Alexander H. Cohen (July 24, 1920 - April
22, 2000), born in New York
City
, was a prolific American
theatrical producer who mounted more
than one hundred productions on both sides of the Atlantic.
He was the
only American producer to maintain offices in the West
End
as well as on Broadway
.
Personal life
Cohen's father, a business man, died when Cohen was four, and his
mother then married a banker, and he, together with his brother
Gerry, lived on Park Avenue in a lavish duplex penthouse. His
brother committed suicide in 1954, at which point Cohen became
estranged from his mother.
He was employed by the Bulova Watch Company where he spent seven
years, becoming its director of advertising and publicity, a
business that brought him into contact with theatre people. During
this time, during WW2, he was drafted into the army, and after a
year was invalided out with a leg ailment.
Mr. Cohen's first marriage, to Jocelyn Newmark, ended in divorce.
He married actress
Hildy Parks in 1956,
who later became his producing partner. He died from
emphysema in New York City. Hildy Parks followed
him 4 years later, in 2004. They are survived by son Gerry Cohen,
of Los Angeles, a daughter Barbara Hoffmann of Manhattan; another
son, Christopher A. Cohen, also of Manhattan; one grandson, and one
great-granddaughter.
Career as producer
With an inheritance, he initially became an investor in a number of
flops, producing his first Broadway show with
Ghost for
Sale in 1941, which closed after six performances. He followed
this quickly with his next production, the thriller
Angel Street, which ran for three years
(and was made into the movie
Gaslight).
Soon, he revealed himself to have a decidedly
eclectic approach to popular entertainment with
a busy schedule of productions. They ran the gamut from comedies
(
Little Murders) to reviews
At the Drop of a Hat,
Beyond the Fringe, to
dramas (
84 Charing Cross
Road,
Anna Christie)
to
musicals (
Dear World,
A Day in Hollywood /
A Night in the Ukraine) to the classics (
King Lear,
Hamlet). He also produced stage concerts for
Marlene Dietrich,
Maurice Chevalier, and
Yves Montand, and an evening of comic sketches
with
Mike Nichols and
Elaine May.
Cohen was responsible for the international stardom of
Marcel Marceau, bringing him to New York to
support
Maurice Chevalier in
An Evening with Maurice Chevalier. He had originally
intended the production to be a one-man show but Chevalier did not
want to work that hard, and requested that Marceau (then unknown
outside Europe) perform his mime pieces to give Chevalier
opportunities to rest between musical numbers.
His informal series of revues collectively titled "Nine O'Clock
Musicals" included
At the Drop of a Hat and
At the
Drop of Another Hat (both featuring
Michael Flanders and
Donald Swann,
Words and Music
(Hollywood lyricist
Sammy Cahn performing
his own songs with a few back-up singers) and the semi-musical
Good Evening with
Peter Cook and
Dudley Moore. They were low-budget,
required little material support, and were hugely successful.
Despite his success with revues, the highly prolific Cohen never
produced a financially successful book musical (a musical with a
script and plot) on Broadway, although he did produce the
successful London productions of
1776 and
Applause. A challenge he was never able to
satisfy was to mount a Broadway revival of
Hellzapoppin'. A 1967
out-of-town tryout starring
Soupy Sales
closed in Montreal, and ten years later another effort starring
Jerry Lewis and
Lynn Redgrave closed in Boston. The rights are
still held by the Cohen estate. The nearest Cohen came to a
successful book musical on Broadway was
A Day in Hollywood/A
Night in the Ukraine, adapted from a much less elaborate
London production. This double feature consisted of two short
entertainments with the same cast: the first half being a plotless
compendium of songs and anecdotes about old-time Hollywood, the
second half being
Anton Chekhov's play
The Bear radically reworked as a musical comedy for the
Marx Brothers (impersonated by modern
actors), retaining a vague semblance of Chekhov's plot.
Television production
Cohen conceived and originated the first
Tony Awards telecast in 1967 and helmed many
more over the following years.
He also produced a number of Emmy Award presentations, specials with Plácido Domingo and Liza Minnelli, and the first and third
editions of Night of 100 Stars, which featured a parade of
entertainment and sports celebrities performing and/or appearing on
the stage of Radio City Music Hall
.
Other work
As well as
producing, Cohen participated in the operation of a number of
legitimate theaters, including the Morris Mechanic in Baltimore
after its renovation, and the O'Keefe Centre in Toronto
when it
opened in 1960.
He was responsible for drawing the performing arts community into
the popular and highly successful
I Love New York
television ad campaign.
In 1976, he converted the bankrupt and vacant
Manhattan Plaza on Manhattan's West 43rd Street into an apartment complex
providing subsidized housing for low-income
performers.
Cohen was also an active fund-raiser for the
Actors Fund of America. He put together several
television spectaculars,
Night of 100 Stars and
Parade
of Stars which raised $3 million to build the fund's
extended-care nursing facility in Englewood, N.J. Behind the
scenes, however, there was controversy, some claiming that Cohen's
lavish producing style accommodated his own lavish needs better
than the fund's.
Cohen made one appearance as an actor when he appeared onscreen in
Woody Allen's film
The Purple Rose of Cairo
(1985), portraying Raoul Hirsch, a fictional Hollywood producer in
the 1930s. His final act, putting it all together, was in 1999 when
he wrote, produced, directed, and starred in his
off-Broadway one-man show,
Star
Billing, in which he reminisced about his hits, flops, and
famous feuds. The New York Times reviewer stated that he had many a
kind word for his friends and an arsenal of well-honed, acid-tipped
barbs for those he loathed, among them rival producer
David Merrick,
Marlene Dietrich and
Jerry Lewis.
[394072]
Selected Broadway credits
Awards and nominations
- 2000 Drama Desk Award for
Lifetime Achievement (awarded posthumously)
- 1999 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance
(Star Billing, nominee)
- 1989 Tony Award for Best Revival (Ah, Wilderness!,
nominee)
- 1989 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival (Long Day's
Journey Into Night, nominee)
- 1984 Tony Award for Best Play (Play Memory,
nominee)
- 1984 Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience (La
Tragedie de Carmen, winner)
- 1980 Tony Award for Best Musical (A Day in Hollywood/A
Night in the Ukraine, nominee)
- 1977 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Foreign Play
(Comedians, nominee)
- 1974 Tony Award for Best Play (Ulysses in Nighttown,
nominee)
- 1973 Theatre World Award
(for his contribution to cultivating theater audiences by extending
Broadway not only nationally, but internationally, with his
exemplary television productions)
- 1971 Tony Award for Best Play (Home, nominee)
- 1967 Tony Award for Best Play (The Homecoming,
winner)
- 1967 Tony Award for Best Play (Black Comedy/White
Lies, nominee)
References
- Internet Broadway Database: Hamlet Production
Credits
External links
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