Mitch Leigh

{{Short description|American musical theatre composer (1928–2014)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Mitch Leigh

| image = Mitch Leigh.jpg

| alt =

| caption = Leigh in 2013

| birth_name = Irwin Stanley Michnick

| birth_date = {{birth date|1928|1|30}}

| birth_place = Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2014|3|16|1928|1|30}}

| death_place = Manhattan, New York City, U.S.

| alma_mater = Yale University (BM, MM)

| occupation = Composer

| awards = Tony Award
Contemporary Classics Award

| notable_works = Man of La Mancha

| spouse = {{ubl|Renee Goldman (divorced)|Abby Kimmelman}}

| children = 3, including Eve

}}

Mitch Leigh (born Irwin Stanley Michnick; January 30, 1928{{spaced ndash}}March 16, 2014) was an American musical theatre composer and theatrical producer best known for the musical Man of La Mancha.

Early years

Leigh was born Irwin Stanley Michnick in Brooklyn on January 30, 1928, where he grew up in the Brownsville neighborhood.{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/17/theater/mitch-leigh-man-of-la-mancha-composer-dies-at-86.html|title = Mitch Leigh, Who Composed 'Man of La Mancha,' Dies at 86|last = Gates|first = Anita|date = March 17, 2014|newspaper = The New York Times|accessdate = December 25, 2016|page = A21|url-access = limited}}{{cite news|url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/mitch-leigh-man-of-la-mancha-composer-and-jingle-writer-dies-at-86/2014/03/17/ba30236e-ad28-11e3-96dc-d6ea14c099f9_story.html|title = Mitch Leigh, 'Man of La Mancha' composer and jingle writer, dies at 86|last = McArdle|first = Terence|date = March 17, 2014|accessdate = October 25, 2024|newspaper = The Washington Post|url-access = limited}} His father was from Ukraine. After service in the U.S. Army, he graduated from Yale in 1951 with a Bachelor of Music, and in 1952 received his Master of Music degree under Paul Hindemith.[http://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/01_03/blue.html YAM March 2001 - Who's Been Blue] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080705192521/http://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/01_03/blue.html |date=July 5, 2008 }}

Career

He began his career as a jazz musician, and writing commercials for radio and television. On the 1955 LP recording of Jean Shepherd Into the Unknown with Jazz Music, Leigh wrote the jazz interludes between radio broadcaster Jean Shepherd's improvisations.

=Broadway=

In 1965, Leigh collaborated with lyricist Joe Darion and writer Dale Wasserman to write a musical based on Wasserman's 1959 television play, I, Don Quixote. The resulting show, the musical Man of La Mancha opened on Broadway in 1965 and in its original engagement ran for 2,328 performances. It has been revived multiple times.

Leigh followed with the show Chu Chem, which he also produced, exactly a year after Man of La Mancha, but closed on the road. It finally opened on Broadway in 1989 but ran for only 68 performances.

Cry for Us All, based on the play, Hogan's Goat, opened on Broadway in 1970; it ran for only nine performances. Leigh was the producer as well as composer.Suskin, Steven.[http://www.playbill.com/features/article/134068-ON-THE-RECORD-Mitch-Leighs-Cry-For-Us-All-Comes-to-CD-Plus-Kittys-Kisses "Mitch Leigh's Cry For Us All Comes to CD, Plus Kitty's Kisses"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100107174100/http://www.playbill.com/features/article/134068-ON-THE-RECORD-Mitch-Leighs-Cry-For-Us-All-Comes-to-CD-Plus-Kittys-Kisses |date=January 7, 2010 }}, playbill.com, October 25, 2009 His musical Home Sweet Homer, starring Yul Brynner, officially opened on Broadway in January 1976 but closed after one performance. He produced and wrote the music for Saravá which ran for 101 performances in 1979. Leigh both produced and directed the 1985 revival of The King and I starring Brynner featuring in his final performances as the King of Siam.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z_usBBxC_TQC&pg=PA109 |title=Show Tunes: The Songs, Shows, and Careers of Broadway's Major Composers |first=Steven |last=Suskin |author-link=Steven Suskin |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780195125993 |page=109 |date=2000 |access-date=June 20, 2024 |via=Google Books}}

Lee Adams asked Leigh to collaborate on a musical titled Mike, about producer Mike Todd, but it closed during its pre-Broadway tryout in 1988. After renaming it Ain't Broadway Grand!, the show made it to Broadway in 1993, but lasted only 25 performances.[https://www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/stars/adams_l.html ] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111009120551/http://www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/stars/adams_l.html |date=October 9, 2011 }} He wrote the musical Halloween with Sidney Michaels, and although Barbara Cook and José Ferrer were in the cast, it did not reach Broadway.{{cite web|last=Weber |first=Bruce |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A07E7DE1E3BF931A35756C0A9679D8B63 |title=Sidney Michaels, 83, Author Of Hit Broadway Shows - Obituary (Obit); Biography - NYTimes.com |work=New York Times |date=May 2, 2011 |access-date=January 5, 2013}}

=Television=

Leigh established Music Makers, Inc., in 1957 as a radio and television commercial production house and was its creative director.{{cite press release |title=Composer Mitch Leigh Endows Chair in Jazz at Yale |agency=Yale University Office of Public Affairs |first=Dorie |last=Baker |url=http://opa.yale.edu/news/article.aspx?id%3D2547 |access-date=February 9, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100715183752/http://opa.yale.edu/news/article.aspx?id=2547 |archive-date=July 15, 2010}} His television music included the instrumental music for the ABC Color Logo (1962–65);[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p1Gg42Sw9g ABC - Network ID - 1960s - YouTube] the TV commercial jingle "Nobody Doesn't Like Sara Lee";[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iirw147LHkQ Classic Sara Lee Commercial, YouTube][http://www.classicthemes.com/50sTVThemes/sheetMusicBooks/jingleFolioBooks.html "Advertising Jingle Music Folio Books"], classicthemes.com, accessed February 9, 2010 the Meet the Swinger Polaroid Swinger commercial sung by Barry Manilow; and the Benson & Hedges theme "The Dis-Advantages of You," which reached the Top 40 for The Brass Ring in 1967[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwO0_mID93c "The Dis-Advantages of You," The Brass Ring, 1967, YouTube][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDv4iqdwH60 The Brass Ring, "The Dis-Advantages of You," 1967, YouTube] and was heard in a series of Benson & Hedges cigarette commercials at that time.[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SN0CH2WR7fQ&t=72s Vintage Benson & Hedges 1960s Cigarette TV Commercials, YouTube][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEUHV20kH9g The Disadvantages with the Benson & Hedges 100's, YouTube]

=Academic legacy=

In 1977, Leigh and others at the Yale School of Music established the Keith Wilson scholarship, to be awarded "to an outstanding major in wind instrument playing." A building in The School of Music at Yale University was named "Abby and Mitch Leigh Hall" in 2001.[http://opa.yale.edu/news/article.aspx?id=3801 "Yale School of Music Names Building in Honor of Mitch and Abby Leigh"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100727064026/http://opa.yale.edu/news/article.aspx?id=3801 |date=July 27, 2010 }}, opa.yale.edu, September 7, 2001

Personal life

After a marriage to Renee Goldman ended in divorce, Leigh married Abby Kimmelman. He had one child from his first marriage and two from his second, one of whom is playwright Eve Leigh. Leigh died from complications of a stroke and pneumonia at a Manhattan hospital on March 16, 2014, at the age of 86.

=Jackson 21=

To avoid taxation for his earnings from Man of La Mancha, Leigh purchased 1,000 acres of land in Jackson Township, New Jersey over many years. He planned to turn it into a mixed-use development called "Jackson 21". Towards the end of his life, he began advertising it on television, saying that its prospective residents would have to be "really nice" people.{{cite news|url = https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/23/new-jersey-development-nice-people/2106245/|title = Composer only wants nice people in N.J. development|last = Diamond|first = Michael L.|date = April 23, 2013|accessdate = October 25, 2024|newspaper = The Asbury Park Press}} According to The Washington Post, the commercials confused viewers, many of whom thought Leigh was running a scam or a starting a cult. No major construction had taken place by the time of his death, and the project was essentially abandoned afterward.{{cite news|url = https://www.shorenewsnetwork.com/2023/08/09/jackson-twenty-one-under-fire-for-failing-to-deliver-what-was-promised/|title = Jackson Twenty-One Under Fire for Failing to Deliver Vision That Was Promised|work = Shore News Network|date = August 9, 2023|accessdate = October 25, 2024}}

Awards

Leigh won a Tony Award for composing the music for Man of La Mancha. He was also nominated for a Tony Award as the director of the 1985 revival of The King and I. He received the Contemporary Classics Award from the Songwriter's Hall of Fame for "The Impossible Dream".