[Deathwatch] Adolph Green, lyricist , 86

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

- Thanks to a reader for sending this in a few days ago - Ed.

'Singin' Lyricist Green Dies at 86
Fri Oct 25, 4:24 AM ET

By Robert Hofler

NEW YORK (Variety) - Adolph Green, who with longtime collaborator Betty
Comden supplied some of the wittiest, most sophisticated lyrics ever to
grace the musical stage, died Wednesday at his Manhattan home. He was
86.

Comden and Green, who supplied book and lyrics for numerous Broadway
musicals including "On the Town" and "Wonderful Town," also wrote the
screenplay for what many critics and film fans consider the greatest
film musical of all time, "Singin' in the Rain."

Their inseparable careers began together in 1944 with a cabaret act
called the Revuers, in which they appeared with Judy Holliday (news).
The threesome was to make their screen debut shortly thereafter in
"Greenwich Village," but they were unceremoniously cut from the film.
Undaunted, Comden and Green went on to collaborate that same year with
newcomers Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins on the hit musical "On
the Town." Their next show, "Billion Dollar Baby," did not fare as
well.

HOLLYWOOD BOUND

But Arthur Freed at MGM fondly remembered their success with "On the
Town" and brought them to Hollywood, where they wrote the screenplays
for "Good News" (1947) and "The Barkleys of Broadway" (1949), as well
as the songs for "Take Me out to the Ball Game" (1949). Eventually,
there were scripts for other films, too, including "The Band Wagon"
(1953), "Auntie Mame" (1958) and "What a Way to Go!" (1964).

But Comden and Green were always Broadway babies -- and they eventually
had five Tonys to prove it. In addition to Bernstein, with whom they
also wrote "Wonderful Town" (1953), Comden and Green worked with Jule
Styne on several shows including "Bells Are Ringing" (1956), "Do Re Mi"
(1960), "Subways Are for Sleeping" (1961) and "Hallelujah, Baby"
(1967).

Later, there were successful collaborations with Charles Strouse on
"Applause" (1970) -- for which they supplied only the book -- and Cy
Coleman on "The Will Rogers Follies" (1991) and "On the Twentieth
Century" (1978).

"Working on a show with Jule was like collaborating with Lenny," Green
once said. "You never knew where you were going, but you had great fun
getting there."

But it was with Comden that he was forever linked. When they jointly
received their lifetime achievement award at the Kennedy Center Honors
in 1991, a few reporters mistook them for husband and wife. It was a
common mistake.

In fact, Green met his future wife, Phyllis Newman (news), in a
prototypical Comden-and-Green situation: backstage at a big Broadway
musical. Newman was auditioning to be Judy Holliday's standby in "Bells
Are Ringing." Newman and Green were married in 1960.

"I was immediately attracted to him," the actress recalled, "but I was
intimidated by his ego, his reputation as an intellectual, his success
and most of all his mind-boggling eccentricity."

Green said his close collaboration with Comden only occasionally
interfered with his marriage.

"It's been a problem in certain ways," he said, "because so much of my
time is taken up by my work. But (Phyllis) more than understands it,
she encourages it. She tells me, 'Work more, get over there!' Betty and
I have always been special kinds of friends, our relatonship is a
unique one..."

Prior to Newman, Green had been married twice.

With few exceptions, the stage and film musicals of Comden and Green
focused on the team's two favorite subjects -- show business and New
York. In an art form often encumbered with sentimental gestures, the
two writers could invariably be counted on to bring into play their
signature sass and cutting-edge humor.

AT HOME ONSTAGE

Green began as a performer and he never stopped. With Comden, he
appeared in the original "On the Town" as well as the 1958 revue "A
Party With Betty Comden and Adolph Green" and its revival in 1977, and
the 1984 concert version of "Follies" at Lincoln Center, among other
events. With Newman, he starred in Murray Schisgal's Off Broadway play
"The New Yorkers" in 1984. There were also featured roles in films
including "My Favorite Year" and Alain Resnais' "I Want to Go Home," in
which he portrayed a has-been American cartoonist.

Comden and Green never failed to entertain, never more so than when
they received one of their many joint honors. Eschewing the standard
laundry-list acceptance speech, they instead wrote lyrics and set them
to song, which they delivered in their inimitable singing voices. As
recently as this spring, they accepted lifetime achievement awards at
the Dramatist Guild benefit in Gotham. They made precious few
thank-yous, but brought down the house belting out hit tunes they had
retooled especially for the event with French and German lyrics.

Last Friday, Green attended a reception celebrating the opening of a
Broadway musical set to Billy Joel (news)'s music, "Movin' Out," and
was in Los Angeles recently for a 50th anniversary salute to "Singin'
in the Rain" sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences (news - web sites).

Green is survived by his wife, and two children.