Styne Not Resting on His Laurels

Jule Styne’s life would make a great big Broadway musical.

At the age of 5 in 1910, Styne leaped on stage to sing a ditty with music hall star Sir Harry Lauder.

By 9, he was a piano prodigy who performed with the Detroit and Chicago symphonies. By his teens and 20s, he was leading a band that featured Benny Goodman, was writing special material for Sophie Tucker and was playing piano for Fanny Brice.

In his 30s, he was a Hollywood voice coach for stars ranging from Shirley Temple to the Ritz Brothers, was scoring B movies and writing hit songs for films and Tin Pan Alley.

In his 40s, he was just beginning his career as a Broadway composer.

And what a career: “High Button Shoes,” “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” “Peter Pan,” “Gypsy,” “Funny Girl” and “Bells Are Ringing.”

“Everything I ever did in my life came back to me in one way or another,” he said recently during an interview from his spacious Fifth Avenue apartment overlooking Central Park.

At 84, Styne is a man in good health and good spirits who has a lot of good projects ahead of him.

Styne said that he is looking forward to receiving Kennedy Center Honors in December with Katharine Hepburn and three others for lifetime achievement in the cultural arts.

But he is not simply taking in awards these days. Styne said a revival of “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” is in the works “for Madonna and what’s-her-name, the brunette, the crazy broad, she’s wonderful--Cher. They’re talking about it, but you have to get them both together at the same time.”

And Jerome Robbins recently called Styne to write a ballet for a workshop production. There is also a videocassette version of the current revival of “Gypsy” being planned for when the show ends its Broadway run.

His biggest project, however, is a new Broadway musical based on the film “The Red Shoes,” with a book by Ken Ludwig (“Lend Me a Tenor”) and lyrics by Barbara Schottenfeld.

Styne’s family emigrated from England to Chicago in 1913, and his natural talent for the piano was recognized. Scholarships to music schools followed. But a drill-press accident desensitized one of his fingers, and Styne lost the ability to become a great classical pianist. So he downshifted his goals to popular music.

As Styne’s career as a songwriter grew, he realized he wanted to write for the stage, where he would have control over his work.

Styne’s first attempt at a Broadway show was 1944’s “Glad to See You!” directed by Busby Berkeley. But, he says, the show was a “catastrophic show for all time.”

Styne’s second show, however, was a big hit: 1947’s “High Button Shoes” starring Nanette Fabray and Phil Silvers, directed by George Abbott and choreographed by Jerome Robbins, who would go on to create some of his best work with Styne in “Peter Pan,” ’Bells Are Ringing,” “Gypsy” and “Funny Girl.”

With a revue in 1951 called “Two on the Aisle,” starring Bert Lahr and Dolores Gray, Styne began his professional relationship with lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green.

“They were kind of sophisticated,” Styne said. “A lot of lyric writers I was writing with couldn’t spell. It was a step up in class for me.”

Did the duo outnumber him?

“I outnumbered them,” he said, chuckling. “I outnumber everybody. I’m difficult to work with--like Jerome Robbins. All I want it to be is right. That’s not asking much.”