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Joseph Stein
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Joseph Stein (born May 30, 1912) is a American playwright best known for writing the books for such musicals as Fiddler on the Roof and Zorba.
in New York City, Stein began his career as a social worker, writing comedy on the side. A chance encounter with Zero Mostel led him to start writing for radio personalities, including Henry Morgan, Hildegarde, Tallulah Bankhead, Phil Silvers, and Jackie Gleason. He later started working in television for Sid Caesar when he joined the legendary writing team of Your Show of Shows that included Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Neil Simon, Larry Gelbart, Mel Tolkin, Aaron Ruben, and Woody Allen.
n made his Broadway debut contributing sketches written with Will Glickman to the 1948 revue Lend an Ear.
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Encyclopedia
Joseph Stein (born May 30, 1912) is a American playwright best known for writing the books for such musicals as Fiddler on the Roof and Zorba.
Biography
Born in New York City, Stein began his career as a social worker, writing comedy on the side. A chance encounter with Zero Mostel led him to start writing for radio personalities, including Henry Morgan, Hildegarde, Tallulah Bankhead, Phil Silvers, and Jackie Gleason. He later started working in television for Sid Caesar when he joined the legendary writing team of Your Show of Shows that included Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Neil Simon, Larry Gelbart, Mel Tolkin, Aaron Ruben, and Woody Allen.
Career
Stein made his Broadway debut contributing sketches written with Will Glickman to the 1948 revue Lend an Ear. His first book musical came about when Richard Kollmar, husband of columnist and What's My Line? panelist Dorothy Kilgallen, asked him to write a musical about Pennsylvania that would promote the state as Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! had its namesake. Stein and his writing partner Will Glickman were drawn to the Amish community of Lancaster County. They purchased a 50-cent tourist book filled with Pennsylvania Dutch slang and returned to New York to write Plain and Fancy (1955). The musical has been playing at The Round Barn Theatre at Amish Acres in Nappanee, Indiana since 1986, surpassing 3,500 performances in 2007. Richard Pletcher, founder and producer, dedicated The Round Barn Theatre stage to Stein in 1996 during its production of The Baker's Wife. The theatre has produced eight of Stein's musicals since then.
His greatest success came from writing the book for the 1965 musical play Fiddler on the Roof, for which he won three major awards, including two Tonys. He later wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation.
Stein's additional Broadway credits include Alive and Kicking, Mr. Wonderful, The Body Beautiful, Juno, Take Me Along, Irene, Carmelina, The Baker's Wife, Rags, Enter Laughing and its musical adaptation, So Long, 174th Street. He also wrote the plays Mrs. Gibbons' Boys and Before the Dawn. He co-wrote, with Carl Reiner, the screenplay for the film adaptation of Enter Laughing.
The York Theatre, under the direction of James Morgan, featured Stein's Take Me Along, Carmelina, and Plain and Fancy as its 2006 Musicals in Mufti series. Mr. Stein revised Carmelina reducing it to a cast of seven from its original Broadway version for the York reading. Its 2007 series featured four additional Stein musicals, Zorba, Enter Laughing: The Musical (renamed from So Long, 174th Street), The Body Beautiful, and The Baker's Wife. The readings are presented in concert format in mufti, in street clothes without the usual trappings.
On November 12, 2007 The York Theatre presented its Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre to Joseph Stein. The award was created in 1988 by Janet Hayes Walker, founding artistic director of the York Theatre, with the endorsement of the Hammerstein family and the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization. Past recipients include Stephen Sondheim, Harold Prince, Cy Coleman, Charles Strouse, Arthur Laurents, Jerry Herman, Stephen Schwartz, John Kander & Fred Ebb, Cameron Mackintosh, and Carol Channing.
Eligible nominees for the Theater Hall of Fame must have a minimum of five major credits and 25 years in the Broadway theatre. The inductees are voted on by the American Theater Critics Association and the members of the Theater Hall of Fame.
Victoria Clark will star in Marc Blitzstein and Joseph Stein’s Juno, the second Encores! production of New York City Center’s 2008 season. Directed by Tony Award winner Garry Hynes, with guest music direction by Eric Stern and musical staging by Warren Carlyle, Juno will play for five performances, from March 27 – 30, 2008 at New York City Center. This will be the first production since the original Broadway staging in 1959 to use the original orchestration by Blitzstein, Hershey Kay and Robert Russell Bennett.
Juno, with music and lyrics by Marc Blitzstein and book by Joseph Stein is based on the 1924 play Juno and the Paycock by Sean O’Casey. It originally opened on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theater on March 9, 1959, starring Shirley Booth and Melvyn Douglas and played a total of sixteen performances. Songs include "I Wish It So", "We’re Alive", and "One Kind World".
Stein's most recent project is the book for the musical All About Us, with a score by Kander and Ebb, based on The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder. It premiered at the Westport Country Playhouse in April 2007.
In 2008, he wrote a musical adaptation of his play Enter Laughing, which appeared off-Broadway for a limited engagement.
Personal life
Stein lives in Manhattan with his wife Elisa, a psychotherapist. He has been a member of the Dramatists Guild Council since 1975. Stein has three sons from his first marriage to Sadie Singer, who died in 1974. His oldest son, Daniel J Stein currently resides in Madison, Wisconsin and is an attorney doing largely Public defender representation. The middle son, Harry, had the most public career, writing for Esquire magazine among many other publications. He also was seen frequently on television for a number of years in the 1990s on the topic of ethics. The youngest son, Joshua, was last heard to be on the island of Jamaica in a fairly remote area called Treaure Beach near Negril.
Awards and nominations
Awards
- 1965 Tony Award for Best Musical - Fiddler on the Roof
- 1965 Tony Award for Best Author of a Musical - Fiddler on the Roof
- 1965 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical - Fiddler on the Roof
Nominations
- 1960 Tony Award for Best Musical - Take Me Along
- 1965 Writers Guild of America Award for Best Comedy Adapted from Another Medium - Fiddler on the Roof
- 1969 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical - Zorba
- 1969 Tony Award for Best Musical - Zorba
- 1987 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical - Rags
External links
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