Meehan, Tony-winning story writer of ‘Annie,’ dies at 88
NEW YORK - Three-time Tony Award-winning book writer Thomas Meehan, best known for transforming the Little Orphan Annie cartoon strip into the smash Broadway musical “Annie,” has died at age 88.
Meehan, who had been ill for about five months and had undergone surgery, died at his home in Manhattan late Monday or early Tuesday, longtime friend and “Annie” collaborator Martin Charnin said. Charnin visited his old friend about 10 days ago.
“There’s a hole in my heart,” Charnin said. “It’s a gigantic loss, not only to the industry but also to us. We’ve been together and so close since the 1950s.”
Meehan wrote the books for three shows that ran over 2,000 performances on Broadway: “Annie” with 2,377 performances, “The Producers” with Mel Brooks at 2,502 performances and “Hairspray,” which he wrote with Mark O’Donnell and which reached 2,642 performances.
“I wrote stories that were serious, very somber, trying to be in the style of William Faulkner,” Meehan told the Observer newspaper in 1999. “My career has always been that every time I try something really serious, it’s no good, but if I try to be funny, then it works.”
Tributes poured in on social media, including from “Hamilton” creator LinManuel Miranda, who called Meehan “one of the best around,” and from actress Kate Shindle, head of the Actors’ Equity Association, who called his death a “great loss.”
Meehan’s other shows include “Young Frankenstein” with Brooks, “Cry-Baby” with O’Donnell, “Elf” with Bob Martin, “Chaplin” with Christopher Curtis, “Bombay Dreams” with Meera Syal and the musical “Rocky” with Sylvester Stallone.
Meehan began his career as a writer with The New Yorker’s “Talk of the Town” section and later earned an Emmy Award nomination in 1964 as one of the writers of the TV series “That Was the Week That Was.”
Charnin said Meehan was “really very unique.”
“He was somebody who you could literally call a wit,” Charnin said. “There are not a lot of wits left in comedy, and Tom was a wit. I have no problem calling him that.”
Meehan made his Broadway debut with “Annie,” alongside Charnin and songwriter Charles Strouse. The 1977 original won the Tony as best musical and ran for 2,300 performances, inspiring tours and revivals that never went out of style.
“Annie” almost died at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut in 1976. But Charnin brought in noted stage and film director Mike Nichols, who signed on as a producer, and helped him revise the show.
With actress Andrea McArdle replacing Kristen Vigard as the redhaired moppet Annie and Dorothy Loudon added as Miss Hannigan, the production went on to open in New York in April 1977 with a bang.
The 1982 film version, which featured Carol Burnett in Loudon’s role, was not nearly as popular or well-received. A stage sequel called “Annie Warbucks” ran off-Broadway in 1993. The show was revived on Broadway in 2012 and was made into a film starring Quvenzhane Wallis in 2014.
LONDON - Brian Aldiss, one of the most prolific and influential science fiction writers of the 20th century, has died aged 92.
Literary agency Curtis Brown said Aldiss died early Saturday at his home in Oxford, England.
Born in 1925, Aldiss served in India and Burma with the British Army during World War II and later became a bookseller, publishing his first stories in a trade magazine.
He went on to have a huge influence on sci-fi, as a writer of stories and novels and as editor of many anthologies.
His work includes “Greybeard,” set in a world without young people, and the “Helliconia” trilogy, centered on a planet in which the seasons last for centuries.
Aldiss’ 1969 short story “Supertoys Last All Summer Long” was an unrealized dream project for the late Stanley Kubrick and formed the basis for Steven Spielberg’s 2001 film “A.I.”
He also wrote general fiction, some of it inspired by his wartime experiences, and two volumes of autobiography.
Son Tim Aldiss tweeted that his father was “a drinking companion of Kingsley Amis & correspondent with C.S. Lewis & J.R.R. Tolkien,” and younger writers hailed Aldiss as a major influence and encouraging mentor.