‘Lyle Lyle Crocodile’ Songwriting Team on Shawn Mendes: ‘His Voice Works Really Well for Musical Theater’
variety.comJazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Josh Gordon and Will Speck’s live-action musical “Lyle Lyle Crocodile” lives up to it name. The story, about a crocodile named Lyle voiced by Shawn Mendes that can dance and sing, features songs penned by the award-winning Justin Paul and Benj Pasek.
The dup then brought in a team of songwriters to carve out toe-tapping, infectious earworms. From the get-go songwriting and composing duo Pasek and Paul knew Lyle would be a singing crocodile which made the project all the more exciting for them. “But when the voice actor became Shawn Mendes, that really informed a lot of the style and what we were going to write for,” explains Pasek.
With Mendes attached, the writers behind “The Greatest Showman” and “Dear Evan Hansen,” could blend musical theater with contemporary pop. “The aim was to create something with his voice,” says Pasek.
The next step was assembling a group of writers — Ari Afsar, Emily Gardner Xu Hall, Mark Sonnenblick, and Joriah Kwamé — to help crack the tunes.
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