Cy Coleman
Cy Coleman (1929-2004) was an American pianist and composer who composed music in the 6 decades 1950s - 2000s, writing both popular songs as well as the music for 14 Broadway and 8 film and television musical productions. He had two main parts in his musically rich life: as a classical and jazz pianist/composer writing hit songs while headlining his famous Cy Coleman Trio, and as a composer for Broadway musicals writing the music for several award-winning shows and earning both best musical and best musical score Tonys two years in a row for City of Angels (1990) and The Will Rogers Follies (1991). Coleman garnered 30 Academy, Tony, Emmy, or Grammy Award nominations winning 5 of them, and found time to serve long term on the ASCAP Board of Directors as well as their Vice Chairman Writer. He was elected to the Songwriter and American Theater Halls of Fame, received the American Theater Johnny Mercer Award, the ASCAP Richard Rodgers award for lifetime achievement in Musical Theater, and received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Hofstra University.
Born Seymour Kaufman in New York City, he was a child prodigy who gave piano recitals at Steinway Hall, the Town Hall, and Carnegie Hall before the age of ten. He attended New York’s The High School of Music and Art and then the New York College of Music, graduating in 1948. Deciding to make popular music his career, he collaborated first with the lyricist Joseph Allen McCarthy and then with Carolyn Leigh for over a dozen years producing a stream of song hits such as “Why Try To Change Me Now”, “Witchcraft”, “The Best Is Yet To Come”, and “When In Rome (I Do as the Romans Do)” many made popular by legendary singers Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee. During this period he formed the Cy Coleman Trio performing song standards at various Manhattan night clubs, and appearing on live television at the Playboy Club as well as several New York City house parties.
Coleman's career as a Broadway composer began in 1960 when he and Carolyn Leigh collaborated on the musical Wildcat which included the hit tune "Hey, Look Me Over". This was followed by their musical Little Me (1962) with a book by Neil Simon, and produced the hit tunes "Real Live Girl" and "I've Got Your Number”. Coleman’s next musicals, Sweet Charity (1965) and See Saw (1972) were written with legendary lyricist Dorothy Fields. After her death in 1974 Coleman worked with a variety of lyricists over the next 30 years including Michael Stewart, Barbara Fried, Comden and Green, A.E. Hotchner, David Zippel, Ira Gasman, and Alan and Marilyn Bergman. These collaborations produced over a dozen musical productions and resulted in Best Musical Tony Awards for On the Twentieth Century (1978), City of Angels (1990), and The Will Rogers Follies (1991), as well as a number of popular hit songs.
One final musical with a Cy Coleman score opened in Los Angeles in late 2003 under the title Like Jazz, as a Broadway tryout. Investors went forward with plans to mount a Broadway production renamed In the Pocket and a 2006 opening, but Cy Coleman’s death in 2004 precluded this.
Cy Coleman’s Stage Musical Scores
Cy Coleman's Film and Television Musical scores
Born Seymour Kaufman in New York City, he was a child prodigy who gave piano recitals at Steinway Hall, the Town Hall, and Carnegie Hall before the age of ten. He attended New York’s The High School of Music and Art and then the New York College of Music, graduating in 1948. Deciding to make popular music his career, he collaborated first with the lyricist Joseph Allen McCarthy and then with Carolyn Leigh for over a dozen years producing a stream of song hits such as “Why Try To Change Me Now”, “Witchcraft”, “The Best Is Yet To Come”, and “When In Rome (I Do as the Romans Do)” many made popular by legendary singers Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee. During this period he formed the Cy Coleman Trio performing song standards at various Manhattan night clubs, and appearing on live television at the Playboy Club as well as several New York City house parties.
Coleman's career as a Broadway composer began in 1960 when he and Carolyn Leigh collaborated on the musical Wildcat which included the hit tune "Hey, Look Me Over". This was followed by their musical Little Me (1962) with a book by Neil Simon, and produced the hit tunes "Real Live Girl" and "I've Got Your Number”. Coleman’s next musicals, Sweet Charity (1965) and See Saw (1972) were written with legendary lyricist Dorothy Fields. After her death in 1974 Coleman worked with a variety of lyricists over the next 30 years including Michael Stewart, Barbara Fried, Comden and Green, A.E. Hotchner, David Zippel, Ira Gasman, and Alan and Marilyn Bergman. These collaborations produced over a dozen musical productions and resulted in Best Musical Tony Awards for On the Twentieth Century (1978), City of Angels (1990), and The Will Rogers Follies (1991), as well as a number of popular hit songs.
One final musical with a Cy Coleman score opened in Los Angeles in late 2003 under the title Like Jazz, as a Broadway tryout. Investors went forward with plans to mount a Broadway production renamed In the Pocket and a 2006 opening, but Cy Coleman’s death in 2004 precluded this.
Cy Coleman’s Stage Musical Scores
- Wildcat (with lyricist Carolyn Leigh 1960)
- Little Me (with lyricist Carolyn Leigh1962)
- Sweet Charity (with lyricist Dorothy Fields 1966)
- See Saw (with lyricist Dorothy Fields 1973)
- I Love My Wife (with lyricist Michael Stewart 1976)
- On The Twentieth Century (with lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green 1978)
- Home Again, Home Again (with lyricist Barbara Fried 1979)
- Barnum (with lyricist Michael Stewart 1980)
- 13 Days to Broadway (with lyricist Barbara Fried 1983)
- Welcome to the Club (with lyricist A.E. Hotchner 1989)
- City of Angels (with lyricist David Zippel 1990)
- The Life (with lyricist Ira Gasman 1990)
- The Will Rogers Follies (with lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green 1991)
- Like Jazz/In the Pocket (with lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman 2003)
Cy Coleman's Film and Television Musical scores
- Father Goose
- The Art of Love
- Garbo Talks
- Power
- Family Business
- Shirley MacLaine Special
- If My Friends Could See Me Now
- Gypsy In My Soul