Michael Light Oosterhout

COMPOSER / LYRICIST / MUSIC DIRECTOR / BOOKWRITER / PLAYWRIGHT

Hi! My name is Michael Light Oosterhout (MY-kel LITE OH-ster-howt -- rhymes with "toaster pout" -- he/him), and I write musical theatre. I’m excited by creating music and stories which blend genres, feature the journeys undergone by queer youth, and examine the relationship between the ancient and modern world -- but mostly, anything that explores what makes us human.

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"The Right Direction" by Caroline Game and Michael Oosterhout, performed by Bailey McCall

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Bio

Michael Light Oosterhout (he/him) is a NYC metro-based composer/lyricist, music director, and playwright.

Current projects include Evelyn Evans (play), The Right Reasons (song cycle), The Lonely Girl’s Guide to Friendship or… Love? (musical), and Riverbend (musical; EAT’s Sparkfest 2023, O’Neill Theater Center’s NMTC semifinalist, Drama Club Camp 2024, Write Out Loud 2025 finalist, Wild Imaginings’ Epiphanies New Works Festival 2025 winner).

Past projects include Windy (chamber opera; AOP-NYU Opera Lab 2024), Ariadne: A New Musical, Sparta! The Musical, Euripides' Medea (arrangements), Judith Walsh White's Winnie the Pooh (arrangements), and 20-minute musical The Advice Column.

Music direction credits include Cherry Orchard Remix (NYTW), HeavyHead (JCTC, asst. M.D.), Another Cousin’s Wedding (The Tank), Conversion, Goldfish, Fly By Night, Mr. Burns, and Formerly Known (arrangements).

A native of the Washington, D.C. area, Michael is a graduate of Vassar College (B.A., Music and Greek & Roman Studies) and N.Y.U Tisch (M.F.A, Musical Theatre Writing).