Singin' Their Praises : Comden, Green Saluted for 50 Years of Making Musicals

By DON HECKMAN

Nov. 12, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Fiftysomething years after they first got together, Betty Comden and Adolph Green are still finishing each other’s sentences.

“Broadway’s not what it used to be,” said Comden, 72, a few days ago by phone from Bridgehampton on New York’s Long Island.

“But it’s hard to be depressed,” said Green, 75, “when you’ve got a hit show like ‘The Will Rogers Follies.’ ”

And even harder when you’ve joined the certified legendary names of the entertainment business. For Comden and Green, a large measure of that certification will take place tonight at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Samuel Goldwyn Theatre, when they will be honored with a salute celebrating their remarkable contributions to musical films and theater. Wednesday night at the same theater, they will join moderator Arthur Hamilton, Marilyn and Alan Bergman, Bob Merrill, Robert Wise, Beatrice Arthur and Phyllis Newman in an ASCAP symposium examining Broadway and movie musicals.

The tributes will continue Dec. 8 at Washington’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, when the duo will receive--along with country music great Roy Acuff, the acrobatic tap-dancing Nicholas Brothers, Hollywood legend Gregory Peck and choral conductor Robert Shaw--the Kennedy Center Honors of 1991.

Comden and Green had far smaller ambitions when they got together with Judy Tuvim (subsequently known as Judy Holliday) in the late ‘30s to form a trio called The Revuers. Forced by economic necessity to write their own material, they became a Greenwich Village hit. When Leonard Bernstein traveled downtown to hear them in the early ‘40s, the long journey toward this year’s achievements was begun.

The first Bernstein-Comden-Green collaboration was 1944’s “On the Town,” which was based on the 1943 ballet “Fancy Free.” Comden and Green wrote the book and lyrics.

“Working with Leonard was joyous,” recalled Green. “Difficult at times, but always rewarding.”

“We were all very much on the same wavelength,” added Comden, “the same humor, the same jokes, the same frames of reference. And Leonard was one of our oldest and closest friends.”

“My very oldest friend,” said Green, “and almost as old a friend of Betty’s.”

“We had to concentrate wildly whenever we worked with him,” added Comden, “and even more so when we did (the book and lyrics for) ‘Wonderful Town’ in ‘53, since we did that entire score in only four weeks. It was tough, but it really was a very wonderful experience. Leonard was a very generous collaborator, agog with ideas and energy--the same kind of energy he brought to everything he ever did.”

Almost from the beginning of their careers, Comden and Green, perhaps more than any other writing team, have moved comfortably back and forth between Broadway and Hollywood.

They wrote the books and lyrics for stage shows such as “On the Town,” “Wonderful Town,” “Bells Are Ringing” and “Subways Are for Sleeping,” with their evocative images and hustling, urban rhythms, created irresistibly romantic pictures of Manhattan. Their current musical, the Tony Award-winning “The Will Rogers Follies,” if less metropolitan, is no less rich with colorful rhymes and whimsical humor.

The duo’s film work (“We had to learn how to become screenwriters--and understand the differences between the two mediums,” said Green) began in the late ‘40s with screenplays for the well-received “The Barkleys of Broadway” and “Good News.”

The film version of “On the Town” in 1949, however, proved to be a more humbling experience. All but three of the Bernstein-Comden-Green songs from the Broadway production were dropped from the movie.

“They thought the Bernstein music was too difficult,” said Green with a sigh. “That’s the simplest explanation. And that was very sad. But the opening’s very good, because it’s the only thing left of the score, practically, and it’s what people remember most about the film.”

“We just wish they’d do it over again,” added Green, “with the full Bernstein score.”

Other Hollywood experiences were happier. “Singin’ in the Rain,” for which Comden and Green served primarily as scriptwriters (except for the witty patter song, “Moses Supposes”) became a classic.

“It’s like a miracle,” marveled Green. “It just keeps going on and on. Yet, at the time, the picture didn’t win any prizes at all.”

“No Academy Awards, not even any nominations,” said Comden. “Maybe in the music department--but that’s all.” (Actually, it received two nominations, for supporting actress and score.)

“And now,” added Green, “it makes the international lists of the ten great films of all time.”

“When we wrote it,” said Comden, “it took us a while to realize that it really was an assignment to find a story for a catalogue of Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown songs. And the title, ‘Singin’ in the Rain,’ was all we had.”

“So we had to sort of psychoanalyze their lifetime output,” interjected Green.

“And we found that the songs belonged just in that period,” continued Comden, “the time when silent pictures became talkies. That’s how we finally came up with a theme, and I guess it worked out pretty well.”

By the time the golden era of MGM musicals rolled to a close in the late ‘50s, Comden and Green had become significant players. Their scripts for “Singin’ in the Rain,” along with “The Band Wagon” and the less-praised but equally superb “It’s Always Fair Weather,” are virtual landmarks in the art of musical film.

Remarkably, the duo’s stage career continued, unabated, at the same time. In the ‘50s, they wrote “Two on the Aisle,” added songs to Mary Martin’s “Peter Pan” and created the hit Judy Holliday show, “Bells Are Ringing.” In more recent years, the partnership has produced “Applause,” “On the Twentieth Century,” “Hallelujah, Baby!” and this year’s “The Will Rogers Follies.”

Broadway may not be what it used to be, but there’s a certain satisfaction in the fact that Comden and Green (and, for that matter, Burton Lane and Jule Styne) are still working hard at keeping the musical theatre alive.

Typically, the gifted team takes a modest approach to the upcoming ceremonial acknowledgments of their many achievements.

“We’re going to just sit there and let it all roll over us,” said Comden. “It’s just thrilling.”

“Yeah,” added Green. “Who could ask for anything more? We’ve got a hit show on Broadway, and we’re getting all these awards while we can still get up and walk to the podium.”

Comden-Green Musicals

Broadway shows:

“On the Town” 1944

“Billion Dollar Baby” 1945

“Bonanza Bound” 1947

“Wonderful Town” 1953

“Bells Are Ringing” 1956

“Say, Darling” 1958

“Subways Are for Sleeping” 1961

“Two on the Aisle” 1951

“Do Re Mi” 1960

“Fade Out, Fade In” 1964