From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Willie Reale grew up in Park Ridge, New Jersey with four brothers and a sister. Theater credits include Once Around the City (book and lyrics), which was produced off-broadway at the Second Stage Theatre. He was nominated for two Tony Awards for A Year With Frog and Toad, which he wrote with his brother, composer Robert Reale. With his brother (and Richard Dresser) he has written Johnny Baseball, which was produced at the American Repertory Theater. Mr. Reale has an Academy Award nomination in the best song category for his work as a lyricist on the movie Dreamgirls and has won 3 Emmy awards (in 2010, 2011) as one of the writer/producers behind the recent reinvention of 1970’s literacy classic, The Electric Company on PBS. Willie has worked written extensively for network television and has been nominated 3 times for Writer’s Guild Awards.