University of Michigan alums Benj Pasek, Justin Paul bringing their EGOT wisdom to campus

• Benj Pasek and Justin Paul have attained EGOT status with Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony wins.
• They're best known for "La La Land," "The Greatest Showman" and "Dear Evan Hansen."

Want to see two EGOT winners share their wisdom?

University of Michigan alums Benj Pasek and Justin Paul will hold a master class at 4:30 p.m. Monday on campus that is free and open to the public.

The celebrated songwriters, producers and bona-fide winners of four major awards — the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony — will be working with musical theaters students on Pasek and Paul songs at the event hosted by their former academic home, U-M's School of Music, Theatre & Dance.

The event will take place at the Rackham Auditorium in Ann Arbor, with seating on a first-come, first served basis.

Pasek and Paul landed their final letter for admission into the unofficial (but highly prestigious) EGOT club in 2024, when they won an Emmy, along with Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, for best original music and lyrics.

The composition that got them the Emmy? The tongue-twisting song “Which of the Pickwick Triplet’s Did It?,” which Steve Martin sang in the Broadway-themed season three of Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building.”

Pasek and Paul got their Oscar for the original song “City of Stars” from 2016’s “La La Land" and nabbed Grammys for the albums for Broadway shows “Dear Evan Hansen” in 2018 and “The Greatest Showman” in 2019.

The Tonys came in 2017 for scoring “Dear Evan Hansen" and in 2022 for producing “A Strange Loop," the edgy musical from Detroiter Michael R. Jackson.

Most recently, they contributed new songs to Disney's new live-action version of "Snow White."Both Pasek, who hails from Pennsylvania, and Paul, who grew up in Connecticut, have praised the University of Michigan's musical theatre department for its role in their professional lives.  

Almost a decade ago, Pasek told the Free Press, “We feel like we went to the Hogwarts Academy of musical theater, a very magical place." Paul echoed the comment, saying, "The kind of values that they instill in that program are ones that really shaped who we are and what we care about, and we feel incredibly lucky to have been there."And they aren't the only EGOT who is a Maize-and-Blue grad. The late James Earl Jones accumulated Emmy, Grammy and Tony wins, plus an honorary Academy Award, during his illustrious stage and screen career.

Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at jhinds@freepress.com.