Sheldon Mayer Harnick (April 30, 1924 – June 23, 2023) was an American lyricist and songwriter best known for his collaborations with composer Jerry Bock on

musicals Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement ...

such as '' Fiorello!'', '' She Loves Me'', and ''

Fiddler on the Roof ''Fiddler on the Roof'' is a musical theatre, musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and musical theatre#Book musicals, book by Joseph Stein, set in the Pale of Settlement of Russian Empire, Imperial Russia in or around 19 ...

''.

Early life

Sheldon Mayer Harnick was born to American Jewish parents Esther (Kanter) and Harry M. Harnick, a dentist, in Chicago on April 30, 1924. He grew up in the Chicago neighborhood of Portage Park. He took an interest in music from an early age, playing the violin as a child. He began writing music while a student at Carl Schurz High School.

Musical career

After serving in the U.S. Army, Harnick graduated from the Northwestern University School of Music (1946–1949) with a Bachelor of Music degree, and worked with various orchestras in the Chicago area. He then moved to New York City and wrote for many musicals and revues. He was friends with Charlotte Rae from college, and he went to see her one night at the

Village Vanguard The Village Vanguard is a jazz club at Seventh Avenue South in Greenwich Village, New York City. The club was opened on February 22, 1935, by Max Gordon. Originally, the club presented folk music and beat poetry, but it became primarily a jaz ...

where she was singing a revue.

Yip Harburg Edgar Yipsel Harburg (born Isidore Hochberg; April 8, 1896 – March 5, 1981) was an American popular song lyricist and librettist who worked with many well-known composers. He wrote the lyrics to the standards " Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" (w ...

, who was one of Harnick's idols, heard she was singing a song of his and decided to come. He told Harnick that he enjoyed his writing, and urged him to continue. Harburg advised Harnick to work with a large number of composers. He also counseled him to write character and comic songs, not ballads, for Broadway. Harnick’s composition "The Merry Minuet" was popularized by

The Kingston Trio The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to the late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, ...

. Around 1956, Harnick met Jerry Bock, forming "what is arguably the most important musical partnership of the '60s." Their first musical was '' The Body Beautiful'', running for only 60 performances in 1958, but '' Fiorello!'' (1959) ran for 795 performances and won the

Pulitzer Prize for Drama The Pulitzer Prize for Drama is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It is one of the original Pulitzers, for the program was inaugurated in 1917 with seven prizes, four of which were a ...

as well as the Tony Award for Best Musical. ''

'' (1964) "became one of the most cherished of all Broadway musicals." Other Broadway successes for Harnick included '' She Loves Me'' (1963), '' The Apple Tree'' (1966) and '' The Rothschilds'' (1970). Harnick wrote the

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...

for the opera ''Coyote Tales'', with music by Henry Mollicone, which received its world premiere at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City in March 1998. He wrote the book, music and lyrics to the musical ''Dragons'', which was performed in 2003 at the Luna Stage in

Montclair, New Jersey Montclair is a Township (New Jersey), township in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Situated on the cliffs of the Watchung Mountains, Montclair is a commercial and cultural hub of North Jersey and a diverse ...

. He wrote the lyrics and co-wrote the book with Norton Juster for the musical ''The Phantom Tollbooth'', based on the book by Juster. The musical premiered at the

Kennedy Center The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, commonly known as the Kennedy Center, is the national cultural center of the United States, located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. Opened on September 8, ...

in 2007. Harnick released the album ''Sheldon Harnick: Hidden Treasures (1949–2013)'' in 2014, which includes recordings of song demos and pieces cut from Broadway shows from his private collection. In 2020, Harnick worked on a musical adaptation of the Soviet play ''The Dragon'' by Evgeny Schwartz.

Personal life

Harnick was married three times. His 1950 marriage to Mary Boatner was annulled in 1957. His marriage to Elaine May lasted only a year, from 1962 until their divorce in 1963. In 1965, he married Margery Grey. They had two children and lived in an apartment at The Beresford, a building on the

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper We ...

of Manhattan. Harnick died there on June 23, 2023, aged 99.

Stage productions

* '' New Faces of 1952'' (1952) (music) * ''

Shangri-La Shangri-La is a fictional place in Tibet's Kunlun Mountains, Uses the spelling 'Kuen-Lun'. described in the 1933 novel '' Lost Horizon'' by the British author James Hilton. Hilton portrays Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, gently ...

'' (1956) (music) * '' The Body Beautiful'' (1958) (Bock) * '' Portofino'' (1958) (lyrics with Richard Ney) * '' Fiorello!'' (1959) (Bock) (winner of the

) * ''Songs to Ford-ify Your Future'' (1959) (Bock), an

industrial musical An industrial musical is a musical performed internally for the employees or shareholders of a business to create a feeling of being part of a team, to entertain, and/or to educate and motivate the management and salespeople to improve sales a ...

for the

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational corporation, multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. T ...

* '' Tenderloin'' (1960) (Bock) * ''Smiling the Boy Fell Dead'' (1961) (David Baker) * '' She Loves Me'' (1963) (Bock) * ''

'' (1964) (Bock) * '' The Apple Tree'' (1966) (Bock) * '' Her First Roman'' (1968) (Bock, brought in to fix show) * '' The Rothschilds'' (1970) (Bock) * ''Pinocchio'' (1973) (

Mary Rodgers Mary Rodgers (January 11, 1931 – June 26, 2014) was an American composer, screenwriter, and author. She wrote the novel ''Freaky Friday'', which served as the basis of a Freaky Friday (1976 film), 1976 film starring Jodie Foster, for which sh ...

) * '' Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines'' (1975) (

Jack Beeson Jack Hamilton Beeson (July 15, 1921 – June 6, 2010) was an American composer. He was known particularly for his operas, the best known of which are '' Lizzie Borden'', ''Hello Out There!'', and ''The Sweet Bye and Bye''. Early life Born in Munc ...

) * ''Alice in Wonderland'' (1975) ( Joe Raposo) * '' Rex'' (1976) (

Richard Rodgers Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902 – December 30, 1979) was an American Musical composition, composer who worked primarily in musical theater. With 43 Broadway theatre, Broadway musicals and over 900 songs to his credit, Rodgers wa ...

) * ''

The Madwoman of Central Park West ''The Madwoman of Central Park West'' is a semi-autobiography, autobiographical one-woman musical theatre, musical with a book by Arthur Laurents and Phyllis Newman and songs by various composers and lyricists. It focuses on the difficulties faced ...

'' (1979) * '' The Umbrellas of Cherbourg'' (1979) (

Michel Legrand Michel Jean Legrand (; 24 February 1932 – 26 January 2019) was a French musical composer, arranger, conductor, jazz pianist, and singer. Legrand was a prolific composer, having written over 200 film and television scores, in addition to ma ...

) (contributed English lyrics for stage adaptation) * ''

A Christmas Carol ''A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas'', commonly known as ''A Christmas Carol'', is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. It recounts the ...

'' (1981) (

) * '' A Wonderful Life'' (1986) ( Joe Raposo) * '' Cyrano: The Musical'' (1993) (contributed English lyrics) * ''

The Phantom Tollbooth ''The Phantom Tollbooth'' is a children's fantasy adventure novel written by Norton Juster, with illustrations by Jules Feiffer, first published in 1961 in literature, 1961. The story follows a bored young boy named Milo who unexpectedly recei ...

'' (1995) (lyrics, and co-credited with Norton Juster for the book) * ''Coyote Tales'' (1998) ( Henry Mollicone) * ''Dragons'' (2003) (music by himself) * ''

'' (2004) (contributed lyrics for one new song, "Topsy Turvy") ( Jerry Bock) * ''Lady Bird: First Lady of the Land'' (2016)

Honors and awards

*In 1960, Harnick, Bock and Jerome Weidman (book) won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for '' Fiorello!''. *Harnick has won three Tony Awards. In 1960, he, Bock and Weidman tied with

Rodgers and Hammerstein Rodgers and Hammerstein was a theater-writing team of composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and lyricist-dramatist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960), who together created a series of innovative and influential American musicals. Their musical ...

for best musical; that year, both '' Fiorello!'' and ''

The Sound of Music ''The Sound of Music'' is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, '' The Story of the Trapp Family Singers''. ...

'' won. And in 1965, Bock and Harnick's ''

'' won for both Best Musical and Best Composer and Lyricist. *In honor of Harnick's vast influence on American music, on May 19, 1984, he was awarded the University of Pennsylvania Glee Club Award of Merit. Beginning in 1964, this award "established to bring a declaration of appreciation to an individual each year that has made a significant contribution to the world of music and helped to create a climate in which our talents may find valid expression." *Harnick was honored at the Twenty-Sixth Annual William Inge Theatre Festival located in

Independence, Kansas Independence is a city in and the county seat of Montgomery County, Kansas, Montgomery County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 8,548. It was named in commemoration of the ...

, in 2007. *Harnick and Jerry Bock were presented with the 18th Annual York Theatre Company's prestigious Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Theatre in 2009. *Harnick received the 2016 Drama League Award for Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theatre, as well as the 2016 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. *Harnick received an honorary doctorate from Northwestern University in 2018. *Harnick was inducted into the

Songwriters Hall of Fame The Songwriters Hall of Fame (SHOF) is an American institution founded in 1969 by songwriter Johnny Mercer, music publisher/songwriter Abe Olman, and publisher/executive Howie Richmond to honor those whose work represent and maintain the heri ...

in 1972 and received its highest honor, the Johnny Mercer Award, in 1990.

References

External links

* * * * *
Sheldon Harnick Papers
at the

Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research The Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research (WCFTR) is a major archive of motion picture, television, radio, and theater research materials. Located in the headquarters building of the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison, Wisconsin, th ...

Songwriter Hall of Fame biography

William Inge Theater Festival website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harnick, Sheldon 1924 births 2023 deaths 20th-century American Jews 20th-century American songwriters 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American songwriters American Ashkenazi Jews American musical theatre lyricists American opera librettists Bienen School of Music alumni Broadway composers and lyricists Carl Schurz High School alumni Grammy Award winners Jewish American songwriters Military personnel from Chicago Musicians from Chicago Musicians from Manhattan People from the Upper West Side Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners Songwriters from Illinois Special Tony Award recipients Tony Award winners United States Army personnel of World War II Writers from Chicago