For Mr. Folds, 46, it was a full-fledged crash course.

He has written more than a hundred songs since he broke through in the early 1990s as the frontman for his power pop trio Ben Folds Five, and solo hits like “Rocking the Suburbs” and “Jesusland” show an ear for dramatic lyric writing. But before Sunday he had no experience in theatrical forms. The only cast recording he owned was a worn copy of “Jesus Christ Superstar” — “I learned about the Bible and Broadway from the same record,” he explained.

He was the theater newbie among 16 actors, four directors, four writers and three other composers, along with choreographers and music directors gathered in a circle in the hotel’s ballroom to start the creative sprint. For inspiration everyone brought a prop and a costume, making an odd pile on the floor: a nursing bra, tarot cards, a child’s doll, a tiny door, a file for foot calluses.

The actors all sang a song to show off their range and talked about what unusual bit they would be willing to do onstage. Josh Lawson, an Australian actor who appears on Showtime’s “House of Lies,” joked that he would be willing to shave his mustache.

An hour later the four teams of writers and composers stood in another room staring at instant snapshots of the actors and taking turns choosing. Then the trades started. Mr. Folds was particularly eager to ensure that Alicia Witt (“Friday Night Lights”), an actress with whom he is romantically involved, ended up in his musical.

“Back-room deals were made,” he said, smiling.

Whispering intently, Mr. Folds and Mr. Sherman picked Mr. Lawson; the mustache could be the kernel of a story. By midnight the songwriter and the playwright were sequestered in a drab room with a yellow piano and a laptop, building a comedy about a man whose girlfriend demands he lose the bristles on his upper lip.