Theater News

Adolph Green, Half of Famed Theater and Hollywood Writing Team, Dies at 87

Adolph Green
Adolph Green

Adolph Green, the Bronx-born lyricist-librettist-scenarist whose writing partnership with Betty Comden lasted more than 60 years, died this morning at 87 in his Central Park West apartment. Green was married for 42 years to Phyllis Newman. They have two children, Adam and Amanda.

Comden and Green’s first show as lyricist-librettist team was 1944’s On the Town, in which they also played the roles of Claire DeLoone and Ozzie. Their other shows include Two on the Aisle, Wonderful Town,
Bells Are Ringing, Do Re Mi, Hallelujah, Baby!, On the Twentieth Century, and The Will Rogers Follies. The pair provided additional lyrics for Peter Pan (eight songs, including “Neverland,” to Jule Styne’s music) and the book for Applause. Among the most famous songs for which they wrote the lyrics are “The Party’s Over,” “Just in Time,” (both from Bells Are Ringing), and “Make Someone Happy” (from Do Re Mi).

Perhaps Comden & Green’s most indelible work was their screenplay for the classic M-G-M musical film Singin’ in the Rain. Their other screenplays include Good News, The Barkleys of Broadway (the last film to co-star Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers),
On the Town (in which Ann Miller and Jules Munshin played the roles created on the stage by Comden and Green), The Band Wagon (with Nanette Fabray and
Oscar Levant playing parts patterned on C&G), It’s Always Fair Weather, and Auntie Mame. In 1991,
Comden and Green were among the recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors.

They appeared together in an Off-Broadway revue titled A Party in 1958. Later that year, they expanded the show and brought it to Broadway as A Party with Comden and Green. They toured in the revue and, in 1977, co-starred on Broadway in a new version of it.

In a 2001 interview, Green told this writer that he and Comden met in a building at New York University: “Betty was a student. I was someone visiting a friend.” They later became members of a group called Six and Company and teamed with Judy Holliday, Alvin Hammer, and John Frank to form another group, called The Revuers. Said Green, “There [initially] was no plan of it being an act. It just evolved.” The Revuers started out at the Village Vanguard, appeared at the 1939 World’s Fair, played five shows a day at Radio City Music Hall (“Eight minutes of the act; that was fun,” noted Green), and had their own radio
program. They were cast collectively in a play, My Dear Public, that closed in Philadelphia, and The Revuers disbanded after making a 1944 movie called Greenwich Village; their numbers were cut from the film, and all that remains is a scene in which Comden asks Don Ameche, “Check your hat, sir?”

Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Betty Comden,and Adolph Green at the time of On the Town
Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Betty Comden,
and Adolph Green at the time of On the Town

Green met Phyllis Newman when she became Judy Holliday’s understudy in Bells Are Ringing. Previously married to Elizabeth Reitell and Allyn Ann McLerie (both unions ended in divorce), Green wed Newman on January 31, 1960. She won a 1962 Tony for the Comden-Green-Jule Styne musical Subways Are for Sleeping.

In recent years, the team could be seen frequently at performances of revivals of their shows. When I asked if they attended in order to support the actors, Green replied: “I can’t imagine staying away from something [you’ve written], unless you hated it. That’s when you’re getting all the good results. That’s when you’re living!” As our interview ended, I thanked them for all the joy they had given audiences. Comden responded by saying that “Being thanked for bringing happiness is one of the loveliest things that can happen.” Added Green, “We’ve been getting quite a lot of that lately.”

The party’s over for the team, but what a lovely party it’s been. With the death of Adolph Green, the musical theater has lost a giant talent and a charming gentleman.