Bock, Jerry

Jerry Bock, composer. Sheldon Harnick, lyricist. George Abbott and Jerome Weidman, book. John Weidman and Walter Bobbie, concert adaptation.

Jerry Bock, composer. Sheldon Harnick, lyricist. Joe Masteroff, librettist.

Jerry Bock, songwriter and composer of some of Broadway's most sucessful musicals, was born in 1928.

His musical talent was well known by the time he graduated from high school in June 1945. He wrote the score and some of the lyrics for Flushing High School's production My Dream, and his class voted him "Most Likely to Succeed." Then came Big As Life, an amateur musical he helped write while at the University of Wisconsin, which was a large enough hit to tour around the state of Wisconsin and run in Chicago. By 1950 Bock was collaborating with Larry Holofcener, composing music for early television shows, and spending the summer at the Tamiment Playhouse camp in the Poconos. The three seasons he spent at Tamiment under the guidance of producer Moe Hack gave him the ability to churn out songs for musicals.

His Broadway debut came in 1955 with three songs for the unsuccessful revue Catch a Star. Bock and Holofcener quickly garnered a hit the following year with two songs for the Broadway production Mr. Wonderful (starring Sammy Davis Jr.). During this time Bock supplemented his income by working as a staff writer for the music publisher Thomas Valando. Music he wrote made its way to the big screen in a Columbia Pictures short called Wonders of Manhattan. In 1958 Bock joined forces with lyricist Sheldon Harnick, with whom he would write seven musicals in the next twelve years. While their first production, The Body Beautiful, ran for less than 3 months, their work attracted the attention of producer Harold Prince and director George Abbott. They invited Bock and Harnick to do the music for Fiorello!, a Pulitzer Prize-winning production about the former mayor of New York City. Other Bock-Harnick musicals had varying levels of success, but none can compare to Fiddler on the Roof, which ranks up against the most significant works of the twentieth century.

Jerry Bock, songwriter and composer of some of Broadway's most successful musicals, was born in 1928. His musical talent was well known by the time he graduated from high school in June 1945. He wrote the score and some of the lyrics for Flushing High School's production My Dream, and his class voted him "Most Likely to Succeed." Then came Big As Life, an amateur musical he helped write while at the University of Wisconsin, which was a large enough hit to tour around the state of Wisconsin and run in Chicago. By 1950 Bock was collaborating with Larry Holofcener, composing music for early television shows, and spending the summer at the Tamiment Playhouse camp in the Poconos. The three seasons he spent at Tamiment under the guidance of producer Moe Hack gave him the ability to churn out songs for musicals.

His Broadway debut came in 1955 with three songs for the unsuccessful revue Catch a Star. Bock and Holofcener quickly garnered a hit the following year with two songs for the Broadway production Mr. Wonderful (starring Sammy Davis Jr.). During this time Bock supplemented his income by working as a staff writer for the music publisher Thomas Valando. Music he wrote made its way to the big screen in a Columbia Pictures short called Wonders of Manhattan. In 1958 Bock joined forces with lyricist Sheldon Harnick, with whom he would write seven musicals in the next twelve years. While their first production, The Body Beautiful, ran for less than 3 months, their work attracted the attention of producer Harold Prince and director George Abbott. They invited Bock and Harnick to do the music for Fiorello!, a Pulitzer Prize-winning production about the former mayor of New York City. Other Bock-Harnick musicals had varying levels of success, but none can compare to Fiddler on the Roof, which ranks up against the most significant works of the twentieth century.