Cy Coleman

Born: Seymour Kaufman  June 14, 1929, New York, NY

Cy Coleman did have smll impact on jazz scene, but his major importance comes as composer and force in theater. He had a recital at Steinway Hall at the age of six, and was playing Manhattan super clubs at 17. Coleman formed a trio in 1948 while still a student at New York College of Music. He began to attract attention with two hit singles he wrote done by Frank Sinatra in the '50s; "Try to Change Me Now" and "Witchcraft." He also penned "Firefly" for Tony Bennett in 1958. The musical "Wildcraft" which he did with lyricist Carolyn Leigh starred Lucille Ball in 1960. Then came string of stage successes, including "Little Me," "Sweet Charity" and "Seesaw." Since then, Coleman's had other stage hits, notably "Barnum." He's also had songs featured in films, covered by Barbra Streisand and many others. Coleman has also periodically recorded albums. Mark Murphy did LP of Coleman material in 1977. ~ Ron Wynn, All Music Guide

Another bio:
Coleman was a pianist, singer, producer and a composer of popular songs, and scores for films and the Broadway stage. The youngest of the five sons of emigrants from Russia, Coleman was born and brought up in the Bronx, where his mother owned two tenement buildings. He began to pick out tunes on the piano when he was four-years-old, irritating his father, a carpenter, to such an extent that he nailed down the lid of the instrument. However, a local teacher was so impressed by Coleman's piano playing that she provided free lessons in classical music. Between the ages of six and nine, Coleman performed in New York at the Town Hall, Steinway Hall, and Carnegie Hall. While continuing his classical studies at the High School of Music and Art and the New York College of Music, from which he graduated in 1948, Coleman decided to change course and pursue a career in popular music. After a stint at Billy Reed's Little Club, he spent two years as a cocktail-lounge pianist at the plush Sherry Netherland Hotel in Manhattan, and played piano for several television programmes, including THEKate Smith SHOW and A DATE IN MANHATTAN. In 1950 he appeared with his trio, and singer Margaret Phelan, in the RKO short, PACKAGE OF RHYTHM. During the early '50s, Coleman began to play in jazz clubs in New York and elsewhere, developing what he called a ‘kind of bepoppy style’. By then he had been composing songs for several years. One of his earliest collaborators was Joseph Allen McCarthy, whose father, also named Joseph, wrote the lyrics for shows such as IRENE, KID BOOTS and RIO RITA. One of their first efforts, The Riviera, was included several years later on Johnny Mathis's LIVE IT UP, while I'm Gonna Laugh You Right Out Of My Life was recorded by singer-pianist Buddy Greco. Another, Why Try To Change Me Now?, received a memorable reading from Frank Sinatra in 1952. In the following year Coleman contributed Tin Pan Alley to the Broadway show JOHN MURRAY ANDERSON'S ALMANAC and, around the same time, he wrote several songs for a Tallulah Bankhead vehicle ZIEGFELD FOLLIES, which never made it to Broadway.

From the late '50s until 1962, Coleman had a ‘stormy’ working relationship with lyricist Carolyn Leigh. Together they wrote several popular numbers such as Witchcraft (Frank Sinatra), The Best Is Yet To Come ( Mabel Mercer), A Moment Of Madness ( Sammy Davis Jr.), When In Rome (I Do As The Romans Do) ( Vikki Carr/ Barbra Streisand), You Fascinate Me So ( Mark Murphy), Playboy's Theme, The Rules Of The Road, It Amazes Me, I Walk A Little Faster and Firefly. The latter was written in 1958 for Coleman and Leigh's musical based on the memoirs of stripper, Gypsy Rose Lee. The project was later abandoned, but the song became a hit for Tony Bennett, who was instrumental in bringing their work before the public, and included two of their songs in his famous Carnegie Hall concert in 1962. Two years before that, the team wrote the music and lyrics for the Broadway musical, WILDCAT. The score included the show-stopper What Takes My Fancy, plus That's What I Want For Janie, Give A Little Whistle, You've Come Home, El Sombrero, and the march, Hey, Look Me Over. The latter became a hit for Peggy Lee. Coleman and Lee later wrote Then Is Then And Now Is Now, together.

In 1962, Coleman and Leigh were back on Broadway with LITTLE ME. THE LIBRETTO, by Neil Simon, was based on a successful novel by Patrick Dennis, and traced the life of Belle Poitrine. Sid Caesar played all seven of her lovers, from the 16-year-old Noble Eggleston to the geriatric skinflint Mr Pinchley. The score included Love You, Deep Down Inside, The Other Side Of The Tracks, Real Live Girl and the show-stopper I've Got Your Number. Despite a favourable reception from the critics, LITTLE ME did not fulfil its potential, and folded after only 257 performances. In 1964, it was acclaimed in London, where comedian and song and dance man, Bruce Forsyth, played the lead, and a revised version was presented in the West End in 1984, starring the UK television comic, Russ Abbott. After LITTLE ME, Coleman and Leigh went their separate ways, collaborating briefly again in 1964 for Pass Me By, which was sung by the British writer-performer, Digby Wolfe, over the opening titles of the Cary Grant movie, FATHER GOOSE. In the same year, Coleman wrote the catchy ‘Take a Little Walk’ with Buddy Greco, before teaming with the lyricist and librettist, Dorothy Fields. Fields was 25 years older than Coleman, with an impressive track record of standard songs for films and shows, written with composers such as Jimmy McHugh, Jerome Kern and Arthur Schwartz, plus the book for Irving Berlin's smash hit musical, Annie Get Your Gun.

In 1966 the new combination had their own Broadway hit with the score for SWEET CHARITY, a musical version of Federico Fellini's film, NIGHTS OF CABIRIA. The accent was very much on dancing in this ‘sentimental story of a New York dancehall hostess, and her desperate search for love’. The Coleman-Fields score included Baby, Dream Your Dream, Big Spender, If My Friends Could See Me Now, There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This, Where Am I Going? and I'm A Brass Band. The show ran for 608 performances on Broadway, and for 14 months in London, where it starred Juliet Prowse. The lead in the 1969 movie version was taken by Shirley Maclaine, and it also featured Sammy Davis Jr. as a hippie evangelist singing The Rhythm Of Life, and Stubby Kaye leading the ensemble in I Love To Cry At Weddings. Coleman was nominated for an Academy Award for his musical score. After failing to get several other projects mounted, such as a biography of Eleanor Roosevelt and a stage adaptation of the 1939 James Stewart movie, MR. DEEDS GOES TO WASHINGTON, Coleman and Fields were back on Broadway in 1973 with SEESAW, based on William Gibson's '50s comedy, TWO FOR THE SEESAW. The score included Welcome To Holiday Inn, Poor Everybody Else and the blockbusters It's Not Where You Start (It's Where You Finish) and Nobody Does It Like Me. The latter became successful outside the show as a cabaret number for artists such as Shirley Bassey and comedienne, Marti Caine. After Dorothy Fields’ death in 1974, it was another three years before Coleman returned to Broadway with I LOVE MY WIFE, with book and lyrics by Michael Stewart. Adapted from Luis Rego's farce ‘about two suburban couples and their bumbling attempt to engage in wife swapping’, the production ran for 857 performances. It featured a small on-stage orchestra whose members sang, dressed in fancy clothes, and commented on the show's action. Coleman received the Drama Desk Award for a score which included Hey There, Good Times, Something Wonderful I Missed, Sexually Free, Lovers On Christmas Eve, Everybody Today Is Turning On and the title song. Less than a year after the opening of I LOVE MY WIFE, Coleman contributed to ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, which was based on a '30s play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, with lyrics and libretto by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. The production included the songs I Rise Again, Together, Never, She's A Nut and Our Private World. The show ran for over a year, and earned six Tony Awards, including best score of a musical. Coleman's next project, with lyricist Barbara Fried, was HOME AGAIN, which ‘followed an Illinois family from the Depression to the Watergate scandal’. It closed in Toronto, during April 1979, two weeks before it was set to open on Broadway.

In complete contrast, Barnum (1980), a musical treatment of the life of showman P.T. Barnum, was a smash hit. Coleman's music and Michael Stewart's lyrics were ‘catchy and clever, and occasionally very beautiful’. British actor, Jim Dale, received rave notices for his endearing performance in the title role, which called for him to sing and be a clown, ride a unicycle, and walk a tightrope. The part of his wife was played by Glenn Close, on the brink of her '80s movie stardom. The score included There's A Sucker Born Ev'ry Minute, One Brick At A Time, The Colours Of My Life and Come Follow The Band. BARNUM ran for 854 performances and captured three Tonys and two Grammies for the Broadway Cast album. Its subsequent run of almost two years at the London Palladium was a triumph for Michael Crawford. During the early '80s Coleman mounted Broadway revivals of LITTLE ME and SWEET CHARITY which gained four Tonys, including best revival of a play or musical. In 1988, Coleman wrote the music and lyrics, in collaboration with A.E. Hotchner, for LET ‘EM ROT. It failed to reach New York, and when Coleman did return to Broadway in April 1989 with WELCOME TO THE CLUB, that show was censured by the critics, and only ran for a few performances. It proved to be a temporary setback, for in December of that year, Coleman had one of the biggest hits of his career with THE CITY OF ANGELS utilizing David Zippel's lyrics, and a book by Larry Gelbart which ‘both satirized and celebrated the film noir genre and the hard boiled detective fiction of the 1940s’. The ‘smart, swingy, sexy and funny play’, in which Coleman ‘uses a scat singing quartet reminiscent of the Modernaires as a roving chorus’, is like ‘listening to YOUR HIT PARADE of 1946, except that the composer's own Broadway personality remakes the past in his own effervescent, melodic style’. The show garnered six Tonys, three Outer Critics Circle Awards and eight Drama Desk Awards, among them those for best musical, best music and lyrics. The production included the songs With Every Breath I Take, The Tennis Song, What You Don't Know About Women, You're Nothing Without Me and Double Talk. CITY OF ANGELS was still running at the Virginia Theatre two years later.

Meanwhile, Coleman had turned his attention to THE WILL ROGERS FOLLIES (A LIFE IN REVUE), which related ‘the life story of America's favourite humorist in the style of a ZIEGFELD FOLLIES’ (1991). With Keith Carradine in the title role, Peter Stone's book called for ‘a mutt act, a world champion roper, four kids, 12 sisters, a ranchful of cowboys, Gregory Peck (his voice only), and girls wearing spangles, and, of course, girls wearing not much of anything at all’, which was put together by director-choreographer Tommy Tune. For the lyrics to his pastiche melodies, Coleman turned again to Comden and Green for Never Met A Man I Didn't Like, Let's Go Flying, Willamania, It's A Boy!, The Powder Puff Ballet, Give A Man Enough Rope and Marry Me Now/I Got You. Despite initial notices citing ‘lapses of taste’ and ‘a paltry case for a cultural icon’, the show was still running eight months after its May opening, and gained Tony Awards for best musical and original score.

In parallel with his Broadway career, Coleman wrote several film scores although they generally failed to match the critical acclaim of his stage work. His music for FAMILY BUSINESS was termed by one critic as ‘one of the most appalling music scores in recent memory’. Coleman's other film work included FATHER GOOSE (1964), THE TROUBLEMAKER (1964), THE ART OF LOVE (1965), THE HEARTBREAK KID (1972), BLAME IT ON RIO (1984), GARBO TALKS (1984) and POWER (1986). He also worked in television, where he conceived and co-produced Shirley Maclaine's special IF THEY COULD SEE ME NOW (1974), and produced her GYPSY IN MY SOUL (1976), both Emmy-winning presentations. Coleman also performed with many symphony orchestras, including those of Milwaukee, Detroit, San Antonio, Indianapolis, and Fort Worth. Coleman was a director of ASCAP, and a governor of the Academy of Television Arts And Sciences, and the Dramatists Guild. He was also a member of the Songwriter's Hall of Fame, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and the New York State Advisory Committee on Music. His honours included the La Guardia Award for Outstanding Achievement in Music and the Irvin Feld Humanitarian award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews.