Returning (Artistically) to the 1930s

Abstract

Betty Comden and Adolph Green found themselves in the early and mid-1970s returning to their earliest days artistically, when they formed the Revuers. They penned lyrics for a pair of songs heard in one revue, Straws in the Wind, and wrote the book for a second, By Bernstein. Their collaborator on the former was composer Cy Coleman, and with him they continued their 1930s-inspired artistry with their next show, On the Twentieth Century, which was a musical version of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s hit 1932 farce, Twentieth Century.