Alan Jay Lerner

• Born: August 31, 1918
• Birthplace: New York, New York
• Died: June 14, 1986
• Place of death: New York, New York

Playwright and lyricist

Lerner wrote the book and lyrics to classic Broadway and Hollywood musicals, including Brigadoon (1947) and My Fair Lady (1956). Although he collaborated with many composers, including Kurt Weill and André Previn, Lerner’s work with Frederick Loewe resulted in some of the most beloved songs in musical theater history.

Areas of achievement: Music; theater

Early Life

Alan Jay Lerner (LUR-nur) was the second of three sons of Joseph J. Lerner, cofounder of Lerner’s, a chain of women’s clothing stores, and Edith Adelson Lerner. He grew up in an affluent Jewish family. When he was five, Lerner began piano lessons, saw his first musical, and developed a desire to become involved in musical theater. He attended private schools, including Choate, where he coedited the yearbook with the future U.S. president John F. Kennedy. Lerner’s developing skill in music led to summer school at Juilliard, studying piano and music theory. He enrolled at Harvard University, where his love of boxing prompted him to go out for the boxing team; a mishap resulted in permanent damage to his left eye. At Harvard he wrote lyrics for the university’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals, student-written shows, in 1938 and 1939. Following graduation from Harvard in 1940, Lerner composed advertising copy for the Lord and Thomas agency in New York City. Stultified, he quit in 1942 and began writing for radio shows. He also wrote lyrics for the Lambs Club annual show. In August of 1942, while lunching at the club, he was approached by Frederick Loewe, who asked him to write a musical with him.

Life’s Work

Lerner’s first effort with Loewe was updating and writing new songs for The Patsy (1925). Their version, titled Life of the Party (1942), played in Detroit and was not highly regarded, but Lerner and Loewe discovered they worked well together and planned to write a Broadway show. That show, What’s Up? (1943), lasted sixty-three performances. Their next effort, The Day Before Spring (1945), did better. Then they wrote their first hit. Inspired by the work of Scots author James M. Barrie, Lerner conceived the idea of a village in the highlands of Scotland that appears every one hundred years. When “two weary hunters,” both Americans, happen upon that village on that specific day, they discover Brigadoon. Lerner’s libretto became the musical Brigadoon, which opened on Broadway on March 13, 1947, and established Lerner and Loewe as a major Broadway writing team. When Loewe took time off, Lerner sought a new collaborator.

Lerner teamed with Kurt Weill for Love Life (1948). Lerner included some unusual touches, including a minstrel-show finale and a vaudeville-style format, which did not please the critics. Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times saw the show as “cute, complex, and joyless.” Future plans for collaboration ended with Weill’s death in April, 1950. Lerner had other projects, including the filming of Brigadoon. He had been communicating with film producer Arthur Freed, who engaged Lerner to write the script for a musical film starring Fred Astaire. Freed introduced Lerner to composer Burton Lane, and the Lerner and Lane duo created Royal Wedding (1951), a box-office success. Lerner’s next venture into film was An American in Paris (1951), with the music of George Gershwin. Although Lerner’s song “Too Late Now” from Royal Wedding did not win an Academy Award in 1952, An American in Paris won Best Picture, and Lerner received an Academy Award for his screenplay.

By then, Lerner wanted to return to Broadway and had an idea, gleaned from rereading the stories of Bret Harte, about the Wild West, in particular the Gold Rush. He persuaded Loewe to return to work, and they crafted Paint Your Wagon (1951). Reviews were mixed concerning Lerner’s book, but the songs, such as “I Still See Elisa” and “They Call the Wind Maria,” were praised.

Lerner’s most renowned show was written with Loewe. My Fair Lady (1964) was a project that took years, but the results made theater history. Reviews of the show were enthusiastic, and the show received a number of awards, including the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award and a Tony Award for best musical of the year. My Fair Lady ran more than six years, closing after 2,717 performances.

Again with Loewe, Lerner wrote an adaptation of Colette’s 1945 novella Gigi (1958). The musical film won an Academy Award for Best Picture. Lerner won Academy Awards as writer of the Best Screenplay based on material from another medium and, with Loewe, for best song, the title song “Gigi.” Returning to Broadway, the pair collaborated on Camelot (1960) based on T. H. White’s 1958 book The Once and Future King. For the libretto Lerner focused on Arthur’s dreams, the dissolution of the Round Table, and his troubled marriage. Particularly significant for Lerner was how his play Camelot became a part of the presidency of his former Choate and Harvard classmate, Kennedy. When Jacqueline Kennedy was interviewed after the president was assassinated, she stated how Kennedy loved the musical, particularly Lerner’s lyric: “Don’t let it be forgot that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot.”

After Camelot, Loewe, once again, retired, and Lerner looked for a new composer. An attempted collaboration with Richard Rodgers failed, and Lerner approached Lane, who agreed to work on the new project: On a Clear Day You Can See Forever opened on October 17, 1965 and lasted for 280 performances. Lerner collaborated with André Previn on Coco (1969), based on the life of couturier Coco Chanel. The musical had some success because Katharine Hepburn played the title role. In 1971, Lerner wrote an adaptation of VladimirNabokov’s 1955 novel Lolita with John Barry; the show closed before Broadway. Lerner wrote an adaptation of Antoine Saint-Exupéry’s 1943 book The Little Prince, with Loewe, but the 1974 film was not a success. Lerner’s next project was with Leonard Bernstein; they planned for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to premier at the new John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, for the 1976 Bicentennial. However, the show never gelled and was a failure. Lerner wrote Carmelina (1979) with librettist Joseph Stein and composer Lane; it closed after seventeen performances. Lerner’s final musical, his thirteenth, with yet another composer, Charles Strouse, Dance a Little Closer, opened on May 11, 1983, and closed the same night.

Lerner’s personal life reads like a soap-opera plot. He married eight times and had four children. His first marriage was to Ruth Boyd on June 26, 1940; his eighth, on August 12, 1981, was to Liz Robertson who outlived him. All marriages, except the last, ended in divorce, some more contentious than others. Lerner was working on his fourteenth musical when he died of lung cancer; he was buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.

Significance

Since age five Lerner had loved musicals, and as an adult, he was able to create some of the most beloved, as both playwright and lyricist. Many said his success in writing lyrics was due to his musical training. Rather than writing intricate, clever rhymes that called attention to the words, he wrote lyrics that conveyed the spirit of the song itself. As critic Clive Barnes wrote, Lerner “could make words cling to melodies like ivy to a wall.” A prolific writer, Lerner wrote the book and lyrics for thirteen stage musicals and the scripts for six films and for two books: an autobiography, The Street Where I Live (1978), and The Musical Theatre (1986). Although he collaborated with a number of composers, his major works were with Loewe.

Bibliography

Citron, Stephen. The Wordsmiths: Oscar Hammerstein 2nd and Alan Jay Lerner. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Focused more on Lerner’s creative work than on his life.

Jablonski, Edward. Alan Jay Lerner: A Biography. New York: Holt, 1996. Includes biographical information as well as background on the musicals.

Lerner, Alan Jay. The Street Where I Live. New York: Norton, 1978. Lerner focuses on three musicals: My Fair Lady, Gigi, and Camelot, with detailed information on each, and includes lyrics from the three shows.