Jon Marans

Old Wicked Songs was the 1996 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Drama, winner of the New York Drama League (including play and both actors), L.A. Drama Logue Award, and included in Otis Guernsey’s Best Plays of 1996-97. It was first presented by the Walnut Street Theatre, then in NYC by Daryl Roth at Playhouse 91, then moving to the Promenade Theater. In England, Old Wicked Songs started at the Bristol Old Vic, transferring to London’s West End at the Gielgud Theater, starring Bob Hoskins and James Callis. The play has been produced throughout the United States and translated and produced in over a dozen countries around the world.

Other produced shows include A Strange and Separate People, Penguin Rep; Jumping For Joy, Laguna Playhouse and the Independent Theater at the International Adelaide Theater Festival; Legacy of the Dragonslayers, based on Studs Terkel’s “Coming of Age” (book by Jon Marans, lyrics by Ronnie Gilbert – part of the original blacklisted folk group “The Weavers”), San Jose Repertory Theatre; the musical Irrationals (book & lyrics Jon Marans, music by Edward Thomas), Seattle’s Village Theater and ATA Theater, NYC; Child Child was the winner of the Preston Jones Award.

Currently, Mr. Marans has rewritten the book to the 1926 Gershwin musical Tell Me More for producer Martin Platt. In film, Mr. Marans was a story editor/script doctor for Stonebridge, Michael Douglas’ production company at Columbia Pictures and in TV he was a staff writer/lyricist for the “New Carol Burnett Show” on CBS and wrote for Cookin’ in Brooklyn, a “comedy-reality” show on the Discovery Channel.

Currently, Jon Marans and Yuri Sivo have been hired by Universal Pictures and Tribeca productions (Robert DeNiro’s film company) to write a screenplay based on the book CHASING THE DRAGON by Roy Rowan. Mr. Marans is a graduate of Duke University in mathematics and music and also studied at the BMI & ASCAP Musical Theater workshops.