Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber has written some of the most commercially successful musicals of the last quarter of the 20th century. Among his most popular shows are “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” (1967), “Jesus Christ Superstar” (1971), “Evita” (1974), “Cats” (1981), “The Phantom of the Opera” (1986), and “Sunset Boulevard” (1993). Lloyd Webber’s gift for melody has spawned such classic musical theater songs as “Memory” and “Music of the Night.”
Lloyd Webber was born in London on March 22, 1948. His father was a faculty member at the Royal College of Music and his mother was a piano teacher. Andrew showed musical aptitude at a very young age, and, while still a youth, composed short musical entertainments for his family.
His first musical was “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” (1967). With lyricist Tim Rice, Lloyd Webber created an eclectic score to accompany the Old Testament story of Joseph and his brothers. Musical numbers ranged in style from Elvis-style rock to calypso and soft rock ballads. Joseph’s two big songs, “Any Dream Will Do” and “Close Every Door,” became hit singles.
“Jesus Christ Superstar” (1971), another collaboration with Rice, began life as a double album. Concert tours of the “rock opera” followed, and ultimately, a stage version emerged. “Superstar,” the story of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ as seen through the eyes of Pontius Pilate, garnered seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Score. Mary Magdalene’s song “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” became a pop standard. The 1973 film version starred Ted Neeley and Carl Anderson.

Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman in Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera."
“Evita” (1974), based on the life of Eva Peron, also began as a concept album. Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin starred in the Broadway version. The show received numerous Tony Awards, including Best Actress (LuPone). For the 1996 film which starred Madonna and Antonio Banderas, Lloyd Webber wrote a new song, “You Must Love Me.” The song earned an Academy Award for the composer.
“Cats” (1981), based on T. S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical “Cats,” is Lloyd Webber’s longest-running show in both London’s West End and on Broadway. … Like “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” “Cats” contains songs written in a variety of musical styles. “Memory,” the show’s climactic number, is a sentimental ballad, which has been championed by singers Elaine Paige and Barbra Streisand, among others.
“Song and Dance” (1982) consisted of two parts: “Tell Me on a Sunday,” a one-woman show, and “Variations,” a set of variations on Paganini’s famous caprice for cello and rock band. Variations was written for Andrew’s cello-playing brother Julian.
“Starlight Express” (1984), a train epic with music, followed. The cast of the high-tech fantasy dash around the ramp-enhanced theater on roller skates. Rock, blues, and country elements are apparent in the amplified score. A 90-minute version of “Starlight Express” opened in 1993 at the Las Vegas Hilton, the first major legitimate stage production to play in the famed gambling city.
Andrew Lloyd Webber
- v"Bombay Dreams"
- "Cats"
- "Evita"
- "Jesus Christ Superstar"
- "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat"
- "The Phantom of the Opera"
- "Starlight Express"
- "Sunset Boulevard"
- Patti LuPone
- Cameron Mackintosh
- Trevor Nunn
- Mandy Patinkin
- Harold Prince
- Tim Rice
- Ben Vereen
- Robin Wagner
“The Phantom of the Opera” (1986) is perhaps Lloyd Webber’s best-known work. Based on Gaston Leroux’s novel, the musical included the songs “Music of the Night,” “All I Ask of You,” “The Phantom of the Opera,” and “Think of Me.” Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman, then Lloyd Webber’s wife, starred in the original production. “Phantom” is indicative of a trend in the late 1980s toward a “sung-through” musical — one in which spoken dialogue is limited and often replaced by operatic recitative (speech-singing). The lavish sets, impressive special effects, and hauntingly beautiful musical score have made the show one of the most popular musicals worldwide.
“Aspects of Love” (1989) launched the career of its male lead, Michael Ball. The sung-through musical was an adaptation of David Garnett’s tale of intergenerational love and included the ballad “Love Changes Everything.” The show played for over three years in London, but its 1990 Broadway run lasted only 377 performances.
“Sunset Boulevard” (1993), based on the film of the same name, included some spectacularly romantic music. Two songs, “With One Look” and “As if We Never Said Goodbye,” both of which are sung by the lead character Norma Desmond, have entered the repertories of singers as diverse as Kiri TeKenawa and Barbra Streisand. As with “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Sunset Boulevard” includes elaborate and impressive sets. John Napier’s grandiose staircase is as much a character in the musical as are any of the humans. The London production starred Patti LuPone, while the Los Angeles and New York productions featured Glenn Close. Betty Buckley succeeded both LuPone and Close in their respective runs.
“Whistle Down the Wind” (1998), inspired by the film of the same name, is set in Louisiana in 1959. A collaboration with Jim Steinman, the score includes typically romantic love songs and explosive rock music. In addition to his musical theater works, Lloyd Webber has also written concert works. “Variations” also exists in a version for cello and orchestra. “Requiem” (1985), written for Lloyd Webber’s father, included the memorable duet “Pie Jesu.”
With his impressive array of commercially and artistically successful shows, Lloyd Webber is one of the most important composers for the musical theater in the last decades of the 20th century. Both his innate gift for melody and his ability to create music, which live up to the dazzling special effects characteristic of so many of his shows, have contributed immensely to his worldwide success.
Source: Excerpted from ST. JAMES ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR CULTURE. 5 VOLS., St. James Press, © 2000 St. James Press. Reprinted by permission of The Gale Group.
Photo credits: Photofest

A distinguished composer, often for the musical theater, Weill studied piano and composition as a child, and at the age of 20 was conducting opera with local companies. By the mid-’20s he had established a reputation as a leading composer in the modern idiom. He was eager to make opera a popular form, accessible to the widest audience, and was also politically aware, wanting his work to have social significance. In collaboration with Bertolt Brecht he composed “Little Mahagonny” (later expanded to become “The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny”) and then achieved success with “The Threepenny Opera” (1928). Although a massive hit in Germany, the show failed in the USA in 1933, but was well received when it was revived in 1954-55. It has since been continually restaged all over the world. The show’s best-known song, “Mack the Knife,” became a standard in the repertoires of numerous singers. Weill and his wife, singer Lotte Lenya, emigrated to the USA in 1935. En route, he spent some time in England, working with Desmond Carter and Reginald Arkell on the musical satire, “A Kingdom for a Cow,” which was presented at the Savoy Theatre.
Brilliant, prolific tunesmith who, over the course of a nearly 75-year long career, composed 2,000 songs, published 1,500 of them, and had somewhere around 200 of them become enormous hits or later song standards.
A composer who has experienced the sweet taste of Broadway success — but not for some considerable time. When Strouse graduated from the Eastman School of Music he intended to make a career in the classical field, and studied for a time with Aaron Copland. After meeting lyricist Lee Adams in 1949 he changed course, and during the early ’50s they contributed songs to revues at the popular Green Mansions summer resort, and in 1956 they had some numbers interpolated into the Off-Broadway shows “The Littlest Revue” and “Shoestring ’57.” Their big break came in 1960 with “Bye Bye Birdie,” which is often cited as the first musical to acknowledge the existence of rock ‘n’ roll. It starred Dick Van Dyke and Chita Rivera and ran for 607 performances. The witty and tuneful score included “Kids!”, “A Lot of Livin’ to Do,” and “‘Put on a Happy Face.” Ironically, two years earlier, Strouse, with Fred Tobias, had written a bona fide rock ‘n’ roll hit, “Born Too Late,” which the Poni-Tails took to number 7 on the U.S. chart. As for Strouse and Adams’ shows, “All American” (1962), a musical about college football, failed to score heavily, but “Golden Boy” (1964) lasted for 569 performances on the sheer strength of Sammy Davis Jr.’s appeal. “It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman” (1966), which was based on the syndicated comic strip, came down to earth with a bump after only 129 performances.
Peter Stone was an acclaimed Tony- and Oscar-winning writer who began in TV and moved to motion pictures and the theater. The son of a schoolteacher turned motion picture producer, Stone was raised in L.A., and after heading east for schooling, began his career in live TV. He went on to script such well-received motion pictures as CHARADE (1963) and FATHER GOOSE (1964, for which he won an Academy Award) and has provided the book for several Broadway musicals, notably “1776” (1969) and “Woman of the Year” (1981).
Active in major Broadway productions of American musical theater beginning in 1957, composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim (born 1930) redefined the Broadway musical form with his innovative and award winning productions. He continued to be a major force in the shaping of this genre into the 1980s.
Sissle’s early career was spent largely in vaudeville as a singer, and he also sang with the orchestra of James Reese Europe. However, his talents as a songwriter gradually drew him to Broadway where, in collaboration with Eubie Blake, he achieved a major breakthrough. Before Sissle and Blake, it was rare for a black entertainer to gain acceptance along the “Great White Way,” but the success of their 1921 show, “Shuffle Along,” changed all that. “Shuffle Along” starred Florence Mills, and among its memorable tunes were “In Honeysuckle Time,” “Love Will Find a Way,” and the hit of the show, “I’m Just Wild About Harry.”
One of the few new theatrical composers and lyricists to emerge in the ’70s, Schwartz studied at Carnegie-Mellon University, where he majored in drama, and at Juilliard. He worked as a record producer for RCA Records before deciding to make a career as a songwriter. In 1969 he contributed the title song to Leonard Gershe’s play “Butterflies Are Free,” which ran on Broadway for more than 1,000 performances, and was filmed in 1972. In 1971, Schwartz had a smash hit with his rock-pop score for the off-Broadway “biblical” musical “Godspell,” which ran for over 2,500 performances in New York, and featured the hit song “Day by Day.” He also produced the Grammy-winning original cast album. Later that year, Schwartz collaborated with Leonard Bernstein on additional text for Bernstein’s “‘theater piece,” “Mass,” which was commissioned for the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. During the early ’70s, Schwartz enjoyed more success with “Pippin” (1972), which had another agreeable song, “Magic Do,” and “The Magic Show” (1974). Each show ran for nearly five years in New York. Subsequently, he seemed to lose the magic formula. “The Baker’s Wife” (1976) closed out of town although it has since become something of a cult item, and “Working” (1978), “Rags” (1986), and “Children of Eden” (London 1991), could only manage 132 performances between them.
While still attending school Rome played piano in local dance bands and was already writing music. Despite this early interest in music, he went on to study architecture and law at Yale. In 1934 he practiced as an architect in New York City, but studied piano and composition in his spare time. This was a fortunate decision because by the following year, with work opportunities diminishing with the depression, he was obliged to turn more and more to his second-string activity for support. Much of the music Rome was writing at this time was socially conscious and was thus of little interest to Tin Pan Alley. Nevertheless, he was engaged to write a revue for the International Garment Workers’ Union. To everyone’s surprise, the revue, “Pins and Needles” (1937), staged for members of the union, became a popular success and one song, “Sunday in the Park,” established a life outside of the show. Rome was now much sought-after, although his next show displayed similarly political concerns.
Richard Rodgers demonstrated his musical talent at an early age. By the time he was four he had begun to pick out tunes from “The Merry Widow” on the piano and ten years later he wrote his first song, “My Auto Show Girl.” Soon he began to compose songs for amateur productions. While attending Columbia College he was honored to be the first freshman ever to write the score for the annual varsity show.
Tall and silver-haired, Rice began his lyric writing career in partnership with fellow music student Andrew Lloyd Webber in the mid-1960s. Their first produced musicals were drawn from Biblical themes: “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat” (1967) and “Jesus Christ Superstar” (1969). Rice and Lloyd Webber pioneered the use of concept albums in raising both money for and public awareness of their music. The apotheosis of their collaboration was “Evita” (1979), a pop opera about Argentina’s first lady, Eva Peron that was a success both in London and in New York and earned Rice two Tony Awards. After nearly a decade and a half, it was finally filmed in 1996 with Madonna in the lead.
American composer Cole Albert Porter (1891-1964) wrote songs (both words and music) for over 30 stage and film musicals. His best work set standards of sophistication and wit seldom matched in the popular musical theater.
A director, producer, actor, and author, Joshua Logan had more Broadway hits than almost anyone else. In the late 1940s Logan directed and co-authored two of Broadway’s most popular productions — “Mister Roberts,” written with Thomas Heggen, and “South Pacific,” for which he shared a Pulitzer Prize in drama with Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. His many other director’s credits include the Broadway shows “Annie Get Your Gun” and “The World of Suzie Wong” and the films BUS STOP and CAMELOT. Logan worked in theater and film throughout his career, showing talent from the time he was a young student at Princeton University. He acted on stage before achieving his first major success as a director with “I Married an Angel,” in 1938; he also produced several shows. For many years Logan struggled with manic-depressive illness, and late in life he toured the country to offer encouragement to fellow sufferers. In addition to plays, his writings include the screen adaptation of MISTER ROBERTS; its sequel, ENSIGN PULVER; and the autobiographies JOSH: MY UP AND DOWN, IN AND OUT LIFE and MOVIE STARS, REAL PEOPLE, AND ME.
A distinguished composer for the musical theater, Loewe was born into a musical family (his father was a professional singer). He studied piano as a child, appearing with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra in 1917. In 1924, he visited the USA, but was unable to find work in a classical environment. Instead, he eked out a living playing piano in restaurants and bars, then roamed throughout the USA, tackling a variety of jobs, including boxing, prospecting, and cowpunching. As a young teenager he had written songs, and he resumed this activity in New York in the early ’30s. Later in the decade he contributed to various musical shows, and in 1942 began to collaborate with lyricist Alan Jay Lerner. Their first Broadway score was for “What’s Up?” in 1943, which was followed two year later with “The Day Before Spring.” From that point onward, they wrote the music and lyrics (Lerner also contributed the librettos) for some of the most memorable productions in the history of the American musical theater. They had their first hit in 1947 with “Brigadoon,” from which came “The Heather on the Hill,” “From This Day On,” and “Almost Like Being in Love,” and the association was renewed in 1951 with “Paint Your Wagon,” containing such lovely songs as “They Call the Wind Maria,” “I Talk to the Trees,” and “Wand’rin’ Star.”
Composer and lyricist, was born Francis Henry Loesser in New York City, the son of Henry Loesser, a pianist, and Julia Ehrlich. His father, who had been an accompanist for the soprano Lilli Lehmann, gave his children a strong musical upbringing. (Frank’s older brother, Arthur, became a pianist, critic, and educator.) But even as a child Frank was aggressively lowbrow: his first lyrics were set to the rhythms of the elevated trains, and he took pride in winning third prize in a citywide harmonica contest. Years later, the Loesser family would remark that Frank’s songs were “very nice, but of course they’re not music.”
Through a career that spanned three decades, lyricist/librettist Alan Jay Lerner and his partner, composer Frederick Loewe, became virtually synonymous with the blockbuster Broadway musical. A list of their hits all but defines the genre: “Brigadoon,” “Paint Your Wagon,” “Camelot,” the movie musical GIGI, and their biggest triumph, “My Fair Lady.”
An American writer whose work dates back to radio and whose films and Broadway productions — many of which he has also directed — have included classic works such as “West Side Story” and “Gypsy” and such highly entertaining fare as THE WAY WE WERE and THE TURNING POINT. Arthur Laurents was barely 21 when he wrote his first radio play “Now Playing Tomorrow” in 1939. He went on to write episodes of “Dr. Christian,” “The Thin Man,” and numerous originals. During W.W. II, he wrote “Armed Service Forces Present” as well as “This Is Your FBI.”
Born February 4, 1960 in White Plains, New York; died of an aortic aneurysm, January 25, 1996, at his home in Manhattan. Larson lived in poverty, waited tables, and worked seven years to bring his rock opera “Rent” to the stage — only to collapse and die the night before previews were to open at the Off-Broadway New York Theater Workshop. The show’s initial five-week run sold out within 24 hours of opening night, and the play became an enormous critical and popular success. In addition, “Rent” achieved Larson’s ambition of updating musical theater and making it socially and personally relevant to a younger audience. NEWSDAY’s Linda Winer called it “the first original breakthrough rock musical since ‘Hair.'” The fresh, provocative, and exuberant show — and Larson’s heartbreaking story — quickly became Broadway legend. “The show features, among forty well-sung numbers, three songs that are as passionate, unpretentious and powerful as anything I’ve heard in musical theatre for more than a decade,” John Lahr wrote in THE NEW YORKER. “His songs have urgency — a sense of mourning and mystery which insists on seizing the moment. … Larson’s … talent and his big heart are impossible to miss. His songs spill over with feeling and ideas; his work is both juicy and haunting.”
A leading playwright and stage director, James Lapine briefly shifted his attentions to film in the early 1990s, but after two well-crafted features that earned modest box office takes, he returned to the theater.
When Jerome Kern died in 1945, America lost one of its greatest and most beloved composers. Harry Truman, who was the U.S. President at the time of Kern’s death, was quoted as saying in David Ewen’s book, COMPOSERS FOR THE AMERICAN MUSICAL THEATRE: “[Kern’s] melodies will live in our voices and warm our hearts for many years to come. … The man who gave them to us earned a lasting place in his nation’s history.” In 1946 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released a lavish musical film biography of Kern, TILL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY, with appearances by Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Lena Horne, and other stars. The centennial of Kern’s birth was celebrated in 1985, which saw the issuing of a U.S. Postage stamp in his honor, as well as the release of more recordings and performances of his music. “Show Boat,” the most enduring of his works, continues to enjoy Broadway revivals. There is no sign that Kern’s legacy is in danger of fading.
An important composer for the American musical theater from the early ’60s, Kander studied music as a child, continued at college, and was determined to make his way in the musical theater. He had some successes in the early ’50s with various lyricists before meeting Fred Ebb (b. April 8, 1932, New York, USA) in 1962. Ebb had already dabbled with lyric writing, and had collaborated with Jerry Herman on some songs for the short-lived musical “A to Z” (1960). Among Kander and Ebb’s first efforts were “My Coloring Book” and “I Don’t Care Much,” both of which were recorded by Barbra Streisand. The new team made their Broadway debut in 1965 with the score for “Flora, the Red Menace,” which included an eye-catching, Tony Award-winning performance by Liza Minnelli, who would subsequently perform much of their work, and become indelibly associated with them. 
One of the leading composers and lyricists for the American musical theater during the past 30 years, Herman was playing piano by the age of six under the tuition of his mother, a professional piano teacher. After high school, he started to train as a designer, but had second thoughts, and studied drama at the University of Miami. By the mid-’50s, he was playing piano in New York clubs and writing material for several well-known entertainers. During the late ’50s and early ’60s, he worked on a number of off-Broadway musical shows, the first of which was “I Feel Wonderful” (1954), and had several songs in the revue “Nightcap,” which ran for nearly a year. He also wrote the book, music and lyrics [for] — and directed — “Parade” (1960), and in the same year contributed the opening number, “Best Gold,” to the short-lived “A to Z.” In 1961, after writing some songs for the 13-performance flop, “Madame Aphrodite,” he enjoyed his first real success with his score for the Broadway musical “Milk and Honey,” which ran for 543 performances. He had a smash hit three years later with “Hello, Dolly!” (“Before the Parade Passes By,” “It Only Takes a Moment,” “It Takes a Woman,” “Put on Your Sunday Clothes,” “Elegance”), which stayed at the St. James Theater in New York for nearly seven years. The show — with its Grammy-winning title number — gave Carol Channing her greatest role, and has been constantly revived ever since. 
A distinguished librettist, director, and playwright who was particularly renowned for his work with George S. Kaufman. Hart is reported to have written the book for the short-lived “Jonica” in 1930, but his first real Broadway musical credit came three years later when he contributed the sketches to the Irving Berlin revue “As Thousands Cheer.” Subsequent revues for which he co-wrote sketches included “The Show Is On,” “Seven Lively Arts,” and “Inside USA.” During the remainder of the ’30s Hart wrote the librettos for “The Great Waltz” (adapted from the operetta “Waltzes of Vienna”), “Jubilee,” “I’d Rather Be Right” (with Kaufman), and “Sing Out the News” (which he also co-produced with Kaufman and Max Gordon). In 1941 he wrote one of his wittiest and most inventive books for “Lady in Dark,” which starred Gertrude Lawrence, and gave Danny Kaye his first chance on Broadway.
Hart, Lorenz Milton (May 2, 1895 – Nov. 22, 1943), musical comedy lyricist, was born in New York City, the elder of two sons of Max M. and Frieda (Isenberg) Hart. Of Jewish background, he traced his descent through his mother from the German poet Heinrich Heine. His father, a business promoter, was sufficiently prosperous to enable Lorenz, after preparation at two private schools, to spend two years (1914-16) at the School of Journalism of Columbia University. Reared in a worldly, bibulous home, temperamentally alienated from a rather coarse-grained father, indifferent to academic studies outside literature and drama, Hart was perhaps even more than Cole Porter the expressive bard of the urban generation which matured during the interwar years 1919-41. Much of his work — slick, breezy, and yet mordant, even morbid — reflects their tart disillusion. A bachelor living with his widowed mother, whom he once described as a “sweet, menacing old lady,” he was a restless world traveler and, especially after his mother’s death, an alcoholic who disappeared for weeks on end to escape a life periodically unbearable. But with all his moody unreliability he found his destiny as lyricist to his more stable friend Richard Rodgers.
A lyricist and author best known for his Academy Award-winning song “Over the Rainbow,” Yip Harburg began songwriting after his electric appliance business failed at the start of the Great Depression. His first hit song was “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime,” written with composer Jay Gorney in 1932. Harburg continued to write lyrics for Hollywood musicals, producing such popular songs as “It’s Only a Paper Moon,” “April in Paris,” and “Suddenly.” He was teamed with composer Harold Arlen for the 1939 MGM classic THE WIZARD OF OZ and wrote lyrics for its well-known songs, including “We’re Off to See the Wizard,” “Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead,” “If I Only Had a Brain,” and “Over the Rainbow.” Blacklisted in Hollywood following World War II because of his political views, Harburg turned to Broadway in 1947. Here he co-wrote the libretto and was lyricist for “Finian’s Rainbow” and also worked on the Broadway show “Flahooley.” Over the years Harburg worked with such musical legends as Ira Gershwin, Jerome Kern, John Green, Vernon Duke, Burton Lane, and Arthur Schwartz.
Oscar Clendenning Hammerstein II (1895-1960) was perhaps the most influential lyricist and librettist of the American theater. Major musicals for which he wrote the lyrics include “Show Boat,” “South Pacific,” “The King and I,” and “The Sound of Music.”
A child prodigy, Marvin Hamlisch began studying piano at the famed Juilliard School of Music when he was seven. He co-wrote his first hit song, the bouncy “Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows,” which Lesley Gore recorded and made a hit in 1965. He subsequently co-wrote another of Gore’s hits 1967’s “California Nights.” By this time, Hamlisch had already made in-roads into showbiz. In 1960, through a friend, he was introduced to Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli, and he played piano at a party hosted by Garland. Within four years, he was hired as the rehearsal pianist for the Jule Styne-Robert Merrill musical “Funny Girl” (1964), where Hamlisch first met Barbra Streisand. After serving as vocal arranger on TV’s THE BELL TELEPHONE HOUR (where he collaborated with such stars as Lena Horne and Tony Bennett), Hamlisch got his first break as a film composer through a fluke. He was hired to play piano for a party given by Sam Spiegel and so impressed the producer that Spiegel hired him to score THE SWIMMER (1968). The haunting themes he created did much to enhance this character study and his career seemed assured. He went on to work with Woody Allen twice (TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN 1969 and Bananas 1971) and scored THE APRIL FOOLS (1969).
A consummate lyricist, whose career spanned some 40 years, like his younger brother George Gershwin, Ira was an indifferent student, but became fascinated by popular music, and particularly the lyrics of songs. He began writing seriously in 1917, sometimes using the pseudonym “Arthur Francis,” and had a number of minor successes, including the score for the stage show, “Two Little Girls in Blue” (music by Vincent Youmans). In the ’20s and ’30s he was closely associated with his brother, collaborating on numerous Broadway shows such as “Primrose” (with Desmond Carter), “Tell Me More!” (with Buddy DeSylva), “Tip-Toes,” “Lady, Be Good!”, “Oh, Kay!”, “Funny Face,” “Rosalie,” “Treasure Girl,” “Show Girl” (with Gus Khan), “Strike up the Band,” “Girl Crazy,” “Pardon My English,” “Let ‘Em Eat Cake,” and “Porgy and Bess.” From those productions came some of the perennial standards of American popular song.
American composer George Gershwin (1898-1937) was eminently successful in popular music, as well as in the classical field with several concert works and an opera that have become standards in the contemporary repertory.
Fields, Dorothy (July 15, 1905 – Mar. 28, 1974), lyricist and librettist, was born in Allenhurst, N.J., the daughter of Lew M. Fields and Rose Harris. Her father, born Lewis Maurice Schoenfeld, was famous as a member of the comedy duo Weber and Fields, but left performing in the year of Dorothy’s birth to become a successful Broadway impressario. Although Lew Fields cautioned his children against pursuing careers in the theater, Dorothy’s two older brothers, Joseph and Herbert, also became successful on Broadway, the former as a writer and producer, and the latter as a writer and Dorothy’s sometime collaborator.
