Paul J Hodge
Dr Paul Hodge is an award-winning writer-composer from Brisbane, Australia. Paul’s work has been produced Off-Broadway, in London, Edinburgh and Australia, including at the Sydney Opera House. Paul most recently wrote the opening number for the G’Day USA Gala in Los Angeles, hosted by G Flip (Netflix’s Selling Sunset).
With Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg, the Academy Award-nominated and Tony Award-winning writers of Les Miserables and Miss Saigon, Paul is co-lyricist of Martin Guerre, which will premiere in London.
Paul has written the musical adaptation of the iconic children’s TV show Round The Twist, set to premiere at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in November 2024. Round The Twist was produced by the Australian Children’s Television Foundation, premiered on the BBC and has aired in over 70 countries over 30 years, including on the Disney Channel in Europe and Fox Kids in the US. The musical adaptation is directed by Simon Phillips (Muriel’s Wedding, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies).
Paul completed his PhD in Music Composition and Bachelor of Music in Classical Voice at the University of Queensland and a Master of Arts in Music Theatre Performance at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He received a Brisbane Young and Emerging Artist Fellowship and the Dame Joan Sutherland Fund Award for further study in the USA.
Paul’s new musical The Great Emu War, co-written with Cal Silberstein, featured in the 2023 Festival of New Musicals at Goodspeed in Connecticut.
Paul is currently developing a musical based on the Australian inventor of the Black Box flight recorder now on every plane, featuring X Factor Australia Winner and Eurovision Runner Up Dami Im. Black Box had a try-out production at QPAC, Brisbane in 2024 was selected for the ASCAP Musical Theatre Librettist Workshop in LA in 2024.
Residencies include the inaugural Vanguard Arts Project at Olney Theatre Center, Maryland, and the prestigious Ground Floor Residency at the Tony Award-winning Berkeley Rep in California, with acclaimed playwright and screenwriter Naomi Izuka to develop their new musical Okuni.
Paul was commissioned to write the five-time Matilda Award-nominated musical comedy Joh for P.M., starring Lano and Woodley’s Colin Lane, and was commissioned by Opera Queensland and La Boite Theatre to compose the opera Riot with award-winning playwright and screenwriter Michelle Law.
His musical comedy, Clinton, received a New York Times Critics’ Pick, nominations for Best Musical from the Off-Broadway Alliance and Edinburgh Festival Fringe and won Best Production in the Performing Arts WA Awards and Best Off-Broadway Cast Album in the Broadway World Awards. It was led by Tony-nominated director Dan Knechtges, and featured Tony Award-nominee Kerry Butler and Emmy Winner Judy Gold.
Current works include a TV mini-series also in development.