Cy Coleman has passed away...

[mabel]

Posted: 11/19/04 at 11:03am

On Playbill.com

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 11/19/04 at 11:05am

Thank you for the info, Mabel. How sad.

[pab]

Posted: 11/19/04 at 11:13am

Very sad news indeed.
Link

[Craig]

Posted: 11/19/04 at 11:22am

Considering the latest honors and concerts, this is even more upsetting..

[joeyjoe]

Posted: 11/19/04 at 11:24am

OH, NOOoooo!!! All the great ones are leaving us!!! Boy, heaven must be... well, Heaven!!!

he will be sadly missed...

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 11/19/04 at 11:37am

Somewhere, Angels are flipping their lids at the prospect of a Coleman/Ebb musical.
Bless you, Cy Coleman, for more than one fantastic musical, an unbelievable wealth of amazing songs that have had long lives outside their shows and which will make sure your name survives you for hundreds of years.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 11/19/04 at 11:39am

"Somewhere, Angels are flipping their lids at the prospect of a Coleman/Ebb musical."

That gave me chills.

Updated On: 11/19/04 at 11:39 AM

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 11/19/04 at 11:39am

wow. very tragic indeed.

[pab]

Posted: 11/19/04 at 11:53am

Some people say that death usually comes in threes.

There was Fred Ebb, then Gregory Mitchell and now Cy Coleman. Hopefully it will be quite a while before we lose anyone else.

[HJAJtheFirst]

Posted: 11/19/04 at 12:19pm

Craig,
I couldn't agree with you more! Seeing him on Monday looking healthy and so happy along with being able to spend some time with him makes it even more sad. If that makes any sense? This is terrible. Besides being a wonderful composer he was truly a nice man. .

Devestated,
Linda

[CJR]

Posted: 11/19/04 at 12:21pm

pab, you're right. We were actually just talking about that here in my office. What a shame.

[bk]

Posted: 11/19/04 at 12:27pm

I was lucky to have worked with Cy on several occasions - I posted some memories on my site, which I thought I'd share with you here:

Just heard the sad news that Cy Coleman had a massive heart attack and has died.

I have so many lovely memories of him - he was very sweet, very kind, very gracious. I remember going over his house to play him the Coleman cuts on Emily and Alice's album (I think there were three) and he was just like a little kid and he loved them.

I remember the first time I met him - I'd sent him a note about including a classical piece by him on the Bay Cities' Classical Broadway album. I hadn't heard back from him, and then one day the phone rang and I heard, "Bruce? This is Cy. Listen to this." And he proceeded to play for me over the phone "Never Met a Man I Didn't Like" which he'd just gotten the mix of. I thought it was such a funny way to meet one of my legends.

I remember badgering him to come and record a jazz CD for me - we talked and talked about it, but sadly the timing was never right.

I remember doing the revival cast album of Little Me - Neil Simon didn't want to be involved in the dialogue choices for the album, but I was insistent on having them because I felt it was the only way you'd know what Marty Short was about in the show - so, Cy and I sat for two days figuring it out, and we just had so much fun doing it. I met his lovely wife that day, and her telling the story of how they met and their courtship was priceless and pure Cy. And I remember the Little Me session as one of the easiest ever, and Cy just sitting next to Harold Wheeler, the orchestrator, and just loving hearing the tracks go down.

We'd done the Randy Graff Cy Coleman album. We sent Randy the mix and she had certain problems with it, which neither Vinnie nor I agreed with. We went back and forth on it. In the meantime, she sent the CD to Cy, saying nothing, just to get his reaction. He called her and told her he loved it, loved her singing, loved the song selection. And then he said, "Oh, and tell Bruce that's one of the best-mixed albums I've ever heard." That was the end of Randy's problems with the mix.

And when I saw Will Rogers Follies, I developed a crush on one of the showgirls, Wendy Waring. I called Tony Walton, and he told Wendy about it, and I later met her (never meet the people you have crushes on). I told Cy that I had a little schoolboy crush on Wendy (just prior to meeting her) and his reply? "Get in line."

Finally, I remember him getting me his house seats for The Life, which he wanted me to see. After the show, I handed him Lost in Boston IV, which we'd just finished, and which had Gimme a Raincheck, a cut song from Sweet Charity. I'd seen a workshop of The Life months before and hated it - but somehow between then and what I saw that night, the show had become pretty good, thanks to Cy's music and Michael Blakemore's production. Anyway, I handed Cy the CD and he, as always, was thrilled that the song had been recorded - I then told him how much I'd enjoyed the show, and said, "Cy, you are always the hippest one in the room."

And that was Cy - always the hippest one in the room.

[dotmarie]

Posted: 11/19/04 at 12:28pm

I gasped when I saw this, how terrible and how sudden also. =( He'll be missed.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 11/19/04 at 12:31pm

One of the best...sounds like a sweet man, too. He will be missed.

[VeuveClicquot]

Posted: 11/19/04 at 12:36pm

How incredibly sad.

Cy Coleman was possibly the most versatile composer Broadway has ever seen. It's hard to believe that the same person wrote the scores for SWEET CHARITY and ON THE 20TH CENTURY, two of Broadway's best scores, and yet they couldn't be more different.

Bruce, thanks for posting your lovely memories. I never met Mr. Coleman, but his body of work has touched me in so very many ways. He was a true genius, and he will be sorely missed.

[ElphieZ]

Posted: 11/19/04 at 12:53pm

I can't believe it...I just saw him at the Tribute to Cy two weeks ago! He looked great... I'm incredibly sad!

[MagicToDo82]

Posted: 11/19/04 at 1:02pm

That does it. Im playing his musicals all day long in tribute.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 11/19/04 at 1:09pm

Truly one of our greatest composers. Very sad indeed.

[leomaxfrank]

Posted: 11/19/04 at 1:42pm

they are dropping like flies - it's heartbreaking.

[mbjts]

Posted: 11/19/04 at 1:51pm

Wow!

I needed to read the article several times for it to seek in. I had just enjoyed reading and seeing pictures of his tributes, and it's certainly a big loss for all the actors who adored him, and all of his fans.

[marincrazy11]

Posted: 11/19/04 at 4:21pm

sad sad sad.....there's just other good word for it.

[sabrelady]

Posted: 11/19/04 at 4:25pm

What a loss. @ least the tribute came in time to honour him before & not after the fact.

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 11/19/04 at 4:26pm

And recent pics of him have been up here awhile.

[FranklinShepard-Inc.]

Posted: 11/19/04 at 4:38pm

It is a pity, his latest pieces of work didn't reach Broadway yet. Whether "Grace", "Ostrovsky" or "Pamela's first Musical", Coleman didn't see his shows arrive on Broadway for years. Now he will have to watch it from above.

[shira467]

Posted: 11/19/04 at 4:42pm

I'm deeply saddened by Broadway's loss today. Especially being that he's just been honored. It's difficult to realize that someone who I'd just been with, been honoring, is no longer with us. I hope his family is having an easy mourning - he will be sorely missed. May he rest in peace, and as it's been said, bring beautiful music to the angels.