Tim Vine
English comedian
Adolph Greenwas an American lyricist and playwright who, with long-time collaborator Betty Comden, penned the screenplays and songs for musicals on Broadway and in Hollywood. Although they were not a romantic couple, they shared a unique comic genius and sophisticated wit that enabled them to forge a six-decade-long partnership.
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About the Adolph Green
Adolph Greenwas an American lyricist and playwright who, with long-time collaborator Betty Comden, penned the screenplays and songs for musicals on Broadway and in Hollywood. Although they were not a romantic couple, they shared a unique comic genius and sophisticated wit that enabled them to forge a six-decade-long partnership. They received numerous accolades including four Tony Awards and nominations for two Academy Awards and a Grammy Award. Green was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1980 and American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981. Comden and Green received the Kennedy Center Honor in 1991.
They started their career alongside Leonard Bernstein on stage where they received the New York Drama Critics’ Circle for Best Musical for Wonderful Town (1953). On Broadway they wrote the music and lyrics to musicals such as On the Town (1944), Two on the Aisle (1951), Peter Pan (1954), Bells Are Ringing (1956), and Applause (1970). They won four Tony Awards as composter and lyricist for Hallelujah, Baby! (1967), On the Twentieth Century (1978), and The Will Rogers Follies (1991). As performers they starred in A Party with Betty Comden and Adolph Green (1958).
They gained notoriety in film collaborating with Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly and Vincente Minnelli as part of Arthur Freed’s production unit at Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Perhaps their greatest collaboration was for the film Singin’ in the Rain (1952), although they received two Academy Award nominations for screenplays for the musicals The Band Wagon (1953), and It’s Always Fair Weather (1955). They also wrote the scripts for the classic movie musicals The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), On the Town (1949), Auntie Mame (1958), and Bells Are Ringing (1960).
7 Quotes by Adolph Green
- 1.
We’ve managed to keep a spirit of fun, I guess, of urban satire and finding new and odd interesting angles to the ways of life to put on the stage.
Adolph GreenAmerican lyricist and playwright (1914-2002)
- 2.
It never became an act in the sense of an act. It was always, no matter where we worked, little revues.
Adolph GreenAmerican lyricist and playwright (1914-2002)
- 3.
I had met a young lady who wanted to be in the theater. It was Judy Holliday. She had somehow fallen down the steps of the Village Vanguard, which still exists today.
Adolph GreenAmerican lyricist and playwright (1914-2002)
- 4.
We had a certain kind of really big prestige among, I suppose not just intellectual folk, but a sort of nice middle class intelligent folk of a very urban nature.
Adolph GreenAmerican lyricist and playwright (1914-2002)
- 5.
It’s unfortunate we’ve never been just songwriters.
Adolph GreenAmerican lyricist and playwright (1914-2002)
- 6.
As a main ingredient to the show, it has to have truth, represent truth, or else it won’t last.
Adolph GreenAmerican lyricist and playwright (1914-2002)
- 7.
You have to transmit to them what it’s like being in the theater. And it has to come from somewhere inside you and not by being like what somebody did last year.
Adolph GreenAmerican lyricist and playwright (1914-2002)