Broadway lost an icon, the world a gifted mensch, and The 92nd Street Y a treasured friend with the recent passing of Sheldon Harnick. One of musical theater’s most celebrated lyricists, Harnick’s creations include the Pulitzer Prizewinning Fiorello!, She Loves Me, and his groundbreaking nine-time Tony Award-winning Fiddler on the Roof – Broadway’s original longest-running show and one of the world’s most performed and enduring musicals.
Harnick had a home at 92NY from the moment then music director Maurice Levine made it his mission to give lyricists the spotlight and recognition often afforded to their music-writing counterparts. In 1971, Levine launched Lyrics & Lyricists, and on Valentine’s Day of that inaugural season, Harnick made his first appearance on our stage, discussing the craft of lyric writing and illustrating it with performances of songs from his shows. He was part of a first season that also featured evenings with the songwriter who was his idol, E.Y. “Yip” Harburg, along with Betty Comden & Adolph Green, Johnny Mercer, and a young Stephen Sondheim.
Over the next 50-plus years, Harnick grew to become one of Lyrics & Lyricists most beloved figures, joining us a host, a narrator, singing his own songs, and kvelling over those of others, in more than 20 productions and events. Audiences loved him. The man described by so many as kind, witty, affable, charming, generous, and a hopeful romantic brought all of that to his appearances. Harnick emanated love – love for the theater, for wordplay and rhyme, for the simple expression of complex emotions, for the nuances of the human condition.
Harnick delighted Kaufmann Concert Hall audiences for decades, sharing never-before-told, behind-the-scenes stories, songs, and often most delightfully of all, the songs that got away – cut from shows during out-of-town tryouts. In spring of 2015, Harnick joined us with artistic director Rob Fisher to host Lyrics & Lyricists’ “To Life! Celebrating 50 Years of Fiddler on the Roof.” He talked about the origin of the show, his writing process, his work with composer Jerry Bock and director Jerome Robbins, and more. He shared that he and Bock had written 50(!) songs for the show, and proceeded to present – or perform himself – many that never made it to the stage. Those in attendance say the audience was rapt. The Broadway publication Theater Scene wrote of the production, “It was fascinating to hear inside stories about the creation of the show from the brilliant Sheldon Harnick. He is articulate, sings beautifully and has a terrific sense of humor.” The review continued, “The last song was a surprise – a song titled ‘Fiddler on the Roof,’ written for the recording after the show was a hit, with lyrics to the tune of ‘Tradition.’ Sheldon said it was the first time it was ever performed on stage and that it might never be heard again.” The L&L production is often talked about as one of the series’ “greatest hits.”
Over half a century, Harnick helmed Lyrics & Lyricists productions and was featured in 92NY talks, he even held a book signing in our hall. He shared our stage with fellow American Songbook legends Jerry Herman, Sammy Cahn, and Burton Lane … with Barbara Cook and Joel Grey … Alfred Molina … Billy Stritch, and Lucie Arnaz, and Marilyn Maye … Rebecca Luker and Darius de Haas … Danny Burstein and Jessica Hecht, and countless others. And he generously regaled the work of other songwriters, in shows celebrating the music of Ira Gershwin, Alan Jay Lerner, Kurt Weill, Fred Ebb, and many more.
In an interview on WNYC ahead of Harnick’s 2006 Lyrics & Lyricists production “Collector’s Items (Other People’s Lyrics),” Harnick said, “When [artistic director] Rob Fisher asked me to do this show – a spinoff of something Stephen Sondheim had done, in which he made a list of songs by other people that he wished he’d written, and something Rob thought would be a terrific idea for Lyrics & Lyricists – I was very flattered. ‘Put on a Happy Face’ [from Lee Adams and Charles Strouse’s score for Bye Bye Birdie] came to mind immediately, because it has one of my favorite rhymes of all time: The notion that someone would rhyme ‘tragedy’ with ‘glad-you’ll-be’ – that’s just wonderful!”
While Harnick admired such wordplay, his own lyrics are most celebrated for the genius of their simplicity. Sondheim called his lyrics “impeccable.” Others tout their striking naturalness, character insight, compassion, and what The New York Times called “the complex emotional architecture of love.” Lyrics & Lyricists’ favorite Ted Sperling worked with Harnick on several productions, including as music director and writer of new orchestrations for Bartlett Scher’s 2015 Broadway production of Fiddler, and will lead a celebration of his extraordinary life and legacy in the upcoming L&L season. Sperling says, “A quality that makes [Harnick’s] writing so exceptional is that it is so direct. He purposefully avoided lines that drew attention to themselves – that said, ‘Look how clever I am as a writer.’ He always wanted to be true to the character. As a result, his songs always feel as personal as someone talking to you, or people talking to each other.” Danny Burstein, who starred as Tevye in that Fiddler revival told a 92NY audience, “Harnick wrote songs that feel like dialogue.”
Audiences left Harnick’s 92NY appearances both delighted and enlightened. In February 2016, Harnick joined us for a talk with the cast of the Broadway Fiddler revival, accompanied by its stars, Burstein and Jessica Hecht. He told stories that illuminated long-familiar songs, leaving listeners considering them anew. About “Miracle of Miracles,” he shared that the original song in its place was “You Could Have Had the Richest Man in Town.” “But when we were in Detroit [for tryouts], Jerome Robbins came to Jerry Bock and me and said, ‘As lovely as that song is, what we really want to see there is Motel’s joy, so I’d like an uptempo number. I looked at the script to see what the cue leading into the song would be, and Motel’s line is, ‘It was a miracle.’ And I thought, Oh! Maybe the new song should be about miracles. But I need Biblical research! So I went back to my hotel room, hoping and praying there would be a Gideon Bible. I opened a drawer, and my prayers were answered!”
In spring of 2015, Harnick welcomed a small 92NY camera crew into his Central Park West home to allow the world a peek at a few of his most cherished possessions. They included a personal note from Yip Harburg, a small Rodin sculpture reproduction of the dancer Nijinsky, and a photo of the family he adored. Family was paramount to Harnick, and there may be no theme that runs more deeply through his songs. Sperling says, “There’s an element of family present in so much of his work. In Fiddler, of course, but even in She Loves Me, where none of the characters are related, yet they’ve formed their own kind of family. Sheldon captured that.”
Harnick was 92NY family. And our hearts our fuller because of him.
The 2023/24 Lyrics & Lyricists season will be announced soon. Visit 92NY.org/Concerts for most current details and listings.