Mitch Leigh

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Mitch Leigh
Mitch Leigh.jpg
Leigh in 2013 [1]
Born
Irwin Stanley Michnick

(1928-01-30)January 30, 1928
Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.
DiedMarch 16, 2014(2014-03-16) (aged 86)
Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
Alma mater Yale University (BM, MM)
Occupation Composer
Notable work Man of La Mancha
Spouses
  • Renee Goldman (divorced)
  • Abby Kimmelman
Children3, including Eve
Awards Tony Award
Contemporary Classics Award

Mitch Leigh (born Irwin Stanley Michnick; January 30, 1928 –March 16, 2014) was an American musical theatre composer and theatrical producer best known for the musical Man of La Mancha .

Contents

Early years

Leigh was born Irwin Stanley Michnick in Brooklyn on January 30, 1928, where he grew up in the Brownsville neighborhood. [1] [2] His father was from Ukraine. [2] After service in the U.S. Army, he graduated from Yale in 1951 with a Bachelor of Music, and in 1952 received his Master of Music degree under Paul Hindemith. [1] [3]

Career

He began his career as a jazz musician, and writing commercials for radio and television. [1] On the 1955 LP recording of Jean Shepherd Into the Unknown with Jazz Music, Leigh wrote the jazz interludes between radio broadcaster Jean Shepherd's improvisations.

Broadway

In 1965, Leigh collaborated with lyricist Joe Darion and writer Dale Wasserman to write a musical based on Wasserman's 1959 television play, I, Don Quixote . The resulting show, the musical Man of La Mancha opened on Broadway in 1965 and in its original engagement ran for 2,328 performances. It has been revived multiple times.

Leigh followed with the show Chu Chem , which he also produced, exactly a year after Man of La Mancha, but closed on the road. It finally opened on Broadway in 1989 but ran for only 68 performances.

Cry for Us All , based on the play, Hogan's Goat , opened on Broadway in 1970; it ran for only nine performances. Leigh was the producer as well as composer. [4] His musical Home Sweet Homer , starring Yul Brynner, officially opened on Broadway in January 1976 but closed after one performance. He produced and wrote the music for Saravá which ran for 101 performances in 1979. Leigh both produced and directed the 1985 revival of The King and I starring Brynner featuring in his final performances as the King of Siam. [5]

Lee Adams asked Leigh to collaborate on a musical titled Mike, about producer Mike Todd, but it closed during its pre-Broadway tryout in 1988. After renaming it Ain't Broadway Grand!, the show made it to Broadway in 1993, but lasted only 25 performances. [6] He wrote the musical Halloween with Sidney Michaels, and although Barbara Cook and José Ferrer were in the cast, it did not reach Broadway. [7]

Television

Leigh established Music Makers, Inc., in 1957 as a radio and television commercial production house and was its creative director. [8] His television music included the instrumental music for the ABC Color Logo (1962–65); [9] the TV commercial jingle "Nobody Doesn't Like Sara Lee"; [10] [11] the Meet the Swinger Polaroid Swinger commercial sung by Barry Manilow; and the Benson & Hedges theme "The Dis-Advantages of You," which reached the Top 40 for The Brass Ring in 1967 [12] [13] and was heard in a series of Benson & Hedges cigarette commercials at that time. [14] [15]

Academic legacy

In 1977, Leigh and others at the Yale School of Music established the Keith Wilson scholarship, to be awarded "to an outstanding major in wind instrument playing." A building in The School of Music at Yale University was named "Abby and Mitch Leigh Hall" in 2001. [16]

Personal life

After a marriage to Renee Goldman ended in divorce, Leigh married Abby Kimmelman. [1] He had one child from his first marriage and two from his second, one of whom is playwright Eve Leigh. [1] Leigh died from complications of a stroke and pneumonia at a Manhattan hospital on March 16, 2014, at the age of 86. [2]

Jackson 21

To avoid taxation for his earnings from Man of La Mancha, Leigh purchased 1,000 acres of land in Jackson Township, New Jersey over many years. [2] He planned to turn it into a mixed-use development called "Jackson 21". [1] [2] Towards the end of his life, he began advertising it on television, saying that its prospective residents would have to be "really nice" people. [2] [17] According to The Washington Post , the commercials confused viewers, many of whom thought Leigh was running a scam or a starting a cult. [2] No major construction had taken place by the time of his death, and the project was essentially abandoned afterward. [18]

Awards

Leigh won a Tony Award for composing the music for Man of La Mancha . He was also nominated for a Tony Award as the director of the 1985 revival of The King and I . He received the Contemporary Classics Award from the Songwriter's Hall of Fame for "The Impossible Dream". [8]

Related Research Articles

<i>The King and I</i> Musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein, premiered in 1951

The King and I is the fifth musical by the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. It is based on Margaret Landon's novel Anna and the King of Siam (1944), which is in turn derived from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in the early 1860s. The musical's plot relates the experiences of Anna, a British schoolteacher who is hired as part of the King's drive to modernize his country. The relationship between the King and Anna is marked by conflict through much of the piece, as well as by a love to which neither can admit. The musical premiered on March 29, 1951, at Broadway's St. James Theatre. It ran for nearly three years, making it the fourth-longest-running Broadway musical in history at the time, and has had many tours and revivals.

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<i>Man of La Mancha</i> Musical

Man of La Mancha is a 1965 musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, music by Mitch Leigh, and lyrics by Joe Darion. It is adapted from Wasserman's non-musical 1959 teleplay I, Don Quixote, which was in turn inspired by Miguel de Cervantes and his 17th-century novel Don Quixote. It tells the story of the "mad" knight Don Quixote as a play within a play, performed by Cervantes and his fellow prisoners as he awaits a hearing with the Spanish Inquisition. The work is not and does not pretend to be a faithful rendition of either Cervantes' life or Don Quixote. Wasserman complained repeatedly about people taking the work as a musical version of Don Quixote.

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Dale Wasserman was an American playwright, perhaps best known for his book, Man of La Mancha.

<i>Man of La Mancha</i> (film) 1972 film by Arthur Hiller

Man of La Mancha is a 1972 film adaptation of the Broadway musical Man of La Mancha by Dale Wasserman, with music by Mitch Leigh and lyrics by Joe Darion. The musical was suggested by the classic novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, but more directly based on Wasserman's 1959 non-musical television play I, Don Quixote, which combines a semi-fictional episode from the life of Cervantes with scenes from his novel.

<i>Cry For Us All</i> Musical

Cry for Us All is a musical with a book by William Alfred and Albert Marre, lyrics by William Alfred and Phyllis Robinson, and music by Mitch Leigh. The show ran on Broadway for nine performances in 1970.

Albert Marre was an American stage director and producer. He directed the stage musical Man of La Mancha in 1965, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Director of a Musical.

Home Sweet Homer is a 1976 musical with a book by Roland Kibbee and Albert Marre, lyrics by Charles Burr and Forman Brown, and music by Mitch Leigh.

"The Impossible Dream (The Quest)" is a popular song composed by Mitch Leigh, with lyrics written by Joe Darion. It is the best known tune from the 1965 Broadway musical Man of La Mancha and is also featured in the 1972 film of the same name starring Peter O'Toole.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Gates, Anita (March 17, 2014). "Mitch Leigh, Who Composed 'Man of La Mancha,' Dies at 86" . The New York Times . p. A21. Retrieved December 25, 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 McArdle, Terence (March 17, 2014). "Mitch Leigh, 'Man of La Mancha' composer and jingle writer, dies at 86" . The Washington Post . Retrieved October 25, 2024.
  3. ↑ YAM March 2001 - Who's Been Blue Archived July 5, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ↑ Suskin, Steven."Mitch Leigh's Cry For Us All Comes to CD, Plus Kitty's Kisses" Archived January 7, 2010, at the Wayback Machine , playbill.com, October 25, 2009
  5. ↑ Suskin, Steven (2000). Show Tunes: The Songs, Shows, and Careers of Broadway's Major Composers. Oxford University Press. p. 109. ISBN   9780195125993 . Retrieved June 20, 2024– via Google Books.
  6. ↑ Archived October 9, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  7. ↑ Weber, Bruce (May 2, 2011). "Sidney Michaels, 83, Author Of Hit Broadway Shows - Obituary (Obit); Biography - NYTimes.com". New York Times. Retrieved January 5, 2013.
  8. 1 2 Baker, Dorie. "Composer Mitch Leigh Endows Chair in Jazz at Yale" (Press release). Yale University Office of Public Affairs. Archived from the original on July 15, 2010. Retrieved February 9, 2010.
  9. ↑ ABC - Network ID - 1960s - YouTube
  10. ↑ Classic Sara Lee Commercial, YouTube
  11. ↑ "Advertising Jingle Music Folio Books", classicthemes.com, accessed February 9, 2010
  12. ↑ "The Dis-Advantages of You," The Brass Ring, 1967, YouTube
  13. ↑ The Brass Ring, "The Dis-Advantages of You," 1967, YouTube
  14. ↑ Vintage Benson & Hedges 1960s Cigarette TV Commercials, YouTube
  15. ↑ The Disadvantages with the Benson & Hedges 100's, YouTube
  16. ↑ "Yale School of Music Names Building in Honor of Mitch and Abby Leigh" Archived July 27, 2010, at the Wayback Machine , opa.yale.edu, September 7, 2001
  17. ↑ Diamond, Michael L. (April 23, 2013). "Composer only wants nice people in N.J. development". The Asbury Park Press . Retrieved October 25, 2024.
  18. ↑ "Jackson Twenty-One Under Fire for Failing to Deliver Vision That Was Promised". Shore News Network. August 9, 2023. Retrieved October 25, 2024.
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