Jerome Lawrence
| Jerome Lawrence | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 14, 1915 Cleveland, Ohio |
| Died | February 29, 2004 Malibu, California |
| Occupation | Playwright, Screenwriter |
| Nationality | American |
| Notable work(s) | Auntie Mame, Inherit the Wind |
Jerome Lawrence (July 14, 1915 – February 29, 2004) was an American playwright and author.
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[edit] Life and career
Lawrence was born Jerome Lawrence Schwartz in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Sarah (née Rogen), a poet, and Samuel Schwartz, a printer.[1] He worked for several small newspapers as a reporter/editor before moving into radio as a writer for CBS. With his writing partner, Robert E. Lee, Lawrence worked for Armed Forces Radio during World War II; Lawrence and Lee became the most prolific writing partnership in radio, with such long-running series as Favorite Story among others.
Lawrence and Lee turned to the live theatre in 1955 with Inherit the Wind, which remains among the most-produced plays in the American theatre. They also collaborated on the plays Auntie Mame, The Incomparable Max, and First Monday in October, among others. In 1965, they founded the American Playwrights' Theatre, a plan to bypass the commerciality of the Broadway stage, which foreshadowed the professional regional theatre movement. Their wildly successful play, The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, was produced through the American Playwrights Theatre, and premiered at Lawrence's alma mater, Ohio State University, which also commissioned their play on the life and times of James Thurber, Jabberwock (1972).
In all, they collaborated on 39 works, including a 1956 musical adaptation of James Hilton's Lost Horizon, entitled Shangri-La, with the author himself. They also adapted Auntie Mame into the hit musical Mame with composer Jerry Herman, which won a Tony Award for its star, Angela Lansbury. Less successful was the Lawrence and Lee collaboration with Herman, also starring Lansbury, Dear World, a musical adaptation of Giraudoux's The Madwoman of Chaillot.
Several of Lawrence and Lee's plays draw on events from United States history to speak to contemporary issues. Inherit the Wind (1955) addressed intellectual freedom and McCarthyism through a fictionalized version of the Scopes Monkey Trial. The Gang's All Here (1959) examined government corruption in the 1920s. The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail (1970) was a Vietnam-era exploration of Thoreau's resistance to an earlier war.[2]
Lawrence taught playwriting in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California.
Lawrence's lone Tony Award nomination was for Best Book of a Musical for Mame.
He died due to complications from a stroke in Malibu, California.
The Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute, a research facility and archive was dedicated in Lawrence and Lee's honor at the Ohio State University in 1986.
His niece is flutist Paula Robison.
Lawrence is survived by his companion of fifteen years Will Willoughby.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.filmreference.com/film/69/Jerome-Lawrence.html
- ^ Eisler, Garrett B. (2007), Gabrielle H. Cody & Evert Sprinchorn, ed., Lawrence, Jerome (1915–2004), and Robert E. Lee (1918–1994), 1, Columbia University Press, pp. 801–802
[edit] Further reading
- Sisario, Ben (2004-03-02), "Jerome Lawrence, 88, Author Of Stage Hit 'Inherit the Wind' [obituary"], New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/02/arts/jerome-lawrence-88-author-of-stage-hit-inherit-the-wind.html?pagewanted=1, retrieved 2010-01-04
- Vallance, Tom (2004-04-19), "Jerome Lawrence: Playwright co-author of 'Mame' and other hits [obituary"], The Independent, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/jerome-lawrence-549784.html, retrieved 2010-01-04
[edit] External links
- Jerome Lawrence at the Internet Broadway Database
- Jerome Lawrence at the Internet Movie Database
- Jerome Lawrence at AllRovi
- Jerome Lawrence at the TCM Movie Database
- Jerome Lawrence at Find a Grave
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