Joe Masteroff

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Joe Masteroff (born December 11, 1919 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , † September 28, 2018 in Englewood , New Jersey ) was an American playwright who was best known as the librettist of the musical Cabaret .

Life

Masteroff served in the United States Air Force during World War II . After the war, he studied theater from 1949 to 1951, a course offered by the American Theater Wing in New York during this period . Masteroff began his acting career and later worked as an assistant to Howard Lindsay . In 1953 he made his Broadway debut in the Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse comedy The Prescott Proposals .

His first Broadway play, The Warm Peninsula , starring Julie Harris , June Havoc , Farley Granger and Larry Hagman , came out in 1959. In 1963 he wrote the book for the musical She Loves Me by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick , which earned him a Tony Award nomination for best musical writer. In 1966, Harold Prince , who had acquired the rights to John Van Druten's play I Am a Camera (based on motifs by Christopher Isherwood ), commissioned Masteroff to write the book for the musical Cabaret , for which John Kander and Fred Ebb were to write the score. Cabaret became a huge success and won the 1967 Tony Award for Best Musical. Masteroff's next and last Broadway project was the musical 70, Girls, 70 from 1971, which was also created in collaboration with Kander and Ebb.

Masteroff wrote the libretto for an operatic adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's longing Under the Elms ( Desire Under the Elms ). He wrote the book and lyrics for the musicals Six Wives (Off-Broadway, 1992) and Paramour that on Jean Anouilh's Waltz of the Toreros ( The Waltz of the Toreadors ) is based, (Old Globe Theater, San Diego, 1998).

He spent the last years of his life in a retirement home for actors, where he also died in September 2018 at the age of 98.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b "Interview with Librettist, Joe Masteroff" broadwayworld.com, March 13, 2014
  2. ^ The Warm Peninsula Playbill, accessed September 28, 2018
  3. ↑ She Loves Me Playbill, accessed September 28, 2018
  4. ↑ a b Jan Breslauer: "A Veteran Returns to the Ring"  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Los Angeles Times , September 27, 1998@1@ 2Submission: Dead Link / articles.latimes.com  
  5. ↑ Cabaret Playbill, accessed September 29, 2018
  6. ↑ 70, Girls, 70 Playbill, accessed September 29, 2018
  7. ↑ Andrew Gans, "Judy Kaye, Alexander Gemignani, Nick Wyman, Claybourne Elder, Alexandra Silber Cast in 'Six Wives' Concert at the York; Evening Will Be Recorded" Playbill, October 10, 2013
  8. ↑ Staff. "Review. Paramour " Variety , October 2, 1998
  9. ↑ "Cabaret" author Joe Masteroff is dead. In: orf.at . September 29, 2018, accessed September 30, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Masteroff, Joe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American playwright
DATE OF BIRTH December 11, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia
DATE OF DEATH 28th September 2018
Place of death Englewood , New Jersey