Joe Iconis

Joe Iconis is an American composer, lyricist, playwright, and book writer born on September 22, 1981, in Garden City, New York. He earned a Bachelor of Music in music composition from New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development in 2003, followed by a Master of Fine Arts in musical theater writing from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in 2005.

Iconis launched his professional career in 2006 when the American Theatre Wing awarded him a Jonathan Larson Grant. His early output included several Off-Broadway productions developed in part through his graduate work at NYU. The Black Suits, a rock musical about a Long Island high school garage band with music and lyrics by Iconis and a book co-written with Robert Maddock, originated as their thesis project and received productions at The Public Theater in 2008, Barrington Stage Company in 2012, and Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles in 2013. Also in 2008, Iconis wrote the music, lyrics, and book for The Plant That Ate Dirty Socks, a rock musical based on Nancy McArthur's novel of the same name, produced by TheaterWorksUSA at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. That same year, his piece ReWrite, a trio of interconnected musicals about deadlines titled "Nelson Rocks!," "Miss Marzipan," and "The Process," played Urban Stages after an earlier concert presentation at Ars Nova in 2007.

Things To Ruin, a rock concert about young people focused on destruction and creation, appeared at Ars Nova and Joe's Pub in 2007 before its final version premiered at the Zipper Factory Theater in late 2008. The show returned Off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre in May 2009, and a cast recording was released by Sh-K-Boom Records in September 2010. Bloodsong of Love, directed by John Simpkins, ran Off-Broadway at Ars Nova in spring 2010 and earned three Drama Desk Award nominations that year, including Outstanding Music and Outstanding Book of a Musical for Iconis, as well as Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical for Jeremy Morse. In 2013, Iconis's song "Broadway, Here I Come!" was featured multiple times during the second season of the NBC television series Smash.

The musical that brought Iconis to Broadway is Be More Chill, for which he wrote the music and lyrics, with a book by Joe Tracz, based on the novel by Ned Vizzini. The show premiered at Two River Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey, in June 2015. A limited Off-Broadway engagement starring Will Roland opened at the Pershing Square Signature Center on July 26, 2018, and after selling out its initial run, extended through September 30, 2018. The production transferred to the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway, where it ran from February 13, 2019, to August 11, 2019. Iconis received a Tony Award for Best Original Score nomination at the 73rd Tony Awards in 2019, as well as a Drama Desk Award MTI Award for Outstanding Lyrics nomination that same year. A film adaptation was announced on October 20, 2018, with Greg Berlanti and Shawn Levy attached as producers.

Additional projects from this period include Broadway Bounty Hunter, with music and lyrics by Iconis and a book co-written with Jason "Sweettooth" Williams and Lance Rubin, which premiered at Barrington Stage Company in 2016 and ran Off-Broadway at the Greenwich House Theater in summer 2019, with a cast recording released on April 24, 2020. Love in Hate Nation, for which Iconis wrote the book, music, and lyrics, is a 1960s-set rock romance between two girls in a juvenile hall. It made its professional world premiere at Two River Theater, opening November 15, 2019, and closing December 1, 2019, directed by John Simpkins. Its cast recording was released on February 11, 2022. Iconis also appeared on Broadway in 2021 in Freestyle Love Supreme.

Iconis co-developed The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical with playwright Gregory S. Moss for the La Jolla Playhouse, with a subsequent production at Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia, in summer 2025. With Rob Rokicki, he co-developed Punk Rock Girl, a jukebox musical featuring songs by or associated with female musicians and female-fronted bands including Avril Lavigne, Pink, Pat Benatar, and Blondie, named after a song by The Dead Milkmen. Originally scheduled to open in September 2020 at the Argyle Theatre, the production was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and officially opened on January 20, 2022, in Babylon Village, New York. Iconis contributed one original composition to the show, titled "Music and Math."

In June 2022, Ghostlight Records released Album, a collection of 44 original songs by Iconis. To accompany the release, Iconis and collaborator Jennifer Ashley Tepper co-hosted a weekly podcast called ALBUM PODCAST discussing each track. In October 2022, Iconis released ten tracks from Album as a Halloween compilation titled A(aaagh!)lbum.

Outside of his compositional work, Iconis performs regularly as a concert artist, often alongside a group of collaborators he refers to as Iconis and Family, at New York City venues including The Laurie Beechman Theater, Joe's Pub, and 54 Below. He married musical theater actress Lauren Marcus in 2015; the two have collaborated on multiple projects including ReWrite, Be More Chill, Love in Hate Nation, and Punk Rock Girl. Their first child was born in April 2024.