Late Nite Comic

Late Nite Comic
Music	Brian Gari
Lyrics	Brian Gari
Book	Allan Knee
Productions	1987 Broadway

Late Night Comic was a short-lived stage musical written by playwright Allan Knee and composer/lyricist Brian Gari, which ran for 17 performances on Broadway in 1987.

In 1976, singer-songwriter Brian Gari wrote a song entitled “Dance”, inspired by a five-year relationship that he had with a ballet dancer. As he later told a journalist: “'she left dancing, married someone else, had a kid and lives in Forest Hills - but I haven't gotten her out of my heart". Two years later, Gari came up with the idea of developing the theme into a semi-autobiographical stage musical, concentrating on the relationship between a songwriter, a ballet dancer, and a struggling stand-up comedian who was the songwriter's best friend. Gari wrote the entire first act himself, but the project languished until 1984, when he met an agent who liked the songs and introduced him to playwright Allan Knee as a potential collaborator. Within two years, the show had been substantially re-written, and now concentrated on the relationship between a stand-up comic and a dancer.

Gari's score incorporated several songs that he had composed many years earlier, including one entitled 'The best in the business', which he had written (about the subject of music publishers) as far back as 1972. The title song, 'Late Nite Comic', had been written in 1977 for an actual stand-up comic, Larry Cobb, whom Gari knew when they both performed at New York's Comic Strip in the late 1970s.

Dissatisfied with his agent's subsequent lack of enthusiasm, Gari took control of the project himself. He later recalled that, 'like a fairy tale', the first director and the first producer that he approached both agreed to become involved. The former was Philip Rose, whose previous Broadway musical credits included notable hits such as Purlie and Shenandoah as well as flops such as Angel and Amen Corner. The producer was 25-year-old Rory Rosegarten, who had an interest in comedy and, although he had recently served as executive producer for a comedy record by David Kolin, had never produced a Broadway musical before (and never would again). It was reported that Rosegarten raised the full production costs of $1.1 million in a single day, when, armed with a copy of the demo tape of the score, he visited the office of an anonymous benefactor (described by Rosegarten only as a “wealthy financier”) who promptly agreed to finance the entire production.

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