Joseph Stein

Joseph Stein (* May 30, 1912 in New York City; † October 24, 2010 ) was an American playwright. He was known as an author of books on musicals such as Fiddler on the Roof and Zorba.

Life

Stone was born in 1912 in New York City, the son of Jewish parents, Charles and Emma Stone. This had emigrated from Poland. Stone grew up in the borough of the Bronx. In 1935 he received his degree "Bachelor of Science" at the City College of New York, two years later, a " Master of Social Work " at Columbia University. From 1939 to 1945 he worked in the field of psychiatric social work. In addition, he began writing the first pieces.

After a chance meeting with the actor Zero Mostel began Stein, writing for well-known radio presenters as Henry Morgan, Hildegarde, Tallulah Bankhead, Phil Silvers and Jackie Gleason. Later he began to write for television in collaboration with Sid Caesar. Here he worked in the team of writers for the TV variety show " Your Show of Shows ", which Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner and Larry Gelbart belonged.

Stone lived until his death with his wife Elisa in Manhattan. Stone has three sons ( Daniel, Harry and Josh ) from his first marriage to Sadie Singer Stein ( died 1974). His marriage to Elisa Loti he has a daughter, Jenny Lyn. Stone died on 24 October 2010 as the result of a skull fracture he had suffered in a fall.

Theater

1948 for the first time a piece of stone was performed on Broadway: The written with Will Glickman revue " Lend to Ear". The first book to a musical stone wrote after Richard Kollmar had asked him to write a musical about the state of Pennsylvania. Inspiration for this was the musical " Oklahoma! " By Rodgers and Hammerstein. Stone and his co -author Will Glickman were sent for this purpose in the Amish community Lancaster County. They bought there for 50 cents a travel guide to Pennsylvania Dutch. Then they returned to New York and wrote the musical comedy " Plain and Fancy". The play premiered on Broadway on January 27, 1955, and then reached 461 performances.

The greatest success as an author reached stone in 1965 with the book to the musical " Fiddler on the Roof" ( German: Fiddler on the Roof ). For this, he won three major awards, including two Tony Awards. Later he also wrote the screenplay for the film of the same name.

Other Broadway performances with books of stone include " Alive and Kicking", "Mr. Wonderful, "" The Body Beautiful "," Juno ", " Take Me Along ", " Irene "," Carmelina "," The Baker 's Wife, "" Rags "," Enter Laughing, " and his musical version of" So Long, 174th Street ".

Honors

In January 2008, Stone was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame. From the " Dramatists Guild of America " 2008 he was awarded a prize for his life's work. In addition, it was reconstructed in 2007 by the York Theatre "Oscar Hammerstein Award" for his achievements in the field of musical theater.