Alan Jay Lerner: A Lyricist's Letters (60 page)
Read Alan Jay Lerner: A Lyricist's Letters Online
Authors: Dominic McHugh
May 11, 1983:
Dance a Little Closer
opens on Broadway
August 1983: Involved in a car accident; spends the rest of the year researching a history of the musical theater
Summer 1984: Begins work on
My Man Godfrey
with Gerard Kenny
October 1984: Starts to revise
Gigi
for London stage premiere
January 1985: Hands over
Carmelina
revisions to Joseph Stein and continues work on
Gigi
February 15, 1985: Premiere of lullaby for Prince Harry, “Brocades and Coronets,” with music by Gerard Kenny
March 1985:
My Man Godfrey
announced to the press
April 1985: Completes some initial work on
Teddy and Alice
September 17, 1985: Premiere of
Gigi
in London
December 8, 1985: Receives Kennedy Center Award with Loewe
January 1986: Discusses collaboration with Andrew Lloyd Webber on
The Phantom of the Opera
March 31, 1986: Withdraws from
Phantom
after diagnosis of cancer
June 14, 1986: Dies in New York
APPENDIX
Just prior to going to print, the following brief letters came to light. Since neither Loesser nor Prince is otherwise represented in the book, and each message has a point of interest (not least the idea of a
Don Quixote
musical over a decade before
Man of La Mancha
), I was delighted to be able to include them here at the last minute.
D.M
.
To Harold Prince
June 9, 1956
Dear Hal:
I have thought about
Don Quixote
many times. I wish I knew how to do it.
I am still looking, so please communicate any ideas that may pop into your head.
Fondly,
Alan
To Frank Loesser
February 2, 1966
Dear Frank,
You must think I’m a lunatic. I really had a blackout about that whole episode. What do you think it means?
Anyhow, at the slightest provocation I would be delighted to supply all medical documentation to prove that I am
not
a lunatic, although I must admit our particular branch of dramatic arts has never distinguished itself for sanity.
Be all that as it may, I would like to apply again for the job of lunch companion and I beg you to reconsider my application. I have to go away for a few days and will be back Tuesday. I offer you Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or any lunch hour the following week. I do hope you will select one of them.
My apologies again. I really do look forward to seeing you.
Yours rationally,
Alan
Archival Sources
THE LETTERS REPRODUCED IN THIS BOOK ARE DRAWN FROM THE FOLLOWING ARCHIVES
:
Library of Congress: Alan Jay Lerner collection, Arthur Schwartz collection, Burton Lane collection, Leonard Bernstein collection, Joshua Logan collection, Irving Berlin collection, Roger Stevens collection
New York Public Library: Hanya Holm papers, James Barton papers, Jo Mielziner papers, Brooks Atkinson papers, Leland Hayward papers, S. N. Behrman papers, Comden and Green papers, Richard Rodgers papers, Frederick Brisson papers, Katharine Hepburn papers, Richard Kiley papers, Jerome Robbins papers, Agnes de Mille papers
Yale University: Goddard Lieberson collection, Theatre Guild Collection
Wisconsin Historical Society: Herman Levin papers, Moss Hart papers, Edna Ferber papers, Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse papers
USC: Arthur Freed Collection, Jack L. Warner collection
Boston University: Dirk Bogarde collection, Irene Mayer Selznick collection Harvard University: Marietta Peabody Tree papers
Kent State University: Robert Lewis collection
St John’s, Cambridge University: Cecil Beaton papers
Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: George Cukor papers
Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas: Gloria Swanson papers
Swansea University: Richard Burton papers
Kurt Weill Foundation: Lotte Lenya
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library: White House Files
Gershwin Foundation: Ira Gershwin
Private collections: Liz Robertson, Cameron Mackintosh, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Vera Goulet, David Grossberg
Julie Andrews,
Home
(New York: Doubleday, 2008).
Stephen Banfield,
Sondheim’s Broadway Musicals
(Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1994).
Geoffrey Block,
Enchanted Evenings
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1997; rev. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009).
Saul Chaplin,
The Golden Age of Movie Musicals and Me
(Norman, OK: University of Oklahama Press, 1994).
Stephen Citron,
The Wordsmiths
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).
Cheryl Crawford,
One Naked Individual
(New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1977).
Barry Day (ed.),
The Letters of Noel Coward
(London: Methuen, 2007).
Howard Dietz,
Dancing in the Dark
(New York: Quadrangle, 1974).
Lehman Engel,
The American Musical Theater
(New York: Macmillan, 1975).
Lehman Engel,
Words with Music
(New York: Schirmer, 1972).
Hugh Fordin,
MGM’s Greatest Musicals: The Arthur Freed Unit
(New York: Da Capo, 1996).
Patrick Garland,
The Incomparable Rex
(London, 1998).
Benny Green (ed.),
A Hymn to Him: The Lyrics of Alan Jay Lerner
(London: Pavilion Books, 1987).
Otis Guernsey (ed.),
Broadway Song and Story
(New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1985).
Otis Guernsey (ed.),
Playwrights, Lyricists, Composers on Theater
(New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1974).
Moss Hart,
Act One
(New York: St Martin’s Griffin, 1989).
Edward Jablonski,
Alan Jay Lerner: A Biography
(New York: Henry Holt, 1996).
Gene Lees,
Inventing Champagne: The Worlds of Lerner and Loewe
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990).
Alan Jay Lerner, “Introduction,”
The New York Times Great Songs of Broadway
(New York: Quadrangle, 1973).
Alan Jay Lerner,
The Musical Theatre: A Celebration
(London: Collins, 1986).
Alan Jay Lerner,
The Street Where I Live
(London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1978).
Glenn Loney,
Musical Theatre in America
(Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1984).
Jeffrey Magee,
Irving Berlin’s American Musical Theater
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2012).
Ken Mandelbaum,
Not Since Carrie
(New York: St Martin’s, 1992).
Bill Marshall and Robynn Stilwell (ed.),
Musicals and Beyond
(Exeter: Intellect, 2000).
Dominic McHugh,
Loverly: The Life and Times of “My Fair Lady”
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2012).
Ethan Mordden,
Beautiful Mornin’
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1999).
Ethan Mordden,
Coming Up Roses
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).
Ethan Mordden,
The Hollywood Musical
(New York: St Martin’s, 1981).
Marni Nixon,
I Could Have Sung All Night
(New York: Billboard, 2006).
Richard Rodgers,
Musical Stages
(New York: Da Capo, 2002).
Doris Shapiro,
We Danced All Night: My Life behind the Scenes with Alan Jay Lerner
(New York: William Morrow, 1990).
Rick Simas,
The Musicals No One Came to See
(New York: Garland, 1987).
Larry Stempel,
Showtime
(New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 2010).
Steven Suskin,
More Opening Nights on Broadway
(New York: Schirmer, 1997).
Steven Suskin,
Opening Night on Broadway
(New York: Schirmer, 1990).
Steven Suskin,
Show Tines
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2010).
Richard Traubner,
Operetta
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1983).
The Harvard Crimson
:
www.thecrimson.com
Internet Broadway Database:
www.ibdb.com
Internet Movie Database:
www.imdb.com
The New York Times
:
www.nytimes.com
Time
Magazine:
www.time.com
Variety
:
www.variety.com
Abravanel, Maurice,
10
Academy Awards,
185
,
233
,
249
,
250
,
300
Albert, Eddie,
16
Allers, Franz,
241
Allinson, Michael,
104
An American in Paris
,
18
–
21
,
25
,
30
,
38
–
40
,
90
,
111
,
177
,
213
,
243
,
298
–
9
,
300
Anderson, John Murray,
9
Anderson, Leroy,
5
Anderson, Maxwell,
58
Andrews, Julie,
137
,
162
,
229
–
31
,
233
,
246
and
My Fair Lady
,
55
,
57
,
62
,
64
,
66
,
77
–
8
,
91
,
98
–
99
,
134
Anne of a Thousand Days
,
58
Anything Goes
,
85
Atkinson, Brooks,
12
,
22
,
68
,
82
,
98
–
9
Ayers, Lemuel,
12
Balanchine, George,
8
The Band Wagon
,
32
The Barkleys of Broadway
,
18
Beaton, Cecil,
57
,
89
,
116
–
8
,
156
–
7
,
166
,
173
–
4
,
183
,
185
Beaumont, Hugh,
71
,
78
,
84
,
129
,
141
Behrman, S. N.,
126
Belasco, David,
31
The Belle of New York
,
19
The Bell Telephone Hour
,
154
Bemelmans, Ludwig,
31
Benchley, Nathaniel,
4
Bergman, Ingrid,
29
Berlin, Irving,
2
,
4
,
26
,
175
–
6
,
185
–
6
,
200
,
228
–
9
Bernstein, Felicia,
222
Bernstein, Leonard,
14
,
18
,
90
,
93
,
115
,
130
,
148
,
222
,
225
,
296
and
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
,
198
–
201
,
204
–
5
,
213
–
7
,
219
,
287
–
9
Billion Dollar Baby
,
14
Blane, Ralph,
54
Bloomer Girl
,
9
Bluhdorn, Charles,
223
Bogart, Humphrey,
29
Bogdanovich, Peter,
202
Boston,
4
–
5
,
10
,
12
,
21
,
25
,
128
,
152
,
187
–
8
,
227
,
273
,
301
Brando, Marlon,
42