Editing Betty Comden (section)

==Early life==
Betty Comden was born '''Basya Cohen'''<ref>[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D05E3DE1E3EF935A15751C0A9619C8B63 "Corrections"], ''The New York Times'', February 26, 2007.</ref> in [[Brooklyn, New York]] in 1917,<ref>[http://www.theatredb.com/QPerson.php?pid=p000643 Profile] theatredb.com; accessed June 10, 2014.</ref> the younger child of Leo Cohen (originally Astershinsky), a lawyer, and Rebecca ({{nee}} Sadvoransky) Cohen, an English teacher.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/.premium-2006-writer-of-singin-the-rain-dies-1.5425305|title=2006: A Reinvented Woman Who Would Write 'Singin' in the Rain' Dies|access-date=18 February 2022|newspaper=Haaretz}}</ref> Both were Russian immigrants and observant Jews. She had an older brother, Nathaniel ("Nat"), born {{circa|1915}}.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Betty Comden|url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/comden-betty|access-date=2022-02-12|website=Jewish Women's Archive|language=en}}</ref> Basya "attended [[Erasmus Hall High School]] and studied drama at [[New York University]], graduating in 1938," according to ''[[The New York Times]]''.<ref name=times/>

In 1938, mutual friends introduced her to [[Adolph Green]], an aspiring actor. Along with the young [[Judy Holliday]] and [[Leonard Bernstein]], Comden and Green formed a troupe called the Revuers, which performed at the [[Village Vanguard]], a club in [[Greenwich Village]].<ref name=jewishlib>[https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Betty_Comden.html "Betty Comden"] jewishvirtuallibrary.org, accessed August 25, 2012.</ref> Due to the act's success, the Revuers appeared in the [[1944 in film|1944 film]] ''Greenwich Village'',<ref name="imdb"/><ref>[https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/76989/greenwich-village ''Greenwich Village'' (film)], tcm.com, accessed May 2, 2016</ref> but their roles were so small they were barely noticed, and they returned to New York.

Comden and Green's first Broadway show was in 1944, with ''[[On the Town (musical)|On the Town]]'', a musical about three sailors on leave in New York City that was an expansion of a [[ballet]] entitled ''[[Fancy Free (ballet)|Fancy Free]]'' on which Bernstein had been working with [[choreographer]] [[Jerome Robbins]]. Comden and Green wrote the book and lyrics, which included sizable parts for themselves (as "Claire" and "Ozzie"). Their next musical, ''[[Billion Dollar Baby]]'' in 1945, with music by [[Morton Gould]] was not a success, and their 1947 show ''Bonanza Bound'' closed out-of-town and never reached Broadway.<ref name=jewishlib /><ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/stars/comden_b.html "Betty Comden and Adolph Green"] pbs.org, accessed August 25, 2012</ref>