Talk:Alan Jay Lerner

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Article name[edit]

The page should be titled: Alan Jay Lerner, the name under which Lerner wrote his great stage successes. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 211.28.78.159 (talk) 08:47, 24 April 2004 (UTC)[reply]

Done. Joshk 02:56, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Les Misérables[edit]

The article presently states, "At the time of Lerner's death he had been approached to write lyrics for Les Misérables and The Phantom of the Opera." The latter is stated (probably among other places) in a booklet available from Phantom's West End venue, but I've never seen a source for the former and it strikes me as dubious given that Les Mis opened in London eight months before Lerner's death. Can anyone corroborate the claim or shall I delete it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ou tis (talk • contribs) 14:00, 16 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I have now deleted it. Please do not reinstate it without a source (I'll add the source for the "Phantom" claim when I have my copy of the booklet to hand). — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ou tis (talk • contribs) 13:20, 1 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Years of dead ends, etc.[edit]

I am removing the statement "After years of dead ends and only one true hit". Since the only production between "Brigadoon" and "Fair Lady" was "Paint Your Wagon", (which ran a pretty goodly run) what were the dead ends? It may be that they had some ideas for shows which they began but couldn't complete, but if so that's what should be said, "Between 1951 and 1956 Lerner and Lowe began work on a number or shows but were unable to complete any of them" Something like that. Not that I think that's true. As I recall, Lerner described Loewe as less driven than he--or lazier--and that was the real reason for the relatively small number of shows they produced.

I also reparagraphed the work with other collaborators, Weill and Lane since it logically forms another topic and made other changes to smooth out the narrative from Lerner & Loewe's earliest partnership through to "Camelot" Meb53 19:30, 18 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Magisterial[edit]

I have removed the attribute of "magisterial" from the description of Lerner's book on the Theater which appears to be the individual writer's view. The reviews I have read describe the book as a witty and enjoyable, sometimes judgmental and full of personal anecdotes, but not a book to replace the major histories of the subject--hence not magisterial, "authoritative, and commanding". It is a text of 240 pages with many photos and illustrations and lyrics.Meb53 21:29, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Kennedy[edit]

We say "He was educated at Bedales School, Choate Rosemary Hall, and Harvard, where he befriended classmate John F. Kennedy." This is a bit unclear: Kennedy, like Lerner, was at both Choate and Harvard. Are we to understand that their friendship only began at the latter?

Also, according to Oscar Levant, The Unimportance of Being Oscar, Pocket Books 1969 (reprint of G.P. Putnam 1968), p. 23, the song "Camelot" is not merely retrospectively associated with JFK but had been a favorite of Kennedy's, which Lerner did not know until Jackie Kennedy mentioned this publicly after JFK's death. - Jmabel | Talk 01:50, 31 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It is widely believed that Jackie manufactured this claim (for an interview with Life magaxine) precisely so that the public would restrospectively associate her former husband's presidential tenure with the legendary court of Camelot. Whether this is true or not there is absolutely no doubt that the public did not associate the two until after Kennedy's death. (My personal view is if she didn't invent the story out of whole cloth, she deliberately exaggerated in order to achieve a particular end.) TheScotch (talk) 04:19, 18 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Fair use rationale for Image:AlanJayLerner.jpg[edit]

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WikiProject class rating[edit]

This article was automatically assessed because at least one article was rated and this bot brought all the other ratings up to at least that level. BetacommandBot 10:38, 27 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Tone in "Personal life"[edit]

A comment from another reader: the entry is generally informative, but the tone in the "Personal life" section occasionally strikes me as somewhat less than dictionary-like. For instance, saying that the reported cost of his settlement with Micheline Musseli Pozzo di Borgo was a "gross distortion of the truth" implies intent and facts that otherwise have no basis in this article. Better, in my opinion, would be a statement that $1 million was reportedly, or allegedly, significantly greater than the actual cost, according to whoever said so. Frankly, the existing "gross distortion" language sitting the way it does now, makes it sound like it was written by a biased party. Whether that's true or not, that is the way it comes off, which is a good reason to rewrite it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.14.253.159 (talk) 13:51, 12 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

English education[edit]

Lerner was educated at Bedales School in England...

Any explanation for the spell overseas? Valetude (talk) 21:42, 24 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Lerner and Loewe[edit]

Lerner did his most famous work in the partnership Lerner and Loewe, and this article links to that one, but possibly only in the Lerner and Loewe template at the foot. A link should be prominent in the very first paragraph of the article, IMO. Andrewa (talk) 17:00, 1 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]