Adolph Green Biography

The team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green, 1991 recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors, and the longest running creative partnership in theatre history, began writing and performing their own satirical comic material in a group called The Revuers, which included the late Judy Holliday. They went on to collaborate with Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins on what was the first show for all of them, On The Town. Also with Mr. Bernstein they did the score for Wonderful Town. With Jule Styne they wrote the book and/or lyrics for Bells Are Ringing; Hallelujah, Baby; Do Re Mi; Subways Are For Sleeping; Peter Pan; and others; wrote the book for Applause; with Cy Coleman the book and lyrics for On The Twentieth Century; lyrics for The Will Rogers Follies; and book and lyrics for A Doll’s Life with Larry Grossman. Five of these, Applause; Hallelujah, Baby; Wonderful Town; On The Twentieth Century; and The Will Rogers Follies won them six Tony Awards, and A Doll’s Life, a Tony nomination. Their many film musicals include Singin’ in the Rain, The Band Wagon, On The Town, Bells Are Ringing, It’s Always Fair Weather, Good News, and The Barkleys of Broadway. Their non-musicals: Auntie Mame and What A Way To Go. Two of the musicals, The Band Wagon and It’s Always Fair Weather, received Academy Award nominations, and those two plus On The Town won the Screen Writers’ Guild Award. Singin’ in the Rain was recently voted one of the ten best American films ever made and, by a vote of international film critics conducted by the prestigious Sight and Sound, was chosen as Number Three of the ten best films of all time. They are both members of the Council of the Dramatists Guild, have been elected to the Theatre Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and have received the Mayor of New York’s Certificate of Excellence.