Cy Coleman, Composer and songwriter

Died: 18 November, 2004, in New York, aged 75.

TWO of the most exciting musicals ever seen on Broadway or in London - and numerous hit songs - came from the pen of Cy Coleman. Sweet Charity and Barnum were both smash hits and had songs in them that nightly raised the roof. Big Spender, If My Friends Could See Me Now, The Rhythm of Life are all from Sweet Charity and the show was a triumph in London in 1967 and has often been revived. The 1969 film with Shirley Maclaine repeated that success and won Coleman an Oscar nomination. The list of vocalists who have covered his songs range from Frank Sinatra through Barbra Steisand to Shirley Bassey. But perhaps his friend Tony Bennett gave Coleman’s songs an extra poignancy and charm that brought the composer special pleasure.

Coleman (born Seymour Kaufman) was the son of Russian emigrs and he showed a prodigious talent on the piano from an early age. In his late teens, Coleman was a musician of renown and was often seen in clubs and on TV. His first song (Tin Pan Alley) was incorporated into a 1953 musical and his first musical, Wildcat (1960), didn’t make Broadway - despite the presence of Lucille Ball in the show - but had one number (Hey, Look Me Over) that subsequently became a classic sung by Peggy Lee.

Coleman teamed up with Carolyn Leigh to write Little Me, which was about a prostitute and her seven lovers. Sid Caesar played the lovers on Broadway and when the show came to London in 1964 the young Bruce Forsyth had a personal triumph in the role.

It was then that Coleman joined forces with Dorothy Fields to write Sweet Charity. The inspiration came from a Fellini film (Le Notte di Cabiria) and centred round a dance-hall hostess who is in search of real love. In London, it ran throughout 1967 with Juliet Prowse. But what many thought added a definite lustre to Coleman’s thrilling score was the choreography of Bob Fosse.

Fosse also worked on the movie, which, apart from Maclaine, included such musical legends as Sammy Davis Jnr, Chita Rivera and Stubby Kaye. Partly thanks to the film’s enduring success, a Broadway revival was mounted in 1986 and that won Coleman four Tony Awards.

In 1978, Coleman wrote the lyrics for On The Twentieth Century, which was set on the chromium railroad train from Chicago to New York. While Coleman’s score was praised (and Julia McKenzie’s performance won rave reviews) the show didn’t seem to work in London.

Then in 1980 came Barnum. Coleman scored a huge personal success as he not only wrote the music for this mega smash but also produced the show worldwide. In truth, Barnum’s score does not match that of Sweet Charity but it was brash and wonderfully reflected the world of the circus. It also allowed Jim Dale in New York (greatly assisted by the young Glenn Close) and Michael Crawford to deliver virtuoso performances that guaranteed the show instant success. Crawford played the lead for three years in London.

City of Angels followed in 1989 and celebrated the world of Dashiell Hammett and those 1930s black-and-white detective films. It won numerous awards on Broadway but did not transfer easily to the London stage. Other late work by Coleman included The Will Rogers Follies and The Life. His last show (Pamela’s First Musical) is scheduled for production next year - as is yet another Broadway revival of Sweet Charity.

His theatre work won him numerous awards, as did the TV specials he wrote for Maclaine in the Seventies. Coleman won 13 Grammy nominations. Recently, he was approached to permit a retrospective of his music to be mounted as a theatre show. He did not grant permission, calling such events, with typical unabashed honesty, "living obituaries ... I am not done."

Coleman was a powerful force in the world of musicals and epitomised the great tradition of grand Broadway shows. In the week of his death, he was presented with a Johnny Mercer Award for his contribution to music: among the cabaret were Tony Bennett, Glen Close and Chita Rivera. The often- acerbic critic Clive Barnes said of him "Cy Coleman is a permanent gem in Broadway’s musical crown."

In 1997, he married his only wife Shelby Brown. She and their daughter survive him.