Lyricist-Librettist-Screenwriter-Performer Betty Comden Dies at 89

Betty Comden, who co-wrote many beloved Broadway musicals and scripted several classic Hollywood films with her longtime writing partner Adolph Green, died today of heart failure at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. She was 89.

She was born Elizabeth Cohen on May 3, 1917 in Brooklyn. After attending Erasmus Hall High School, she studied drama at New York University. By the late 1930s, she had changed her surname to Comden, had acted with the Washington Square Players, and had befriended Green. With Judy Holliday, Alvin Hammer, and John Frank, Comden and Green formed a cabaret act called The Revuers. They made their debut at the Village Vanguard in 1939, performing comical and satircal songs and sketches. Often, they were accompanied at the piano by the young Leonard Bernstein.

The Revuers were so successful that they were signed to appear in the Hollywood film Greenwich Village (1944), but they had virtually no screen time in the final cut of the movie. Returning to New York, Comden and Green were soon approached by Bernstein to write the book and lyrics for a musical that would be based on Fancy Free, a ballet with music by Bernstein and choreography by Jerome Robbins. The show that resulted, On the Town, was a hit. Directed and choreographed by Robbins, it told the story of three sailors on 24-hour leave in New York City during World War II. In addition to co-authoring the musical, Comden and Green co-starred in it, he as one of the sailors and she as an anthropologist named Claire de Loone.

For the next half century and more, until Green’s death in 2002, the Comden-Green partnership continued, yielding the lyrics and/or libretti for such Broadway shows as Wonderful Town, Peter Pan, Bells are Ringing (a vehicle for Judy Holliday), Do-Re-Mi, Subways Are for Sleeping, Fade Out — Fade In, Hallelujah, Baby!, Applause, On the Twentieth Century, and The Will Rogers Follies.

Through the decades, Comden shared in seven Tony Award wins with her colleagues. The two shows that she and Green wrote with Bernstein, On the Town and Wonderful Town, yielded such hits as “New York, New York,” “I Can Cook, Too,” “Lucky to Be Me,” “Some Other Time,” “It’s Love,” “A Little Bit in Love,” and “Swing,” while their work with Jule Styne yielded “The Party’s Over,” “Just in Time,” “Make Someone Happy,” and other songs that were frequently performed and recorded by popular singers of the time. Comden and Green also collaborated with Cy Coleman, Morton Gould, Andre Previn, and other notable composers.

For the 1949 film version of On the Town, the team wrote the screenplay adaptation and crafted lyrics for several new songs, with music by Roger Edens, that replaced some of the Bernstein songs from the Broadway show. Comden and Green went on to write two films that are now considered classics: Singin’ in the Rain (1952) and The Band Wagon (1953). Among the many other movies for which they wrote the screenplays and/or lyrics were Good News, The Barkleys of Broadway, Take Me Out to the Ballgame, and It’s Always Fair Weather. They also wrote the 1958 screen adaptation of the Jerome Lawrence-Robert E. Lee play Auntie Mame, based on the book by Patrick Dennis. Bells Are Ringing was brought to the screen in 1960, with Judy Holliday recreating her starring role.

Until Green’s death in 2002, he and Comden met daily to work on a particular project, to brainstorm, or simply to socialize. In joint interviews, Comden and Green would often complete each other’s sentences. Indeed, their professional partnership was so famous and indelible that some people believed they were married to each other. Actually, Comden married Steven Kyle, a designer and businessman, in 1942, and their marriage lasted until his death in 1979. (Green was married to the actress Phyllis Newman.)

After On the Town, the team didn’t perform again on Broadway until they appeared in the revue A Party With Betty Comden and Adolph Green in 1958. They returned in 1977 in an updated, revised version of the show, and they performed it for the last time at Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater in 1999. Additionally, they played Emily and Theodore Witman and sang the song “Rain on the Roof” in the New York Philharmonic’s star-studded 1985 concert version of the Stephen Sondheim-James Goldman musical Follies at Avery Fisher Hall.

Comden had the cameo role of Greta Garbo in the Sidney Lumet film Garbo Talks. She also appeared in James Ivory’s Slaves of New York. On stage, she played Letitia Primrose in On the Twentieth Century as a temporary replacement for Imogene Coca; and, in 1983, she had a dramatic role in Wendy Wasserstein’s Isn’t It Romantic. She lived to see two Broadway revivals of On the Town and one each of Bells are Ringing and Wonderful Town.

Following Kyle’s death, Comden did not remarry. She is survived by her daughter, Susanna Kyle, of Manhattan. The couple’s son, Alan, died in 1990.