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Celebrating the Life of Adolph Green

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Adolph Green, best known in the musical theatre world as half of musical theatre's longest lasting collaborating team, died on Wednesday, October the 23rd, 2002 at the age of 87. Adolph Green and Betty Comden's collaborations spanned a period of over 60 years. Being part of a creative team, one cannot salute the achievements of Adolph Green without celebrating the work of Betty Comden as well.

Over the last six decades, Comden and Green have worked with a number of very "famous" celebrities including, Gene Kelly, Carol Burnett, Lauren Bacall, Rosalind Russell, Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Jule Styne, Cy Coleman and legendary Fred Astaire. It isn't surprising, then, to note that Adolph Green and partner, Betty Comden began their theatrical careers writing comedic material and performing what they had written for their comedy troupe, The Revuers. No strangers to performing their own material, they appeared in "On the Town" and in their own Broadway show, "A Party with Betty Comden and Adolph Green" (1958).

Comfortable writing for the big screen as well as the theatre, the fruits of this talented duo appear in many movies, including, "On the Town", "Bells are Ringing", "Auntie Mame" and their most notable achievement, "Singin' in the Rain"(starring Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor and Gene Kelly), a movie touted as one of the best films ever made.

Known for numerous achievements in the theatre world, some of their works include:

1. Will Rogers Follies (1991) (Their longest running show)
2. A Doll's Life (1982) (Their only flop which last for 5 performances)
3. Singin' in the Rain (1985)
4. On the Twentieth Century (1978)
5. Applause (1970) (They wrote the book, but not lyrics, for this Broadway success)
6. Hallelujah Baby (1967)
7. Wonderful Town (1953)
8. Peter Pan (1954) (they augmented this one)
   They received six Tony awards for their theatrical contributions to the world of musical theatre as well as The Kennedy Center Honours in 1991.

   Comden and Green did not achieve success with their songs as popular hits due to the nature of their lyrics which were written around the characters and plots of the shows to which they belonged. Some of their more notable pieces include:

   1. The Party's Over
   2. Make Someone Happy
   3. New York, New York
   4. It's Love
   5. Just in Time
   6. My Unknown Someone

      For more information on Comden and Green:

      http://www.leonardbernstein.com/comdenan...

      http://www.canada.com/entertainment/stor...

      http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Content...

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