His musical, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, was commissioned by Ford’s Theatre and won a NEA development grant. In 2001, he received the Ed Kleban Award for outstanding lyrics. Mr. Cook is also the author of All of the People, All the Time, a play about magicians directed by Michael Bush, which premiered at Charlotte Rep in 2004. He is currently working on The Night of the Meek, a Christmas musical based on a story by Rod Serling, and Smoke and Mirrors, a musical about the beginning of the Spiritualist movement in the 19th century.