fbpx
Wikipedia

Alan Jay Lerner

November 14, 2023

For the big band leader, see Al Lerner (composer).

Alan Jay Lerner (August 31, 1918 – June 14, 1986) was an American lyricist and librettist. In collaboration with Frederick Loewe, and later Burton Lane, he created some of the world's most popular and enduring works of musical theatre both for the stage and on film. Lerner won three Tony Awards and three Academy Awards, among other honors.

Alan Jay Lerner
Lerner, c. 1962
Background information
Born(1918-08-31)August 31, 1918
New York City, US
DiedJune 14, 1986(1986-06-14) (aged 67)
New York City, US
GenresMusical theatre, popular
OccupationsLyricist, librettist
Years active1942–1986

Early life and education edit

Born in New York City, he was the son of Edith Adelson Lerner and Joseph Jay Lerner, whose brother, Samuel Alexander Lerner, was founder and owner of the Lerner Stores, a chain of dress shops. One of Lerner's cousins was the radio comedian and television game show panelist Henry Morgan. Lerner was educated at Bedales School in England, The Choate School (now Choate Rosemary Hall) in Wallingford, Connecticut, (where he wrote "The Choate Marching Song") and Harvard. He attended both Camp Androscoggin and Camp Greylock.[1] At both Choate and Harvard, Lerner was a classmate of John F. Kennedy; at Choate they had worked together on the yearbook staff.[2] Like Cole Porter at Yale and Richard Rodgers at Columbia, his career in musical theater began with his collegiate contributions, in Lerner's case to the annual Harvard Hasty Pudding musicals.[3] During the summers of 1936 and 1937, Lerner studied music composition at Juilliard. While attending Harvard, he lost his sight in his left eye due to an accident in the boxing ring. In 1957, Lerner and Leonard Bernstein, another of Lerner's college classmates, collaborated on "Lonely Men of Harvard", a tongue-in-cheek salute to their alma mater.

Career edit

Owing to his eye injury, Lerner could not serve in World War II. Instead he wrote radio scripts, including Your Hit Parade, until he was introduced to Austrian composer Frederick Loewe, who needed a partner, in 1942 at the Lamb's Club. While at the Lamb's, he also met Lorenz Hart, with whom he would also collaborate.[4]

Lerner and Loewe's first collaboration was a musical adaptation of Barry Conners's farce The Patsy called Life of the Party for a Detroit stock company. The lyrics were mostly written by Earle Crooker, but he had left the project, with the score needing vast improvement. It enjoyed a nine-week run and encouraged the duo to join forces with Arthur Pierson for What's Up?, which opened on Broadway in 1943. It ran for 63 performances and was followed two years later by The Day Before Spring.[5]

Their first hit was Brigadoon (1947), a romantic fantasy set in a mystical Scottish village, directed by Robert Lewis. It was followed in 1951 by the Gold Rush story Paint Your Wagon. While the show ran for nearly a year and included songs that later became pop standards, such as "They Call the Wind Maria", it was less successful than Lerner's previous work. He later said of Paint Your Wagon, it was "a success but not a hit."[6]

Lerner worked with Kurt Weill on the stage musical Love Life (1948) and Burton Lane on the movie musical Royal Wedding (1951). In that same year Lerner also wrote the Oscar-winning original screenplay for An American in Paris, produced by Arthur Freed and directed by Vincente Minnelli. This was the same team who would later join with Lerner and Loewe to create Gigi.

In 1956, Lerner and Loewe unveiled My Fair Lady. By this time, too, Lerner and Burton Lane were already working on a musical about Li'l Abner. Gabriel Pascal owned the rights to Pygmalion, which had been unsuccessful with other composers who tried to adapt it into a musical. Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz first tried, and then Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II attempted, but gave up and Hammerstein told Lerner, "Pygmalion had no subplot". Lerner and Loewe's adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion retained his social commentary and added appropriate songs for the characters of Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle, played originally by Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews. It set box-office records in New York and London. When brought to the screen in 1964, the movie version won eight Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Rex Harrison.

Lerner and Loewe's run of success continued with their next project, a film adaptation of stories from Colette, the Academy Award-winning film musical Gigi, starring Leslie Caron, Louis Jourdan and Maurice Chevalier. The film won all of its nine Oscar nominations, a record at that time, and a special Oscar for co-star Maurice Chevalier.

The Lerner-Loewe partnership cracked under the stress of producing the Arthurian Camelot in 1960, with Loewe resisting Lerner's desire to direct as well as write when original director Moss Hart experienced a heart attack in the last few months of rehearsals and died about a year after the show's Broadway premiere.[7][8] Lerner was hospitalized with bleeding ulcers while Loewe continued to have heart troubles. Camelot was a hit nonetheless, and immediately following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, his widow told reporter Theodore H. White that JFK's administration reminded her of the "one brief shining moment" of Lerner and Loewe's Camelot. As of the early 21st century, Camelot was still invoked to describe the idealism, romance, and tragedy of the Kennedy years.[9]

Loewe retired to Palm Springs, California, while Lerner went through a series of musicals—some successful, some not—with such composers as André Previn (Coco), John Barry (Lolita, My Love), Leonard Bernstein (1600 Pennsylvania Avenue), Burton Lane (Carmelina) and Charles Strouse (Dance a Little Closer, based on the film, Idiot's Delight, nicknamed Close A Little Faster by Broadway humorists because it closed on opening night). Most biographers[who?] blame Lerner's professional decline on the lack of a strong director with whom Lerner could collaborate, as Neil Simon did with Mike Nichols or Stephen Sondheim with Harold Prince. (Moss Hart, who had directed My Fair Lady, died shortly after Camelot opened.) In 1965 Lerner collaborated again with Burton Lane on the musical On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, which was adapted for film in 1970. At this time, Lerner was hired by film producer Arthur P. Jacobs to write a treatment for an upcoming film project, Doctor Dolittle, but Lerner abrogated his contract after several non-productive months of non-communicative procrastination and was replaced with Leslie Bricusse.[10] Lerner was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1971.

In 1973, Lerner coaxed Loewe out of retirement to augment the Gigi score for a musical stage adaptation. The following year they collaborated on a musical film version of The Little Prince, based on the classic children's tale by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. This film was a critical and box office failure, but it has gained a modern following.[citation needed]

Lerner's autobiography, The Street Where I Live (1978), was an account of three of his and Loewe's successful collaborations, My Fair Lady, Gigi, and Camelot, along with personal information. In the last year of his life, he published The Musical Theatre: A Celebration, a well-reviewed history of the theatre, with personal anecdotes and humor. The Los Angeles Times reviewer wrote: "There are several reasons why this book makes a fine introduction to musical theater. One is that Lerner knows exactly what was new, and when and why....In "The Musical Theatre," one is privy to the judgment of a man... who expresses his opinions in a forthright, warm and personal manner."[11] A book of Lerner's lyrics entitled A Hymn To Him, edited by a British writer Benny Green, was published in 1987.

At the time of Lerner's death, he had been working with Gerard Kenny and Kristi Kane in London on a musical version of the film My Man Godfrey. He had also received an urgent call from Andrew Lloyd Webber, asking him to write the lyrics to The Phantom of the Opera. He wrote "Masquerade", but he then informed Webber that he wanted to leave the project because he was losing his memory (he had developed metastatic lung cancer) and Charles Hart replaced him.[12][13] He had turned down an invitation to write the English-language lyrics for the musical version of Les Misérables.[14]

After Lerner's death, Paul Blake made a musical revue based on Lerner's lyrics and life entitled Almost Like Being In Love, which featured music by Loewe, Lane, Previn, Strouse, and Weill.[15][16] The show ran for 10 days at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco.[17][18]

Songwriting edit

Lerner often struggled with writing his lyrics. He was uncharacteristically able to complete "I Could Have Danced All Night" from My Fair Lady in one 24-hour period. He usually spent months on each song and was constantly rewriting them. Lerner was said[by whom?] to have insecurity about his talent. He would sometimes write songs with someone in mind, for instance, "I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face" from My Fair Lady was written with Rex Harrison in mind to complement his very limited vocal range.[clarification needed]

Lerner said of writing:

You have to keep in mind that there is no such thing as realism or naturalism in the theater. That is a myth. If there was realism in the theater, there would never be a third act. Nothing ends that way. A man's life is made up of thousands and thousands of little pieces. In writing fiction, you select 20 or 30 of them. In a musical, you select even fewer than that.

First, we decide where a song is needed in a play. Second, what is it going to be about? Third, we discuss the mood of the song. Fourth, I give (Loewe) a title. Then he writes the music to the title and the general feeling of the song is established. After he's written the melody, then I write the lyrics.

In a 1979 interview on NPR's All Things Considered, Lerner went into some depth about his lyrics for My Fair Lady. Professor Henry Higgins sings, "Look at her, a prisoner of the gutters / Condemned by every syllable she utters / By right she should be taken out and hung / For the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue." Lerner said he knew the lyric used incorrect grammar for the sake of a rhyme. He was later approached about it by another lyricist:

I thought, oh well, maybe nobody will notice it, but not at all. Two nights after it opened, I ran into Noël Coward in a restaurant, and he walked over and he said, "Dear boy, it is hanged, not hung." I said, "Oh, Noel, I know it, I know it! You know, shut up!" So, and there's another, "Than to ever let a woman in my life." It should be, "as to ever let a woman in my life," but it just didn't sing well.

Dramatists Guild edit

Alan Jay Lerner was an advocate for writers' rights in theatre. He was a member of the Dramatists Guild of America. In 1960, he was elected as the twelfth president of the non-profit organization. He continued to serve as the Guild's president until 1964.

Personal life edit

For nearly twenty years, Lerner was addicted to amphetamines; during the 1960s he was a patient of Max Jacobson, known as "Dr. Feelgood", who administered injections of "vitamins with enzymes" that were in fact laced with amphetamines. Lerner's addiction is believed to have been the result of Jacobson's practice.[19][20]

Marriages and children edit

Lerner married eight times: Ruth Boyd (1940–1947), singer Marion Bell (1947–1949), actress Nancy Olson (1950–1957), lawyer Micheline Muselli Pozzo di Borgo (1957–1965), editor Karen Gundersen (1966–1974), Sandra Payne (1974–1976), Nina Bushkin (1977–1981) and Liz Robertson (1981–1986 [his death]). Four of his eight wives — Olson, Payne, Bushkin, and Robertson — were actresses.[2] His seventh wife, Nina Bushkin, whom he married on May 30, 1977, was the director of development at Mannes College of Music and the daughter of composer and musician Joey Bushkin.[21] After their divorce in 1981, Lerner was ordered to pay her a settlement of $50,000.[22] Lerner wrote in his autobiography (as quoted by The New York Times): "All I can say is that if I had no flair for marriage, I also had no flair for bachelorhood."[23]

Lerner had four children — three daughters, Susan (by Boyd), Liza and Jennifer (by Olson), and one son, screenwriter and journalist Michael Alan Lerner (by di Borgo).

 
Lerner's memorial plaque in St Paul's Church in London

Lerner's multiple divorces cost him much of his wealth, but he was primarily responsible for his own financial ups and downs and was apparently less than truthful about his financial fecklessness.[24] It was claimed that his divorce settlement from Micheline Muselli Pozzo di Borgo (his fourth wife) cost him an estimated $1 million in 1965. This was untrue.[25] Lerner's pattern of financial mismanagement continued until his death from cancer in 1986, when he reportedly owed the U.S. Internal Revenue Service over US$1,000,000 in back taxes and was unable to pay for his final medical expenses.[26]

Death edit

On June 14, 1986, Lerner died of lung cancer in Manhattan at the age of 67. At the time of his death he was married to actress Liz Robertson, who was 36 years his junior.[23] He lived in Center Island, New York.[27] He has a memorial plaque in St Paul's Church, the Actors' Church in Covent Garden in London.

Awards and honors edit

Academy Award
Golden Globes[30]
Tony Award[31]
New York Drama Critics Circle[31]
Johnny Mercer Award[32]

Works edit

Stage edit

Films edit

Source: TCM[34]

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ "The Executive Life; And No One Mentions The Many Mosquitoes"The New York Times, June 14, 1992
  2. ^ a b "Alan Jay Lerner: Biography" Turner Classic Movies, accessed August 1, 2009
  3. ^ Green, p.238
  4. ^ Viertel, Jack (March 15, 2015). "Encores! artistic director Jack Viertel explains how the Lerner and Lowe musical Paint Your Wagon is a fascinating anomaly from the songwriting team best known for My Fair Lady and Camelot". Playbill. Retrieved December 16, 2016.
  5. ^ Green, p. 239
  6. ^ Zink, Jack (October 12, 1986). "Folk Musical 'Wagon' Claims Quite A History Lerner And Loewe's 'Paint Your Wagon' Has Had Three Transformations In Its Lifetime. And Now What Is Considered The Best Version Is Being Presented At The Royal Palm Dinner Theatre In Boca Raton". Sun-Sentinel. Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Retrieved December 16, 2016.
  7. ^ Taubman, Howard (December 5, 1960). "Theatre: 'Camelot Partly Enchanted; Lerner-Loewe Musical Opens at Majestic". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 14, 2023.
  8. ^ "Youngstown Vindicator - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved June 14, 2023.
  9. ^ Koehler, Robert (December 23, 1992). "Stage Review: Retunn to 'Camelot ' -- Sans Inspiration". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 16, 2016.
  10. ^ Harris, Mark (February 14, 2008). Pictures at a Revolution. Penguin Press. pp. 77–78. ISBN 978-1101202852. lerner bricusse.
  11. ^ Curcio, Vincent. " 'The Musical Theatre: A CELEBRATION' by Alan Jay Lerner (McGraw-Hill: $24.95; 280 pp., illustrated)" Los Angeles Times, November 30, 1986
  12. ^ Furia, Philip (2002). American Song Lyricists, 1920-1960. Detroit: Gale. pp. 322–335. ISBN 978-0-7876-6009-3.
  13. ^ Citron, Stephen (September 13, 2001). Sondheim and Lloyd-Webber. Oxford University Press US. p. 330. ISBN 978-0195357271. lerner.
  14. ^ Behr, Edward (January 1, 1993). The Complete Book of Les Misérables. Arcade Publishing. p. 62. ISBN 978-1559701563. Retrieved August 23, 2018.
  15. ^ "Almost Like Being In Love: A Musical Revue". Playbill. Retrieved February 23, 2018.
  16. ^ "Theater Week". Vol. 3, no. 21. That New Magazine, Inc. 1990. p. 8.
  17. ^ Stevens, Rob (December 1, 1989). "Theatre reviews: WEST COAST STAGES". ProQuest 962904448. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  18. ^ "Almost Like Being in Love act". Vol. 24, no. 3. San Francisco Bay. January 3, 1990. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  19. ^ Bryk, William (September 20, 2005). "Dr. Feelgood". The New York Sun.
  20. ^ Rasmussen, Nicolas (March 1, 2008). On Speed: The Many Lives of Amphetamine. New York City: New York University Press. p. 169. ISBN 978-0814776278.
  21. ^ "Note on People", The New York Times, June 10, 1977, p. 19
  22. ^ Lees, Gene (2005). The musical worlds of Lerner and Loewe. U of Nebraska Press. p. 309. ISBN 978-0803280403.
  23. ^ a b Freedman, Samuel (June 15, 1986). "Alan Jay Lerner, the Lyricist and Playwright, Is Dead at 67". The New York Times. p. 1.
  24. ^ Brown, Gordon W.; Myers, Scott (February 22, 2012). Administration of wills, trusts, and estates. Cengage Learning. p. 358. ISBN 978-1285401034.
  25. ^ "Mrs. Lerner in Las Vegas Preparing to Ask Divorce". The New York Times. September 1, 1965. p. 28.
  26. ^ "Alan Jay Lerner Sued By U.S. for $1.4 Million". The New York Times. Associated Press. February 20, 1986.
  27. ^ "Centre Island". Long Island Exchange. December 31, 2013. Retrieved August 23, 2018.
  28. ^ "Theater Hall of Fame Enshrines 51 Artists". New York Times. November 19, 1979. Retrieved February 7, 2019.
  29. ^ "Honors, 1985" kennedy-center.org, retrieved July 13, 2019
  30. ^ "Alan Jay Lerner" goldenglobes.com, retrieved July 13, 2019
  31. ^ a b "Alan Jay Lerner Broadway" playbill.com, retrieved July 13, 2019
  32. ^ "1985 Awards Ceremony" songhall.org, retrieved July 13, 2019
  33. ^ Nemy, Enid (March 19, 1985). "'My Man Godfrey' Bound For Broadway". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved July 13, 2019.
  34. ^ "Alan Jay Lerner Filmography" tcm.com, retrieved July 13, 2019

References edit

  • Green, Stanley. The world of musical comedy (Edition 4, 1984), Da Capo Press, ISBN 0-306-80207-4

Further reading edit

  • Lerner, Alan Jay (1985). The Street Where I Live. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80602-9
  • Shapiro, Doris (1989). We Danced All Night: My Life Behind the Scenes With Alan Jay Lerner. Barricade Books. ISBN 0-942637-98-4
  • Jablonski, Edward (1996). Alan Jay Lerner: A Biography. Henry Holt & Co. ISBN 0-8050-4076-5
  • Citron, David (1995). The Wordsmiths: Oscar Hammerstein 2nd and Alan Jay Lerner. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-508386-5
  • Green, Benny, Editor (1987). A Hymn to Him : The Lyrics of Alan Jay Lerner. Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 0-87910-109-1
  • Garebian, Keith (1998). The Making of My Fair Lady. Publisher: Mosaic Press. ISBN 0-88962-653-7

External links edit

Listen to this article (15 minutes)
 
This audio file was created from a revision of this article dated 3 April 2020 (2020-04-03), and does not reflect subsequent edits.
(Audio help · More spoken articles)

November 14, 2023
alan, lerner, band, leader, lerner, composer, august, 1918, june, 1986, american, lyricist, librettist, collaboration, with, frederick, loewe, later, burton, lane, created, some, world, most, popular, enduring, works, musical, theatre, both, stage, film, lerne. For the big band leader see Al Lerner composer Alan Jay Lerner August 31 1918 June 14 1986 was an American lyricist and librettist In collaboration with Frederick Loewe and later Burton Lane he created some of the world s most popular and enduring works of musical theatre both for the stage and on film Lerner won three Tony Awards and three Academy Awards among other honors Alan Jay LernerLerner c 1962Background informationBorn 1918 08 31 August 31 1918New York City USDiedJune 14 1986 1986 06 14 aged 67 New York City USGenresMusical theatre popularOccupationsLyricist librettistYears active1942 1986 Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 3 Songwriting 4 Dramatists Guild 5 Personal life 5 1 Marriages and children 6 Death 7 Awards and honors 8 Works 8 1 Stage 8 2 Films 9 See also 10 Notes 11 References 12 Further reading 13 External linksEarly life and education editBorn in New York City he was the son of Edith Adelson Lerner and Joseph Jay Lerner whose brother Samuel Alexander Lerner was founder and owner of the Lerner Stores a chain of dress shops One of Lerner s cousins was the radio comedian and television game show panelist Henry Morgan Lerner was educated at Bedales School in England The Choate School now Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford Connecticut where he wrote The Choate Marching Song and Harvard He attended both Camp Androscoggin and Camp Greylock 1 At both Choate and Harvard Lerner was a classmate of John F Kennedy at Choate they had worked together on the yearbook staff 2 Like Cole Porter at Yale and Richard Rodgers at Columbia his career in musical theater began with his collegiate contributions in Lerner s case to the annual Harvard Hasty Pudding musicals 3 During the summers of 1936 and 1937 Lerner studied music composition at Juilliard While attending Harvard he lost his sight in his left eye due to an accident in the boxing ring In 1957 Lerner and Leonard Bernstein another of Lerner s college classmates collaborated on Lonely Men of Harvard a tongue in cheek salute to their alma mater Career editOwing to his eye injury Lerner could not serve in World War II Instead he wrote radio scripts including Your Hit Parade until he was introduced to Austrian composer Frederick Loewe who needed a partner in 1942 at the Lamb s Club While at the Lamb s he also met Lorenz Hart with whom he would also collaborate 4 Lerner and Loewe s first collaboration was a musical adaptation of Barry Conners s farce The Patsy called Life of the Party for a Detroit stock company The lyrics were mostly written by Earle Crooker but he had left the project with the score needing vast improvement It enjoyed a nine week run and encouraged the duo to join forces with Arthur Pierson for What s Up which opened on Broadway in 1943 It ran for 63 performances and was followed two years later by The Day Before Spring 5 Their first hit was Brigadoon 1947 a romantic fantasy set in a mystical Scottish village directed by Robert Lewis It was followed in 1951 by the Gold Rush story Paint Your Wagon While the show ran for nearly a year and included songs that later became pop standards such as They Call the Wind Maria it was less successful than Lerner s previous work He later said of Paint Your Wagon it was a success but not a hit 6 Lerner worked with Kurt Weill on the stage musical Love Life 1948 and Burton Lane on the movie musical Royal Wedding 1951 In that same year Lerner also wrote the Oscar winning original screenplay for An American in Paris produced by Arthur Freed and directed by Vincente Minnelli This was the same team who would later join with Lerner and Loewe to create Gigi In 1956 Lerner and Loewe unveiled My Fair Lady By this time too Lerner and Burton Lane were already working on a musical about Li l Abner Gabriel Pascal owned the rights to Pygmalion which had been unsuccessful with other composers who tried to adapt it into a musical Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz first tried and then Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II attempted but gave up and Hammerstein told Lerner Pygmalion had no subplot Lerner and Loewe s adaptation of George Bernard Shaw s Pygmalion retained his social commentary and added appropriate songs for the characters of Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle played originally by Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews It set box office records in New York and London When brought to the screen in 1964 the movie version won eight Oscars including Best Picture and Best Actor for Rex Harrison Lerner and Loewe s run of success continued with their next project a film adaptation of stories from Colette the Academy Award winning film musical Gigi starring Leslie Caron Louis Jourdan and Maurice Chevalier The film won all of its nine Oscar nominations a record at that time and a special Oscar for co star Maurice Chevalier The Lerner Loewe partnership cracked under the stress of producing the Arthurian Camelot in 1960 with Loewe resisting Lerner s desire to direct as well as write when original director Moss Hart experienced a heart attack in the last few months of rehearsals and died about a year after the show s Broadway premiere 7 8 Lerner was hospitalized with bleeding ulcers while Loewe continued to have heart troubles Camelot was a hit nonetheless and immediately following the assassination of John F Kennedy his widow told reporter Theodore H White that JFK s administration reminded her of the one brief shining moment of Lerner and Loewe s Camelot As of the early 21st century Camelot was still invoked to describe the idealism romance and tragedy of the Kennedy years 9 Loewe retired to Palm Springs California while Lerner went through a series of musicals some successful some not with such composers as Andre Previn Coco John Barry Lolita My Love Leonard Bernstein 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Burton Lane Carmelina and Charles Strouse Dance a Little Closer based on the film Idiot s Delight nicknamed Close A Little Faster by Broadway humorists because it closed on opening night Most biographers who blame Lerner s professional decline on the lack of a strong director with whom Lerner could collaborate as Neil Simon did with Mike Nichols or Stephen Sondheim with Harold Prince Moss Hart who had directed My Fair Lady died shortly after Camelot opened In 1965 Lerner collaborated again with Burton Lane on the musical On a Clear Day You Can See Forever which was adapted for film in 1970 At this time Lerner was hired by film producer Arthur P Jacobs to write a treatment for an upcoming film project Doctor Dolittle but Lerner abrogated his contract after several non productive months of non communicative procrastination and was replaced with Leslie Bricusse 10 Lerner was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1971 In 1973 Lerner coaxed Loewe out of retirement to augment the Gigi score for a musical stage adaptation The following year they collaborated on a musical film version of The Little Prince based on the classic children s tale by Antoine de Saint Exupery This film was a critical and box office failure but it has gained a modern following citation needed Lerner s autobiography The Street Where I Live 1978 was an account of three of his and Loewe s successful collaborations My Fair Lady Gigi and Camelot along with personal information In the last year of his life he published The Musical Theatre A Celebration a well reviewed history of the theatre with personal anecdotes and humor The Los Angeles Times reviewer wrote There are several reasons why this book makes a fine introduction to musical theater One is that Lerner knows exactly what was new and when and why In The Musical Theatre one is privy to the judgment of a man who expresses his opinions in a forthright warm and personal manner 11 A book of Lerner s lyrics entitled A Hymn To Him edited by a British writer Benny Green was published in 1987 At the time of Lerner s death he had been working with Gerard Kenny and Kristi Kane in London on a musical version of the film My Man Godfrey He had also received an urgent call from Andrew Lloyd Webber asking him to write the lyrics to The Phantom of the Opera He wrote Masquerade but he then informed Webber that he wanted to leave the project because he was losing his memory he had developed metastatic lung cancer and Charles Hart replaced him 12 13 He had turned down an invitation to write the English language lyrics for the musical version of Les Miserables 14 After Lerner s death Paul Blake made a musical revue based on Lerner s lyrics and life entitled Almost Like Being In Love which featured music by Loewe Lane Previn Strouse and Weill 15 16 The show ran for 10 days at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco 17 18 Songwriting editThis section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed August 2017 Learn how and when to remove this template message Lerner often struggled with writing his lyrics He was uncharacteristically able to complete I Could Have Danced All Night from My Fair Lady in one 24 hour period He usually spent months on each song and was constantly rewriting them Lerner was said by whom to have insecurity about his talent He would sometimes write songs with someone in mind for instance I ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face from My Fair Lady was written with Rex Harrison in mind to complement his very limited vocal range clarification needed Lerner said of writing You have to keep in mind that there is no such thing as realism or naturalism in the theater That is a myth If there was realism in the theater there would never be a third act Nothing ends that way A man s life is made up of thousands and thousands of little pieces In writing fiction you select 20 or 30 of them In a musical you select even fewer than that First we decide where a song is needed in a play Second what is it going to be about Third we discuss the mood of the song Fourth I give Loewe a title Then he writes the music to the title and the general feeling of the song is established After he s written the melody then I write the lyrics In a 1979 interview on NPR s All Things Considered Lerner went into some depth about his lyrics for My Fair Lady Professor Henry Higgins sings Look at her a prisoner of the gutters Condemned by every syllable she utters By right she should be taken out and hung For the cold blooded murder of the English tongue Lerner said he knew the lyric used incorrect grammar for the sake of a rhyme He was later approached about it by another lyricist I thought oh well maybe nobody will notice it but not at all Two nights after it opened I ran into Noel Coward in a restaurant and he walked over and he said Dear boy it is hanged not hung I said Oh Noel I know it I know it You know shut up So and there s another Than to ever let a woman in my life It should be as to ever let a woman in my life but it just didn t sing well Dramatists Guild editAlan Jay Lerner was an advocate for writers rights in theatre He was a member of the Dramatists Guild of America In 1960 he was elected as the twelfth president of the non profit organization He continued to serve as the Guild s president until 1964 Personal life editFor nearly twenty years Lerner was addicted to amphetamines during the 1960s he was a patient of Max Jacobson known as Dr Feelgood who administered injections of vitamins with enzymes that were in fact laced with amphetamines Lerner s addiction is believed to have been the result of Jacobson s practice 19 20 Marriages and children edit Lerner married eight times Ruth Boyd 1940 1947 singer Marion Bell 1947 1949 actress Nancy Olson 1950 1957 lawyer Micheline Muselli Pozzo di Borgo 1957 1965 editor Karen Gundersen 1966 1974 Sandra Payne 1974 1976 Nina Bushkin 1977 1981 and Liz Robertson 1981 1986 his death Four of his eight wives Olson Payne Bushkin and Robertson were actresses 2 His seventh wife Nina Bushkin whom he married on May 30 1977 was the director of development at Mannes College of Music and the daughter of composer and musician Joey Bushkin 21 After their divorce in 1981 Lerner was ordered to pay her a settlement of 50 000 22 Lerner wrote in his autobiography as quoted by The New York Times All I can say is that if I had no flair for marriage I also had no flair for bachelorhood 23 Lerner had four children three daughters Susan by Boyd Liza and Jennifer by Olson and one son screenwriter and journalist Michael Alan Lerner by di Borgo nbsp Lerner s memorial plaque in St Paul s Church in LondonLerner s multiple divorces cost him much of his wealth but he was primarily responsible for his own financial ups and downs and was apparently less than truthful about his financial fecklessness 24 It was claimed that his divorce settlement from Micheline Muselli Pozzo di Borgo his fourth wife cost him an estimated 1 million in 1965 This was untrue 25 Lerner s pattern of financial mismanagement continued until his death from cancer in 1986 when he reportedly owed the U S Internal Revenue Service over US 1 000 000 in back taxes and was unable to pay for his final medical expenses 26 Death editOn June 14 1986 Lerner died of lung cancer in Manhattan at the age of 67 At the time of his death he was married to actress Liz Robertson who was 36 years his junior 23 He lived in Center Island New York 27 He has a memorial plaque in St Paul s Church the Actors Church in Covent Garden in London Awards and honors editAmerican Theater Hall of Fame 1979 28 Kennedy Center Honors 1985 29 Academy AwardBest Original Screenplay 1951 An American in Paris Best Adapted Screenplay 1958 Gigi Best Original Song 1958 GigiGolden Globes 30 Best Original Song 1968 Camelot Best Original Score 1975 The Little PrinceTony Award 31 Best Book of a Musical 1957 My Fair Lady Best Original Score 1957 My Fair Lady and 1974 GigiNew York Drama Critics Circle 31 Best Musical 1947 Brigadoon Best Musical 1956 My Fair LadyJohnny Mercer Award 32 Lyric Writing 1985 LifetimeWorks editStage edit Life of the Party 1942 with Frederick Loewe What s Up 1943 with Frederick Loewe The Day Before Spring 1945 with Frederick Loewe Brigadoon 1947 with Frederick Loewe Love Life 1948 with Kurt Weill Paint Your Wagon 1951 Frederick Loewe My Fair Lady 1956 with Frederick Loewe Camelot 1960 with Frederick Loewe On a Clear Day You Can See Forever 1965 with Burton Lane Coco 1969 with Andre Previn Lolita My Love 1971 with John Barry Gigi 1973 based on the 1958 film of the same name with Frederick Loewe 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue 1976 with Leonard Bernstein Carmelina 1979 with Burton Lane and Joseph Stein Dance a Little Closer 1983 with Charles Strouse My Man Godfrey 1984 unfinished with Gerard Kenny 33 Films edit Source TCM 34 Royal Wedding 1951 screenwriter lyricist An American in Paris 1951 writer Brigadoon 1954 film screenwriter lyricist Gigi 1958 screenwriter lyricist The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 1960 lyricist My Fair Lady 1964 screenwriter lyricist Camelot 1967 screenwriter lyricist Paint Your Wagon 1969 producer screenwriter lyricist On a Clear Day You Can See Forever 1970 screenwriter lyricist The Little Prince 1974 screenwriter lyricist Tribute 1980 It s All for the Best lyricist Secret Places 1984 title song lyricist See also editLerner and LoeweNotes edit The Executive Life And No One Mentions The Many Mosquitoes The New York Times June 14 1992 a b Alan Jay Lerner Biography Turner Classic Movies accessed August 1 2009 Green p 238 Viertel Jack March 15 2015 Encores artistic director Jack Viertel explains how the Lerner and Lowe musical Paint Your Wagon is a fascinating anomaly from the songwriting team best known for My Fair Lady and Camelot Playbill Retrieved December 16 2016 Green p 239 Zink Jack October 12 1986 Folk Musical Wagon Claims Quite A History Lerner And Loewe s Paint Your Wagon Has Had Three Transformations In Its Lifetime And Now What Is Considered The Best Version Is Being Presented At The Royal Palm Dinner Theatre In Boca Raton Sun Sentinel Fort Lauderdale Florida Retrieved December 16 2016 Taubman Howard December 5 1960 Theatre Camelot Partly Enchanted Lerner Loewe Musical Opens at Majestic The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved June 14 2023 Youngstown Vindicator Google News Archive Search news google com Retrieved June 14 2023 Koehler Robert December 23 1992 Stage Review Retunn to Camelot Sans Inspiration Los Angeles Times Retrieved December 16 2016 Harris Mark February 14 2008 Pictures at a Revolution Penguin Press pp 77 78 ISBN 978 1101202852 lerner bricusse Curcio Vincent The Musical Theatre A CELEBRATION by Alan Jay Lerner McGraw Hill 24 95 280 pp illustrated Los Angeles Times November 30 1986 Furia Philip 2002 American Song Lyricists 1920 1960 Detroit Gale pp 322 335 ISBN 978 0 7876 6009 3 Citron Stephen September 13 2001 Sondheim and Lloyd Webber Oxford University Press US p 330 ISBN 978 0195357271 lerner Behr Edward January 1 1993 The Complete Book of Les Miserables Arcade Publishing p 62 ISBN 978 1559701563 Retrieved August 23 2018 Almost Like Being In Love A Musical Revue Playbill Retrieved February 23 2018 Theater Week Vol 3 no 21 That New Magazine Inc 1990 p 8 Stevens Rob December 1 1989 Theatre reviews WEST COAST STAGES ProQuest 962904448 Retrieved December 2 2020 Almost Like Being in Love act Vol 24 no 3 San Francisco Bay January 3 1990 Retrieved December 2 2020 Bryk William September 20 2005 Dr Feelgood The New York Sun Rasmussen Nicolas March 1 2008 On Speed The Many Lives of Amphetamine New York City New York University Press p 169 ISBN 978 0814776278 Note on People The New York Times June 10 1977 p 19 Lees Gene 2005 The musical worlds of Lerner and Loewe U of Nebraska Press p 309 ISBN 978 0803280403 a b Freedman Samuel June 15 1986 Alan Jay Lerner the Lyricist and Playwright Is Dead at 67 The New York Times p 1 Brown Gordon W Myers Scott February 22 2012 Administration of wills trusts and estates Cengage Learning p 358 ISBN 978 1285401034 Mrs Lerner in Las Vegas Preparing to Ask Divorce The New York Times September 1 1965 p 28 Alan Jay Lerner Sued By U S for 1 4 Million The New York Times Associated Press February 20 1986 Centre Island Long Island Exchange December 31 2013 Retrieved August 23 2018 Theater Hall of Fame Enshrines 51 Artists New York Times November 19 1979 Retrieved February 7 2019 Honors 1985 kennedy center org retrieved July 13 2019 Alan Jay Lerner goldenglobes com retrieved July 13 2019 a b Alan Jay Lerner Broadway playbill com retrieved July 13 2019 1985 Awards Ceremony songhall org retrieved July 13 2019 Nemy Enid March 19 1985 My Man Godfrey Bound For Broadway Chicago Tribune Retrieved July 13 2019 Alan Jay Lerner Filmography tcm com retrieved July 13 2019References editGreen Stanley The world of musical comedy Edition 4 1984 Da Capo Press ISBN 0 306 80207 4Further reading editLerner Alan Jay 1985 The Street Where I Live Da Capo Press ISBN 0 306 80602 9 Shapiro Doris 1989 We Danced All Night My Life Behind the Scenes With Alan Jay Lerner Barricade Books ISBN 0 942637 98 4 Jablonski Edward 1996 Alan Jay Lerner A Biography Henry Holt amp Co ISBN 0 8050 4076 5 Citron David 1995 The Wordsmiths Oscar Hammerstein 2nd and Alan Jay Lerner Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 508386 5 Green Benny Editor 1987 A Hymn to Him The Lyrics of Alan Jay Lerner Hal Leonard Corporation ISBN 0 87910 109 1 Garebian Keith 1998 The Making of My Fair Lady Publisher Mosaic Press ISBN 0 88962 653 7External links editListen to this article 15 minutes source source nbsp This audio file was created from a revision of this article dated 3 April 2020 2020 04 03 and does not reflect subsequent edits Audio help More spoken articles Alan Jay Lerner at the Internet Broadway Database nbsp Alan Jay Lerner at the Internet Off Broadway Database Alan Jay Lerner at IMDb Alan Jay Lerner at the Songwriters Hall of Fame Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Alan Jay Lerner amp oldid 1179252387, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.