1.   And among American theater composers, no one ever celebrated the good life as zestfully while dispensing as much insider knowledge as Cole Porter.

2.   But a few songwriters, including the brilliant young theater composer Adam Guettel, are finding ways to reconcile the best of both worlds.

3.   Henderson says Ellington rarely deigned even to be present during previews to work on his shows, as all other musical theater composers did.

4.   Musical theater composers are not supposed to be able to sing this well, but Guettel does.

5.   The music, by the prolific theater composer Paddy Cunneen, seems both vaguely familiar and somehow distant.

6.   What does unfashionable mean for a musical theater composer?

7.   With the possible exception of Bob Telson, Adam Guettel is the most artistically promising American theater composer.

8.   Engel, a legendary Broadway conductor portrayed here as a flamboyant dandy by Jonathan Freeman, ran the classes for aspiring musical theater composers and lyricists.