Cy Coleman (
June 14, 1929 -
November 18, 2004) was an American
composer, songwriter, and
jazz pianist.
He was born
Seymour Kaufman on
June 14, 1929, in
New York City to
Eastern European Jewish parents, and was raised in the
Bronx. His mother, Ida (née Prizent) was an apartment landlady and his father was a brickmason. He was a
child prodigy who gave piano recitals at Steinway Hall,
Town Hall, and
Carnegie Hall between the ages of six and nine. Before beginning his fabled Broadway career, he led the Cy Coleman Trio, which made many recordings and was a much-in-demand club attraction.
Despite the early classical and jazz success, he decided to build a career in popular music. His first collaborator was
Joseph Allen McCarthy (together they wrote a song called
The Riviera), but his most successful early partnership, albeit a turbulent one, was with
Carolyn Leigh. The pair wrote many pop hits, including
Witchcraft and
The Best Is Yet To Come.
One of his instrumentals, "Playboy's Theme," became the signature music of the regular TV shows and specials presented by
Playboy, and remains synonymous with the magazine and its creator,
Hugh Hefner.
Coleman's winning streak as a
Broadway composer began when the team collaborated on
Wildcat (
1960), which marked the Broadway debut of comedienne
Lucille Ball. The score included the hit tune "Hey Look Me Over". When Ball was unable to cope with the rigors of eight performances a week, she left the cast, and the show soon folded. Up next for the two was
Little Me, with a book by
Neil Simon based on the novel by
Patrick Dennis (
Auntie Mame). The show introduced
Real Live Girl and
I've Got Your Number, which became popular standards.
In
1964, Coleman met
Dorothy Fields at a party, and when he asked if she would like to collaborate with him, she is reported to have answered, "Thank God somebody asked". Fields was revitalised by working with the much younger Coleman, and by the contemporary nature of their first project, which was to become
Sweet Charity, again with a book by Simon, and starring
Gwen Verdon. The show was a major success and Coleman found working with Fields much easier than with Leigh. The partnership was to work on two more shows – an aborted project about
Eleanor Roosevelt, and
Seesaw which reached Broadway in
1973 after a troubled out-of-town tour. Despite mixed reviews, the show enjoyed a healthy run. The partnership was cut short by Fields' death in
1974.
Coleman remained prolific in the late 1970s. He collaborated on
I Love My Wife (
1977) with
Michael Stewart, On The Twentieth Century (
1978) with
Betty Comden and
Adolph Green, and
Home Again, Home Again with Barbara Fried, although the latter never reached Broadway.
In
1980, Coleman served as producer and composer for the circus-themed
Barnum, which introduced theatergoers to
Jim Dale and
Glenn Close. Later in the decade, he collaborated on
Welcome to the Club (
1988) with
A.E. Hotchner and
City of Angels (
1989) with David Zippel. In the latter, inspired by the hard-boiled detective
film noir of the 1930s and '40s, he returned to his jazz roots, and the show was a huge critical and commercial success.
The 1990s brought more new Coleman musicals to Broadway:
The Will Rogers Follies (
1991), again with Comden and Green,
The Life (
1997), a gritty look at pimps, prostitutes, and assorted other lowlife in the big city, with Ira Gasman, and a revised production of
Little Me. Coleman's film scores include
Father Goose,
The Art of Love,
Garbo Talks and
Family Business. In addition, he wrote
Shirley MacLaine's memorable television specials,
If My Friends Could See Me Now and
Gypsy in My Soul.
Coleman was on the
ASCAP Board of Directors for many years and also served as their Vice Chairman Writer.
He died of
cardiac arrest on
November 18, 2004 at the age of 75. He is survived by his wife, Shelby Coleman and their daughter, Lily Cye Coleman (born in 2000). To the very end, he was part of the Broadway scene - just prior to passing away, he had attended the premiere of
Michael Frayn's new play
Democracy. One final musical with a Coleman score played in
Los Angeles in 2004 under the title
Like Jazz, presumably as a Broadway tryout.
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