They Made Us HappyPub Date : 2019-03-01DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190630935.003.0017
Andy Propst
{"title":"Returning (Artistically) to the 1930s","authors":"Andy Propst","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190630935.003.0017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190630935.003.0017","url":null,"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.","PeriodicalId":446150,"journal":{"name":"They Made Us Happy","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116694211","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
They Made Us HappyPub Date : 2019-03-01DOI: 10.1093/OSO/9780190630935.003.0016
Andy Propst
{"title":"Going Backstage, Then Getting Nostalgic","authors":"Andy Propst","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190630935.003.0016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190630935.003.0016","url":null,"abstract":"As the 1960s end and the 1970s begin, Betty Comden and Adolph Green worked on two new shows. The first was Applause, which though set in then-present-day New York was something of a backward glance. It was a musical version of the classic Bette Davis film All About Eve. The show, which had a score by composer Charles Strouse and lyricist Lee Adams, was a hit for the writers and its star, film luminary Lauren Bacall, who was making her debut in a musical. They followed with another nostalgic piece of writing, Lorelei, a revision of the musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, penned specifically for its original star, Carol Channing. Comden and Green were only to provide lyrics for a handful of new songs, but when the production was foundering on the road they stepped in as its directors, working on it for over a year.","PeriodicalId":446150,"journal":{"name":"They Made Us Happy","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134147376","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
They Made Us HappyPub Date : 2019-03-01DOI: 10.1093/OSO/9780190630935.003.0018
Andy Propst
{"title":"Ten Years of Performing and Writing","authors":"Andy Propst","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190630935.003.0018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190630935.003.0018","url":null,"abstract":"Betty Comden and Adolph Green moved into their 60s and early 70s and found that they had become right for character roles in films. During the late 1970s and the 1980s they appeared in movies such as Garbo Talks, Simon, and I Want to Go Home. Comden also appeared off-Broadway in Wendy Wasserstein’s Isn’t It Romantic? They’d not given up on writing for the stage, and in 1982 one of their most ambitious shows—A Doll’s Life—opened on Broadway. Unfortunately, the Harold Prince–directed show got a critical drubbing and played fewer than ten performances. They also provided the script for a stage version of Singin’ in the Rain, directed and choreographed by Twyla Tharp. It was also cooly received by critics, and after it shuttered the team reworked it, and that production enjoyed a healthy national tour.","PeriodicalId":446150,"journal":{"name":"They Made Us Happy","volume":"9 1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129914837","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
They Made Us HappyPub Date : 2019-03-01DOI: 10.1093/OSO/9780190630935.003.0012
Andy Propst
{"title":"A Movie, Some TV … and Jukeboxes","authors":"Andy Propst","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190630935.003.0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190630935.003.0012","url":null,"abstract":"Betty Comden and Adolph Green struggled with getting the screenplay for the movie version of Bells Are Ringing produced, but eventually the project went before the cameras with Judy Holliday reprising her stage performance under the direction of Vincente Minnelli. After this the writers found that their work as performers was taking them to television and specifically two high-profile network specials. They also began work on another musical with Jule Styne, an adaptation of Garson Kanin’s novelette Do Re Mi. The story, about some ex-cons trying to go legit in the jukebox business, starred Phil Silvers and proved to be such a hit that President-elect John F. Kennedy felt it necessary to take it in just days before his inauguration.","PeriodicalId":446150,"journal":{"name":"They Made Us Happy","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124564174","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
They Made Us HappyPub Date : 2019-03-01DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190630935.003.0004
Andy Propst
{"title":"Turning to the 1920s","authors":"Andy Propst","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190630935.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190630935.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"Betty Comden and Adolph Green realized that after On the Town their newfound success as writers required that they attempt devising a second musical. In short order they penned Billion Dollar Baby, with a score by Morton Gould, which opened on Broadway almost one year to the day after their first tuner debuted. The show, though well received, didn’t have the lasting impact of Town, but it did help them secure a gig at MGM, where they were hired to write a screenplay for a new movie version of the Broadway musical Good News. It was the beginning of a bi-coastal existence for them that would last 15 years.","PeriodicalId":446150,"journal":{"name":"They Made Us Happy","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131142461","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
They Made Us HappyPub Date : 2019-03-01DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190630935.003.0015
Andy Propst
{"title":"Part of the Times, Personally and Professionally","authors":"Andy Propst","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190630935.003.0015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190630935.003.0015","url":null,"abstract":"During the early and middle part of the 1960s Betty Comden and Adolph Green were no longer splitting their time between working on shows for Broadway and movies in Hollywood, and as a result they were able to dedicate more time to their personal lives. And while they might have been spending time with the elite of New York’s society, they were not unaware of the issues facing the country. This informed a pair of stand-alone songs they penned with Jule Styne and Leonard Bernstein as well as their next musical, Hallelujah, Baby! Featuring a book by Arthur Laurents, the show chronicled the African-American experience during the first six decades of the twentieth century. Leslie Uggams was the star of what was ultimately an unconventional tuner that had music by Jule Styne and went on to win a Tony Award as best musical","PeriodicalId":446150,"journal":{"name":"They Made Us Happy","volume":"150 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121292212","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
They Made Us HappyPub Date : 2019-03-01DOI: 10.1093/OSO/9780190630935.003.0013
Andy Propst
{"title":"Writing a Darker Musical Fairy Tale","authors":"Andy Propst","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190630935.003.0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190630935.003.0013","url":null,"abstract":"Betty Comden and Adolph Green wrote both the book and lyrics for the musical Subways Are for Sleeping, which opened in December 1961. Based on a book of the same title by Edmund G. Love, the show had been something they had been working on for nearly four years. Timing and changes in the artistic team had caused the delays and were precursors to the show’s very rocky out-of-town tryout, during which Comden and Green rewrote the central plot of the musical. Their ministrations didn’t sway critics by the time the production reached Broadway, and the show, which had Green’s wife, Phyllis Newman, in a featured role, had a run of only six months.","PeriodicalId":446150,"journal":{"name":"They Made Us Happy","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123090425","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
They Made Us HappyPub Date : 2019-03-01DOI: 10.1093/OSO/9780190630935.003.0008
Andy Propst
{"title":"Theatrical Adventures On Screen and On- and Offstage","authors":"Andy Propst","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190630935.003.0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190630935.003.0008","url":null,"abstract":"Betty Comden and Adolph Green found themselves in 1952 developing for MGM’s Arthur Freed a screenplay using pre-existing songs by Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz. The result was the movie The Band Wagon, which starred Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse and was directed by Vincente Minnelli. Not long after they finished writing this they got an urgent call from Broadway director George Abbott. He was working on a new musical, and the show’s star, Rosalind Russell, did not like the songs that had been penned for it. He wondered if they might be willing to write a new score for the show with Leonard Bernstein. They agreed and in four weeks turned out all of the necessary material for the hit musical Wonderful Town.","PeriodicalId":446150,"journal":{"name":"They Made Us Happy","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131062443","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
They Made Us HappyPub Date : 2019-03-01DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190630935.003.0014
Andy Propst
{"title":"Stage and Screen Confections … and Something a Little Deeper","authors":"Andy Propst","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190630935.003.0014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190630935.003.0014","url":null,"abstract":"Betty Comden and Adolph Green returned to lighter fare after Subways Are for Sleeping. They penned a giddy film romp called What a Way to Go! The film starred Shirley MacLaine as an oft-married woman who finds herself, despite her desire to remain poor, getting richer and richer. Neither the writers nor the critics found the movie to be satisfying, but audiences at the time delighted in it. For the stage they also penned a goofy satirical comedy, Fade Out–Fade In, specifically for Carol Burnett. This look at filmmaking in the 1930s delighted audiences as well, but the show struggled when Burnett dealt with chronic health issues. Beyond these two projects Comden and Green also tried to re-team with the men with whom they wrote their first Broadway show (Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins), but the quartet eventually had to part company on this piece: a musical version of Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth.","PeriodicalId":446150,"journal":{"name":"They Made Us Happy","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124260096","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：