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Cy Coleman 1929 - 2004

Cy Coleman of New York, New York County, NY was born on June 14, 1929 in Bronx County, and died at age 75 years old on November 18, 2004.

Cy Coleman

Seymour Kaufman

New York, New York County, NY 10022

June 14, 1929

Bronx County, New York, United States

November 18, 2004

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Cy Coleman Cy Coleman (1929 - 2004)

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Cy Coleman's History: 1929 - 2004

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Introduction

CY COLEMAN SEARCH Cy Coleman Cy Coleman (b. New York City, June 14, 1929; d. November 18, 2004) was an American composer, songwriter, and jazz pianist. Born Seymour Kaufman to Eastern European Jewish parents and raised in the Bronx, Coleman was a child prodigy at the piano; starting at the age of six, he was giving recitals at Steinway Hall, Town Hall, and Carnegie Hall. He studied composition, conducting, and orchestration at New York City’s High School for the Performing Arts and at the New York College of Music, but instead of devoting himself to classical music as expected, he turned to jazz. He formed and led the Cy Coleman Trio, enjoying great popularity as a club attraction and recording artist. Cy Coleman’s first successes as a writer of popular songs were shared with lyricist Joseph Allen McCarthy (“The Riviera”), but he soon teamed up with Broadway veteran Carolyn Leigh to score several single hits (“Witchcraft,” “The Best Is Yet To Come”) and to write musicals Wildcat (for Lucille Ball’s Broadway debut, 1960) and Little Me (with Sid Caesar in multiple roles, 1962). Coleman had not, however, found Carolyn Leigh easy to work with and, meeting Dorothy Fields at a party, asked her to collaborate with him. The result was Sweet Charity (1966), with book by Neil Simon, and starring Gwen Verdon, and two more joint projects, one a work on Eleanor Roosevelt which was abandoned, and Seesaw (1973), which enjoyed a substantial Broadway run. Dorothy Fields died in 1974, and Coleman turned to other lyricists: Michael Stewart for I Love My Wife (1977), Betty Comden and Adolph Green for On The Twentieth Century (1978). Although Coleman had won Tony Award® nominations for every one of his Broadway scores since Little Me, On The Twentieth Century was the first to win him the Tony® outright. Almost a decade elapsed between Barnum (1980), for which Coleman served as producer as well as composer (and for which he was again nominated for a Tony®), and his collaboration with David Zippel for City of Angels (1989). For this show, inspired by the film noir of the 1940s, Coleman returned to the jazz idiom, to great critical and popular acclaim, winning his second Tony Award® for Best Score. The very next year The Will Rogers Follies (1991), again with lyrics by Comden and Green, brought another Tony®, giving Coleman an unprecedented two in a row. Ira Gasman was Coleman’s lyricist in The Life (1997), a story of pimps and prostitutes in the big city, which ran for fourteen months. Many of Cy Coleman’s singles and show tunes have become standards (“The Best Is Yet To Come,” “Pass Me By,” “If My Friends Could See Me Now,” “The Theme from The Heartbreak Kid,” “Witchcraft,” “Big Spender,” “Hey Look Me Over,” etc.), and as such have been featured repeatedly in films and on television, but he was also the composer for the scores of eight films, including Father Goose (1964), The Art of Love (1965), Garbo Talks (1984), and Family Business (1989). One of his most popular instrumentals, “Playboy‘s Theme,” serves as theme music for the regular TV shows and specials presented by Playboy. In 2002 Sony Classical released It Started With a Dream, a recording of Cy Coleman interpreting his own songs, singing and accompanying himself at the piano. In all, before his death in 2004 from cardiac arrest, Coleman had taken home five Tonys® with fourteen additional nominations, two Grammys®, three Emmys®, an Academy Award® nomination, and countless other honors, among them the Johnny Mercer Award and the ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers Award for Lifetime Achievement in the American Musical Theater. For many years he served on the ASCAP Board of Directors and in 1981 was elected to the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame.
06/14

1929

Birthday

June 14, 1929

Birthdate

Bronx County, New York United States

Birthplace

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Ethnicity & Family History

Jewish.
Early Life & Education

The Bronx. New York City’s High School for the Performing Arts and at the New York College of Music.
Professional Career

Famous Composer.
Personal Life & Family

BROADWAY MUSICALS! Cy Coleman’s first successes as a writer of popular songs were shared with lyricist Joseph Allen McCarthy (“The Riviera”), but he soon teamed up with Broadway veteran Carolyn Leigh to score several single hits (“Witchcraft,” “The Best Is Yet To Come”) and to write musicals Wildcat (for Lucille Ball’s Broadway debut, 1960) and Little Me (with Sid Caesar in multiple roles, 1962). Coleman had not, however, found Carolyn Leigh easy to work with and, meeting Dorothy Fields at a party, asked her to collaborate with him. The result was Sweet Charity (1966), with book by Neil Simon, and starring Gwen Verdon, and two more joint projects, one a work on Eleanor Roosevelt which was abandoned, and Seesaw (1973), which enjoyed a substantial Broadway run. Dorothy Fields died in 1974, and Coleman turned to other lyricists: Michael Stewart for I Love My Wife (1977), Betty Comden and Adolph Green for On The Twentieth Century (1978). Although Coleman had won Tony Award® nominations for every one of his Broadway scores since Little Me, On The Twentieth Century was the first to win him the Tony® outright. Almost a decade elapsed between Barnum (1980), for which Coleman served as producer as well as composer (and for which he was again nominated for a Tony®), and his collaboration with David Zippel for City of Angels (1989). For this show, inspired by the film noir of the 1940s, Coleman returned to the jazz idiom, to great critical and popular acclaim, winning his second Tony Award® for Best Score. The very next year The Will Rogers Follies (1991), again with lyrics by Comden and Green, brought another Tony®, giving Coleman an unprecedented two in a row. Ira Gasman was Coleman’s lyricist in The Life (1997), a story of pimps and prostitutes in the big city, which ran for fourteen months.
11/18

2004

Death

November 18, 2004

Death date

Unknown
Cause of death

Unknown
Death location

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Obituary

Cy Coleman, Broadway Composer, Dies at 75 By Robert Berkvist Nov. 19, 2004 Cy Coleman, the debonair jazz pianist and composer of such legendary Broadway tunes as "Witchcraft," "Big Spender" and "The Best Is Yet to Come," died on Thursday night at New York Hospital. He was 75 and lived in Manhattan. The cause was heart failure, said John Barlow, a press agent who was working with Mr. Coleman on a forthcoming production. A fixture along Broadway for the better part of five decades, Mr. Coleman had just attended the premiere of Michael Frayn's new play, "Democracy," at the Brooks Atkinson Theater. "He felt unwell at the party afterward and collapsed at the hospital," Mr. Barlow said. A fluent stylist, Mr. Coleman produced an impressively varied body of work. His Broadway scores touched many styles, from noirish film music ("City of Angels") to country ("The Will Rogers Follies") to rhythm and blues ("The Life"), but they always remaining firmly anchored in a razzle-dazzle show-tune tradition that embraced the spirit of burlesque. His musical signature was the strutting, swaggering star turn: "Hey, Look Me Over," (from "Wildcat"), "I've Got Your Number" (from "Little Me") and "Big Spender" and "If My Friends Could See Me Now" (from "Sweet Charity"). At the time of his death, Mr. Coleman was juggling work on several productions, including a revival of "Sweet Charity"; separate musical biographies of Napoleon, Grace Kelly and Elaine Kaufman, the proprietor of Elaine's restaurant in Manhattan; and "Pamela's First Musical," based on the playwright Wendy Wasserstein's book for children. And as late as last month, he was performing in cabaret at Feinstein's in the Regency Hotel. Give the gift they'll open every day. Subscriptions to The Times. Starting at $25. "When you can play piano, and I say this unabashedly, as well as I do," he said in an interview in The New York Times on Oct. 8, "you don't like for people not to be able to hear you." Mr. Coleman, whose collaborators over the years included Carolyn Leigh, Dorothy Fields, and Betty Comden and Adolph Green, had his share of flops on Broadway, but his successes rank high on the list of memorable stage musicals. "Sweet Charity" (1966), an adaptation of Federico Fellini's film "Nights of Cabiria," had a book by Neil Simon and lyrics by Fields; it was directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse. Starring Gwen Verdon as a dance hall hostess looking for love, the show overcame lukewarm reviews and ran for more than 600 performances. Adapted for the screen in 1969, with Shirley MacLaine in the lead role, "Sweet Charity" brought Mr. Coleman an Oscar nomination for best score of a musical. A revival of that show, produced by Barry and Fran Weissler and Clear Channel Entertainment, is scheduled to open on Broadway in April, starring Christina Applegate in the role Ms. Verdon originated. "Now the entire production of 'Sweet Charity' will be dedicated to him," Mr. Weissler said in a telephone interview yesterday. "And that is as it should be." In 1978 Mr. Coleman teamed up with Comden and Green to turn out "On the Twentieth Century," based on a 1932 play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur and staged by Hal Prince. The action took place aboard the 20th Century Limited, an express train en route from Chicago to New York, and involved Oscar Jaffe, a flamboyant theater impresario down on his luck, and Lily Garland, his former protÃ©gÃ©e and lover who has left him for movie stardom. Oscar (John Cullum) tries everything to woo Lily (Madeline Kahn) back into his theater and his life. The show won Mr. Coleman his first Tony Award for best score of a musical along with his lyricists, Comden and Green, who also won a Tony for best book of a musical. Mr. Coleman's musical education began early. Seymour Kaufman was born on June 14, 1929, the son of Russian immigrants, Max and Ida Kaufman; he grew up in a Bronx apartment house owned by his mother. As he later told it, one of the tenants moved out and left a piano behind. The Kaufmans made the piano their own, and soon their 4-year-old son made it his. The boy was good enough to attract the attention of the building's milkman, who in turn mentioned the prodigy to his own son's piano teacher. The teacher was impressed and offered classical lessons, and as a result young Coleman (he was still Kaufman then) made his Carnegie Hall debut at age 7. In the early 1950's Mr. Coleman met the lyricist Carolyn Leigh and began the frequently stormy collaboration that would lead them both to Broadway. A majority of Mr. Coleman's finest songs came out of this partnership. Among their early hits were the songs "Witchcraft" and "The Best Is Yet to Come." Then, in 1960, they wrote the songs for "Wildcat," which starred Lucille Ball as Wildcat Jackson, a hard-as-nails prospector looking to strike oil. The next - and final - Coleman-Leigh collaboration was "Little Me" (1962), adapted by Neil Simon from a novel by Patrick Dennis and directed by Fosse. The musical followed the rise from poverty to fame of a young woman named Belle Poitrine (Virginia Martin). Harmony returned when he worked with Dorothy Fields, first on "Sweet Charity" and then on "Seesaw" (1973). Based on William Gibson's hit play, "Two for the Seesaw," the musical, written and staged by Michael Bennett and starring Ken Howard, Michele Lee and Tommy Tune, was the story of a brief romantic encounter between a Nebraska lawyer and a young dancer from the Bronx. It, too, had only a modest run. After Fields died in 1974, Mr. Coleman teamed up with Michael Stewart to write "I Love My Wife" (1977), a comedic look at the possibilities of wife-swapping in suburbia, and "Barnum" (1980), which had a book by Mark Bramble and starred Jim Dale as the ultimate showman, P.T. Barnum. The show became a long-running hit, and Mr. Dale's dazzling performance won him a Tony Award. Mr. Coleman added to his own collection of Tonys with "The Will Rogers Follies" in 1991, in which Keith Carradine, as the folksy, rope-twirling humorist, presided over the director Tommy Tune's version of a Ziegfeld extravaganza. "Will Rogers," with a book by Peter Stone and lyrics by Comden and Green, received a tepid reception from the critics but played for two and a half years. The year 1997 not only brought "The Life" to Broadway but also brought Mr. Coleman to the altar. An enthusiastic bachelor for many years, Mr. Coleman married Shelby Brown that October. She survives him, along with their daughter, Lily Cye, 4, whose miniature white Steinway piano stands alongside Mr. Coleman's rather grander one in the family's Sutton Place townhouse.

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