Editing Alan Jay Lerner (section)

==Career==
Owing to his eye injury, Lerner could not serve in [[World War II]]. Instead he wrote radio scripts, including ''[[Your Hit Parade]]'', until he was introduced to German-[[Austria]]n composer [[Frederick Loewe]], who needed a partner, in 1942 at the [[Lamb's Club]]. While at the Lamb's, he also met [[Lorenz Hart]], with whom he would also collaborate.<ref>{{cite news| last1=Viertel| first1=Jack| title=Encores! artistic director Jack Viertel explains how the Lerner and Lowe musical Paint Your Wagon is a fascinating anomaly from the songwriting team best known for My Fair Lady and Camelot| url=http://www.playbill.com/article/how-a-wrong-turn-at-the-lambs-club-introduced-lerner-to-loewe-and-an-anomaly-explained-com-343920| journal=[[Playbill]]| access-date=December 16, 2016| date=March 15, 2015}}</ref>

[[Lerner and Loewe]]'s first collaboration was a musical adaptation of Barry Conners's farce ''The Patsy'' called ''Life of the Party'' for a [[Detroit]] [[Stock company (acting)|stock company]]. The lyrics were mostly written by Earle Crooker, but he had left the project, with the score needing vast improvement. It enjoyed a nine-week run and encouraged the duo to join forces with [[Arthur Pierson (director)|Arthur Pierson]] for ''[[What's Up? (musical)|What's Up?]]'', which opened on Broadway in 1943. It ran for 63 performances and was followed two years later by ''[[The Day Before Spring]]''.<ref>Green, p. 239</ref>

Their first hit was ''[[Brigadoon (musical)|Brigadoon]]'' (1947), a romantic fantasy set in a mystical Scottish village, directed by [[Robert Lewis (actor)|Robert Lewis]]. It was followed in 1951 by the [[California Gold Rush|Gold Rush]] story ''[[Paint Your Wagon (musical)|Paint Your Wagon]]''. While the show ran for nearly a year and included songs that later became pop standards, such as "[[They Call the Wind Maria]]", it was less successful than Lerner's previous work. He later said of ''Paint Your Wagon'', it was "a success but not a hit."<ref>{{cite news| last1=Zink| first1=Jack| title=Folk Musical 'Wagon' Claims Quite A History Lerner And Loewe's 'Paint Your Wagon' Has Had Three Transformations In Its Lifetime. And Now What Is Considered The Best Version Is Being Presented At The Royal Palm Dinner Theatre In Boca Raton| url=http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1986-10-12/features/8603010966_1_wagon-paint-broadway-musicals| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220131628/http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1986-10-12/features/8603010966_1_wagon-paint-broadway-musicals| url-status=dead| archive-date=December 20, 2016| newspaper=[[Sun-Sentinel]]| location=Fort Lauderdale, Florida| access-date=December 16, 2016| date=October 12, 1986}}</ref>

Lerner worked with [[Kurt Weill]] on the stage musical ''[[Love Life (musical)|Love Life]]'' (1948) and [[Burton Lane]] on the movie musical ''[[Royal Wedding]]'' (1951). In that same year Lerner also wrote the [[Academy Awards|Oscar-winning]] original [[screenplay]] for ''[[An American in Paris (film)|An American in Paris]]'', produced by [[Arthur Freed]] and directed by [[Vincente Minnelli]]. This was the same team who would later join with Lerner and Loewe to create ''[[Gigi (1958 film)|Gigi]]''.

In 1956, Lerner and Loewe unveiled ''[[My Fair Lady]]''. By this time, too, Lerner and Burton Lane were already working on a musical about [[Li'l Abner]]. [[Gabriel Pascal]] owned the rights to ''Pygmalion'', which had been unsuccessful with other composers who tried to adapt it into a musical. [[Arthur Schwartz]] and [[Howard Dietz]] first tried, and then Richard Rodgers and [[Oscar Hammerstein II]] attempted, but gave up and Hammerstein told Lerner, "''Pygmalion'' had no subplot". Lerner and Loewe's adaptation of [[George Bernard Shaw]]'s ''[[Pygmalion (play)|Pygmalion]]'' retained his social commentary and added appropriate songs for the characters of Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle, played originally by [[Rex Harrison]] and [[Julie Andrews]]. It set box-office records in New York and London. When brought to the screen in 1964, the movie version won eight Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Rex Harrison.

Lerner and Loewe's run of success continued with their next project, a film adaptation of stories from [[Colette]], the Academy Award-winning film musical ''[[Gigi (1958 film)|Gigi]]'', starring [[Leslie Caron]], [[Louis Jourdan]] and [[Maurice Chevalier]]. The film won all of its nine Oscar nominations, a record at that time, and a special Oscar for co-star Maurice Chevalier.

The Lerner-Loewe partnership cracked under the stress of producing the Arthurian ''[[Camelot (musical)|Camelot]]'' in 1960, with Loewe resisting Lerner's desire to direct as well as write when original director [[Moss Hart]] suffered a heart attack in the last few months of rehearsals and died about a year after the show's Broadway premiere.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Taubman |first=Howard |date=1960-12-05 |title=Theatre: 'Camelot Partly Enchanted; Lerner-Loewe Musical Opens at Majestic |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1960/12/05/archives/theatre-camelot-partly-enchanted-lernerloewe-musical-opens-at.html |access-date=2023-06-14 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Youngstown Vindicator - Google News Archive Search |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=-SxAAAAAIBAJ&dq=palm-springs&pg=1802,1631321 |access-date=2023-06-14 |website=news.google.com}}</ref> Lerner was hospitalized with [[bleeding ulcer]]s while Loewe continued to have heart troubles. ''Camelot'' was a hit nonetheless, and immediately following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, his widow told reporter [[Theodore H. White]] that JFK's administration reminded her of the "one brief shining moment" of Lerner and Loewe's ''Camelot''. As of the early 21st century, ''Camelot'' was still invoked to describe the idealism, romance, and tragedy of the Kennedy years.<ref>{{cite news| last1=Koehler| first1=Robert| title=Stage Review: Retunn to 'Camelot ' -- Sans Inspiration| url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-12-23-ca-2120-story.html| newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]| access-date=December 16, 2016| date=December 23, 1992}}</ref>

Loewe retired to [[Palm Springs, California]], while Lerner went through a series of musicals—some successful, some not—with such composers as [[André Previn]] (''[[Coco (musical)|Coco]]''), [[John Barry (composer)|John Barry]] (''[[Lolita, My Love]]''), Leonard Bernstein (''[[1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (musical)|1600 Pennsylvania Avenue]]''), Burton Lane (''[[Carmelina]]'') and [[Charles Strouse]] (''[[Dance a Little Closer]]'', based on the film, ''[[Idiot's Delight (film)|Idiot's Delight]]'', nicknamed ''Close A Little Faster'' by Broadway humorists because it closed on opening night). Most biographers{{who|date=July 2015}} blame Lerner's professional decline on the lack of a strong director with whom Lerner could collaborate, as [[Neil Simon]] did with [[Mike Nichols]] or [[Stephen Sondheim]] with [[Harold Prince]]. (Moss Hart, who had directed ''My Fair Lady,'' died shortly after ''Camelot'' opened.) In 1965 Lerner collaborated again with Burton Lane on the musical ''[[On a Clear Day You Can See Forever]]'', which was adapted for film in 1970. At this time, Lerner was hired by film producer [[Arthur P. Jacobs]] to write a treatment for an upcoming film project, ''[[Doctor Dolittle (film)|Doctor Dolittle]]'', but Lerner abrogated his contract after several non-productive months of non-communicative procrastination and was replaced with [[Leslie Bricusse]].<ref>{{cite book| last=Harris| first=Mark| title=Pictures at a Revolution| url=https://archive.org/details/picturesatrevolu00harr_0| url-access=registration| quote=lerner bricusse.| date=February 14, 2008| publisher=Penguin Press| pages=[https://archive.org/details/picturesatrevolu00harr_0/page/77 77]–78| isbn=978-1101202852}}</ref> Lerner was inducted into the [[Songwriters Hall of Fame]] in 1971.

In 1973, Lerner coaxed Loewe out of retirement to augment the ''Gigi'' score for a [[Gigi (musical)|musical stage adaptation]]. The following year they collaborated on a musical film version of ''[[The Little Prince (1974 film)|The Little Prince]]'', based on the classic children's tale by [[Antoine de Saint-Exupéry]]. This film was a critical and box office failure, but it has gained a modern following.{{citation needed|date= August 2017}}

Lerner's autobiography, ''The Street Where I Live'' (1978), was an account of three of his and Loewe's successful collaborations, ''My Fair Lady'', ''Gigi'', and ''Camelot'', along with personal information. In the last year of his life, he published ''The Musical Theatre: A Celebration'', a well-reviewed history of the theatre, with personal anecdotes and humor. The ''Los Angeles Times'' reviewer wrote: "There are several reasons why this book makes a fine introduction to musical theater. One is that Lerner knows exactly what was new, and when and why....In "The Musical Theatre," one is privy to the judgment of a man... who expresses his opinions in a forthright, warm and personal manner."<ref>Curcio, Vincent. [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-11-30-bk-107-story.html " 'The Musical Theatre: A Celebration' by Alan Jay Lerner (McGraw-Hill: $24.95; 280 pp., illustrated)"] ''Los Angeles Times'', November 30, 1986</ref> A book of Lerner's lyrics entitled ''A Hymn To Him'', edited by a British writer [[Benny Green (saxophonist)|Benny Green]], was published in 1987.

At the time of Lerner's death, he had been working with [[Gerard Kenny]] and [[Kristi Kane (libretto)|Kristi Kane]] in London on a musical version of the film ''[[My Man Godfrey]]''. He had also received an urgent call from [[Andrew Lloyd Webber]], asking him to write the lyrics to ''[[The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical)|The Phantom of the Opera]]''. He wrote "[[Masquerade (The Phantom of the Opera song)|Masquerade]]", but he then informed Webber that he wanted to leave the project because he was losing his memory (he had developed metastatic lung cancer) and [[Charles Hart (lyricist)|Charles Hart]] replaced him.<ref>{{cite book| last=Furia| first=Philip| title=American Song Lyricists, 1920-1960| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MLc7AQAAIAAJ&q=Alan+Lerner| pages=322–335| year=2002| publisher=Gale| location=Detroit| isbn=978-0-7876-6009-3|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last=Citron| first=Stephen| title=Sondheim and Lloyd-Webber| url=https://archive.org/details/sondheimlloydweb0000citr| quote=lerner.| date=September 13, 2001| publisher=Oxford University Press US| isbn= 978-0195357271| page=[https://archive.org/details/sondheimlloydweb0000citr/page/330 330]|url-access=subscription }}</ref>  He had turned down an invitation to write the English-language lyrics for the musical version of ''[[Les Misérables (musical)|Les Misérables]]''.<ref>{{cite book| last=Behr| first=Edward| title=The Complete Book of Les Misérables| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qiCO4XZ2K6IC&q=lerner| date=January 1, 1993| publisher=Arcade Publishing| isbn=978-1559701563| page=62| access-date=August 23, 2018}}</ref>

After Lerner's death, Paul Blake made a musical revue based on Lerner's lyrics and life entitled ''Almost Like Being In Love'', which featured music by Loewe, Lane, Previn, Strouse, and Weill.<ref>{{cite news| title=Almost Like Being In Love: A Musical Revue| url=http://www.playbill.com/production/almost-like-being-in-love-coms-0000026096| journal=Playbill| access-date=23 February 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| title=Theater Week| volume=3| issue=21| publisher=That New Magazine, Inc.| date=1990| page=8| language=en}}</ref> The show ran for 10 days at the [[Herbst Theatre]] in [[San Francisco, California|San Francisco]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Stevens |first1=Rob |title=Theatre reviews: WEST COAST STAGES. |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/962904448 |access-date=2 December 2020 |date=December 1, 1989|id={{ProQuest|962904448}} }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Almost Like Being in Love act |url=https://archive.org/stream/Issue24.13/Issue24.13_djvu.txt |access-date=2 December 2020 |issue=3 |publisher=San Francisco Bay |date=January 3, 1990|volume=24 }}</ref>