Sheldon Harnick was an American lyricist renowned for his collaborations with composer Jerry Bock on celebrated musicals, including the iconic Fiddler on the Roof. Born on April 30, 1924, in Chicago, Illinois, Harnick passed away on June 23, 2023, in Manhattan, New York.
Harnick's musical journey began with violin lessons in grammar school. After serving three years in the U.S. Army, he attended the Northwestern University School of Music, where he earned a Bachelor of Music degree in 1949. Initially focused on the violin, he soon honed his talents in writing comedy sketches, songs, and parody lyrics, ultimately pursuing a career as a theatrical lyricist in New York City.
His Broadway debut came with the song "The Boston Beguine" for New Faces of 1952, where audiences first experienced his characteristic wry humor and clever wordplay. In the years that followed, he contributed lyrics and songs to various revues, including John Murray Anderson's Almanac, The Shoestring Revue, and The Littlest Revue.
Harnick's career progressed as he worked on several troubled Broadway productions before teaming up with composer Jerry Bock to create their own musicals. Their first collaboration, The Body Beautiful in 1958, showed promise, but it was their second musical, FIORELLO!, released in 1959, that garnered critical acclaim, earning them the Tony Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award.
Following FIORELLO!, they created TENDERLOIN in 1960, set in the gritty Tenderloin district of late 19th-century New York, and SHE LOVES ME in 1963, which charmed audiences with its Central European flair and operetta style.
In 1964, Harnick and Bock, along with director-choreographer Jerome Robbins and book writer Joseph Stein, produced FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, a musical that poignantly depicted a traditional community while exploring universal themes. Based on short stories by Jewish folklorist Sholom Aleichem, FIDDLER won the Tony Award, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, and achieved commercial success, with both its Broadway cast album and film soundtrack earning gold records, and the Broadway album achieving platinum status.
The film adaptation of FIDDLER, released by United Artists in 1971, starred Topol, while the stage production became the longest-running show on Broadway, a record it maintained until 1979.
After FIDDLER, Bock and Harnick continued to collaborate on a diverse range of projects, including THE APPLE TREE in 1966, which featured three one-act musicals, and THE ROTHSCHILDS in 1970, an epic narrative about the founding of the Rothschild banking dynasty.
Harnick also worked with various other composers in musical theatre. He collaborated with Michel Legrand on the 1979 translation of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and a musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol in 1981, and partnered with Mary Rodgers on a version of Pinocchio for the famed Bil Baird Marionettes in 1973, as well as the song "William's Doll" for Marlo Thomas' Free to Be...You and Me in 1974. He joined Richard Rodgers for the score of Rex in 1976, a Broadway musical about Henry VIII, and worked with Joe Raposo on Sutter's Gold (1980), a cantata premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and A Wonderful Life (1986), based on the classic film.
In addition to his musical theatre work, Harnick provided English-language librettos for classical operas and oratorios, including pieces by Stravinsky, Ravel, Mozart, Bach, and Verdi. His adaptation of Lehar's The Merry Widow premiered in 1977 with the San Diego Opera Company featuring Beverly Sills, with a subsequent album winning the 1979 Grammy Award for Best New Opera Recording. His translation of Bizet's Carmen was commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera in 1981 and served as the English text for Peter Brook's La Tragedie De Carmen in 1984.
Harnick's translations of Yiddish songs were featured in the 1986 productions of Joshua Sobol's play Ghetto in Los Angeles and New York, and he collaborated on the English libretto for the Broadway adaptation of the Dutch musical Cyrano in 1993.
His original opera librettos include Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines (1975), with music by Jack Beeson; Love in Two Countries (1991), with music by Thomas A. Shepard; and The Phantom Tollbooth (1995), with music by Arnold Black, based on Norton Juster's beloved children's book.
Harnick's contributions to television and film include songs for the 1991 HBO animated film The Tale of Peter Rabbit, with music by Stephen Lawrence, and lyrics for the opening number of the 1988 Academy Awards telecast. He also penned theme songs for two films, both composed by Cy Coleman: The Heartbreak Kid (1972) and Blame it On Rio (1984).
A member of The Dramatists Guild and the Songwriters Guild of America, Harnick received numerous accolades throughout his career, including Tonys, a Pulitzer Prize, and Grammys. His honors also encompass the Johnny Mercer Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Marc Blizstein Memorial Award for achievements in opera librettos from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and honorary doctorates of humane letters from Illinois Wesleyan University and Muskingum College.
