# Rupert Holmes
**Rupert Holmes** (born David Goldstein, 1947) is a British-born American composer, lyricist, playwright, novelist, arranger, and singer-songwriter, best known for writing and performing "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)" and for the audience-interactive Broadway musical *The Mystery of Edwin Drood*, which made him the first person in theatrical history to solely win [Tony Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/tony-awards) as an author, a composer, and a lyricist[1](https://www.hudsonrivervalley.org/documents/d/guest/rupertholmes) • [2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/). His career spans pop records, theater, television, and crime fiction, with two [Edgar Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgar-awards) from the Mystery Writers of America and five Drama Desk Awards[2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | David Goldstein, 1947, Northwich, Cheshire, England; grew up near Nyack, New York[1](https://www.hudsonrivervalley.org/documents/d/guest/rupertholmes) • [2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/) |
| Signature hit | "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)", number one in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Japan; his sole Billboard No. 1 and first Top 40 entry as a performer[2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/) • [3](https://www.superseventies.com/sw_escape.html) |
| Theater landmark | *The Mystery of Edwin Drood* (1985), based on Dickens's unfinished novel, with audience voting on the killer; Tony Awards for Best Book, Best Score, and Best Musical[2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/) |
| Comedy-thrillers | *Accomplice* (Edgar Award) and *Solitary Confinement*, both with Broadway runs, with a box-office record at the Kennedy Center[2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/) • [4](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1992/03/06/playwright-rupert-holmes-unconfined/85bea964-c4ab-4b1a-a8a2-cb26ec12cbd5/) |
| Television | Created, wrote, and scored all four seasons of AMC's *Remember WENN*[2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/) |
| Novels | *Where the Truth Lies*, *Swing*, and the New York Times bestseller *Murder Your Employer*[2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/) |
| Honors | Two Edgar Awards, five Drama Desk Awards, ASCAP George M. Cohan Award (2014), honorary doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music (2021)[2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/) • [5](https://www.rupertholmes.com/index2.htm) |
## Early life and pop career
Holmes was born David Goldstein in [Northwich](https://www.edgepedia.org/northwich), Cheshire, England, the son of an American army band leader who had met his British mother while stationed overseas; he grew up near [Nyack, New York](https://www.edgepedia.org/nyack-new-york)[2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/) • [1](https://www.hudsonrivervalley.org/documents/d/guest/rupertholmes). He won a four-year scholarship to [Syracuse University](https://www.edgepedia.org/syracuse-university)'s School of Music as a clarinetist, left after a year for New York, and spent two years at the Manhattan School of Music before leaving to work in pop[2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/) • [6](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1985/08/11/musical-mystery-tour/a5df4b1f-4d10-4418-9514-d624446f76c6/). While still in his late teens he was arranging and conducting some of the last recording sessions of the Drifters, the Platters, and Gene Pitney[2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/).
**Early hits.** After an early song for television's *The Partridge Family* ("Echo Valley 2-6809") and a chart foray as lead singer of the manufactured group the Street People, his first Billboard Top 20 song was "Timothy" by the Buoys, a 1971 song about possible cannibalism during a mining disaster[2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/) • [7](https://www.rupertholmes.com/news/culture-sonar-2020/). His first solo album, *Widescreen* (1974, [Epic Records](https://www.edgepedia.org/epic-records)), was named one of ten albums of the year by the [New York Daily News](https://www.edgepedia.org/new-york-daily-news), and the Village Voice called him the "best new songwriter of 1975"; between 1974 and 1981 he released seven albums[2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/) • [7](https://www.rupertholmes.com/news/culture-sonar-2020/). In the mid-1970s he also produced British rock acts, co-producing two major 1976 UK hits for the band Sailor, "A Glass of Champagne" and "Girls, Girls, Girls"[2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/).
**"Escape" and after.** His fifth album, *Partners in Crime* (1979-1980), was certified platinum by the RIAA and carried "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)" to number one in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Japan[2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/). The follow-up single "Him" reached number 6 on the Billboard chart, and he wrote "You Got It All Over Him" for the Jets, which occupied the top three slots of Billboard's Top 40, R&B, and Adult-Contemporary charts simultaneously[2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/). Holmes himself has been dismissive of the song's musical plainness, telling the Washington Post in 1985, "musically, it's probably the blandest thing I ever wrote"[6](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1985/08/11/musical-mystery-tour/a5df4b1f-4d10-4418-9514-d624446f76c6/).
## Work with Barbra Streisand
Streisand heard *Widescreen* and brought Holmes to Los Angeles, where he wrote, arranged, and conducted recordings for her through the 1970s and 1980s, including the platinum *Lazy Afternoon* album and songs for the Golden Globe-winning, quadruple-platinum Billboard No. 1 score of *A Star Is Born*[2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/) • [6](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1985/08/11/musical-mystery-tour/a5df4b1f-4d10-4418-9514-d624446f76c6/). His songs have since been recorded by [Barry Manilow](https://www.edgepedia.org/barry-manilow), Dionne Warwick, Dolly Parton, Judy Collins, Renée Fleming, Britney Spears, and Wyclef, among many others[2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/).
## The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Holmes had contemplated a musical based on [Charles Dickens](https://www.edgepedia.org/charles-dickens)'s unfinished final novel as early as 1970; the project took shape in 1983, when Gail Merrifield of the New York Shakespeare Festival's plays and musicals department saw him perform at a nightclub, and Joseph Papp agreed to produce[6](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1985/08/11/musical-mystery-tour/a5df4b1f-4d10-4418-9514-d624446f76c6/). Because Dickens died of a stroke before revealing the fate of Edwin Drood, Holmes let the audience decide: at each performance the crowd voted by hand on which character was the murderer, as well as on the identity of a disguised detective and the pairing of lovers, requiring him to write multiple verses for each song and the cast to perform endings that changed from night to night[6](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1985/08/11/musical-mystery-tour/a5df4b1f-4d10-4418-9514-d624446f76c6/) • [4](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1992/03/06/playwright-rupert-holmes-unconfined/85bea964-c4ab-4b1a-a8a2-cb26ec12cbd5/).
The musical premiered at the Delacorte Theater in [Central Park](https://www.edgepedia.org/central-park) in 1985 and moved to Broadway's Imperial Theater. Holmes solely wrote the book, lyrics, music, and orchestrations, a quadruple hat trick he calls virtually unheard of in theatrical history[2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/). The show won the [Tony Award for Best Musical](https://www.edgepedia.org/tony-award-for-best-musical), and Holmes won the Tonys for Best Book and Best Score; Encyclopedia.com dates those Tonys to 1986, while his official bio places the wins "in the spring" of the premiere year[2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/) • [8](https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/holmes-rupert-1947). The show later ran at London's Savoy Theatre with [Ernie Wise](https://www.edgepedia.org/ernie-wise) and Lulu, toured nationally, and received an acclaimed 2012-2013 Broadway revival at Roundabout Theater's Studio 54[2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/).
## Comedy-thrillers and later theater
Holmes has repeatedly returned to the stage thriller. *Accomplice*, first produced at the [Pasadena Playhouse](https://www.edgepedia.org/pasadena-playhouse) in the late 1980s, is a comedy-thriller in which two British couples scheme murder; the Los Angeles Times judged it "the wittiest and most accomplished fooler since *Deathtrap*" up to its final scene[9](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-02-07-ca-1577-story.html). It earned him the Edgar Award for best play, according to the Washington Post, which dates the award to 1991 for the theatrical whodunit[4](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1992/03/06/playwright-rupert-holmes-unconfined/85bea964-c4ab-4b1a-a8a2-cb26ec12cbd5/). On Broadway it starred [Jason Alexander](https://www.edgepedia.org/jason-alexander) and [Michael McKean](https://www.edgepedia.org/michael-mckean)[2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/). *Solitary Confinement*, a one-man tour de force for Stacy Keach, opened at the Kennedy Center in 1992 and set a box-office record there[4](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1992/03/06/playwright-rupert-holmes-unconfined/85bea964-c4ab-4b1a-a8a2-cb26ec12cbd5/) • [2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/).
Later theater work includes *Say Goodnight, Gracie*, a comedy-drama about George Burns that earned a Tony nomination for Best Play and won the National Broadway Theatre Award for Best Play; *Curtains*, written with the songwriting team of Kander and Ebb, which won him a Drama Desk Award for Best Book of a Musical and two further Tony nominations; and *The Nutty Professor* (2012), written with Marvin Hamlisch, which took eight BroadwayWorld.com awards at its premiere[2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/). He also adapted John Grisham's novel *A Time to Kill* for Broadway[2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/).
## Television, novels, and recent work
For television, Holmes created, wrote, and scored all four seasons of AMC's *Remember WENN*, a series the New York Times marked with a tenth-anniversary Arts and Leisure cover piece; all 56 episodes later became available on AMC-Plus[2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/) • [5](https://www.rupertholmes.com/index2.htm).
With the new millennium he added novels. *Where the Truth Lies* was nominated for the Nero Wolfe award for Best American Mystery Novel, named a Booklist Top Ten Debut Novel, released in six languages, and filmed by Atom Egoyan with Colin Firth and Kevin Bacon[2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/). His second novel, *Swing*, was a San Francisco Chronicle Top Ten Best Seller and, according to his bio, the first novel to come with an original CD musical score[2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/). *Murder Your Employer*, the first volume of the McMasters Guide to Homicide series for Simon and Schuster, was a New York Times bestseller and a number one Barnes and Noble bestseller[2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/).
His career has remained active: in 2025 he received his fifth New York Drama Desk Award, and a new edition of *Where the Truth Lies* appeared from Avid Reader Press, with a new edition of *Swing* announced for January 2027[5](https://www.rupertholmes.com/index2.htm). He received an honorary doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music in 2021[5](https://www.rupertholmes.com/index2.htm), and in December 2014 ASCAP gave him its George M. Cohan Award for the diversity of his work as composer, lyricist, playwright, and novelist[2](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/).
## References
1. [Brief Biography: Rupert Holmes, Hudson River Valley Heritage](https://www.hudsonrivervalley.org/documents/d/guest/rupertholmes)
2. [Rupert Holmes - Official Bio](https://www.rupertholmes.com/about/)
3. ["Escape (Pina Colada Song)" - Rupert Holmes, SuperSeventies](https://www.superseventies.com/sw_escape.html)
4. [Playwright Rupert Holmes, Unconfined, The Washington Post (March 6, 1992)](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1992/03/06/playwright-rupert-holmes-unconfined/85bea964-c4ab-4b1a-a8a2-cb26ec12cbd5/)
5. [Rupert Holmes homepage and news](https://www.rupertholmes.com/index2.htm)
6. [Musical Mystery Tour, The Washington Post (August 11, 1985)](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1985/08/11/musical-mystery-tour/a5df4b1f-4d10-4418-9514-d624446f76c6/)
7. [Rupert Holmes: A Genius Among Pop Composers, Culture Sonar](https://www.rupertholmes.com/news/culture-sonar-2020/)
8. [Holmes, Rupert 1947-, Encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/holmes-rupert-1947)
9. [Stage Review: Murder Will Out in 'Accomplice', Los Angeles Times (February 7, 1989)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-02-07-ca-1577-story.html)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Musicians and ensembles › Individual musical biographies › Pop and R&B singer-songwriters › Adult contemporary, 1970s and 1980s*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 12, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license