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Cy Feuer

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Cy Feuer
Born
Seymour Arnold Feuerman

January 15, 1911
Brooklyn, New York,U.S.
DiedMay 17, 2006(2006-05-17)(aged 95)
New York City, New York,U.S.
Alma materJuilliard School
Occupations

Cy Feuer(January 15, 1911 – May 17, 2006) was an Americantheatre producer,director,composer,musician,and half of the celebrated producing duo Feuer and Martin. He won three competitiveAntoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre,and aLifetime Achievement Tony Award.He was also nominated forAcademy Awardsas the producer ofStorm Over BengalandCabaret.

Career[edit]

BornSeymour Arnold FeuermaninBrooklyn, New York,[1]he became a professionaltrumpeterat the age of fifteen, working at clubs on weekends to help support his family while attendingNew Utrecht High School.It was there he first metAbe Burrows,who in later years he would hire to write the book forGuys and Dolls.[citation needed]

Having no interest inmathematics,science,orsports,he dropped out of school and found work as a trumpeter on a political campaign truck.[2]He later studied at theJuilliard Schoolbefore joining the orchestras at theRoxy Theaterand laterRadio City Music Hall.[citation needed]

In 1938, he toured the country with Leon Belasco and His Society Orchestra, eventually ending up inBurbank, California.Following a ten-week stint there, the orchestra departed forMinneapolis,but he opted to remain in California.[citation needed]

Feuer found employment atRepublic Pictures,serving as musical director, arranger, and/or composer of more than 125 mostlyB-movies,many of themserialsandwesterns,for the next decade, save for a three-year interruption to serve in the military duringWorld War II.[3]

During his Hollywood sojourn, he enjoyed a tumultuous one-year affair with actressSusan Hayward(also from Brooklyn),[4]worked withJule Styne,Frank Loesser,andVictor Young,among others, received fiveAcademy Awardnominations for his film scores, and married a divorcée, Posy Greenberg, a mother of a three-year-old son. The couple later had a son of their own named Jed.[citation needed]

In 1947, having decided he had no real talent for film scoring,[5]Feuer returned toNew York City,where he teamed up withErnest H. Martin,who had been the head of comedy programming atCBS Radio.After an aborted attempt to stage a production based onGeorge Gershwin'sAn American in Paris,[6]they producedWhere's Charley?,the 1949Frank Loesseradaption ofCharley's Aunt.Although it was panned by six of the seven major New York critics, positive word-of-mouth about the show, particularlyRay Bolger's star turn in it, kept it running for three years.[7]

Over the next several decades, Feuer & Martin mounted some of the most notable titles in theBroadwaymusicalcanon, includingGuys and DollsandHow to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,both of which won theTony Award for Best Musical.As of 2007,How to Succeed...is one of only seven musicals to have won thePulitzer Prize for Drama.Feuer and Martin owned theLunt-Fontanne Theatrefrom 1960 to 1965.[8]

Feuer was also a stage director. Among his Broadway directing credits wereLittle Meand the ill-fatedI Remember Mama.[9]

As a film producer, Feuer's most successful venture was his1972 adaptationof Kander & Ebb's 1966 musicalCabaret.The movie was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and went to win eightAcademy Awards,but Feurer lostBest PicturetoThe Godfather,givingCabaretthe distinction of the most Oscar-honored film to lose the top prize. As the movie's producer, Feuer won aGolden Globe for Best Musical or Comedy.With Martin, he was responsible for the1985 screen adaptationofA Chorus Line,which proved to be one of their biggest flops.[10]

Feuer'smemoir,I Got The Show Right Here:The Amazing, True Story of How an Obscure Brooklyn Horn Player Became the Last Great Broadway Showman,written with Ken Gross, was published bySimon & Schusterin 2003.[citation needed]

Death[edit]

Feuer served as president, and later chairman, of the League of American Theatres and Producers (now calledThe Broadway League) from 1989 to 2003. He died on May 17, 2006, ofbladder cancerinNew York City,aged 95.[3]

Additional Broadway credits[edit]

Awards and nominations[edit]

Year Award Category Work Result
1939 Academy Award Best Music, Scoring Storm Over Bengal Nominated
1940 She Married a Cop Nominated
1941 Best Music, Score Hit Parade of 1941 Nominated
1942 Best Music, Scoring of a Motion Picture Ice-Capades Nominated
Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture Mercy Island(shared withWalter Scharf) Nominated
1951 Tony Award Best Producer of a Musical Guys and Dolls Won
1962 How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying Won
1963 Little Me Nominated
Best Direction of Musical Nominated
1966 Skyscraper Nominated
1973 Academy Award Best Picture Cabaret Nominated
2003 Tony Award Lifetime Achievement Award — Won

Selected filmography[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^McHugh, Dominic (2017). MacDonald, Laura; Everett, William A. (eds.).The Palgrave Handbook of Musical Theatre Producers.New York: Palgrave Macmillan US. p. 200.ISBN9781137433084.
  2. ^Feuer & Gross 2003,pp. 9–11.
  3. ^ab"Cy Feuer, a Producer of 'Guys and Dolls' and Other Broadway Musicals, Is Dead at 95".The New York Times.18 May 2006.Retrieved20 August2017.
  4. ^Feuer & Gross 2003,pp. 38–45, 49.
  5. ^Feuer & Gross 2003,pp. 47–49.
  6. ^Feuer & Gross 2003,pp. 78–79.
  7. ^Feuer & Gross 2003,pp. 105–07.
  8. ^Zolotow, Sam (10 March 1965)."Feuer and Martin Sell Lunt-Fontanne Theater".The New York Times.RetrievedAugust 20,2017.
  9. ^Cy Feuerat theInternet Broadway DatabaseEdit this at Wikidata
  10. ^Cy FeueratIMDb

Sources[edit]

External links[edit]

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