Elizabeth Swados was an American writer composer musician and theatre director Swados received Tony Award nominations for Best Musical Best Direction of a Musical Best Book of a Musical Best Original Score and Best Choreography She was nominated for Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Director of a Musical Outstanding Lyrics and Outstanding Music and won an Obie Award for her direction of Runaways in 1978 In 1980 the Hobart and William Smith Colleges awarded her an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters