Composer Sheldon Harnick goes to the “Fiddler on the Roof” media day at the New 42nd Street Studios on October 15, 2015 in New York City. Walter McBride/Getty Images
Tony- as well as Grammy Award-winning lyricist Sheldon Harnick, that with composer Jerry Bock composed the premier musical-theater songwriting duos of the 1950s as well as 1960s with programs such as Fiddler on the Roof, Fiorello! as well as The Apple Tree, has actually passed away. He was 99.
Known for his wry, refined wit as well as ingenious wordplay, Harnick passed away in his rest Friday (June 23) in New York City of all-natural reasons, claimed Sean Katz, Harnick’s press agent.
Broadway musicians paid their aspects on social networks, with Schmigadoon! author Cinco Paul calling him “one of the all-time great musical theater lyricists” as well as star Jackie Hoffman carefully creating: “Like all brilliant persnickety lyricists he was a pain in the tuchus.”
Bock as well as Harnick initially struck success for the songs as well as verses to Fiorello!, which gained them each Tonys as well as an uncommon Pulitzer Prize in 1960. In enhancement, Harnick was chosen for Tonys in 1967 for The Apple Tree, in 1971 for The Rothschilds as well as in 1994 for Cyrano — The Musical. But their work of art was Fiddler on the Roof.
Bock as well as Harnick were initial presented at a dining establishment by star Jack Cassidy after the opening-night efficiency of Shangri-La, a music in which Harnick had actually assisted with the verses. The initially Harnick-Bock musical was The Body Beautiful in 1958.
“I think in all of the years that we worked together, I only remember one or two arguments — and those were at the beginning of the collaboration when we were still feeling each other out,” Harnick, that worked together with Bock for 13 years, remembered in a meeting with The Associated Press in 2010. “Once we got past that, he was wonderful to work with.”
They would certainly create among one of the most significant collaborations in Broadway background. Producers Robert E. Griffith as well as Hal Prince had actually suched as the tunes from The Body Beautiful, as well as they got Bock as well as Harnick to create ball game for their following manufacturing, Fiorello!, a music regarding the reformist mayor of New York City.
Bock as well as Harnick after that worked together on Tenderloin in 1960 as well as She Loves Me 3 years later on. Neither was a hit — although She Loves Me won a Grammy for finest rating from an actors cd — however their following one was a beast that remains to be executed around the world: Fiddler on the Roof. It gained 2 Tony Awards in 1965.
Based on tales by Sholom Aleichem that were adjusted right into a libretto by Stein, Fiddler taken care of the experience of Eastern European Orthodox Jews in the Russian town of Anatevka in the year 1905. It starred Zero Mostel as Teyve, had a nearly 8 year run as well as supplied the globe such magnificent tunes as “Sunrise, Sunset,” “If I Were a Rich Man” as well as “Matchmaker, Matchmaker.” The newest Broadway rebirth starred Danny Burstein as Tevye as well as gained a finest rebirth Tony election.
In a work of art of giggling as well as inflammation, Harnick’s verses were emotional as well as truthful, as when the hero Tevye sings, “Lord who made the lion and the lamb/ You decreed I should be what I am/ Would it spoil some vast eternal plan/If I were a wealthy man?”
Harvey Fierstein, that played Tevye in a Broadway rebirth beginning in 2004 claimed in a declaration that Harnick’s “lyrics were clear and purposeful and never lapsed into cliche. You’d never catch him relying on easy rhymes or ‘lists’ to fill a musical phrase. He always sought and told the truth for the character and so made acting his songs a joy.”
Bock as well as Harnick following created guide along with ball game for The Apple Tree, in 1966, as well as ball game for The Rothschilds, with a publication by Sherman Yellen, in 1970. It was the last partnership in between both: Bock chose that the moment had actually come for him to be his very own lyricist as well as he produced 2 speculative cds in the very early 1970s.
Harnick took place to team up with Michel Legrand on The Umbrellas of Cherbourg in 1979 as well as a musical of A Christmas Carol in 1981; Mary Rodgers on a variation of Pinocchio in 1973; Arnold Black on a musical of The Phantom Tollbooth; as well as Richard Rodgers on ball game to Rex in 1976, a Broadway music regarding Henry VIII.
He likewise created verses for the track “William Wants a Doll” for Marlo Thomas’ television special Free to Be… You as well as Me as well as numerous initial opera librettos, consisting of Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines as well as Love in Two Countries. He won a Grammy for creating the libretto for The Merry Widow including Beverly Sills.
His help tv as well as movie varied from tunes for the HBO computer animated movie The Tale of Peter Rabbit in 1991 with songs by Stephen Lawrence, to verses for the opening variety of the 1988 Academy Awards newscast. He created the signature tune for 2 movies, both with songs by Cy Coleman: The Heartbreak Kid in 1972 as well as Blame it On Rio in 1984.
In 2014, off-Broadway’s The York Theatre Company revitalized a few of Harnick’s very early jobs, consisting of Malpractice Makes Perfect, Dragons as well as Tenderloin. She Loves Me was last revitalized on Broadway in 2016 in a Tony-chosen program starring Zachary Levi.
Harnick was birthed as well as elevated in Chicago as well as gained a bachelor’s level in songs from the Northwestern University School of Music after offering in the military throughout World War II. Trained in the violin, he chose to attempt his good luck as a songwriter in New York.
His very early tunes consisted of “The Ballad of the Shape of Things,” later on videotaped by the Kingston Trio, as well as the Cole Porter satire, “Boston Beguine,” from the performance New Faces of 1952.
He as well as his partner, musician Margery Gray Harnick, had 2 youngsters, Beth as well as Matthew, as well as 4 grandchildren. Harnick had an earlier marital relationship to starlet Elaine May. He was a long time participant of the Dramatists Guild as well as Songwriters Guild.
Kristin Chenoweth, that starred in a 2006 rebirth of The Apple Tree, on Twitter called it “one of my favorite professional experiences of my career,” including regarding Harnick: “I loved his musings. His writings. His soul.”
