Alan Jay Lerner

Alan Jay Lerner (New York, 1918 – 1986) was an American lyricist, librettist and screenwriter who shaped much of the mid-twentieth-century musical on both stage and screen. He is best known for his partnership with composer Frederick Loewe, which produced some of the most popular and lasting works in musical theatre. His work earned him three Academy Awards, three Tony Awards and other honours.

Born in New York to a Jewish family, Lerner was educated in England, at the Choate School in Connecticut and at Harvard, where he overlapped with John F. Kennedy. His first stage writing came from the student Hasty Pudding musicals at Harvard. A boxing injury that cost him the sight of one eye kept him out of the Second World War, and he spent those years writing radio scripts. In 1942 he met Loewe, and their early shows included Brigadoon, a romantic fantasy set in an imaginary Scottish village, and Paint Your Wagon, a Gold Rush story.

Their greatest success came with My Fair Lady (1956), a version of Shaw's Pygmalion that kept its social edge and gave songs to Higgins and Eliza. The pair followed it with Gigi, drawn from Colette, and with Camelot (1960), whose image of idealism and tragedy later became linked with the Kennedy years. The partnership frayed after Camelot, and Lerner's later work with other composers rarely matched that run. He also wrote an autobiography and a history of the musical theatre. His legacy lies in the many revivals of his shows and in the way he helped fuse dialogue, song and story.