Editing Mary Rodgers

{{short description|American composer, author and screenwriter (1931–2014)}}
{{Other people|Mary Rogers}}
{{Use American English|date=December 2022}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Mary Rodgers
| image = 
| caption = 
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1931|1|11|mf=y}}
| birth_place = New York City, US
| death_date= {{death date and age|2014|6|26|1931|1|11|mf=yes}}
| death_place = New York City, US
| occupation  = Composer, screenwriter, children's fiction writer
| years_active = 1959–2014
| father = [[Richard Rodgers]]
| mother = [[Dorothy Rodgers|Dorothy Feiner]]
| spouse = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|Julian B. Beaty Jr.|1951|1957|end = divorced}}
* {{marriage|Henry Guettel|1961|2013|end = died}}
}}
| children = 6, including [[Adam Guettel]]
| education = [[Wellesley College]]
}}
'''Mary Rodgers''' (January 11, 1931 – June 26, 2014) was an American composer, screenwriter, and author. She wrote the novel ''[[Freaky Friday]]'', which served as the basis of a [[Freaky Friday (1976 film)|1976 film]] starring [[Jodie Foster]], for which she wrote the screenplay, as well as three other versions. Her best-known musicals were ''[[Once Upon a Mattress]]'' and ''[[The Mad Show]]'', and she contributed songs to [[Marlo Thomas]]' successful children's album ''[[Free to Be... You and Me]]''.

==Early life==
Rodgers was born in New York City. She was a daughter of composer [[Richard Rodgers]] and his wife, [[Dorothy Rodgers|Dorothy Belle (née Feiner)]]. She had a sister, Mrs. Linda Emory. She attended the [[Brearley School]] in Manhattan, and majored in music at [[Wellesley College]].<ref name=interview>Eby, Douglas. [http://talentdevelop.com/interviews/Page60.html "Mary Rodgers Guettel interview by Douglas Eby"]. TalentDevelop.com. Retrieved 2010-01-06. 
Quote: "At age 66, she is also a board member of ASCAP ..." [implies 1997]. 
<br>&nbsp; 
This is not an interview transcript, but three paragraphs presumably by Eby over about 30 paragraphs in the first person by Rodgers Guettel.</ref>

She began writing music at the age of 16 and her professional career began with writing songs for [[Little Golden Records]], which were albums for children with three-minute songs.<ref>Leuzzi, Linda. [http://www.longislandadvance.net/articles/2014/07/03/My-interview-with-Mary-Rodgers "My interview with Mary Rodgers"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714135708/http://www.longislandadvance.net/articles/2014/07/03/My-interview-with-Mary-Rodgers |date=July 14, 2014 }}. ''The Long Island Advance'', July 3, 2014. Retrieved July 9, 2014.</ref> One of these recordings, "[[Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves]]", which was released in 1957, featured performances by [[Bing Crosby]] of songs Mary Rodgers wrote with lyricist [[Sammy Cahn]]. She also composed music for television, including the jingle for the Prince Spaghetti commercial.<ref name="NewMusicBox">Chapin, Ted. [http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/mary-rodgers-1931-2014-a-woman-of-many-talents/ "Mary Rodgers (1931–2014): A Woman of Many Talents"]. ''[[NewMusicBox]]'', July 8, 2014. Retrieved July 9, 2014.</ref>

==Career==
Her first full-length musical, ''[[Once Upon a Mattress]]'', which was also her first collaboration with lyricist Marshall Barer (with whom she continued to write songs for nearly a decade), opened Off Broadway in May 1959 and moved to Broadway later in the year. Following the show's initial run of 244 performances,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=2799 |title=Once Upon a Mattress |publisher= The Broadway League. [[Internet Broadway Database]] (IBDb.com). |access-date=December 5, 2011}}</ref> there were a US tour (in 1960), a production in London's West End (also 1960), three televised productions (in 1964, 1972, and 2005), and a Broadway revival (1996). Cast albums were released for the original Broadway production, the original London production, and the Broadway revival. To this day, the show is frequently performed by community and school groups across the United States.<ref>[http://www.rnh.com/more-productions.html?item_id=MA Productions: ''Once Upon a Mattress''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170821082930/http://www.rnh.com/more-productions.html?item_id=MA |date=August 21, 2017 }}. The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization (rnh.com). Retrieved July 9, 2014.</ref>

Another significant compositional project for her was ''[[The Mad Show]],'' a musical revue based on [[Mad Magazine|''Mad'' magazine]] which opened Off Broadway in January 1966 and ran for a total of 871 performances. An original cast album, produced by [[Goddard Lieberson]], was released on Columbia Masterworks. Although the show also began as a collaboration with Marshall Barer, he quit before the project was completed and the show's remaining songs feature lyrics by Larry Siegel (co-author of the show's book), Steven Vinaver, and [[Stephen Sondheim]], who contributed the lyrics to a parody of "[[The Girl from Ipanema]]" called "[[The Boy From...]]" under the pseudonym Esteban Ria Nido.<ref name=song>[http://www.sondheimguide.com/other.html#Mad "'Mad Show'"]. Sondheim Guide. Retrieved July 3, 2011.</ref>

None of her other shows had the same level of success, but she also wrote music for [[Musical theatre|musicals]] and [[revues]], the first on Broadway being ''[[Davy Jones' Locker]]'' with [[Bil Baird]]'s marionettes, which had a two-week run at the [[Morosco Theatre]] from March 28 to April 11, 1959. (She also wrote the lyrics.)<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[LIFE Magazine|Life]] |date=April 13, 1959 |page=55 |title=Bairds' Busy Band of Puppets}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The New York Times |date=March 13, 1959 |page=24 |title=Musical by Mary Rodgers}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.playbill.com/production/davy-jones-locker-morosco-theatre-vault-0000002430|title=Davy Jones' Locker Broadway @ Morosco Theatre |publisher=Playbill.com |access-date=September 25, 2016}}</ref> Others included ''[[From A to Z]]'' (1960), ''[[Hot Spot (musical)|Hot Spot]]'' (1963), ''[[Working (musical)|Working]]'' (1978), and [[Phyllis Newman]]'s one-woman show ''[[The Madwoman of Central Park West]]'' (1979). A revue of Rodgers's music titled ''Hey, Love'', conceived and directed by [[Richard Maltby Jr.]] ran in June 1993 at Eighty-Eight's in New York City.<ref>Holden, Stephen. [https://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/11/arts/review-cabaret-mary-rodgers-s-songs-in-a-patchwork-on-romance.html?pagewanted=1 "Mary Rodgers's Songs In a Patchwork on Romance"]. ''The New York Times'', June 11, 1993. Retrieved June 28, 2014.</ref><ref name="ibdb">[https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/mary-rodgers-12308 "Mary Rodgers"]. IBDb.com.</ref>

She later wrote children's books, most notably the popular ''[[Freaky Friday]]'' (1972), which was made into a feature film (released 1976), for which she wrote the screenplay, and was remade for television in 1995, and again for cinemas in 2003, screenplay by Heather Hach and Leslie Dixon "based on the book by Mary Rodgers".<ref name="imdb">[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0734742/ "Mary Rodgers"]. [[Internet Movie Database]] ('''IMDb.com''').</ref><ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076054 ''Freaky Friday'']. IMDb.com. Retrieved January 6, 2010</ref> 

One of the inspirations for ''Freaky Friday'' was a novel by [[Thorne Smith]] called ''Turnabout''. As she was considering a new children’s book, following several picture books for young children, she remembered "that when I was fourteen, I’d read and loved a novel called ''Turnabout'', by Thorne Smith. Vicious and hilarious, it was something I thought I could emulate in children’s fiction .  . . for teens."<ref> Mary Rodgers and Jesse Green, ''Shy'', Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2022, pp. 367-368</ref>

Rodgers' other children's books include ''The Rotten Book'' (1969), ''A Billion for Boris'' (1974, later republished under the title ''ESP TV''), and ''Summer Switch'' (1982), and she contributed songs to the landmark children's album ''[[Free to Be... You and Me]]''.<ref>[http://www.charlottezolotow.com/mary_rodgers.htm "About Mary Rodgers"]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101207210249/http://www.charlottezolotow.com/mary_rodgers.htm |date=December 7, 2010 }} CharlotteZolotow.com. Retrieved January 6, 2010.</ref> She made a few brief forays back into writing for musical theater, including an adaptation of her book ''Freaky Friday'' (featuring music and lyrics by [[John Forster (musician)|John Forster]]), which was presented by Theatreworks/USA in 1991, and ''The Griffin and the Minor Canon'', which was produced by Music Theatre Group, but after the latter show she never composed another note of music and never even played the piano again.<ref name="NewMusicBox"/> She later explained, "I had a pleasant talent but not an incredible talent ... I was not my father or my son. And you have to abandon all kinds of things."<ref name="comp">{{cite news |last=Green|first=Jesse |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D06E5D6143AF935A35754C0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all|title=A Complicated Gift |newspaper=The New York Times |date=July 6, 2003 |access-date=March 28, 2008 }}</ref>

In 2022, 8 years after she died, Rodgers' memoirs were published in ''Shy: The Alarmingly Outspoken Memoirs of Mary Rodgers'', Co-Authored by Jesse Green. <ref>{{Cite news |title= Published 8 years after her death, Mary Rodgers' memoir is a true tell-all book|work=NPR |url=https://www.npr.org/2022/08/11/1116318854/mary-rodgers-memoir-shy-jesse-green}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Her first husband, whom she married in December 1951, was lawyer Julian B. Beaty, Jr.; they had three children.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Newsday (Suffolk Edition) 18 May 1959, page 33 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/714232532/ |access-date=2022-11-05 |website=Newspapers.com |language=en}}</ref> This marriage ended in 1957. She and her second husband, film executive Henry Guettel, had three sons, including [[Adam Guettel|Adam]], a [[Tony Award]]-winning musical theater composer. Henry died in October 2013 at the age of 85.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Simonson |first=Robert |date=2013-10-08 |title=Henry Guettel, Former Director of Theatre Development Fund, Dies at 85 |url=https://www.playbill.com/article/henry-guettel-former-director-of-theatre-development-fund-dies-at-85-com-210354 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210731001428/https://www.playbill.com/article/henry-guettel-former-director-of-theatre-development-fund-dies-at-85-com-210354 |archive-date=2021-07-31 |access-date=2024-03-31 |website=[[Playbill]]}}</ref>

Mary Rodgers was a director of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization and a board member of [[ASCAP]]. She also served for several years as chairman of the [[Juilliard School]].<ref name=interview/>

She died from [[heart failure]] at her home in [[Manhattan]] on June 26, 2014.<ref>{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/28/nyregion/mary-rodgers-author-and-composer-and-daughter-of-richard-rodgers-dies-at-83.html|title = Mary Rodgers, Author and Composer in a Musical Family, Dies at 83|work = [[The New York Times]]|last = Weber|first = Bruce|date = June 27, 2014|access-date = May 11, 2019}}</ref>

==Publications==
* {{cite book | last1=Rodgers | first1=Mary | last2=Green | first2=Jesse | title=Shy: the alarmingly outspoken memoirs of Mary Rodgers | publication-place=New York, NY | date=2022 | isbn=978-0-374-29862-3 | oclc=1313444633}} <ref>{{Cite news |last=Okrent |first=Daniel |date=2022-08-05 |title=Broadway Baby: The Astonishing Autobiography of Mary Rodgers |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/05/books/review/shy-mary-rodgers.html |access-date=2023-07-11 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Lunden |first=Jeff |date=August 11, 2022 |title=Published 8 years after her death, Mary Rodgers' memoir is a true tell-all book |work=NPR |url=https://www.npr.org/2022/08/11/1116318854/mary-rodgers-memoir-shy-jesse-green}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist |25em}}

==External links==
{{Portal |Children's literature |Speculative fiction |Theater }}
*{{iobdb name|13431}}
* [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0734742/ Mary Rodgers] at the [[Internet Movie Database]]
* {{ISFDB name|7928}}
* {{LCAuth|n50048000|Mary Rodgers|44|}}

{{Mary Rodgers}}
{{Freaky Friday}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodgers, Mary}}
[[Category:1931 births]]
[[Category:2014 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American composers]]
[[Category:American women children's writers]]
[[Category:American children's writers]]
[[Category:American musical theatre composers]]
[[Category:American people of German-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Brearley School alumni]]
[[Category:Broadway composers and lyricists]]
[[Category:Jewish women writers]]
[[Category:Jewish women musicians]]
[[Category:Jewish American songwriters]]
[[Category:Juilliard School people]]
[[Category:Writers from Manhattan]]
[[Category:Screenwriters from New York City]]
[[Category:Wellesley College alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century American women composers]]
[[Category:21st-century American Jews]]
[[Category:21st-century American women]]