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Sheldon Harnick
 
 
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Sheldon Harnick (born 30 April 1924) is an American lyricist
Lyricist

A lyricist is a writer who specializes in song lyrics, usually paid for by a band to write a custom song. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist....
 best known for his collaborations with composer
Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, usually in the medium of musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music....
 Jerry Bock
Jerry Bock

Jerrold Lewis Bock is an American musical theatre composer....
 on hit musicals such as Fiddler on the Roof
Fiddler on the Roof

Fiddler on the Roof is a musical theatre with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in Tsarist Russia in 1905....
.

Harnick began his career writing words and music to comic songs in musical revues. One of these, "The Merry Minuet", was popularized by the Kingston Trio. It is in the caustic style usually associated with Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer

Thomas Andrew "Tom" Lehrer is an United States singer-songwriter, satire, pianist, and mathematics. He has lectured on mathematics and musical theater....
 and is sometimes incorrectly attributed to him.








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Sheldon Harnick (born 30 April 1924) is an American lyricist
Lyricist

A lyricist is a writer who specializes in song lyrics, usually paid for by a band to write a custom song. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist....
 best known for his collaborations with composer
Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, usually in the medium of musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music....
 Jerry Bock
Jerry Bock

Jerrold Lewis Bock is an American musical theatre composer....
 on hit musicals such as Fiddler on the Roof
Fiddler on the Roof

Fiddler on the Roof is a musical theatre with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in Tsarist Russia in 1905....
.

Harnick began his career writing words and music to comic songs in musical revues. One of these, "The Merry Minuet", was popularized by the Kingston Trio. It is in the caustic style usually associated with Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer

Thomas Andrew "Tom" Lehrer is an United States singer-songwriter, satire, pianist, and mathematics. He has lectured on mathematics and musical theater....
 and is sometimes incorrectly attributed to him.

Stage productions

  • New Faces (1952) (music)
  • Shangri-La
    Shangri-La (musical)

    Shangri-La is a musical theatre with a book and lyrics by James Hilton, Jerome Lawrence, and Robert Edwin Lee and music by Harry Warren.Based on Hilton's classic 1933 novel Lost Horizon , it focuses on Hugh Conway, a veteran member of the United Kingdom diplomatic service, who stumbles across a utopian lamasery high in the Himalaya...
     (1956) (music)
  • The Body Beautiful
    The Body Beautiful

    The Body Beautiful is a musical theatre with a book by Joseph Stein and Will Glickman, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and music by Jerry Bock....
     (1958) (Bock)
  • Portofino
    Portofino (musical)

    Portofino is a musical theatre with a book by Richard Ney, lyrics by Ney and Sheldon Harnick, and music by Louis Bellson and Will Irwin.Set in a piazza in the Italy resort town of Portofino, the convoluted plot involves auto-racing duke Nicky; his Texas rival Kitty; his granddaughter Angela, a practicing witch; the local padre; and his...
     (1958) (lyrics with Richard Ney
    Richard Ney

    Richard Ney was an United States actor and investment counselor.He was born in New York City, the son of Erwin Maximillian Ney and Rebie M. Flood....
    )
  • Fiorello!
    Fiorello!

    Fiorello! is a Pulitzer Prize for Drama-winning musical theatre about New York City mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia, a reform Republican Party who took on Tammany Hall....
     (1959) (Bock)
  • Music to Ford-i-fy your future (1959) (Bock), an industrial musical
    Industrial musical

    An industrial musical is a musical theater 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 and profit....
     for the Ford Motor Company
    Ford Motor Company

    The Ford Motor Company is an United States multinational corporation and the world's List of automobile manufacturers#World Motor Vehicle Production by Manufacturer based on worldwide vehicle sales, following Toyota, General Motors, and Volkswagen Group....
  • Tenderloin
    Tenderloin (musical)

    Tenderloin is a musical theatre with a book by George Abbott and Jerome Weidman, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and music by Jerry Bock, their follow-up to the highly successful Pulitzer Prize-winning Fiorello! a year earlier....
     (1960) (Bock)
  • Smiling the Boy Fell Dead (1961) (David Baker
    David Baker

    David Nathaniel Baker Jr. is a leading symphonic jazz composer at the Indiana University Bloomington Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington.Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, David Baker attended Crispus Attucks High School....
    )
  • She Loves Me
    She Loves Me

    She Loves Me is a musical theatre and movie with a book by Joe Masteroff, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and music by Jerry Bock.The musical is the fifth adaptation of the play Parfumerie by Hungary playwright Miklos Laszlo, following the 1940 James Stewart -Margaret Sullavan film The Shop around the Corner and the 1949 Judy Garland...
     (1963) (Bock)
  • Fiddler on the Roof
    Fiddler on the Roof

    Fiddler on the Roof is a musical theatre with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in Tsarist Russia in 1905....
     (1964) (Bock)
  • The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) (Michel Legrand
    Michel Legrand

    Michel Legrand is a France musical composer, arranger, conductor, and pianist of Armenians descent.Legrand has composed more than two hundred film and television scores, several musicals, and made well over a hundred albums....
    )
  • The Apple Tree
    The Apple Tree

    The Apple Tree is a series of three musical Play s with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and a book by Bock and Harnick with contributions from Jerome Coopersmith....
     (1966) (Bock)
  • The Rothschilds
    The Rothschilds

    The Rothschilds is a musical theater with a book by Sherman Yellen, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick and music by Jerry Bock.Based on The Rothschilds by Frederic Morton, it tells of the rise of the Rothschild family from humble beginnings in Germany, to their founding of their financial empire and growing political influence under the guid...
     (1970) (Bock)
  • Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines (1975) (Jack Beeson
    Jack Beeson

    Jack Beeson is an United States composer. He is known particularly for his operas, the best known of which are Lizzie Borden , Hello Out There! and The Sweet Bye and Bye....
    )
  • Rex
    Rex (musical)

    Rex is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick and libretto by Sherman Yellen, based on the life of Henry VIII. It opened at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on April 25, 1976 and closed June 5, 1976, having had 14 performances in previews and 48 total performances....
     (1976) (Richard Rodgers
    Richard Rodgers

    Richard Charles Rodgers was an United States Musical compositionr of the music for more than 900 songs and 40 Broadway theatre musicals. He also composed music for films and television....
    )
  • A Christmas Carol (1982) (Michel Legrand
    Michel Legrand

    Michel Legrand is a France musical composer, arranger, conductor, and pianist of Armenians descent.Legrand has composed more than two hundred film and television scores, several musicals, and made well over a hundred albums....
    )
  • A Wonderful Life
    A Wonderful Life (musical)

    A Wonderful Life is a musical theatre with a book and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick and music by Joe Raposo.Based on the classic It's a Wonderful Life starring James Stewart , the story closely follows the original plot, set in 1945, telling the story of a suicidal man whose guardian angel reveals to him how different the world and everyone...
     (Joe Raposo
    Joe Raposo

    Joseph Guilherme Raposo Jr., Order of Infante D. Henrique was a Portugal-United States composer, songwriter, pianist, television writer and lyricist, best known for his work on the children's television series Sesame Street, for which he wrote the Sesame Street Theme, as well as classic songs such as "Bein' Green" and "C i...
    )
  • Cyrano: The Musical (1993) (contributed English lyrics)
  • Coyote Tales (1998) (Henry Mollicone
    Henry Mollicone

    Henry Mollicone is an United States composer and musical instructor. He currently resides in Saratoga, California....
    )
  • Dragons (2003) (music by himself)
  • Fiddler on the Roof
    Fiddler on the Roof

    Fiddler on the Roof is a musical theatre with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in Tsarist Russia in 1905....
     (2004) (contributed lyrics for one new song, "Topsy Turvy") (Jerry Bock
    Jerry Bock

    Jerrold Lewis Bock is an American musical theatre composer....
    )


Honors and awards

  • In honor of Harnick's vast influence on American music, on May 19, 1984 he was awarded the prestigious 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."
  • Sheldon Harnick was honored at the Twenty-Sixth Annual William Inge Theater Festival located in Independence, Kansas in 2007.


External links