‘Fiddler’ lyricist Harnick dies at 99
He teamed up with composer Bock to create Broadway hits
NEW YORK — Tony- and Grammy Award-winning lyricist Sheldon Harnick, who with composer Jerry Bock made up the premier musical-theater songwriting duos of the 1950s and ’60s with shows such as “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Fiorello!” and “The Apple Tree,” has died. He was 99.
Known for his wry, subtle humor and deft wordplay, Harnick died in his sleep Friday in New York City, said Sean Katz, his publicist.
Broadway artists paid their respects on social media, with “Schmigadoon!” writer Cinco Paul calling him “one of the all-time great musical theater lyricists” and actor Jackie Hoffman lovingly writing: “Like all brilliant persnickety lyricists he was a pain in the tuchus.”
Kristin Chenoweth, who starred in a 2006 revival of “The Apple Tree,” on Twitter called it “one of my favorite professional experiences of my career,” adding about Harnick: “I loved his musings. His writings. His soul.”
Bock and Harnick first hit success for the music and lyrics to “Fiorello!,” which earned them each Tonys and a rare Pulitzer Prize in 1960. In addition, Harnick was nominated for Tonys in 1967 for “The Apple Tree,” in 1971 for “The Rothschilds” and in 1994 for “Cyrano — The Musical.” But their masterpiece was “Fiddler on the Roof.”
Bock and Harnick were introduced at a restaurant by actor Jack Cassidy after the opening-night performance of “Shangri-La,” a musical in which Harnick had helped with the lyrics. The first Harnick-Bock musical was “The Body Beautiful” in 1958.
“I think in all of the years that we worked together, I only remember one or two arguments — and those were at the beginning of the collaboration when we were still feeling each other out,” Harnick, who collaborated with Bock for 13 years, recalled in 2010. “Once we got past that, he was wonderful to work with.”
They would form one of the most influential partnerships in Broadway history. Producers Robert Griffith and Hal Prince had liked the songs from “The Body Beautiful,” and they contracted Bock and Harnick to write the score for their next production, “Fiorello!,” a musical about the reformist mayor of New York City.
Bock and Harnick then collaborated on “Tenderloin” in 1960 and “She Loves Me” three years later. Neither was a hit — although “She Loves Me” won a Grammy for best score from a cast album — but their next one was a monster that continues to be performed worldwide: “Fiddler on the Roof.” It earned two Tony Awards in 1965.
Based on stories by Sholom Aleichem that were adapted into a libretto by Joseph Stein, “Fiddler” dealt with the experience of Eastern European Orthodox Jews in the Russian village of Anatevka in the year 1905. It starred Zero Mostel as Tevye, had an almost eight-year run and offered the world such stunning songs as “Sunrise, Sunset,” “If I Were a Rich Man” and “Matchmaker, Matchmaker.”
The most recent Broadway revival starred Danny Burstein as Tevye and earned a best revival Tony nomination.
In a masterpiece of laughter and tenderness, Harnick’s lyrics were poignant and honest, as when the hero Tevye sings, “Lord who made the lion and the lamb/You decreed I should be what I am/Would it spoil some vast eternal plan/If I were a wealthy man?”
Harvey Fierstein, who played Tevye in a Broadway revival starting in 2004, said Harnick’s “lyrics were clear and purposeful and never lapsed into cliche. You’d never catch him relying on easy rhymes or ‘lists’ to fill a musical phrase. He always sought and told the truth for the character and so made acting his songs a joy.”