The Musical Theatre

by Alan Jay Lerner

The author, a successful Broadway lyricist, traces the development of the musical and shares his observations on important composers, writers, and performers

Genres: Theatre, Reference

240 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1986

About the author

Alan Jay Lerner was an American lyricist and librettist whose work helped define the golden age of musical theatre, on stage and on screen. Born in New York City to a cultured and well connected family, he was educated in England and the United States, studying at Bedales School, Choate, and Harvard, where his lifelong love for musical theatre took shape through the Hasty Pudding productions. Like several of his contemporaries, Lerner began his professional path while still a student, combining literary wit with an instinctive feel for character and song. An accident during his Harvard years left him blind in one eye, preventing military service during World War II and redirecting him toward writing for radio before he entered the theatre world full time. His career changed decisively after meeting composer Frederick Loewe in the early 1940s, a partnership that would become one of the most celebrated in musical theatre history. Together they created works that blended romance, intelligence, and emotional clarity, beginning with early efforts and achieving major success with Brigadoon, Paint Your Wagon, and later the landmark My Fair Lady. Their adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion became a cultural phenomenon, breaking box office records and later winning multiple Academy Awards in its film version. The Lerner and Loewe collaboration continued with the film musical Gigi and the Arthurian epic Camelot, whose themes of idealism and loss came to resonate far beyond the stage. Outside this partnership, Lerner worked with composers such as Kurt Weill, Burton Lane, André Previn, Leonard Bernstein, and Charles Strouse, experiencing both triumphs and notable disappointments. His career was marked by ambition, perfectionism, and frequent personal turmoil, including health struggles and financial instability. Lerner also played an important role as an advocate for writers’ rights, serving as president of the Dramatists Guild of America in the early 1960s. He received numerous honors, including multiple Tony Awards, Academy Awards, and induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In his later years he reflected on his career in books that combined memoir, criticism, and affectionate insight into the art of musical theatre. Despite professional decline and personal difficulties, his influence endured. Alan Jay Lerner died in 1986, leaving behind songs and stories that remain central to the musical theatre repertoire, admired for their elegance, emotional honesty, and enduring humanity.

Reviews

[Viktor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very fine book. He takes us from soup to nuts in the musical theater. He was well connected and well informed for sure. On each page has a delightful turn of a phrase. As one reads through, he will make call-backs to previous jokes. The careful reader is well rewarded.

The book is as witty as his previous one "On The Street Where I Live", and well worth your time. You will learn much you never knew and learn much to seek out.

I have a few quibbles.

He -- as with all lefties -- shoe-horns in his political views where they do not belong. He spends some time on the JFK assassination for no purpose. Fair enough, I suppose. It's his book. But when he laments the lack of arts funding from "conservatives", it is a little more than hypocritical coming from a man who owed the IRS over $1M when he died.

My only other quibble is in the closing chapters. He sounds like the grumpy uncle that time has passed by. No production is good enough. Even the hugely popular ones. For instance, Pippin ran for five years. AJL is not a fan. Still, even when seemingly bewildered by it all, he has some insights, so all was not lost.

Lastly -- and this is tied to the previous -- he has great disdain for critics. Again, fair enough. He had dealt with them for a great many years. However, I wonder if he realized in the writing of this book that he too was becoming a critic? Surely he must have known, but there's no hint of that awareness in the text.

All of the quibbles considered, getting his opinion is what we're after, no?

[Jenny Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent review of the history of the musical with just enough anecdotes to keep it from becoming a dull list. It's even more fun to read this book with Youtube handy, looking up the songs referenced many of which you can hear in old perfomances.