- Jerome Lawrence
Jerome Lawrence (
July 14 ,1915 -February 29 ,2004 ) was an Americanplaywright and author.Born Jerome Schwartz in
Cleveland, Ohio , he worked for several small newspapers as a reporter/editor before moving into radio as a writer forCBS . With his writing partner, Robert E. Lee, Lawrence worked for Armed Forces Radio during World War II; Lawrence and Lee became the most prolific writing partnership in radio, with such long-running series as "Favorite Story " among others.Lawrence and Lee turned to the live theatre in 1955 with "
Inherit the Wind ", which remains among the most-produced plays in the American theatre. They are also well known for the plays "Auntie Mame " and "First Monday in October ". In 1965, Lawrence and Lee founded the American Playwrights' Theatre, a plan to bypass the commerciality of the Broadway stage, which foreshadowed the professional regional theatre movement. Their wildly successful play, "The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail ", was produced through the American Playwrights Theatre, and premiered at Lawrence's alma mater,Ohio State University , which also commissioned their play on the life and times ofJames Thurber , "Jabberwock (1972).In all, they collaborated on 39 works, including a 1956 musical adaptation of
James Hilton 's "Lost Horizon", entitled "Shangri-La", with the author himself. They also adapted "Auntie Mame " into the hit musical "Mame " with composerJerry Herman , which won aTony Award for its star,Angela Lansbury . Less successful was the Lawrence and Lee collaboration with Herman, also starring Lansbury, "Dear World ", a musical adaptation of Giraudoux's "The Madwoman of Chaillot ". The Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute, a research facility and archive was dedicated in Lawrence and Lee's honor at theOhio State University in 1986.Lawrence taught playwriting in the
Master of Professional Writing Program at theUniversity of Southern California .Lawrence's lone
Tony Award nomination was for Best Book of a Musical for "Mame ". He died due to complications from astroke inMalibu, California .External links
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