Life and Work of Cy Coleman Celebrated at Majestic Theatre

This afternoon, a packed house at Broadway’s Majestic Theatre paid tribute to composer Cy Coleman, who died on November 18, 2004. Born Seymour Kaufman in the Bronx on June 14, 1929, Coleman was a child prodigy who performed piano recitals at Carnegie Hall and Steinway Hall by the age of nine. Switching to popular music, he had success with lyricist Carolyn Leigh, with whom he wrote the hits “The Best Is Yet to Come,” “Witchcraft,” and “It Amazes Me” (among others), plus his first two Broadway musicals: Wildcat and Little Me.

His other Broadway credits include Sweet Charity and Seesaw (both with Dorothy Fields), I Love My Wife (with Michael Stewart), On the Twentieth Century (with Betty Comden and Adolph Green), Barnum (Stewart), Welcome to the Club (lyrics by A.E. Hotchner and Coleman), City of Angels (David Zippel), The Will Rogers Follies (Comden and Green), and The Life (Ira Gasman).

James Naughton, who appeared in I Love My Wife and won his first Tony Award for his performance in City of Angels, started the proceedings by commenting on all the different types of characters for whom Coleman had provided melodies, including “rogues and Romeos…heels and loafers, loafers in heels….” He then introduced the afternoon’s first of many musical treats.

Flanked by eight dancers and backed by seven musicians, Chita Rivera and Ann Reinking received a big hand for leading the “Big Spender” number from Sweet Charity. Next, Lucie Arnaz and daughter Katharine Luckinbill (her father is Laurence) took center stage with “Hey, Look Me Over!” from Wildcat, which starred Lucille Ball (Arnaz’s mother). Chuck Cooper gave a superb rendition of “You There in the Back Row” (lyrics by Barbara Fried) from Home Again, Home Again, a Coleman show that didn’t make it to Broadway. Wendy Wasserstein, who was working with Coleman and David Zippel on a musical based on her children’s book Pamela’s First Musical at the time of the composer’s death, spoke about how, as a youngster, she was impressed by the number of Coleman’s female collaborators. She thought, “Not only is he really talented, he’s really enlightened!”

Jim Dale did a standout job with two songs that he introduced in his Tony-winning portrayal of the title role in Barnum: “There Is a Sucker Born Every Minute” and “The Colors of My Life.” Chita Rivera came back to sing “Where Am I Going?” from Sweet Charity. Next up was John Schneider, who did a nice turn with “Give a Man Enough Rope” from The Will Rogers Follies. Bea Arthur was unaware of a sound system glitch that made the first few lines of her rendition of “It Amazes Me” inaudible.

David Zippel stated that Cy Coleman had changed his life: “He took a chance on an unknown [to write the lyrics for City of Angels].” Aside from the Wasserstein show, remarked Zippel, he was collaborating with Coleman on a musical about the emperor Napoleon and his wife Josephine; he then introduced James Naughton and Gregg Edelman, who performed “You’re Nothing WIthout Me,” their rousing duet from City of Angels.

A.E. Hotchner told some amusing stories about working with Coleman on an 11 o’clock number and about Coleman helping out with shows to benefit Hotchner’s and Paul Newman’s Hole-in-the-Wall Gang charity. He called the composer “the George Gershwin of our time.” Judy Kaye received a deserved ovation for her performance of “Never” from On the Twentieth Century. Alan Bergman sang some of the lyrics to “Real Live Girl” from Little Me and followed it with new lyrics to the same tune that he and his wife Marilyn had written in honor of Coleman.

Lillias White brought down the house with “The Oldest Profession” from The Life, for which she won a Tony, and Neil Simon spoke next. “Thank you, Cy, for putting me on after [White],” he began. Simon wrote the books for Little Me and Sweet Charity and had been working with Coleman on a musical based on the Marlene Dietrich-Gary Cooper movie Morocco, which he said “will never happen now.”

Michele Lee belted out “I’m Way Ahead” from Seesaw. Marilyn Bergman read a beautiful tribute to Coleman written by Larry Gelbart (author of the book of City of Angels), who noted that Coleman wrote “tunes with the quality of musical martinis” and was “never burdened by modesty.” Donna McKechnie sang and danced “If My Friends Could See Me Now” from Sweet Charity, and Brian Stokes Mitchell did a stirring “The Best Is Yet to Come.” (He had been slated to sing “Witchcraft” but agreed to do the other song when Tony Bennett had to bow out of the tribute due to laryngitis.)

In closing, James Naughton introduced a recording of Coleman singing “A Little Trav’lin’ Music, Please” from In the Pocket, a show with music by Coleman and lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman that is slated to open on Broadway in the fall of 2006. All in all, the tribute — presented by ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers — was a grand celebration of the life and talent of a great composer.