Joel Paley, a dancer, playwright and director who wrote the ebook and lyrics for “Ruthless!,” an award-winning Off Broadway musical about an bold woman who will do something — together with homicide her rival — to star in a grade faculty present, died on Jan. 11 in Milford, Conn. He was 69.
His sister Barbara Paley Cohen confirmed the dying however didn’t know the trigger.
In accordance with the Connecticut State Police, Mr. Paley had a medical emergency whereas driving on I-95 and pulled over at a relaxation cease in Milford. Somebody who noticed him in misery known as 911, and medics administered lifesaving measures, however he died in a hospital. He lived in Redding, Conn.
Mr. Paley’s dying adopted by practically six weeks that of Marvin Laird, his accomplice in marriage, who wrote the music to “Ruthless!,” which opened in 1992. When the present was revived Off Broadway in 2015, Mr. Paley shocked Mr. Laird throughout his remarks at a gap evening celebration by saying, “Now that our baby is alive and properly and kicking, will you marry me?” Mr. Laird accepted, and so they married just a few months later.
Mr. Paley’s first main present enterprise job — after taking ballet classes — was with Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, a cross-dressing parody troupe, in 1975, a 12 months after it was shaped. He stayed three years.
“He was a fully pure comic,” Peter Anastos, Trockadero’s founder, mentioned in an interview. “He wasn’t an excellent dancer, however none of us have been in these days. Even the prima ballerinas have been missing.” He added, “He made his comedy chops with us. ‘Ruthless!’ may need been totally different if not for us.”
Whereas dancing with Trockadero, Mr. Paley wrote “Seedy,” a musical parody of “The Dangerous Seed,” the novel, play and 1956 movie about an 8-year-old woman who, regardless of her obvious sweetness, is definitely a murderous psychopath. The script mirrored Mr. Paley’s love of previous films.
In 1976, whereas rehearsing with Trockadero for a Shirley MacLaine TV particular, Mr. Paley met Mr. Laird, a composer who was the present’s musical director. The 2 have been instantly attracted to one another, and Mr. Paley confirmed him the “Seedy” script. Mr. Laird agreed to write down the music to accompany it.
Over the following 12 months, Mr. Paley informed Broadway World in 2014, “I’d ship lyrics to Marvin and he would write the songs.”
However it took practically 20 years to show “Seedy” into “Ruthless!” An early impediment was the refusal by the property of Maxwell Anderson, who had acquired the rights to the novel and wrote the 1954 play, to license the story to Mr. Paley and Mr. Laird. As a workaround, they expanded the story, including references to movies like “Gypsy” (1962), about an bold stage mom and her two daughters, and “All About Eve” (1950), the story of an growing older actress whose life is invaded by a ruthless ingénue.
“Ruthless!” lastly opened in 1992 on the Gamers Theater in Manhattan. It tells the story of Tina Denmark, who, by the tip of the present, has murdered six individuals. In Tina’s tune “Born to Entertain,” the lyrics go, partially:
From the highest of my nostril
To the faucet of my footwear
Strike up the band
Hand me a hat and my cane.
In The Every day Information, the critic Howard Kissel known as “Ruthless!” “a hilarious present enterprise musical” and wrote that Laura Bell Bundy, who performed Tina, “is sensational, particularly sturdy at conveying menace.” Her understudies have been Britney Spears and Natalie Portman.
“Ruthless!” received the Outer Critics Circle Award for greatest Off Broadway musical and the Drama Desk Award for Mr. Paley’s lyrics. Mr. Paley directed the manufacturing. The musical has been carried out lots of of occasions world wide.
Three years later, Bernadette Peters starred in a live performance model of “Ruthless!” in Los Angeles that was directed by Mr. Paley and raised cash for an AIDS charity.
“We had a friendship as quickly as Joel was with Marvin,” she mentioned in an interview. “They have been linked for therefore lengthy, then that connection was over. One left and the opposite one left.”
Joel Paley was born on Oct. 6, 1955, in Philadelphia. His father, Bernard, was a salesman, and his mom, Norma (Bomze) Paley, managed the house.
Joel began performing as a baby and at 13 had a job within the play “Summertree,” by Ron Cowen, staged at a theater on the College of Pennsylvania. He attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan for a 12 months.
Along with Trockadero and “Ruthless!,” Mr. Paley’s work included choreographing dances for a 1978 episode of the TV sequence “Maude,” starring Bea Arthur, for whom he was additionally a private assistant; directing the one episode of the sketch comedy present “She TV” (1994); and, with Mr. Laird, writing nightclub acts for Abbe Lane and Donna Pescow.
Mr. Laird and Mr. Paley additionally collaborated on a revue, “The Yiddish Are Coming … The Yiddish Are Coming,” a tribute to the Yiddish language, which was produced in Denver in 2006.
Along with Ms. Cohen, Mr. Paley is survived by one other sister, Sheryl Beegal.
In the course of the second Off Broadway run of “Ruthless!,” in 2015 at Playhouse 46 at St. Luke’s, Mr. Paley stepped into the function of Sylvia St. Croix, a histrionic agent, for just a few performances, when the actor Paul Pecorino received sick.
For that function, Mr. Paley donned a black costume draped with a glittery scarf, an auburn wig and an opulent black hat.
“As soon as once more my pricey mom, Norma, reaches down from heaven to take the stage,” he wrote on Fb on the time. “All I would like do is politely step apart.”
