Padula, Edward, 1916-2001

Edward Padula is a producer, director and writer for the American theater. He produced BYE BYE BIRDIE on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre in 1960.

From the guide to the Bye bye Birdie: a musical memoir, undated, (The New York Public Library. Billy Rose Theatre Division.)

Edward Padula is a producer, director and writer for the American theater.

He produced BYE BYE BIRDIE on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre in 1960.

From the description of Bye bye Birdie: a musical memoir, n.d. (New York Public Library). WorldCat record id: 122534686

Edward Padula (1916-2001) was an American producer, director and writer of stage plays and musicals from the 1940s to the 1990s. Padula, the son of Italian immigrants, was born and raised in Newark, New Jersey. He enrolled in college at the University of Pennsylvania, but later transferred to Yale University's School of Drama, where he completed his degree.

Padula's career in show business began during his summer vacations from Yale, when he worked at the Westport Playhouse. Other early jobs included a stint at the Theatre Guild and another working in NBC's development of musicals and plays for the burgeoning field of Television. Padula's first Broadway credit was an early musical by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, called The Day Before Spring (1945). He also worked in Hollywood as a dialogue coach for Paramount in the forties.

He continued to work in regional theatre and television until getting back to Broadway as an assistant director on the musical Seventh Heaven (1955). He worked as a stage manager on plays No Time for Sergeant (1955) and God and Kate Murphy (1959); and musicals Rumple (1957) and Saratoga (1959).

In 1960, Padula's career and life changed forever when he envisioned a musical about teenagers and their dating lives. To fulfill his vision he got a pair of untried young songwriters, Charles Strouse and Lee Adams to write the score, and a talented movie star dancer who was gradually making the transition into choreographing and directing for the stage, Gower Champion, to stage it. As the producer, Padula had to work tirelessly to get the show put on, but it turned out to be the tremendously popular show, Bye Bye Birdie.

After Bye Bye Birdie, Padula produced Strouse and Adams' next show, All American (1962) as well as the musicals Bajour (1964) and A Joyful Noise (1966). He also produced the play, Red White and Maddox (1969), the musical Park (1970); and a revue called Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope (1972).

Although Padula's official credits stop in the early seventies, he continued to be professionally active. He turned to writing musicals, none of which made it to Broadway. One project he devoted a lot of time to was a musical about Lizzie Borden. He worked on this project, under various titles from the sixties to the nineties.

Padula's 25 year marriage to Thelma Prescott ended in the late sixties or early seventies. After his divorce, Padula was in a relationship with Robert Moeser until Moeser's death in 1993. Edward Padula died in Water Mill, New York on November 1, 2001.

From the guide to the Edward Padula papers, 1952-2001, (The New York Public Library. Billy Rose Theatre Division.)