Post by STEPHEN SNYDER

He was born on the fifth of May, in Phoenix, Arizona — and his parents, with a sense of humor, named him accordingly.   He grew up going to church with his mother, though his father didn't share the faith; he was baptized at sixteen. He was bright — Yale-bright — and graduated with highest honors, having spent his college years playing trombone in the marching band. His father insisted he finish his degree first; then he left for two years to serve a church mission in Tokyo. He came home and married the young woman he'd met at Yale.   He won a short-film contest, which earned him a fellowship to film school at USC. And then he met his future writing partner in the unlikeliest of places — a church pageant celebrating the 150th anniversary of the pioneers' arrival in Utah. The two formed a band, started writing screenplays together, and, early on, were known to literally SING their movie pitches to Hollywood producers.   It worked. Dr. Seuss's widow personally chose them to adapt "Horton Hears a Who!" Then came a movie about a supervillain with a houseful of adopted daughters and an army of little yellow creatures. "Despicable Me." The Minions. "The Lorax." "The Secret Life of Pets." The franchise he helped build became the first in animation history to cross $5 billion. He wrote the heart and the structure; his partner wrote the gags. Their rule: make it "uplifting, optimistic, and for everybody" — never preachy.   But he had quietly carried one idea for thirty years — a love letter to the Golden Age of Broadway musicals. When it finally got made, his writing partner of two decades stepped away, and he carried it alone: created it, ran it, and wrote every single song himself. It won him an Emmy — for a song called "Corn Puddin'."   Then he put it on a stage. And this past June, at sixty-two, he stood at Radio City Music Hall and won three Tony Awards in a single night — Best Score, Best Book, and Best Musical — joining the tiny club, alongside Jonathan Larson and Lin-Manuel Miranda, of artists who wrote the book, the music, AND the lyrics of a Best Musical winner. He used his moment not to boast, but to plead: "We need more new musicals on Broadway."   The boy named for the fifth of May — the man who gave us the Minions and a whole town that sings its feelings — is Cinco Paul.   Now you see the whole picture.   — Cinco Paul: X & Instagram @cincopedia · Bluesky @cincopaul.bsky.social   #CincoPaul #Schmigadoon #Broadway #TonyAwards #Tonys2026 #DespicableMe #Minions #TheLorax #Screenwriting #Storytelling #Musicals #BroadwaysGoldenAge