Schmigadoon! Creator Cinco Paul Adds a Legendary Award to His Two-Tony Year

Cinco Paul has been on an absolute tear. Four months after winning two Tony Awards for Schmigadoon!, the show he created, wrote the songs for, and adapted for Broadway, he’s picking up the ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award. The honor is presented tonight at Carnegie Hall as part of an all-star program called“A Celebration of Rodgers&Hart.”It’s given to composers and lyricists who make a major Broadway or off-Broadway debut, and the past winners read like a Broadway all-star roster: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Michael R. Jackson, and Pasek and Paul.

What makes Paul’s run even more impressive is that he did it solo. He wrote the book, the music, and the lyrics for the Schmigadoon! stage adaptation, a triple-threat feat that’s rare in modern musical theatre. The show is still running at the Nederlander Theater, so his Tony-winning score is being performed eight times a week while he collects even more hardware. ASCAP Foundation president Paul Williams called him“a master storyteller and writer,”and given the receipts, that checks out.

If you didn’t know Paul’s name before Schmigadoon!, you’ve almost certainly seen his work. He co-wrote the first three Despicable Me movies, which means the guy behind the Minions is the same guy now earning one of musical theatre’s most prestigious newcomer honors. It’s a career arc that spans billion-dollar family films and Tony-winning Broadway scores, and honestly, who else can say that?

What’s your favorite Broadway moment of the past year? Let us know in the comments.