Rick Cummins is an author and composer
originally from western Pennsylvania. He went to Philadelphia for formal education
earning his B.S. and M.D. degrees at the University of Pennsylvania. He has
lived in Marshalls Creek, Pa., and on the Upper West Side of Manhattan since
1975. He is a member of ASCAP and the Dramatists Guild. Cummins’ favorite work entitled Half
the Sky: True Stories of Women Around the World is based on the Chinese
quote “Women hold up half the sky.” This unusual theatre piece is a compilation
of true stories from various news media around the world, documenting shocking
gender bias still in practice today using song and dance and humor and pathos.
This project was chosen as the headliner for the Festival of New Musicals at
Theater Building Chicago. As a long-time member of New York’s BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, Cummins had
the opportunity to develop his theatre craft under the leadership of its
founder, Lehman Engel. His music, lyrics and libretto are represented in
productions of The Little Prince (New Victory Theater), That’s Life!
(Outer Critics Circle nominee), Sherlock Holmes and the Red-Headed League
(Promenade Theater, published by Samuel French), Amos and Olga (Playhouse
by the River), Tiny Tim’s Christmas Carol (Brooklyn Academy of Music)
and Pets! (Theatre East, published by Dramatic Publishing). Cummins has written
incidental music for many Shakespeare plays and American classics, performed at
theatres across the U.S., Canada and Europe. He has written television scripts,
movie theme songs, children’s songs and cabaret.
