Writing a Darker Musical Fairy Tale

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.

A Movie, Some TV … and Jukeboxes

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.

Theatrical Disaster … Cinematic Success

Betty Comden and Adolph Green, after finishing work on the screenplay for Good News, began work on their third Broadway musical. It became Bonanza Bound, and the tuner, a comedy set in the 1890s in Alaska, closed during its tryout engagement in Philadelphia. Though critics were chilly toward this show, there were warm notices for the film. It prompted MGM to offer them work on two more movies, and Comden and Green returned to Hollywood to work on the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers picture The Barkleys of Broadway and Take Me Out to the Ball Game, which starred Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra.

Ten Years of Performing and Writing

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.

Returning (Artistically) to the 1930s

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.

Going Backstage, Then Getting Nostalgic

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.

Broadway to Hollywood and Back Again

In 1949 Betty Comden and Adolph Green discovered that MGM finally wanted to move forward with a screen version of On the Town. Before it could go in front of cameras, though, there were obstacles to overcome, particularly the fact that the studio only wanted to use a few of the original songs that they had written with their friend Leonard Bernstein. Eventually all parties were able to negotiate terms, and Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, making their debuts as co-directors and co-choreographers, were able to start work on the project, which starred, in addition to Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Ann Miller, Vera-Ellen, and Betty Garrett. After they completed work on this screenplay, they attempted to pen a book for the Cole Porter musical Out of This World.

Turning to the 1920s

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.

Theatrical Adventures On Screen and On- and Offstage

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.

Turning Back the Clock

Betty Comden and Adolph Green received a summons in May 1949 to California from MGM producer Arthur Freed about a movie he needed them to start writing immediately. The project, which would become Singin’ in the Rain, would contain a host of the songs he had written with Nacio Herb Brown. They balked at the assignment, believing their contract did not require them to pen movies that used songs by other writers (except for a handful, such as Richard Rodgers or Cole Porter). Their agreement with the studio contained no such clause, and so they developed the now iconic scenario about the transition from silent movies to talkies and early movie musicals. After they finished this assignment they returned to New York to write sketches and lyrics for the revue Two on the Aisle, which starred Bert Lahr and Dolores Gray.