Original Creative Team

    
                                                        



The team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green,  Screenplay, 1991 recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors, and the longest running creative partnership in theatre history, began writing and performing their own satirical comic material in a group called The Revuers, which included the late Judy Holliday. They went on to collaborate with Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins on what was the first show for all of them, "On The Town." Also with Mr. Bernstein they collaborated on the score for "Wonderful Town." With Jule Styne they wrote the book and/or lyrics for "Bells Are Ringing," "Do Re Mi," "Subways Are For Sleeping," "Peter Pan" and others. They also wrote the book for "Applause," the book and lyrics for "On the Twenith Century" and the lyrics for "The Will Rogers Follies," with Cy Coleman, and "A Doll's Life." Five of these, "Applause," "Hallelujah Baby," "Wonderful Town," "On the Twentieth Century" and "The Will Rogers Follies" won them six Tony Awards, and "A Doll's Life," a Tony nomination.

Their many film musicals include "Singin' in the Rain," "The Band Wagon," "On the Town," "Bells are Ringing," "It's Always Fair Weather," "Good News" and "The Barkleys of Broadway." Their non-musicals include "Auntie Mame" and "What a Way To Go." Two of these musicals, "The Band Wagon" and "It's Always Fair Weather," received Academy Award nominations and, along with "On The Town," won the Screen Writers' Guild award.

"Singin' in the Rain" was recently voted one of the ten best American films ever made and, by a vote of international film critics conducted by the prestigious magazine Sight and Sound, it was ranked third among the ten best films of all time.

As performers, Comden and Green appeared in "On the Town" and later did an evening at the Golden Theatre, "A Party With Betty Comden and Adolph Green," comprised of material from their own shows and movies, and from their act, The Revuers. In 1977 they did a new version of "A Party" to unanimous acclaim at the Morosco Theatre, and toured with it. "A Party" received an Obie Award when it was first performed.

They are both members of the Council of the Dramatists Guild, have been elected to the Theatre Hall of Fame, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and have received the Mayor of New York's Certificate of Excellence.

Ms. Comden received the Woman of the Year Award from the Alumni Association of New York University. She appeared in the films "Garbo Talks" and "Slaves of New York," and on the stage in the Playwrights' Horizons production of Wendy Wasserstein's "Isn't It Romantic?". Mr. Green appeared in the films "Simon," "My Favorite Year," "Garbo Talks," "Lily In Love" and "I Want To Go Home."

Some of their best-known songs include "Just In Time," "The Party's Over," "Make Someone Happy," "New York, New York," "Neverland," "It's Love," "Lonely Town" and "Some Other Time."

Stars they have written for in their musicals and films include Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Lauren Bacall, Rosalind Russell, Judy Holliday, Mary Martin, Phil Silvers, Carol Burnett and Nancy Walker.

Arthur Freed, Songs, (September 9, 1894 - April 12, 1973) was born in Charleston, South Carolina. He was a lyricist and a Hollywood film producer.

Freed began his career in vaudeville, and he appeared with the likes of the Marx Brothers. He soon began to write songs, and was eventually hired by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. For years, he wrote lyrics for numerous films.

In 1939 he was promoted to the position of producer, and helped elevate MGM as the studio of the musical. Freed choose to surround himself with film directors such as Vincente Minnelli and Busby Berkeley. He also helped shape the careers of stars like Judy Garland and Gene Kelly. His team of writers, directors, composers and stars came to be known as the "Freed Unit" and produced a steady stream of popular, critically acclaimed musicals that lasted until the late 1950s.

Freed served as associate producer on THE WIZARD OF OZ.

His most famous song is "Singin' in the Rain," and two of his films won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Those being, AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951) and GIGI (1958).

From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia.

Nacio Herb Brown, Songs, (22 February 1896- 28 September 1964) was a United States songwriter.

Brown was born as Ignacio Herb Brown in Deming, New Mexico. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles.

He was a successful writer of popular songs, and Broadway theater music in the 1920s, originally doing this as a sideline to his financially successful career in California Real Estate. In 1928 he was hired to work in Hollywood by MGM and write movie music for the new medium of sound film. For his film work, he often collaborated with lyricist Arthur Freed.

He appears in the film The Hollywood Revue of 1929.

In the 1930s he was married to actress Anita Page. Brown's hits included "Fit as a Fiddle and Ready for Love", "Pagan Love Song", "Singin' in the Rain", "Wedding of the Painted Doll", and "You Are My Lucky Star".

Nacio Herb Brown died in San Francisco, California.

Brown is an inductee of the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia.

He wrote the music for the musicals SINGIN' IN THE RAIN and TAKE A CHANCE and additional music for BIG DEAL and EARL CAROLL'S VANITIES.