Sad, sad news for all us theater lovers today–Adolph Green has passed away at the age of 86.
He and his writing partner Betty Comden (who is still with us) wrote the lyrics of such shows as ON THE TOWN, WONDERFUL TOWN, DO RE MI, BELLS ARE RINGING, SUBWAYS ARE FOR SLEEPING, ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, THE WILL ROGERS FOLLIES; if you’ve ever heard the songs “New York, New York”, “Long Before I Knew You”, “Lucky to be Me”, “Make Someone Happy”, “The Party’s Over”, and a gazillion more.
ON THE TOWN is perhaps my favorite musical–think I’ll put it on now and raise a glass to Adolph, who’s doubtless filling in Leonard Bernstein on the latest theater gossip right now. I’d seen Mr. G at the BELLS ARE RINGING revival last year, in the audience–frail but attentive. And a friend of mine saw him walking around last week, so at least his energy didn’t fail until the very end.
You’ll all find you have some Comden & Green songs somewhere in your collection right now–why not put them on and join me?
“Where has the time all gone to?
Haven’t done half the things we want to.
Oh well, we’ll catch up
Some other time…”
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