Lawrence Rush wrote his first song and sang his first solo at the age of 10. After years of writing songs of unrequited love, he wrote music and lyrics for his first musical, Waiting at Patroni's. In 1990 he began writing the epic musical, Winter of the Fall, about the last days of Nicolai and Elena Ceaucescu, the corrupt, vicious and ridiculous dictators of Romania, and wrote the mini-musical, Next Door, based on the Kurt Vonnegut short story. Winter of the Fall received two New York readings, one at the John Houseman Theater, featuring Dominic Chianese and Gina Ferrall and one at the Romanian Cultural Center. In 1997, it was a Richard Rodgers Award finalist. In 2009, the show received a fully staged workshop production at Illinois Wesleyan University, directed by Scott Susong.