| Betty Comden | |
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| Born | Basya Cohen May 3, 1917 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Died | November 23, 2006 (aged 89) New York, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress/Screenwriter |
| Years active | 1944–2005 |
Betty Comden (May 3, 1917 – November 23, 2006) was one-half of the musical-comedy duo Comden and Green, who provided lyrics, libretti, and screenplays to some of the most beloved and successful Hollywood musicals and Broadway shows of the mid-20th century. Her writing partnership with Adolph Green lasted for six decades, during which time they collaborated with other leading entertainment figures such as the famed "Freed Unit" at MGM, Jule Styne and Leonard Bernstein.
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Early life[edit]
Betty Comden was born Basya Cohen in Brooklyn, New York,[1] attended Erasmus Hall High School, and studied drama at New York University.[2] In 1938, mutual friends introduced her to Adolph Green, an aspiring actor. Along with the young Judy Holliday and Leonard Bernstein, Comden and Green formed a troupe called the Revuers, which performed at the Village Vanguard, a club in Greenwich Village.[3] Due to the act's success, the Revuers appeared in the 1944 film Greenwich Village, but their roles were so small they were barely noticed, and they quickly returned to New York.
Comden and Green's first Broadway show was in 1944, with On the Town, a musical about three sailors on leave in New York City that was an expansion of a ballet entitled Fancy Free on which Bernstein had been working with choreographer Jerome Robbins. Comden and Green wrote the book and lyrics, which included sizable parts for themselves (as Claire and Ozzie). Their next musical, 1945's Billion Dollar Baby (music by Morton Gould) was not a success, and their 1947 show Bonanza Bound closed out-of-town and never reached Broadway.[3][4]
Broadway and film success[edit]
Comden and Green headed back to California and soon found work at MGM. They wrote the screenplays for Good News and The Barkleys of Broadway (which reunited Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers), and then adapted On the Town for Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly, scrapping most of Bernstein's music at the request of Arthur Freed, who did not care for the Bernstein score.
Comden and Green reunited with Gene Kelly for their most successful project, the classic Singin' in the Rain, about Hollywood in the final days of the silent film era. Comden and Green provided the story and screenplay; the songs were old 1920s hits by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown.
They followed this with another hit, The Band Wagon, in which the characters of Lester and Lily, a husband-and-wife musical-writing team, were patterned after themselves. They were Oscar-nominated twice, for their screenplays for The Band Wagon and It's Always Fair Weather. They also earned three Screen Writers Guild Awards: for the two aforementioned movies as well as On the Town.
Their stage work of the 1950s included the revue Two on the Aisle, starring Bert Lahr and Dolores Gray, with music by Jule Styne; Wonderful Town, a musical adaptation of the play My Sister Eileen with music by Bernstein; and Bells Are Ringing, which reunited them with Judy Holliday and Jule Styne. The score, including the standards "Just in Time", "Long Before I Knew You", and "The Party's Over", proved to be one of their richest. Comden and Green contributed additional lyrics to the 1954 musical Peter Pan, translated and streamlined Die Fledermaus for the Metropolitan Opera, and collaborated with Styne on songs for the play-with-music Say, Darling.
In 1958, they appeared on Broadway in A Party with Betty Comden and Adolph Green, a revue that included some of their early sketches. It was a critical and commercial success, and they brought an updated version back to Broadway in 1977.
Comden and Green's Broadway work in the 1960s included four collaborations with Jule Styne. They wrote the lyrics for Do Re Mi, and the book and lyrics for Subways Are For Sleeping, Fade Out - Fade In, and Hallelujah, Baby! Their Hallelujah, Baby! score won a Tony Award.
Comden and Green wrote the libretto for the 1970 musical Applause, an adaptation of the film All About Eve, and wrote the book and lyrics for 1978's On the Twentieth Century, with music by Cy Coleman. Comden also played the role of Letitia Primrose in that musical when original star Imogene Coca left the show. Comden and Green's final musical hit was 1991's The Will Rogers Follies, providing lyrics to Cy Coleman's music.
In the early 1980s, Betty Comden appeared as an actress in Wendy Wasserstein's non-musical play Isn't It Romantic, portraying the heroine's mother.
Comden and Green's biggest failure was 1982's A Doll's Life, an attempt to figure out what Nora did after she abandoned her husband in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House, which ran for only five performances, although they received Tony Award nominations for its book and score.
In 1980, Betty Comden was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.[5] And, in 1981, she was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.[6]
In 1984, filmmaker Sidney Lumet directed a loveletter film to Greta Garbo, with the dramedy "Garbo Talks", starring Anne Bancroft and Ron Silver. The producers of the film were sure that the real Garbo either could not be located or would flatly turn them down, to appear in a cameo in the film. They did try however, with a known associate of Greta Garbo's, who was located and was asked to ask the great actress if she would appear in the film. But the associate never responded back. So Betty Comden was asked to appear in film for the brief, pivotal 'over-the-shoulder' scenes.
Comden and Green received Kennedy Center Honors in 1991.
Betty Comden died of heart failure following an undisclosed illness of several months at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan on Thanksgiving Day, November 23, 2006, aged 89.
Family[edit]
Comden married Steven Kyle, a designer and businessman, in 1942. He died in 1979 and she never remarried. They had two children, a daughter, Susanna, and a son, Alan, who died in 1990 of complications of AIDS.
Theatre awards and nominations[edit]
- 1991 Tony Award for Best Original Score (The Will Rogers Follies, winner)
- 1986 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical (Singin' in the Rain, nominee)
- 1983 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical (A Doll's Life, nominee)
- 1983 Tony Award for Best Original Score (A Doll's Life, nominee)
- 1978 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical (On the Twentieth Century, winner)
- 1978 Tony Award for Best Original Score (On the Twentieth Century, winner)
- 1970 Tony Award for Best Musical (Applause, winner)
- 1968 Tony Award for Best Composer and Lyricist (Hallelujah, Baby!, winner)
- 1968 Tony Award for Best Musical (Hallelujah, Baby!, winner)
- 1961 Tony Award for Best Musical (Do Re Mi, nominee)
- 1957 Tony Award for Best Musical (Bells Are Ringing, nominee)
- 1953 Tony Award for Best Musical (Wonderful Town, winner)
References[edit]
- ^ [1] theatredb.com; "Corrections"The New York Times, February 26, 2007; [2] songsofshirleybassey.co.uk
- ^ Berkvist, Robert. "Betty Comden, Half of Lyrics Team Behind Musicals of Grace and Wit, Dies at 89", The New York Times, November 24, 2006. Accessed October 22, 2009. "She attended Erasmus Hall High School and studied drama at New York University, graduating in 1938."
- ^ a b "Betty Comden" jewishvirtuallibrary.org, accessed August 25, 2012
- ^ "Betty Comden and Adolph Green" pbs.org, accessed August 25, 2012
- ^ Betty Comden at the Songwriters Hall of Fame
- ^ The New York Times, March 3, 1981 - 26 Elected to the Theater Hall of Fame
External links[edit]
- Betty Comden at the Internet Movie Database
- Betty Comden at the Internet Broadway Database
- Betty Comden at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
- Betty Comden—writes about teaching
- Betty Comden at Find a Grave
- Comden and Green papers, 1933-2003. Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library
- Betty Comden Papers, 1929-2004. Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library
- New York Public Library Blog on Comden and Green's Unproduced Screenplay Wonderland
Further reading[edit]
- Off Stage, a memoir by Betty Comden published in 1995
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