Sep 21, 2026
Author Spotlight: Duncan Sheik — The One-Hit Wonder Who Made Broadway Sing Again
A deep dive on Duncan Sheik — the Montclair-born singer-songwriter whose 1996 single 'Barely Breathing' stayed on the Billboard Hot 100 for 55 consecutive weeks, who then disappeared from pop and re-emerged as the Tony-winning composer of 'Spring Awakening', the musical that taught Broadway a new way to sing; his defining reflections on art as value, on fear and craft, on why songs must earn their place, and on the artist's expanding voice; and the legacy of the lifelong Nichiren Buddhist who fought his way back from addiction, kept writing to the end, and died on September 17, 2026, at fifty-six, just as two of his musicals were about to open — remembered by the words he left behind.