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Billboard on Broadway Podcast: Rachel Bloom & 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend' Music Team on Crafting Catchy Comedy Songs

Now in the midst of its third season on The CW, the musical comedy Crazy Ex-Girlfriend remains one of the most original shows on television.

When up-and-coming cartoonist Keef Knight has a traumatic run-in with the police, he begins to see the world in an entirely new way.

That's thanks in large part to the consistently hilarious, dependably well-constructed songs in each episode, written by creator and star Rachel Bloom, executive music producer Adam Schlesinger (Fountains of Wayne) and supervising producer, writer and music consultant Jack Dolgen. 

As the show prepped for a brief break before its winter premiere on Jan. 5, Bloom, Schlesinger and Dolgen joined host Rebecca Milzoff on the Billboard on Broadway podcast to chat about their creative partnership and what it takes to write original music that furthers plot lines on a weekly basis.

"We all for the most part have the mentality of 'best idea wins,'" says Bloom. "Even if someone says, 'I've got this whole song,' there's very little ego -- we still all chime in."

"Adam's producing abilities give us a tremendous amount of freedom in the songwriting," Dolgen adds. "We know we can pretty much write a song in any genre, and it'll come out sounding great."

In an extensive and lively discussion, the trio goes on to discuss the challenge of writing funny songs within a musical theater context, playing with the tropes of musical genres and the stories behind some of their favorite numbers on the show -- and they even challenge Milzoff to come up with an idea for a new song. Listen to the podcast to hear more.

 

 
 

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