Will Aronson

Growing up in Guilford, Connecticut, Aronson began his career with piano lessons when he was eight years old.^[1] Additionally, he sang in the chorus at Elizabeth C. Adams Middle School.^[2]

He attended Guilford High School, where he played trombone in the jazz band and pit orchestra. He credits his experience in the jazz band and its participation in the Essentially Ellington Competition as part of the inspiration behind Maybe Happy Ending. He graduated in 2000.^[3][1]

Aronson holds a B.A. in music from Harvard University. As an undergraduate, Aronson was the composer of Hasty Pudding Theatricals' 154th production, Snow Place Like Home,^[4] and co-author/lyricist of its 155th production, It's a Wonderful Afterlife.^[5]

After graduation from Harvard, Aronson studied Music Theory as a Fulbright Scholar at Universität der Künste in Berlin.^[6]

Aronson holds an M.F.A. from the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program of the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. While studying at NYU, he received the ASCAP Frederick Loewe Scholarship^[7] and a 2006 Baryshnikov Fellowship.^[8] In 2007 he was named by the Dramatists Guild of America as one of "50 to Watch".

Aronson is the recipient of the Tony Award, Richard Rodgers Award, a Fulbright grant, the ASCAP Frederick Loewe Award, an EST/Sloan grant, and three Korean Musical Awards.

In addition to his theatrical work, Aronson has composed and produced over 200 tracks for the ESL children's book/DVD series, English Egg.

Aronson wrote the score for a musical version of the Korean movie My Scary Girl (book and lyrics by Kyoung-ae Kang), which ran in Seoul, South Korea. The show won Best Original Musical (small theater category) at the 2009 Korea Musical Awards.^[9] An English-language version of the show, with book co-written by Mark St. Germain and additional lyrics by William Finn, ran at Barrington Stage Company's Stage II, July 10–26, 2008.^[10] The New York Musical Theater Festival (NYMF) presented the Korean version of My Scary Girl October 1–4, 2009. My Scary Girl was named the Outstanding New Musical at NYMF for 2009.^[11]

A reading of Aronson's musical The Trouble with Doug, co-written with Daniel Maté, was directed by Victoria Clark at the NAMT theater festival in 2010.^[12][13]

With William Finn as lyricist, Aronson has composed songs for Sybille Pearson’s play Next, Mary Testa’s Sleepless Variations, and Finn’s own Songs of Innocence and Experience.^[14] Aronson was the musical arranger for the Finn-Lapine musical Little Miss Sunshine performed at La Jolla Playhouse in 2011.^[15]

In 2011 Aronson composed the score for Mormons, Mothers and Monsters (book and lyrics by Sam Salmond), which ran at Barrington Stage Company's Stage II.^[16]

In 2012, Aronson wrote the score for the Korean musical Bungee Jump (lyrics by Hue Park), based on the 2001 film Bungee Jumping of Their Own.^[17] The production was successful^[18] and won the award for best score at the 7th Musical Awards and the 18th Korea Musical Awards.^[19] Other work with Hue Park includes Il Tenore and Ghost Bakery.

Park and Aronson had a try-out production of their new musical, Maybe Happy Ending, at Wooran Foundation in September 2015.^[20] The musical was premiered by DaeMyoung Culture Factory in December 2016.^[20] Directed by Kim Dong-yeon, The show won six Korean Musical Awards, including Best Director, Best Music, Lyrics and Book.^[21] The English-language version of Maybe Happy Ending was awarded the 2017 Richard Rodgers Award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.^[22] A new Korean production opened in 2018.^[23] In 2020, Maybe Happy Ending had its American premiere at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta.^[24] The show opened on Broadway at the Belasco Theatre in the fall of 2024 and received uniformly positive reviews.^{[25][26][needs update]} In 2025, the show won 6 Tony awards.^[27]

By way of his father, Aronson is of Jewish descent.^[36]