When You're Writing Lyrics, How Important is Finding the Perfect Rhyme?

Nov 01, 2018

Clockwise from left: Shelia Payton, Anaïs Mitchell, Sandra Hodge-Hampton, Masi Asare, Amanda Yesnowitz, Kat Eggleston

I used to be a rhyming purist, but I have to say my approach has evolved over the years. I do believe (as the purists do) that sometimes a less-than-true rhyme can be symptomatic of a certain kind of laziness in the writing. In that sense it can be similar to how I feel about cursing in lyrics, or using the word “love,” you can always find something more specific if you just put more time in. On the other hand, sometimes the cleverness of the rhyming can get in the way of the character.

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Masi Asare

is a composer/lyricist, playwright, voice teacher, and performance scholar. She is assistant professor of theatre and performance studies at Northwestern University, and divides her time between New York City and Chicago. Her shows include The Family Resemblance, Rishvor, Monsoon Wedding, Mirror of Most Value: A Ms. Marvel Play, Paradise Square (currently playing at Broadway’s Ethel Barrymore Theatre), and the secret agent musical Sympathy Jones. masiasare.com

Kat Eggleston

is a singer, guitarist, songwriter, and actor who has recorded, taught, and performed internationally for more than thirty years. Her latest project, The Cyclone Line, is an original play with music: the story of her father as an old man recalling his childhood in the dustbowl.

Shelia Payton

is an author, playwright, lyricist, and librettist living in Milwaukee, WI. Musical credits include lyrics for R&B and faith-based songs, an upcoming social justice concept album, and a libretto for an African/African American-themed opera: Black Caesar, scored by Neal Tate, the first African American music director on Broadway.

Anaïs Mitchell

is a performing singer-songwriter who comes from the world of narrative folksong and balladry. Her musical theatre show Hadestown enjoyed record-breaking runs at New York Theatre Workshop and Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre. The show moved to London’s National Theatre in 2018, before its anticipated transfer to Broadway in 2019.

Sandra Hodge-Hampton

is an award-winning writer/director/producer for stage, film, and television. Her work has graced the hallowed halls of Lincoln Center in New York and The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Amanda Yesnowitz

is the winner of 2018 Kleban Prize, Jonathan Larson Award, Dramatists Guild Fellowship, Dottie Burman Award, Jamie deRoy/ASCAP Award, and 8 MAC nominations, all for excellence in songwriting. Currently working on Do No Harm (Davenport Theatrical), a musical based on Margaret Bulkley, a 19th century Irish woman who lived her life as James Barry since that was the only way she could practice medicine.

Related Dramatist(s)

Sandra Hodge-Hampton,

Amanda Yesnowitz