Betty Comden, born in Brooklyn in 1917, was an American lyricist, screenwriter, and actress. She is best known for her work with Adolph Green, with whom she collaborated on numerous musicals and films.
Comden and Green met in 1938 while both were studying at New York University, and began writing together shortly thereafter. Their first Broadway credit was for On the Town, a musical about three sailors on a 24-hour leave in New York City. The show premiered in 1944 and was a huge success, cementing Comden and Green's place in the world of musical theater.
Comden and Green went on to ... read more
Adolph Green was an American lyricist and playwright who was born on December 2, 1914, in the Bronx, New York. He was the son of Hungarian Jewish immigrants. Green's father was a successful businessman, and his mother was a homemaker. Green attended New York University, where he studied English and drama.
Green began his career in show business as a performer in the late 1930s. He appeared in several Broadway productions, including "The New Yorkers" and "Two for the Show." However, it was his work as a lyricist that would make him famous.
Green's first major success as a lyricist came in ... read more
Robert Russell Bennett orchestrated more than 300 Broadway musical scores including Show Boat; No, No, Nanette; Of Thee I Sing; Face the Music; Oklahoma!; Carmen Jones; Finian's Rainbow; Kiss Me, Kate; South Pacific; The King and I; My Fair Lady; and Camelot. His arrangements for the 1955 film version of Oklahoma! earned him an Academy Award. He also orchestrated and arranged Richard Rodgers' TV documentary score for "Victory at Sea." A classically trained composer, Bennett's prolific output of original compositions includes symphonies, sonatas, a ballet, a concerto and an opera. ... read more
Bob Fosse was an American actor, choreographer, dancer, and film and stage director. He directed and choreographed musical works on stage and screen, including the stage musicals The Pajama Game (1954), Damn Yankees (1955), How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1961), Sweet Charity (1966), Pippin (1972), and Chicago (1975). He directed the films Sweet Charity (1969), Cabaret (1972), Lenny (1975), All That Jazz (1979), and Star 80 (1983).
Fosse's distinctive style of choreography included turned-in knees and "jazz hands". He is the only person ever to have won Oscar, Emmy, and Tony awards in the same year (1973). He ... read more
Herbert Greene was a Broadway conductor, vocal arranger, vocal coach and producer, prominent in the Broadway musical theater in New York City until his death in 1985. In 1958, he was a recipient of the Tony Award for The Music Man as Musical Director and Conductor, and won a second Tony Award as the show's co-producer with Kermit Bloomgarten.
With a classical background in opera and composition, Greene wrote innovative vocal and choral arrangements for such hit musicals as Guys and Dolls, The Most Happy Fella, Bells Are Ringing, and The Unsinkable Molly Brown, to name a few.
In addition to his ... read more
