Broadway Legend Betty Comden Dies at 89

Betty Comden, whose work with the late Adolph Green epitomized Broadway's Golden Age, has died at the age of 89, according to the New York Times.

The Tony Award-winning lyricist and librettist died at New York-Presbyterian Hospital on November 23rd; the cause of death was heart failure. 

Comden was known for a series of Broadway and movie musicals written with Green, who passed away in 2002.  Working with composers ranging from Leonard Bernstein to Jule Styne to Cy Coleman, the team crafted books and lyrics rich in urbane wit, sophistication and joie de vivre.  Among their many songs are "New York, New York," "Lonely Town," "Some Other Time," "A Little Bit in Love," "100 Easy Ways to Lose a Man," "Make Someone Happy," "Just in Time," "The Party's Over," "Our Private World," and "My Own Morning."

Born as Elizabeth Cohen on May 3, 1917 in Brooklyn, Comden graduated from New York University in 1938.  Beginning as an actress with such groups as the Washington Square Players, Comden met Green soon after.  With Judy Holliday (who would star in their 1956 musicals Bells are Ringing), Comden and Green formed the comedic cabaret act The Revuers.  Sometimes accompanied by Bernstein, the three performed such numbers as "The Banshi Sisters" and "The Baroness Bazuka."

Comden and Green's first big Broadway success was On the Town, written with Leonard Bernstein.  Directed by George Abbott and choreographed by Jerome Robbins, the musical also featured Comden as anthropologist Claire DeLoone, as well as Green as Ozzie, one of the three sailors-on-leave in New York.

Over the next five decades, Comden and Green wrote book and/or lyrics for over a dozen shows.  They shared in a 1968 Best Composer and Lyricist Tony for Hallelujah, Baby! (written with Styne), a 1978 Best Original Score Tony for On the Twentieth Century (written with Coleman), and a 1991 Best Original Score Tony for The Will Rogers Follies (again, written with Coleman).  With Morton Gould, they wrote Billion Dollar Baby; with Bernstein, Wonderful Town as well as On the Town; with Styne, they contributed songs to Peter Pan, as well as penned Two on the Aisle, Say, Darling, Do Re Mi, Subways are for Sleeping, Fade Out-Fade In and Lorelei; with Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, Applause; and with Larry Grossman, the ambitious A Doll's Life.

Comden, with Green, also contributed lyrics and screenplays to movie musicals during their Golden Age in Hollywood.  In 1952, they wrote the screenplay to what is arguably the greatest movie musical of all time--Singin' in the Rain.  They would later adapt the classic for a short-lived Broadway musical.  Other film credits included Good News, The Barkleys of Broadway (the film that reuninted Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire), the classic The Band Wagon, featuring the songs of Schwartz and Dietz, It's Always Fair Weather, Auntie Mame (adapting the screenplay from the original Lee-Lawrence play), Bells Are Ringing, adapted from their Broadway hit, and What a Way to Go!.

Comden, whose acting career was sporadic but vivid, appeared as Greta Garbo in the 1984 film Garbo Talks.  Other screen and TV credits included Slaves of New York and "Frasier." She appears with the Revuers in the 1944 film Greenwich Village, and also appeared on stage in Wendy Wasserstein's Isn't It Romantic.

Although some mistook Green for her romantic partner, Comden was in fact married to designer and businessman Steven Kyle from 1942 to his death in 1979. 

Comden is survived by daughter Susannah Kyle.