 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Adolph Green" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(January 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Adolph Green | |
|---|---|
 Green wearing theKennedy Center Honors | |
| Born | (1914-12-02)December 2, 1914 |
| Died | October 23, 2002(2002-10-23) (aged 87) New York City, U.S. |
| Occupations | Playwright, songwriter, actor |
| Years active | 1944–2002 |
| Spouses | |
| Children | Adam Green Amanda Green |
Adolph Green (December 2, 1914 – October 23, 2002) was an Americanlyricist andplaywright, who with long-time collaboratorBetty Comden, penned thescreenplays and songs for musicals onBroadway and inHollywood. Although they were not a romantic couple, they shared a unique comic genius and sophisticated wit that enabled them to forge a six-decade-long partnership. They received numerous accolades including fourTony Awards and nominations for twoAcademy Awards and aGrammy Award. Green was inducted into theSongwriters Hall of Fame in 1980 andAmerican Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981.[1] Comden and Green received theKennedy Center Honor in 1991.
They started their career alongsideLeonard Bernstein on stage, where they received theNew York Drama Critics' Circle for Best Musical forWonderful Town (1953). On Broadway, they wrote the music and lyrics to musicals such asOn the Town (1944),Two on the Aisle (1951),Peter Pan (1954),Bells Are Ringing (1956), andApplause (1970). They won fourTony Awards as composer and lyricist forHallelujah, Baby! (1967),On the Twentieth Century (1978), andThe Will Rogers Follies (1991). As performers, they starred inA Party with Betty Comden and Adolph Green (1958).
They gained notoriety in film collaborating withStanley Donen,Gene Kelly, andVincente Minnelli as part ofArthur Freed's production unit atMetro Goldwyn Mayer. Perhaps their greatest collaboration was for the filmSingin' in the Rain (1952), although they received two Academy Award nominations for screenplays for the musicalsThe Band Wagon (1953), andIt's Always Fair Weather (1955). They also wrote the scripts for the classic movie musicalsThe Barkleys of Broadway (1949),On the Town (1949),Auntie Mame (1958), andBells Are Ringing (1960).
Green was born inthe Bronx toHungarianJewish immigrants Helen (née Weiss) and Daniel Green. He was the youngest of three sons, with brothers Louis (circa 1907-?) and William (circa 1910-?).[citation needed] After high school, he worked as a runner onWall Street while he tried to make it as an actor.
.jpg)
He met Comden through mutual friends in 1938 while she was studying drama atNew York University. They formed a troupe called the Revuers, which performed at theVillage Vanguard, a club inGreenwich Village. Among the members of the company was a young comedian named Judy Tuvim, who later changed her name toJudy Holliday, and Green's good friend, a young musician namedLeonard Bernstein, whom he had met in 1937 at Camp Onota (a summer camp in Pittsfield, MA, where Bernstein was the music counselor), frequently accompanied them on the piano. Together, Comden and Green's act earned success and a movie offer. The Revuers traveled west in hopes of finding fame inGreenwich Village, a 1944 movie starringCarmen Miranda andDon Ameche, but their roles were so small, they barely were noticed, and they quickly returned to New York City. Their first Broadway effort teamed them with Bernstein forOn the Town, a musical romp about three sailors on leave in New York City that was an expansion of aballet entitledFancy Free on which Bernstein had been working withchoreographerJerome Robbins. Comden and Green wrote the lyrics and book, which included sizeable parts for themselves. Their next two musicals,Billion Dollar Baby (1945) andBonanza Bound (1947) were not successful, and once again they headed to California, where they immediately found work at MGM.
They wrote the screenplay forGood News (1947), starringJune Allyson andPeter Lawford,The Barkleys of Broadway forGinger Rogers andFred Astaire, and then adaptedOn the Town (1949) forFrank Sinatra andGene Kelly, scrapping much of Bernstein's music at the request ofArthur Freed, who did not care for the Bernstein score. They reunited with Kelly for their most successful project, the classicSingin' in the Rain (1952), about Hollywood in the final days of thesilent film era. The film was directed by Gene Kelly andStanley Donen and starred Kelly,Debbie Reynolds, andDonald O'Connor. Together, Comden and Green received a nomination for theWriters Guild of America Award for Best Written Musical. Considered by many film historians to be the best movie musical of all time, it ranked number 10 on the list of the 100 best American movies of the 20th century compiled by theAmerican Film Institute in 1998.
They followed this with another hit, and another musicalThe Band Wagon (1953), in which the characters of Lester and Lily, a husband-and-wife team who writes the play for the show-within-a-show, were patterned after themselves. The film was directed byVincente Minnelli and starred Fred Astaire,Cyd Charisse,Nanette Fabray, andOscar Levant. They reunited with Donen and Kelly with another musicalIt's Always Fair Weather (1955). They wereOscar-nominated twice, for their screenplays forThe Band Wagon andIt's Always Fair Weather, both of which earned them a Screen Writers Guild Award, as didOn the Town. Their stage work during the next few years included the revueTwo on the Aisle (1951), starringBert Lahr andDolores Gray,Wonderful Town (1953), an adaptation of the comedy hitMy Sister Eileen, withRosalind Russell andEdie Adams as two sisters from Ohio trying to make it in theBig Apple, andBells Are Ringing (1956), which reunited them with Judy Holliday as an operator at a telephone answering service. 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 returned to films withMorton DaCosta'sAuntie Mame (1958) starringRosalind Russell and Minnelli'sBells Are Ringing (1961) starring Judy Holliday andDean Martin. In 1958, they appeared on Broadway inA 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. In 1964 they wrote the screenplay for theblack comedyWhat a Way to Go! starringShirley MacLaine,Paul Newman,Robert Mitchum, Dean Martin, Gene Kelly, andDick Van Dyke. The film was a commercial success but received mixed reviews.
Among their other credits are theMary Martin version ofPeter Pan for both Broadway and television, a streamlinedDie Fledermaus for theMetropolitan Opera, and stage musicals forCarol Burnett,Leslie Uggams, andLauren Bacall, among others. Their many collaborators includedGarson Kanin,Cy Coleman,Jule Styne, andAndré Previn. The team was not without its failures. In 1982,A Doll's Life, an exploration of what Nora did after she abandoned her husband inHenrik Ibsen'sA Doll's House, ran for only five performances, although they receivedTony Award nominations for its book and score. In 1980, Green was inducted into theSongwriters Hall of Fame.[2] And, in 1981, he was inducted into theAmerican Theatre Hall of Fame.[3] The following year Green appeared in the comedyMy Favorite Year (1982) starringPeter O'Toole. The next year, they wrote the book for the musicalSingin' in the Rain for theWest End in London in 1983 and then for Broadway in 1985. The production earned two Tony Award nominations including forBest Book of a Musical for Comden and Green.
In 1989, he appeared as Dr. Pangloss in Bernstein'sCandide. Comden and Green receivedKennedy Center Honors in 1991. Also in 1991, they returned to Broadway in with the musicalThe Will Rogers Follies. The musical focuses on the life and career of famedhumorist and performerWill Rogers, using as a backdrop theZiegfeld Follies. The production earned six Tony Awards, including theTony Award for Best Musical and theTony Award for Best Original Score for Comden and Green.
Green was married to actressAllyn Ann McLerie[4] from 1945 to 1953.[5]
Green's third wife was actressPhyllis Newman, who had understudied Holliday inBells Are Ringing. They married in 1960, and remained so until Green's death in 2002. The couple had two children,Adam andAmanda, both of whom are songwriters.[6]
His Broadway memorial, withLauren Bacall,Kevin Kline,Joel Grey,Kristin Chenoweth,Arthur Laurents,Peter Stone, andBetty Comden in attendance, was held at theShubert Theater on December 4, 2002.[7]
Acting credits
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
