Jerry Bock: Broadway’s Musical Theater Master
Jerry Bock (November 23, 1928 – November 3, 2010) was an American musical theater composer. He received the Tony Award for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama with lyricist Sheldon Harnick for their 1959 musical Fiorello!, and the Tony Award for Best Composer and Lyricist for the 1964 musical Fiddler on the Roof.
Early Life and Education
Born in New Haven, Connecticut, and raised in Flushing, Queens, New York, Bock studied piano as a child. He attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he wrote the musical Big As Life, which toured the state and had a run in Chicago. After graduation, he spent three summers at the Tamiment Playhouse in the Poconos and wrote for early television revues with lyricist Larry Holofcener. One of their songs, the three-part “The Story of Alice,” was performed by the Chad Mitchell Trio on their 1962 album Blowin’ in the Wind.
Career and Achievements
Bock made his Broadway debut in 1955 when he and Lawrence Holofcener contributed songs to Catch a Star. The following year the duo collaborated on Mr. Wonderful, designed for Sammy Davis Jr., and worked on Ziegfeld Follies of 1956, which closed out-of-town.
Shortly after, Bock met lyricist Sheldon Harnick, beginning a partnership that would define his career. Though their first collaboration, The Body Beautiful, received poor critical reviews, its score caught the attention of director George Abbott and producer Hal Prince, who hired them to compose a musical biography of former New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia. Fiorello! (1959) earned the team the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Musical, the Tony Award for Best Musical (tied with the team from The Sound of Music), and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Bock and Harnick continued their collaboration on numerous Broadway productions, including Tenderloin (1960), She Loves Me (1963), Fiddler on the Roof (1964), The Apple Tree (1966), and The Rothschilds (1970). They also contributed to Never Too Late (1962), Baker Street (1965), Her First Roman (1968), and The Madwoman of Central Park West (1979). Fiddler on the Roof featured the hit song “If I Were a Rich Man.”
Awards and Honors
Bock received the Tony Award for Best Musical for Fiorello! in 1959 (tied) and the Tony Award for Best Composer and Lyricist for Fiddler on the Roof in 1964. He also won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1960 for Fiorello! with Sheldon Harnick. In 1997, the Jerry Bock Award for Excellence in Musical Theater was established as an annual grant presented to the composer and lyricist of a project developed in the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop.
Additional Resources
More detailed information about Jerry Bock’s life, works, and legacy is available through Wikipedia and other biographical archives dedicated to American musical theater history.
