The 2017 Oscars on Sunday could be Benj Pasek & Justin Paul’s first step to a very fast track to EGOT status. The musical theatre duo is behind the movie musical with the most Oscar nominations of all time and a new Broadway musical that’s playing to full capacity. The combo of La La Land and Dear Evan Hansen could put Pasek & Paul three awards deep into the oh-so-coveted EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony). Now bear with me as I go full Carrie Mathison season one of Homeland, jumping to conclusions, ugly crying, and waiting for Mandy Patinkin to come rescue me.
Pasek & Paul already won the 2017 Golden Globe for Best Original Song for “City of Stars”, which puts them in line nicely to pick up an Academy Award for that song OR the other La La Land song they are nominated for, “Audition”. Either one gets the guys the first of four EGOT trophies, the Oscar.
Next, flash forward to June when the critically-acclaimed Dear Evan Hansen score could take home Best Score and these A Christmas Story Tony nominees become Tony Award winners.
Now at the 2018 Grammy Awards, the guys could easily pick up for the cast recording of Dear Evan Hansen or for La La Land. In either scenario, they could add a statue to their growing (hypothetical) awards mantel.
The only thing left for the Smash composing team would be an Emmy Award. Could it come from penning a song for the The Flash-Supergirl musical crossover episode? Pasek and Paul wrote the song “Runnin’ Home to You” which will be performed by Grant Gustin on March 20th episode. That could get the guys an invite to the Emmy Awards on September 17, 2017, and make it the third award won, leaving only the aforementioned Grammy.
If you count Barbra Streisand and her honorable Tony, she did the four awards in only six years. If you don’t, The Book of Mormon and Avenue Q’s Bobby Lopez completed the competitive course in 10 years. Either way, if the (city of) stars align for Pasek & Paul, they could very well hold the EGOT record for shortest amount of years to complete. Then we will know the sweet know-it-all status it took Carrie years to find.
