Carol Hall

Carol Hall (April 3, 1936 – October 11, 2018) was an American composer, lyricist, and book writer born in Abilene, Texas. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from Sarah Lawrence College in 1960 and joined ASCAP in 1970. Her Broadway work earned her two Drama Desk Awards in 1978, one for Outstanding Lyrics and one for Outstanding Music.

Hall's most celebrated achievement was composing the music and lyrics for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, which opened on Broadway in 1978 and was later adapted as a film in 1982. She returned to the same material with the Broadway sequel The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public in 1994. Her Off-Broadway credits include To Whom It May Concern, produced around 1986. She also wrote eight one-act plays collectively titled The Days Are As Grass, which were acquired by Samuel French for publication and theatrical licensing; a production was mounted at Theater of the Spirit in Newcastle, Maine in 2012.

Before her Broadway career, Hall worked as a club singer and signed with Elektra Records as a singer-songwriter. The label released two albums: If I Be Your Lady in 1971 and Beads and Feathers in 1972. A later collection, Hallways: The Songs of Carol Hall, appeared on the LML Music label in 2009.

In 1972, Marlo Thomas invited Hall to contribute three songs to the album Free to Be... You and Me: "Parents Are People," "It's All Right to Cry," and "Glad to Have a Friend Like You." Those songs also appeared in the 1974 television special based on the album. Hall wrote lyrics to "The Two Lonely People," composed by Bill Evans, for Together Again, Evans's album with Tony Bennett; the song was subsequently covered by Roberta Gambarini, Jane Monheit, Mark Murphy, Donna Byrne, and Laurel Massé. She also supplied lyrics to Evans's "Very Early," recorded by Mark Murphy.

Hall contributed to Sesame Street across many years. With Sam Pottle she wrote "A Very Simple Dance" in 1974, and her other compositions for the program include "Women Can Be," "The Plant in the Window," "Big Bird's Beautiful Birthday Bash," "Ichi Ni San" from Big Bird Goes to Japan, and "True Blue Miracle" from Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, which received a Grammy Award. An earlier credit, "Jenny Rebecca," appeared on Barbra Streisand's 1965 album My Name Is Barbra.

Hall composed the music and lyrics for Theatreworks/USA's production of Max & Ruby, with a libretto by Glen Berger. She also contributed lyrics to a musical adaptation of Truman Capote's short story "A Christmas Memory," with a book by Duane Poole and music by Larry Grossman, which premiered at Theatreworks in Palo Alto, California in 2010. For a national tour of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas starring Ann-Margret, she wrote the song "A Friend to Me," which was recorded as a final track on the 2001 cast album.

A Lifetime Member of the Dramatists Guild Council, Hall also served as Vice-President of the Dramatists Guild Fund. She died on October 11, 2018, at the age of 82.