Give a general critique of the work of Cy Coleman, analyse specific examples from their output to

support your commentary.

Cy Coleman is one of the most understated composers not only to have written for the stage and

screen but also the Great American Songbook. Although many are only aware of his biggest hit

Sweet Charity, he worked with some of the biggest names in theatre during his incredibly expansive

career. Born Seymour Kaufman in 1929 to Jewish parents in New York City – like many of the great

composers of that era and before- he was noticed as a piano prodigy from an early age, and was

performing in concert halls from the age of 6. However Classical music wasn’t as much of a pull for

Coleman as Jazz was – a trait we can hear in the development of his compositional style – and similar

to Wizard of Oz composer Harold Arlen he formed a band “The Cy Coleman Trio” and was very

successful. It was during this time that he began collaborating with Joseph Allen McCarthy and

Carolyn Leigh and they began to pen some of the most memorable pop songs which are now widely

regarded as ‘standards’ of the jazz repertoire such as “The Best Is Yet To Come”, “Witchcraft” and

“I’m Gonna Laugh You Right Out Of My Life”. He was also asked to write the theme music for Hugh

Heffner and Playboy, which unsurprisingly he called “Playboy’s Theme”. This was then orchestrated

by the prolific composer and conductor Henry Mancini.

From the age of 31, Coleman turned his talents to composing for the modern musical. Through

looking at a few of these from across his timeline, we can get a very clear picture of the

development of his compositional style and his influences, as well as the demands of his audiences.

One thing that becomes very clear when you look at Coleman’s works for the theatre is that unlike

the great composers of the early musicals (Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Lowe, Rodgers

and Hart…) he had very short working relationships with lyricists. Although the lyricists he worked

with were some of the biggest in the business, he never found one he settled to write with for more

than a few works, which in my opinion is part of the reason behind such a broad spectrum of source

materials, styles and subject matters.

upstanding woman – Wildcat Johnson - who wants to strike it rich in oil and has various encounters

with the local foreman. With hindsight we can see that this was before Coleman had truly

developed his own style and made decisions about how he wanted to write as, in my opinion, this

was a carbon copy of the other book musicals of the time. For example, the big rousing number in

Wildcat was a song called ‘Hey Look Me Over’ which we can see is very similar to numbers such as

‘The New Ashmolean Marching Society and Students' Conservatory Band’ from Loesser’s Where’s

Charley? (1948), ‘Seventy-Six Trombones’ from Wilson’s The Music Man (1957) and ‘Before the

Parade Passes By’ from Herman’s Hello, Dolly! (1964). This is a good indication that, at this point in

his career, Coleman was writing exactly what the public wanted to hear. Another indication of this is

the casting of star name Lucille Ball (known to her adoring public as TV personality Lucy) to play the

feisty lead. Much contention surrounded this appointment because, as the show continued Ball

realised that the audiences were only coming to see the character of Lucy and not Wildcat and she

began to change:

“So… Lucy began transforming her character into the Lucy that audiences loved so much from TV.

She adlibbed about Fred Mertz. She did a goofier character voice. She was a 1912 wild west woman

with the cackle of a well-known 1950’s housewife. “1 This trait of casting stars to carry a show was

one that was well used in this era, as before expansive advertising this was a good way to ensure

audiences. We know for a fact that when Ball approached Coleman about doing Wildcat, he, Nash

and Leigh, had to rewrite a lot of the show to make it fit as the character of Wildcat was originally

supposed to be a woman in her young twenties.

Six years down the line from Wildcat we begin to see real change in Cy Coleman as a composer with

1
Tepper, J. (2014). If It Only Even Runs A Minute: Wildcat - BroadwaySpotted.
‘Sweet Charity’, a musical based on the film Nights of Cabiria, as a collaboration with Dorothy Fields

and Neil Simon. Widely regarded as Coleman’s most famous work and often still revived both on the

amateur and professional platform, it is a testament to Coleman’s insightful composing considering

the subject matter it covers. If we examine the two scores there are still similarities, for example,

the brass fanfares to open the overtures, however the use of different instrumentation is beginning

to show itself. As we look at Coleman’s jazz scores over time, we see the string sections becoming

less and less prevalent. For example, in the original cast recording of Wildcat, it seems hard to

imagine many of the numbers without the lush string melodies of what is basically a full orchestra,

but as we move further on in time, the strings start to take a back seat to the horn section and when

Sweet Charity was revived and re-orchestrated in 2005, the string section was condensed down to

one keyboard. Coleman was moving with the times and tastes of the younger audiences whilst

developing his own signature style which is most evident in the epic dance number ‘The Rich Man’s

Frug’ originally choreographed for stage and screen by the inimitable Bob Fosse. He was embracing

the pop culture of the 60s by including jazz organ, electric guitars and drum solos and mixing it with

his own jazz influences to create a piece of music that represented the decadent yet seedy

surroundings of the world he was creating. This started to set him apart from other composers in

the 1960s because while composers like Jerry Herman continued to fly the flag for the traditional

book musicals, and Stephen Sondheim started developing his style of contemporary classical

composition, Coleman began to pave the way for the style of Kander & Ebb (Chicago and Cabaret)

and Stephen Schwartz (Pippin).

As Coleman’s career continued, his musicals became as diverse as his collaborators ranging from the

barrel organ melodies of Barnum’s Circus to the underbelly of 42nd St in The Life. But one show

which really brought Coleman back full circle was City of Angels in 1989, which was a tribute to the

film noire genre. In many ways this was a homecoming for Cy, as he was writing a dedicated,

virtuosic jazz score set about an artist trying to get success (in this case a writer trying to write a

screenplay). The incredibly intricate harmonic structures, jazz chords and melodic writing -
especially when writing for the ‘Angel City 4’ -makes it one of the most beautifully complex scores of

that era. However we can also see how far he had progressed as a composer since the early days of

Lucille Ball and Wildcat, because there was no star name pushing the show to places it shouldn’t be,

meaning that the cast could be as strong as possible without having to employ a celebrity. Also

Coleman had realised that amongst the intellectual shows of Stephen Sondheim and the epic

spectacles of Lloyd-Webber, there was room for a show which was simply an entertainment and this

show fitted the bill perfectly.

“City of Angels appeared to critics as a welcome respite from both the mass art of the megamusical

and the overly intellectual, deconstructed musical. In the words of one reviewer, ‘How long has it

been since a musical was brought to halt by riotous jokes? If you ask me, one would have to travel

back to the 1960s’”2

Cy Coleman, in my opinion is one of the understated godfathers of the modern musical. In his

chameleonic approach to creating what the audience wanted to see throughout his extensive

compositional career he paved the way for so many genres of modern musicals to emerge. Without

his willingness to constantly change and develop his style, many of today’s slightly grittier or

unorthodox blockbuster shows may not exist had he not created some of the shows that today are

all but forgotten. He never lost touch with what he wanted to do from the beginning, creating and

developing his sound, from his Jewish roots in The Great Ostrovsky, to his jazz piano days in the

ragtime score of Barnum and even his classical music influences in On The Twentieth Century . He

was a truly remarkable composer.

2
Edney, Kathryn. “Resurrecting the American Musical: Film Noir, Jazz, and the Rhetoric of Tradition
in City of Angels.” Pg 1
Bibliography

Edney, K (2007) “Resurrecting the American Musical: Film Noir, Jazz, and
the Rhetoric of Tradition in City of Angels.” The Journal of Popular Culture 2007 : 936–952

Stacy, L. and Henderson, L. (1999). Encyclopedia of music in the 20th century. 1st ed. London:
Fitzroy Dearborn.

Steyn, M. (1999). Broadway babies say goodnight. 1st ed. New York:
Routledge.

Suskin, S. (2009). The sound of Broadway music. 1st ed. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.

Bordman, G. and Norton, R. (2010). American musical theatre. 1st ed. New York: Oxford
University Press.

Webography

Tepper, J. (2014). If It Only Even Runs A Minute: Wildcat - BroadwaySpotted.

Jones, K. (2014). Cy Coleman, a Master of the Show Tune, Is Dead at 75 -