Brief Biography

Betty Comden

Born:  May 3, 1919

Adolph Green

Born:  December 2, 1915

Died:  October 23, 2002

“Betty Comden and Adolph Green Interview.”  Interview by Mike Wood.  Camera by Bill Comfort.  Edit by Steve Worley.  February 27, 1990.  New York, New York.  Site hosted by The William Inge Center for the Arts.  Video hosted by Wichita State University.  

The team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green, 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 wrote the book for Applause, Hallelujah, Baby, Wonderful Town, and On the Twentieth Century, which won them five Tony Awards, and a Tony nomination for A Doll's Life. They have also collaborated 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. 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. Two of these, The Band Wagon and It's Always Fair Weather, received Academy Award Nominations, and those two plus On the Town won the Screen Writer's 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 magazine Sight and Sound, it was chosen as number three of the ten best films of all time. As performers, they appeared in On the Town, and later did an evening at the Golden Theatre, A Party with Betty Comden and Adolph Green, comprised of material from their own shows and movies, and from their act, The Revuers. In 1977 they did a new version of A Party to unanimous acclaim at the Morosco Theatre, and toured with it. A Party received an Obie Award when it was first performed. 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. Miss Comden received the Woman of the Year Award from the Alumni Association of New York University. She appeared in the film Garbo Talks and on the stage in the Playwrights' Horizons production of Wendy Wasserstein's Isn't It Romantic? Mr. Green appeared in the films Simon, My Favorite Year, Garbo Talks, and Lily in Love. Some of their best known songs include: Just in Time; The Party's Over; Make Someone Happy; New York, New York; Neverland; It's Love; Lonely Town; and Some Other Time.