In his nearly half-century long career, Alan Jay Lerner wrote the lyrics for some of the most beloved musicals in Broadway and Hollywood history. Most notably, with composer Frederick Loewe he worked on the record-breaking My Fair Lady, which won numerous Tony Awards and was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film. In The Complete Lyrics of Alan Jay Lerner, editors and annotators Dominic McHugh and Amy Asch weave together dozens of archival collections to form an invaluable resource. Alongside classic works from My Fair Lady, Camelot, and Gigi, numerous discoveries are published here for the first time, including Lerner's unproduced MGM movie Huckleberry Finn, selections from his college shows, and lyrics from three different versions of Paint Your Wagon. This collection also includes many surviving songs from Lerner's two most ambitious musicals: Love Life, to music by Kurt Weill, and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, which Lerner wrote with Leonard Bernstein.Through expert commentary, McHugh and Asch bring to life the stories behind much of Lerner's oeuvre, while also providing alternative or draft versions of his work. For the theater lover and scholar alike, this book sheds new light on one of the Golden Age's defining figures.
