Mitch Leigh | |
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 Leigh in 2013[1] | |
| Born | Irwin Stanley Michnick (1928-01-30)January 30, 1928 Brooklyn, New York City, U.S. |
| Died | March 16, 2014(2014-03-16) (aged 86) Manhattan, New York City, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Yale University (BM,MM) |
| Occupation | Composer |
| Notable work | Man of La Mancha |
| Spouses |
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| Children | 3, includingEve |
| Awards | Tony Award Contemporary Classics Award |
Mitch Leigh (bornIrwin Stanley Michnick; January 30, 1928 – March 16, 2014) was an Americanmusical theatrecomposer andtheatrical producer best known for the musicalMan of La Mancha.
Leigh was born Irwin Stanley Michnick inBrooklyn on January 30, 1928, where he grew up in theBrownsville neighborhood.[1][2] His father was from Ukraine.[2] After service in the U.S. Army, he graduated fromYale in 1951 with aBachelor of Music, and in 1952 received hisMaster of Music degree underPaul Hindemith.[1][3]
He began his career as a jazz musician, and writing commercials for radio and television.[1] On the 1955 LP recording ofJean Shepherd Into the Unknown with Jazz Music, Leigh wrote the jazz interludes between radio broadcasterJean Shepherd's improvisations.
In 1965, Leigh collaborated with lyricistJoe Darion and writerDale Wasserman to write amusical based on Wasserman's 1959 television play,I, Don Quixote. The resulting show, the musicalMan of La Mancha opened onBroadway in 1965 and in its original engagement ran for 2,328 performances. It has been revived multiple times.
Leigh followed with the showChu Chem, which he also produced, exactly a year afterMan of La Mancha, but closed on the road. It finally opened onBroadway in 1989 but ran for only 68 performances.
Cry for Us All, based on the play,Hogan's Goat, opened on Broadway in 1970; it ran for only nine performances. Leigh was the producer as well as composer.[4] His musicalHome Sweet Homer, starringYul Brynner, officially opened on Broadway in January 1976 but closed after one performance. He produced and wrote the music forSaravá which ran for 101 performances in 1979. Leigh both produced and directed the 1985 revival ofThe King and I starring Brynner featuring in his final performances as the King of Siam.[5]
Lee Adams asked Leigh to collaborate on a musical titledMike, about producerMike Todd, but it closed during its pre-Broadway tryout in 1988. After renaming itAin't Broadway Grand!, the show made it to Broadway in 1993, but lasted only 25 performances.[6] He wrote the musicalHalloween withSidney Michaels, and althoughBarbara Cook andJosé Ferrer were in the cast, it did not reach Broadway.[7]
Leigh established Music Makers, Inc., in 1957 as a radio and television commercial production house and was its creative director.[8] His television music included the instrumental music for the ABC Color Logo (1962–65);[9] theTV commercialjingle "Nobody Doesn't Like Sara Lee";[10][11] theMeet the SwingerPolaroid Swinger commercial sung byBarry Manilow; and theBenson & Hedges theme "The Dis-Advantages of You," which reached the Top 40 forThe Brass Ring in 1967[12][13] and was heard in a series of Benson & Hedges cigarettecommercials at that time.[14][15]
In 1977, Leigh and others at the Yale School of Music established theKeith Wilson scholarship, to be awarded "to an outstanding major in wind instrument playing." A building in The School of Music at Yale University was named "Abby and Mitch Leigh Hall" in 2001.[16]
After a marriage to Renee Goldman ended in divorce, Leigh married Abby Kimmelman.[1] He had one child from his first marriage and two from his second, one of whom is playwrightEve Leigh.[1] Leigh died from complications of a stroke and pneumonia at a Manhattan hospital on March 16, 2014, at the age of 86.[2]
To avoid taxation for his earnings fromMan of La Mancha, Leigh purchased 1,000 acres of land inJackson Township, New Jersey over many years.[2] He planned to turn it into amixed-use development called "Jackson 21".[1][2] Towards the end of his life, he began advertising it on television, saying that its prospective residents would have to be "really nice" people.[2][17] According toThe Washington Post, the commercials confused viewers, many of whom thought Leigh was running a scam or a starting a cult.[2] No major construction had taken place by the time of his death, and the project was essentially abandoned afterward.[18]
Leigh won aTony Award for composing the music forMan of La Mancha. He was also nominated for aTony Award as the director of the 1985 revival ofThe King and I. He received the Contemporary Classics Award from the Songwriter's Hall of Fame for "The Impossible Dream".[8]
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