Adam Schlesinger, the songwriter and musician whose award-winning career spanned Broadway, rock, film and television, died on 1 April 2020 of coronavirus complications in Poughkeepsie, New York. He was 52 years old.
With an acclaimed reputation as a songwriter and performer with the rock bands Fountains of Wayne and Ivy, Schlesinger and frequent collaborator David Javerbaum took on Broadway, writing the music and lyrics for the 2008 musical Cry-Baby. The show was based on the 1990 John Waters film.
Cry-Baby received mixed reviews and ran for only 68 performances after 45 previews, but garnered four Tony Award nominations, including nods for best musical and original score.
The pair also wrote the song ‘I Have Faith in You’ for Javerbaum’s 2015 Broadway play An Act of God, starring Jim Parsons.
Most recently, Schlesinger collaborated with comedian Sarah Silverman on a musical based on her memoir The Bedwetter. It was scheduled to begin performances Off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theatre Company on 25 April but the opening has been postponed indefinitely in the wake of the viral pandemic. He was also working on a proposed Broadway musical adaptation of the television sitcom The Nanny.
An Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe nomination came Schlesinger’s way in 1997 for the title song for the Tom Hanks-directed and starring film That Thing You Do!
Two songs written by Schlesinger and Javerbaum for the Tony Awards telecasts won the pair Emmy Awards, the annual laurels for the television industry. The songs were ‘It’s Not Just for Gays Anymore’ in 2012 and ‘If I Had Time’ in 2013, both performed by Neil Patrick Harris.
Among other television honours, the two received a 2009 Emmy nomination for their song ‘Much Worse Things’ performed by Elvis Costello and Stephen Colbert on the special A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All. Schlesinger co-produced the album of the show, which won a Grammy Award, the recording industry’s top trophy, for Best Comedy Album.
In 2003, Schlesinger’s band Fountains of Wayne had picked up two Grammy nominations for its number ‘Stacy’s Mom’.
Schlesinger’s passing elicited a host of tributes from co-workers and other show business personages. “A brilliant musician and writer,” said Neil Patrick Harris, “we shared many award show moments together. He was so kind. Gone too soon. I’m reeling.”
Stephen Colbert remembered Schlesinger as: “a great (and patient) and talented artist with whom it was my good luck to work.”
Rachel Bloom, who co-created and played the lead role in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, wrote: “I am at a complete loss for words. He is irreplaceable.”
Aline Brosh McKenna, also a co-creator of the series and writer, noted that Schlesinger wrote or co-wrote 157 songs with Bloom and another songwriter Jack Dolgen over the show’s four seasons. “Adam,” she said, “was so funny, so kind, so opinionated, so clever, so passionate.”
Ron Cohen
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