Book, Hairspray

Mark O'Donnell's plays include That's It, Folks!, Fables for Friends and The Nice and the Nasty at Playwrights Horizons, and Strangers on Earth and Vertigo Park at Zena Group Theatre. He wrote the book and lyrics for Tots in Tinseltown, collaborated with Bill Irwin on an adaptation of Moliere's Scapin and co-authored a translation of A Flea in Her Ear, both for the Roundabout Theatre Company. In addition, O’Donnell translated Jean Claude Carriere's La Terrasse for the Manhattan Theatre Club. He has published two collections of comic stories Elementary Education and Vertigo Park and Other Tall Tales, and two novels, Getting Over Homer and Let Nothing You Dismay. O’Donnell’s humor, cartoons and poetry appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic, Spy, The New Republic and Esquire, among others. He and co-writer Thomas Meehan received the 2003 Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award for the book for Hairspray, and collaborated on the 2007 film adaptation. O’Donnell’s other awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Lecomte du Nuoy Prize and the George S. Kaufman Award.