The CHICAGO TRIBUNE's Howard Reich on Comden and Green: "The wordsmiths who have helped ... energize the great American musical."
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Hear "New York, New York (It's a Hell of a Town)" from ON THE TOWN.
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Comden, Betty (originally, Cohen, Basya), and Adolph Green, clever American lyricists, librettists, and screenwriters. Comden (b. N.Y., May 3, 1919) and Green (b. N.Y., Dec. 2, 1915) maintained a remarkably durable partnership lasting more than 60 years, during which they wrote the lyrics for 14 Broadway musicals. In many cases they also wrote the books for the musicals, and they wrote screenplays and songs for movies. Their primary collaborators were Jule Styne, Leonard Bernstein, and Cy Coleman.
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Comden and Green maintained a remarkably durable partnership lasting more than 60 years.
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Their efforts brought them six Tony Awards and a Grammy Award. Usually set in contemporary N.Y., their works were peopled by eccentric characters, and their stories and lyrics generally had a satiric tone. Though best known for their shows, which included "On the Town," "Bells are Ringing," and "The Will Rogers Follies," they also scored several song hits, among them "Just in Time," "The Party's Over," and "Make Someone Happy."
Comden was the daughter of Leo Cohen, a lawyer, and Rebecca Sadvoransky Cohen. She studied drama at N.Y.U., graduating with a B.S. in 1938. Green, the son of Daniel and Helen Weiss Green, became a runner on Wall Street after graduating from high school. The two met as aspiring actors and formed a nightclub act, the Revuers, along with Judy Tuvim (later Holliday), Alvin Hammer, and John Frank, in 1938. They were sometimes accompanied by a friend of Green's, pianist Leonard Bernstein. Writing their own shows, the group performed successfully at the Village Vanguard in N.Y., then at the Rainbow Room in 1939. They also performed on radio and records. Green married Elizabeth Reitell on June 20, 1941. Comden married designer Siegfried Schutzman (later Steven Kyle) on Jan. 4, 1942. They had two children and remained married until Kyle's death in 1979.
The Revuers went to Hollywood, where they had small parts in the film GREENWICH VILLAGE, released in September 1944. By that time the group had split up, and Comden and Green had their own nightclub act back in N.Y. They gave it up when they were approached by Bernstein, who was expanding his ballet, "Fancy Free," into a Broadway musical. The result was the war-themed "On the Town," about three sailors on leave in N.Y., with book and lyrics by Comden and Green, who were also members of the cast. Opening in December 1944, the show ran 462 performances. They then wrote book and lyrics for the 1945 musical "Billion Dollar Baby," which had music by Morton Gould. It was less successful but still ran 220 performances.
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