Alexander H. Cohen
Encyclopedia
Alexander H. Cohen was a prolific American
theatrical producer
who mounted more than one hundred productions on both sides of the Atlantic. He was the only American producer to maintain offices in the West End
as well as on Broadway
.
. Cohen's father, a business man, died when Cohen was four, and his mother then married a banker, and he, together with his brother Gerry, lived on Park Avenue in a lavish duplex penthouse.
He was employed by the Bulova Watch Company where he spent seven years, becoming its director of advertising and publicity, a business that brought him into contact with theatre people. During this time, World War II
, he was drafted into the United States Army
, and after a year was invalided out with a leg ailment.
His brother committed suicide in 1954, at which point Cohen became estranged from his mother.
Mr. Cohen's first marriage, to Jocelyn Newmark, ended in divorce. He married actress Hildy Parks
in 1956, who later became his producing partner. He died from emphysema
in New York City. Hildy Parks followed him 4 years later, in 2004. They are survived by son Gerry Cohen, of Los Angeles, a daughter Barbara Hoffmann of Manhattan; another son, Christopher A. Cohen, also of Manhattan; one grandson, and one great-granddaughter.
). Soon, he revealed himself to have a decidedly eclectic
approach to popular entertainment with a busy schedule of productions. They ran the gamut from comedies (Little Murders
) to revues At the Drop of a Hat
, Beyond the Fringe
, to dramas (84 Charing Cross Road
, Anna Christie
) to musicals
(Dear World
, A Day in Hollywood / A Night in the Ukraine
) to the classics (King Lear
, Hamlet
). He also produced stage concerts for Marlene Dietrich
, Maurice Chevalier
, and Yves Montand
, and an evening of comic sketches with Mike Nichols
and Elaine May
.
Cohen was responsible for the international stardom of Marcel Marceau
, bringing him to New York to support Maurice Chevalier
in An Evening with Maurice Chevalier. He had originally intended the production to be a one-man show but Chevalier did not want to work that hard, and requested that Marceau (then unknown outside Europe) perform his mime pieces to give Chevalier opportunities to rest between musical numbers.
His informal series of revues collectively titled "Nine O'Clock Musicals" included At the Drop of a Hat and At the Drop of Another Hat (both featuring Michael Flanders
and Donald Swann
, Words and Music (Hollywood lyricist Sammy Cahn
performing his own songs with a few back-up singers) and the semi-musical Good Evening with Peter Cook
and Dudley Moore
. They were low-budget, required little material support, and were hugely successful.
Despite his success with revues, the highly prolific Cohen never produced a financially successful book musical (a musical with a script and plot) on Broadway, although he did produce the successful London productions of 1776 and Applause
. A challenge he was never able to satisfy was to mount a Broadway revival of Hellzapoppin'. A 1967 out-of-town tryout starring Soupy Sales
closed in Montreal, and ten years later another effort starring Jerry Lewis
and Lynn Redgrave
closed in Boston. The rights are still held by the Cohen estate. The nearest Cohen came to a successful book musical on Broadway was A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine, adapted from a much less elaborate London production. This double feature consisted of two short entertainments with the same cast: the first half being a plotless compendium of songs and anecdotes about old-time Hollywood, the second half being Anton Chekhov
's play The Bear radically reworked as a musical comedy for the Marx Brothers
(impersonated by modern actors), retaining a vague semblance of Chekhov's plot.
presentations, specials with Plácido Domingo
and Liza Minnelli
, and the first and third editions of Night of 100 Stars, which featured a parade of entertainment and sports celebrities performing and/or appearing on the stage of Radio City Music Hall
.
after its renovation, and the O'Keefe Centre in Toronto
when it opened in 1960.
He was responsible for drawing the performing arts community into the popular and highly successful I Love New York television ad campaign. In 1976, he converted the bankrupt and vacant Manhattan Plaza on Manhattan
's West 43rd Street into an apartment complex providing subsidized
housing for low-income performers.
Cohen was also an active fund-raiser for the Actors Fund of America. He put together several television spectaculars, Night of 100 Stars and Parade of Stars which raised $3 million to build the fund's extended-care nursing facility in Englewood, N.J. Behind the scenes, however, there was controversy, some claiming that Cohen's lavish producing style accommodated his own lavish needs better than the fund's.
Cohen made one appearance as an actor when he appeared onscreen in Woody Allen
's film The Purple Rose of Cairo
(1985), portraying Raoul Hirsch, a fictional Hollywood producer in the 1930s. His final act, putting it all together, was in 1999 when he wrote, produced, directed, and starred in his off-Broadway
one-man show, Star Billing, in which he reminisced about his hits, flops, and famous feuds. The New York Times reviewer stated that he had many a kind word for his friends and an arsenal of well-honed, acid-tipped barbs for those he loathed, among them rival producer David Merrick
, Marlene Dietrich
and Jerry Lewis
. http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?html_title=&tols_title=STAR%20BILLING%20(ONE-MAN%20SHOW)&pdate=19981112&byline=By%20LAWRENCE%20VAN%20GELDER&id=1077011431544
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
theatrical producer
Theatrical producer
A theatrical producer is the person ultimately responsible for overseeing all aspects of mounting a theatre production. The independent producer will usually be the originator and finder of the script and starts the whole process...
who mounted more than one hundred productions on both sides of the Atlantic. He was the only American producer to maintain offices in the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
as well as on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
.
Personal life
Cohen was born in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Cohen's father, a business man, died when Cohen was four, and his mother then married a banker, and he, together with his brother Gerry, lived on Park Avenue in a lavish duplex penthouse.
He was employed by the Bulova Watch Company where he spent seven years, becoming its director of advertising and publicity, a business that brought him into contact with theatre people. During this time, World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he was drafted into the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
, and after a year was invalided out with a leg ailment.
His brother committed suicide in 1954, at which point Cohen became estranged from his mother.
Mr. Cohen's first marriage, to Jocelyn Newmark, ended in divorce. He married actress Hildy Parks
Hildy Parks
Hildy Parks was an American actress and writer.Born in Washington, D.C., Parks pursued acting following her graduation from the University of Virginia...
in 1956, who later became his producing partner. He died from emphysema
Emphysema
Emphysema is a long-term, progressive disease of the lungs that primarily causes shortness of breath. In people with emphysema, the tissues necessary to support the physical shape and function of the lungs are destroyed. It is included in a group of diseases called chronic obstructive pulmonary...
in New York City. Hildy Parks followed him 4 years later, in 2004. They are survived by son Gerry Cohen, of Los Angeles, a daughter Barbara Hoffmann of Manhattan; another son, Christopher A. Cohen, also of Manhattan; one grandson, and one great-granddaughter.
Career as producer
With an inheritance, he initially became an investor in a number of flops, producing his first Broadway show with Ghost for Sale in 1941, which closed after six performances. He followed this quickly with his next production, the thriller Angel Street, which ran for three years (and was made into the movie GaslightGaslight
Gaslight may refer to:* Gas lighting, the use of flammable gas such as natural gas as a light source* Gaslighting, a form of psychological abuse* Gas Light a Patrick Hamilton stage play...
). Soon, he revealed himself to have a decidedly eclectic
Eclecticism
Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories in particular cases.It can sometimes seem inelegant or...
approach to popular entertainment with a busy schedule of productions. They ran the gamut from comedies (Little Murders
Little Murders
Little Murders is a 1971 black comedy film starring Elliott Gould and Marcia Rodd, directed by Alan Arkin. It is the story of a girl, Patsy , who brings home her boyfriend, Alfred , to meet her severely dysfunctional family amidst a series of random shootings, garbage strikes and electrical outages...
) to revues At the Drop of a Hat
At the Drop of a Hat
At the Drop of a Hat is a musical revue by Flanders and Swann, described by them as "An After-Dinner Farrago". In the show, they both sang on a nearly bare stage, accompanied by Swann on the piano...
, Beyond the Fringe
Beyond the Fringe
Beyond the Fringe was a British comedy stage revue written and performed by Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett, and Jonathan Miller. It played in London's West End and then on New York's Broadway in the early 1960s, and is widely regarded as seminal to the rise of satire in 1960s Britain.-The...
, to dramas (84 Charing Cross Road
84 Charing Cross Road
84, Charing Cross Road is a 1970 book by Helene Hanff, later made into a stage play, television play and film, about the twenty-year correspondence between her and Frank Doel, chief buyer of Marks & Co, antiquarian booksellers located at the eponymous address in London, England.Hanff, in search of...
, Anna Christie
Anna Christie
Anna Christie is a play in four acts by Eugene O'Neill. It made its Broadway debut at the Vanderbilt Theatre on November 2, 1921. O'Neill received the 1922 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his work.-Plot summary:...
) to musicals
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
(Dear World
Dear World
Dear World is a Broadway musical with a book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. With its opening, Herman became the only composer-lyricist in history to have three productions running simultaneously on Broadway...
, A Day in Hollywood / A Night in the Ukraine
A Day in Hollywood / A Night in the Ukraine
A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine is a musical comedy consisting of two essentially independent one-act plays, with a book and lyrics by Dick Vosburgh and music by Frank Lazarus...
) to the classics (King Lear
King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
, Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
). He also produced stage concerts for Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
, Maurice Chevalier
Maurice Chevalier
Maurice Auguste Chevalier was a French actor, singer, entertainer and a noted Sprechgesang performer. He is perhaps best known for his signature songs, including Louise, Mimi, Valentine, and Thank Heaven for Little Girls and for his films including The Love Parade and The Big Pond...
, and Yves Montand
Yves Montand
-Early life:Montand was born Ivo Livi in Monsummano Terme, Italy, the son of poor peasants Giuseppina and Giovanni Livi, a broommaker. Montand's mother was a devout Catholic, while his father held strong Communist beliefs. Because of the Fascist regime in Italy, Montand's family left for France in...
, and an evening of comic sketches with Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols is a German-born American television, stage and film director, writer, producer and comedian. He began his career in the 1950s as one half of the comedy duo Nichols and May, along with Elaine May. In 1968 he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film The Graduate...
and Elaine May
Elaine May
Elaine May is an American film director, screenwriter and actress. She achieved her greatest fame in the 1950s from her improvisational comedy routines in partnership with Mike Nichols...
.
Cohen was responsible for the international stardom of Marcel Marceau
Marcel Marceau
Marcel Marceau was an internationally acclaimed French actor and mime most famous for his persona as Bip the Clown.-Early years:...
, bringing him to New York to support Maurice Chevalier
Maurice Chevalier
Maurice Auguste Chevalier was a French actor, singer, entertainer and a noted Sprechgesang performer. He is perhaps best known for his signature songs, including Louise, Mimi, Valentine, and Thank Heaven for Little Girls and for his films including The Love Parade and The Big Pond...
in An Evening with Maurice Chevalier. He had originally intended the production to be a one-man show but Chevalier did not want to work that hard, and requested that Marceau (then unknown outside Europe) perform his mime pieces to give Chevalier opportunities to rest between musical numbers.
His informal series of revues collectively titled "Nine O'Clock Musicals" included At the Drop of a Hat and At the Drop of Another Hat (both featuring Michael Flanders
Michael Flanders
Michael Henry Flanders OBE, was an English actor, broadcaster, and writer and performer of comic songs. He is best known to the general public for his partnership with Donald Swann performing as the duo Flanders and Swann....
and Donald Swann
Donald Swann
Donald Ibrahím Swann was a British composer, musician and entertainer. He is best known to the general public for his partnership of writing and performing comic songs with Michael Flanders .-Life:...
, Words and Music (Hollywood lyricist Sammy Cahn
Sammy Cahn
Sammy Cahn was an American lyricist, songwriter and musician. He is best known for his romantic lyrics to films and Broadway songs, as well as stand-alone songs premiered by recording companies in the Greater Los Angeles Area...
performing his own songs with a few back-up singers) and the semi-musical Good Evening with Peter Cook
Peter Cook
Peter Edward Cook was an English satirist, writer and comedian. An extremely influential figure in modern British comedy, he is regarded as the leading light of the British satire boom of the 1960s. He has been described by Stephen Fry as "the funniest man who ever drew breath," although Cook's...
and Dudley Moore
Dudley Moore
Dudley Stuart John Moore, CBE was an English actor, comedian, composer and musician.Moore first came to prominence as one of the four writer-performers in the ground-breaking comedy revue Beyond the Fringe in the early 1960s, and then became famous as half of the highly popular television...
. They were low-budget, required little material support, and were hugely successful.
Despite his success with revues, the highly prolific Cohen never produced a financially successful book musical (a musical with a script and plot) on Broadway, although he did produce the successful London productions of 1776 and Applause
Applause
Applause is primarily the expression of approval by the act of clapping, or striking the palms of the hands together, in order to create noise. Audiences are usually expected to applaud after a performance, such as a musical concert, speech, or play...
. A challenge he was never able to satisfy was to mount a Broadway revival of Hellzapoppin'. A 1967 out-of-town tryout starring Soupy Sales
Soupy Sales
Soupy Sales was an American comedian, actor, radio-TV personality and host, and jazz aficionado. He was best known for his local and network children's television show, Lunch with Soupy Sales; a series of comedy sketches frequently ending with Sales receiving a pie in the face, which became his...
closed in Montreal, and ten years later another effort starring Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
and Lynn Redgrave
Lynn Redgrave
Lynn Rachel Redgrave, OBE was an English actress.A member of the well-known British family of actors, Redgrave trained in London before making her theatrical debut in 1962...
closed in Boston. The rights are still held by the Cohen estate. The nearest Cohen came to a successful book musical on Broadway was A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine, adapted from a much less elaborate London production. This double feature consisted of two short entertainments with the same cast: the first half being a plotless compendium of songs and anecdotes about old-time Hollywood, the second half being Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
's play The Bear radically reworked as a musical comedy for the Marx Brothers
Marx Brothers
The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act, originally from New York City, that enjoyed success in Vaudeville, Broadway, and motion pictures from the early 1900s to around 1950...
(impersonated by modern actors), retaining a vague semblance of Chekhov's plot.
Television production
Cohen conceived and originated the first Tony Awards telecast in 1967 and helmed many more over the following years. He also produced a number of Emmy AwardEmmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
presentations, specials with Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo KBE , born José Plácido Domingo Embil, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range...
and Liza Minnelli
Liza Minnelli
Liza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli....
, and the first and third editions of Night of 100 Stars, which featured a parade of entertainment and sports celebrities performing and/or appearing on the stage of Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue located in New York City's Rockefeller Center. Its nickname is the Showplace of the Nation, and it was for a time the leading tourist destination in the city...
.
Other work
As well as producing, Cohen participated in the operation of a number of legitimate theaters, including the Morris Mechanic in BaltimoreBaltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
after its renovation, and the O'Keefe Centre in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
when it opened in 1960.
He was responsible for drawing the performing arts community into the popular and highly successful I Love New York television ad campaign. In 1976, he converted the bankrupt and vacant Manhattan Plaza on Manhattan
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's West 43rd Street into an apartment complex providing subsidized
Subsidy
A subsidy is an assistance paid to a business or economic sector. Most subsidies are made by the government to producers or distributors in an industry to prevent the decline of that industry or an increase in the prices of its products or simply to encourage it to hire more labor A subsidy (also...
housing for low-income performers.
Cohen was also an active fund-raiser for the Actors Fund of America. He put together several television spectaculars, Night of 100 Stars and Parade of Stars which raised $3 million to build the fund's extended-care nursing facility in Englewood, N.J. Behind the scenes, however, there was controversy, some claiming that Cohen's lavish producing style accommodated his own lavish needs better than the fund's.
Cohen made one appearance as an actor when he appeared onscreen in Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
's film The Purple Rose of Cairo
The Purple Rose of Cairo
The Purple Rose of Cairo is a 1985 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. Inspired by Sherlock, Jr., Hellzapoppin, and Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author, it is the tale of a film character who leaves a fictional film of the same name and enters the real...
(1985), portraying Raoul Hirsch, a fictional Hollywood producer in the 1930s. His final act, putting it all together, was in 1999 when he wrote, produced, directed, and starred in his off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
one-man show, Star Billing, in which he reminisced about his hits, flops, and famous feuds. The New York Times reviewer stated that he had many a kind word for his friends and an arsenal of well-honed, acid-tipped barbs for those he loathed, among them rival producer David Merrick
David Merrick
David Merrick was a prolific Tony Award-winning American theatrical producer.-Life and career:Born David Lee Margulois to Jewish parents in St. Louis, Missouri, Merrick graduated from Washington University, then studied law at the Jesuit-run Saint Louis University School of Law...
, Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
and Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
. http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?html_title=&tols_title=STAR%20BILLING%20(ONE-MAN%20SHOW)&pdate=19981112&byline=By%20LAWRENCE%20VAN%20GELDER&id=1077011431544
Selected Broadway credits
- Waiting in the WingsWaiting in the Wings (play)Waiting in the Wings is a play by Noël Coward. Set in a retirement home for actresses, it focuses on a feud between residents Lotta Bainbridge and May Davenport, who once both loved the same man.-Background:...
(1999) - Sacrilege (1995)
- Ah, Wilderness!Ah, Wilderness!Ah, Wilderness! is a comedy by American playwright Eugene O'Neill that premiered on Broadway at the Guild Theatre on 2 October 1933.-Plot summary:...
(1988 revival) - Long Day's Journey Into NightLong Day's Journey Into NightLong Day's Journey Into Night is a 1956 drama in four acts written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. The play is widely considered to be his masterwork...
(1988 revival) - Accidental Death of an AnarchistAccidental Death of an AnarchistAccidental Death of an Anarchist is perhaps the best-known play by the Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo.- About the play :...
(1984) - Edmund Kean (1983)
- I Remember MamaI Remember Mama (musical)I Remember Mama is a musical with a book by Thomas Meehan, lyrics by Martin Charnin and Raymond Jessel, and music by Richard Rodgers.-Origins:...
(1979) - ComediansComedians (play)Comedians is a play by Trevor Griffiths, set in a Manchester evening class for aspiring working-class comedians. It was first performed at the Nottingham Playhouse on 20 February 1975, in a production directed by Richard Eyre. The cast included Jonathan Pryce as the main character, Gethin Price,...
(1976) - 6 Rms Riv Vu6 Rms Riv Vu6 Rms Riv Vu is a play by Bob Randall, who also wrote The Magic Show.6 Rms Riv Vu derives its title from shorthand used by realtors in classified advertising. In this case, a six-room apartment with a view of the Hudson River, located on Manhattan's Riverside Drive, serves as the comedy-drama's...
(1972) - The Unknown Soldier and His Wife (1967)
- Black Comedy/White LiesBlack Comedy/White LiesThe White Liars is a one-act play by Peter Shaffer, first performed in 1967 originally titled White Lies.It is often performed with another of Shaffer's one-act plays, Black Comedy, to form the double-bill of The White Liars and Black Comedy.The White Liars revolves around Sophie Lemberg, an...
(1967) - The HomecomingThe HomecomingThe Homecoming is a two-act play written in 1964 by Nobel laureate Harold Pinter and first published in 1965. The original Broadway production won the 1967 Tony Award for Best Play and its 40th-anniversary Broadway production at the Cort Theatre was nominated for a 2008 Tony Award for "Best Revival...
(1967) - A Time for SingingA Time for SingingA Time for Singing is a musical with music by John Morris, lyrics by Gerald Freedman and John Morris, and a book by Gerald Freedman and John Morris. The work was based on Richard Llewellyn's novel of a Welsh mining village, How Green Was My Valley...
(1966) - At the Drop of Another HatAt the Drop of Another HatAt the Drop of Another Hat is musical revue by Flanders and Swann, similar in format to its long-running predecessor, At the Drop of a Hat . In the show, they both sang on a nearly bare stage, accompanied by Swann on the piano. The songs were linked by contemporary social commentary, mostly by...
(1966) - Baker StreetBaker Street (musical)Baker Street is a musical with a book by Jerome Coopersmith and music and lyrics by Marian Grudeff and Raymond Jessel.Loosely based on the Sherlock Holmes story A Scandal in Bohemia by Arthur Conan Doyle, it is set in and around London in 1897, the year in which England celebrated the Diamond...
(1965) - HamletHamletThe Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
(1964 revival with Richard Burton. This is still the longest-running Broadway staging of the play ever produced, outrunning Maurice EvansMaurice Evans (actor)Maurice Herbert Evans was an English actor noted for his interpretations of Shakespearean characters. In terms of his screen roles, he is probably best known as Dr...
's 1945 G.I. Hamlet by only a few performances) - The School for ScandalThe School for ScandalThe School for Scandal is a play written by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. It was first performed in London at Drury Lane Theatre on May 8, 1777.The prologue, written by David Garrick, commends the play, its subject, and its author to the audience...
(1963 revival) - Beyond the FringeBeyond the FringeBeyond the Fringe was a British comedy stage revue written and performed by Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett, and Jonathan Miller. It played in London's West End and then on New York's Broadway in the early 1960s, and is widely regarded as seminal to the rise of satire in 1960s Britain.-The...
(1962) - At the Drop of a HatAt the Drop of a HatAt the Drop of a Hat is a musical revue by Flanders and Swann, described by them as "An After-Dinner Farrago". In the show, they both sang on a nearly bare stage, accompanied by Swann on the piano...
(1959) - Gentlemen Prefer BlondesGentlemen Prefer Blondes (musical)Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is a musical with a book by Joseph Fields and Anita Loos, lyrics by Leo Robin, and music by Jule Styne, based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Loos...
(1949)
Awards and nominations
- 2000 Drama Desk AwardDrama Desk AwardThe Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
for Lifetime Achievement (awarded posthumously) - 1999 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance (Star Billing, nominee)
- 1989 Tony Award for Best Revival (Ah, Wilderness!, nominee)
- 1989 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival (Long Day's Journey Into Night, nominee)
- 1984 Tony Award for Best Play (Play Memory, nominee)
- 1984 Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience (La Tragedie de Carmen, winner)
- 1980 Tony Award for Best Musical (A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine, nominee)
- 1977 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Foreign Play (Comedians, nominee)
- 1974 Tony Award for Best Play (Ulysses in Nighttown, nominee)
- 1973 Theatre World AwardTheatre World AwardThe Theatre World Award, first awarded for the 1945-46 season, is an American honor presented annually to actors and actresses in recognition of an outstanding New York City stage debut performance, either on Broadway or off-Broadway.-History:...
(for his contribution to cultivating theater audiences by extending Broadway not only nationally, but internationally, with his exemplary television productions) - 1971 Tony Award for Best Play (Home, nominee)
- 1967 Tony Award for Best Play (The Homecoming, winner)
- 1967 Tony Award for Best Play (Black Comedy/White Lies, nominee)