Joel Paley, screenwriter of off-Broadway hit Ruthless, dies at 69

Dancer, playwright and director Joel Paley is the director of Ruthless, the award-winning off-Broadway musical about an ambitious girl who will do anything, including murdering her rival, to appear in an elementary school show. He is the person who wrote the book and lyrics for “!''. He passed away on January 11th in Milford, Connecticut at the age of 69.

His sister, Barbara Paley Cohen, confirmed the death, but did not know the cause.

According to Connecticut State Police, Paley had an emergency while driving on Interstate 95 and stopped at a rest area in Milford. People who saw him in distress called 911, and doctors administered life-saving measures, but he died at the hospital. He lived in Reading, CT.

Mr. Paley's death followed about six weeks after the death of his married partner, Marvin Laird, who wrote the music for “Ruthless!,'' which opened in 1992. Mr. Paley was surprised when the show was revived off-Broadway in 2015. In his opening night party address, Laird said, “Since our child is healthy and thriving, will you marry me?” Mr. Laird accepted, and a few months later the two were married.

After taking ballet lessons, Mr. Paley's first major job in the entertainment industry came in 1975, a year after the group was formed, with Les Ballets Trocadero de Monte Carlo, a cross-dressing parody troupe. He stayed for three years.

“He was an absolutely natural comedian,” Trocadero founder Peter Anastos said in an interview. “He wasn't a very good dancer, but none of us were like that back then. Even prima ballerinas were lacking.” They showed their talent. “Ruthless!'' If we weren't there, things might have been different. ”

While dancing with the Trocadero, Mr. Paley composed “Sheedy.” It is a musical parody of the novel, play, and 1956 film The Bad Seed, about an eight-year-old girl who appears kind but is actually a brutal psychopath. . The script reflected Mr. Paley's love of old movies.

In 1976, Mr. Paley was rehearsing with the Trocadero for a Shirley MacLaine television special when he met the composer, Mr. Laird, who was the program's musical director. The two were immediately attracted to each other, and Mr. Paley showed him the script for “Sheedy.'' Mr. Laird agreed to write the music to accompany it.

Over the next year, Mr. Paley told Broadway World in 2014, “I would send the lyrics to Marvin and he would write the songs.”

But it took nearly 20 years to turn “Seedy” into “Ruthless!” An early hurdle was that the estate of Maxwell Anderson, who had acquired the rights to the novel and wrote the 1954 play, refused to license the story to Mr. Paley and Mr. Laird. As a workaround, they expanded the story with films such as Gypsy (1962), about an ambitious stage mother and her two daughters, and All About Eve (1962), about an aging actress who has had a bad time in life. (1950) and other films. Invaded by a ruthless conspiracy.

“Merciless!” finally opened in 1992 at the Players Theater in Manhattan. It tells the story of Tina Denmark, who has murdered six people by the end of the show. Some of the lyrics of Tina's song “Born to Entertain” are as follows:

from the top of the nose

to the shoe faucet

Let's cheer up the band

Please give me your hat and cane.

In the Daily News, critic Howard Kissel called it “ruthless!” It was a “hilarious show business musical”, and Laura Bell Bundy, who played Tina, wrote that it was “sensational, especially strong in conveying menace”. Her proteges were Britney Spears and Natalie Portman.

“No Mercy!'' won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Musical and the Drama Desk Award for Mr. Paley's Lyrics. Mr. Paley directed the production. This musical has been performed hundreds of times around the world.

In 1996, Bernadette Peters starred in a concert version of Ruthless! In Los Angeles, Mr. Paley directed a show that raised money for AIDS charities.

“As soon as Joel was with Marvin, we developed a friendship,” she said in an interview. “They were connected for a long time, and then that connection ended. One left, and the other left.”

Joel Paley was born on October 6, 1955 in Philadelphia. His father, Bernard, was a salesman and his mother, Norma (Bomse) Paley, ran the home.

Joel began acting as a child, and at the age of 13 he appeared in the play Summer Tree, written by Ron Cowen, which was performed at the Theater of the University of Pennsylvania. He attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan for one year.

In addition to Trocadero and “Ruthless!,'' Mr. Paley's work also included choreographing dances for a 1978 episode of the television series “Maude,'' starring Bea Arthur, who was also his personal assistant. Directed the only episode of the sketch comedy show She TV (1994). And with Mr. Laird, he wrote nightclub songs for Abbey Lane and Donna Peskow.

Mr. Laird and Mr. Paley also collaborated on “Yiddish Is Coming…Yiddish Is Coming,” a 2006 Yiddish-honoring revue produced in Denver.

In addition to Cohen, Paley is survived by another sister, Cheryl Begal.

In the second off-Broadway production of “Ruthless!” at St. Luke's Playhouse 46 in 2015, when actor Paul Pecorino appeared, Mr. Paley played the role of the historical agent, She played the role of Sylvia St. Croix. disease.

For the role, Mr. Paley wore a black dress covered with a glittering shawl, an auburn wig, and an extravagant black hat.

“Once again, my beloved mother Norma stepped onto the stage with a hand from above,” he wrote on Facebook at the time. “All I need to do is politely step aside.”