NewzSheik, a Grammy- and Tony-winning artist, had been hospitalized in critical condition earlier this week NEW YORK (AP) — Duncan Sheik, the Tony- and Grammy-winning singer-songwriter who crafted the music for “Spring Awakening,” has died. He was 56.Sheik died Thursday from organ failure, his mother Suzanne Sheik told The New York Times.
The Associated Press emailed his representatives for comment.Sheik had been best known for his lasting radio hit “Barely Breathing” when he turned his sights on Broadway with “Spring Awakening,” resulting in the envelope-pushing show that musicalized teenage angst.“With the exception of our director, we are all kind of Broadway outsiders. We wanted to shake things up a bit. And we just set out to make this really cool piece of theater,” Sheik told The Associated Press in 2007, as the show swept Tony nominations.Sheik also tackled musicals based on “American Psycho” and “Alice in Wonderland,” and “Barely Breathing” spent 55 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No.
But he was probably best known for “Spring Awakening,” which ran for over 860 performances on Broadway starting in 2006.‘Spring Awakening’ roused a new side of Sheik — and BroadwayThe musical — adapted from a 19th-century play by German playwright Frank Wedekind, with music by Sheik and lyrics by playwright Steven Sater — is frank in its portrayals of incest, abortion and suicide. It's intended partly as a warning that teens need good information about sex to avoid tragic mistakes.“I don’t mean to be disrespectful to more traditional theater composers,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 2015. But it’s my mission to make sure that the theater is paying attention to what the rest of the world is listening to.”Sheik and Sater were practicing Buddhists who met while chanting.
They were collaborating on Sheik's third album, “Phantom Moon,” when Sater mentioned he was working on a new production. Neither had ever written a musical before.“I said to Steven, ‘I’m happy to do this musical, but I only want to do it if the music in the play is the kind that I and my peers can get behind stylistically and relate to and enjoy,’” Sheik recalled to the AP in 2006.They made a pact: They'd retain the provincial, 19th-century Germany setting but with, as Sater put it, “the characters breaking into pop-contemporary when they sing.”“Spring Awakening” won eight Tony Awards, including for best musical, as well as the Grammy for best musical show album.“Shei… Duncan Sheik, who had a pop smash with “Barely Breathing” in the mid-1990s but then found his biggest success — and multiple Tony wins — with the long-running stage musical “Spring Awakening,” died Thursday at 56.
The New York Times reported that his mother said Sheik died after suffering cardiac arrest. Singer-composer won Tonys and a Grammy for his 2006 rock musical with longtime collaborator Steven Sater
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