The team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green, 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 onto 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 did the score for "Wonderful Town." With Jule Styne they wrote the book and/or lyrics for "Bells Are Ringing," "Hallelujah, Baby," "Do Re Mi," "Subways Are For Sleeping," "Peter Pan," and others, wrote the book for "Applause," and book and lyrics for "on The Twentieth Century" and "A Doll's Life." Four of these, "Applause," "Hallelujah, Baby," "Wonderful Town," and "On The Twentieth Century," won them five Tony Awards, and "A Doll's Life," a Tony nomination.
Betty Comden was born Elizabeth Cohen in Brooklyn, New York on May 3, 1919. In 1938, soon after her graduation from New York University, where she studied drama, she started making the rounds of theatrical agents. While she didn’t find an agent, she did get acquainted with Green, who was also searching for a theatrical agent.
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." Two of these, "The Band Wagon" and "It's Always Fair Weather," received Academy Award Nominations, and those two plus "On The Town" won the Screen Writer's Award. "Singin' In The Rain" was recently voted one of the ten best American films ever made and, by…
Discography Highlights
JUST IN TIME
Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Jule Styne
Stratford Music Corp.
NEW YORK NEW YORK
Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Leonard Bernstein
Boosy and Hawkes, Inc./Universal Music Publishing Group/Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
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