Lehman Engel facts for kids
A. Lehman Engel (born September 14, 1910, in Jackson, Mississippi; died August 29, 1982, in New York City) was a very talented American musician. He was a composer, which means he wrote music for TV shows, movies, and operas. He was also a conductor, leading orchestras for Broadway musicals and operas.
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Lehman Engel's Work in Entertainment
Lehman Engel worked on many different TV shows and films. He wrote and conducted the music for a famous 1954 TV show of Shakespeare's Macbeth. This show starred well-known actors Maurice Evans and Judith Anderson.
He also conducted the music for the TV version of Leonard Bernstein's musical Wonderful Town in 1958. Before that, he conducted other Shakespeare plays for TV, like The Taming of the Shrew (1956), Twelfth Night (1957), and The Tempest (1960). He also led the music for Broadway musicals such as Shangri-La (1956) and Li'l Abner (1956). In 1959, he was the musical director and helped arrange the singing for the musical Take Me Along.
Engel also wrote music for Broadway plays. He composed music for a 1939 show of Hamlet, starring Maurice Evans. He also wrote music for the original 1948 play Anne of the Thousand Days and the 1960 play There Was a Little Girl, which starred Jane Fonda. In 1965, he was the musical director for another Broadway show called La Grosse Valise.
The BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop
Lehman Engel created a special place called the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop in New York. This workshop helps people who want to write for musical theatre. It teaches composers (who write the music), lyricists (who write the words for songs), and librettists (who write the story for the musical). He also started another branch of this workshop in Los Angeles.
Before working on Broadway, Lehman Engel was the musical director for the St. Louis Municipal Opera for several years. He won six Tony Awards, which are very important awards for Broadway shows. He was also nominated for four more. The award category he won no longer exists today.
Making Classic Musical Recordings
Lehman Engel also conducted many important music recordings. In 1951, he conducted the first long-play (LP) recording of George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess. This recording was very popular, even though it wasn't the complete opera. It was the longest Porgy and Bess album for many years.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Engel conducted recordings of many classic Broadway musicals. These were some of the first times these musicals were available as albums. Some of these recordings included Girl Crazy, Oh, Kay!, Babes in Arms, and Pal Joey. These were studio recordings, meaning they were made in a studio, not live from a show. The Pal Joey recording was so successful that it led to a major new production of the show in 1952.
In 1952, he also conducted recordings of Oklahoma! and The Student Prince. The Oklahoma! album used the original music arrangements. In 1955, he conducted a studio recording of Carousel for RCA Victor. The next year, in 1956, he conducted a recording of Show Boat. These recordings were more complete than earlier versions of these shows. All of these recordings have since been released on CD.
Lehman Engel as an Author and Mentor
Lehman Engel also wrote several books about musical theatre. One of his books, The American Musical Theatre: A Consideration, was one of the first books to explain in detail how a Broadway musical is written. It talked about all the parts that go into making a musical and how to turn a regular play into a musical.
Engel was good friends with the famous artist Pablo Picasso. He also helped guide and teach many younger musicians and writers. Some of the people he mentored include Maury Yeston, Alan Menken, Stephen Flaherty, Andrew MacBean, Joseph Byrd, and Edward Kleban. Maury Yeston later took over teaching at the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop.
