Oxford University Press will publish The Complete Lyrics of Alan Jay Lerner in February 2018. The new book covers Lerner’s 20 stage and screen musicals and includes unpublished material.
Co-editors of the volume are Dominic McHugh, author of Loverly: The Life and Times of My Fair Lady and editor of Alan Jay Lerner: A Lyricist’s Letters, and longtime Playbill employee Amy Asch, who previously researched and annotated The Complete Lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein II.
The book, which includes lyrics to 400 songs, boasts an introduction by Cameron Mackintosh and a foreword by Sheldon Harnick.
The Complete Lyrics also features commentary about each show and film, and how the songs work in context. Early drafts, cut songs, and changes made when a stage musical was adapted for the screen (or, in the case of Gigi, vice versa) are also included.
Lerner’s collaborations with composer Frederick “Fritz” Loewe include What’s Up, The Day Before Spring, Brigadoon, Paint Your Wagon, My Fair Lady, Gigi, Camelot, and The Little Prince. Lerner also collaborated with Kurt Weill (Love Life), Burton Lane (Royal Wedding, Huckleberry Finn, On a Clear Day, Carmelina), Leonard Bernstein (1600 Pennsylvania Avenue), André Previn (Paint Your Wagon movie songs, Coco), film composer John Barry (Lolita, My Love), Charles Strouse (Dance a Little Closer), and Gerard Kenny (My Man Godfrey, in progress at the time of Lerner’s death).
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