Betty Comden, 89, Broadway Lyricist

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The New York Sun

Betty Comden, whose more than 60-year collaboration with Adolph Green produced the classic New York stage musical “On the Town,” as well as “Singin’ in the Rain,” considered by many to be the best movie musical ever made, died yesterday morning, her attorney said. She was 89.

Comden had been ill for a few months and died of heart failure at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, her longtime attorney and executor, Ronald Konecky, said.

“She was, in all respects, a very beautiful and legendary person,” Mr. Konecky said. “She was a dynamic figure in the arts, theater and film.”

On Broadway, Comden and Green (the billing was always alphabetical) worked most successfully with composers Leonard Bernstein, Jule Styne, and Cy Coleman. The duo wrote lyrics and often the books for more than a dozen shows, many of them built around such stars as Rosalind Russell, Judy Holliday, Phil Silvers, Carol Burnett, and Lauren Bacall.

They won five Tony Awards, with three of their shows – “Wonderful Town,” “Hallelujah, Baby!” and “Applause” – winning the top prize for best musical. The duo received the Kennedy Center honors in 1991.

The two were never married to each other, although many thought they were, considering the longevity of their working relationship.

“It’s a kind of radar,” Comden once said of her partnership with Green. “We don’t divide the work up, taking different scenes. We sit in the same room always. I used to write things down in shorthand. I now sit at the typewriter. Adolph paces more. A lot of people don’t believe this, but at the end of the day we usually don’t remember who thought up what.”

Green died in October 2002 at age 87. At a memorial for him a few weeks later, Comden recalled their early days as collaborators and then halted before saying: “It’s lonely up here. It was always more fun with Adolph.”

The best Comden and Green lyrics were brash and buoyant, full of quick wit, best exemplified by “New York, New York,” an exuberant and forthright hymn to their favorite city. Yet even the songwriters’ biggest pop hits — “The Party’s Over,” “Just in Time,” and “Make Someone Happy” — were simple, direct and heartfelt.


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