Martin Charnin was an American lyricist, writer, and theatre director.
29 Facts About Martin Charnin
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Martin Charnin was born in New York City, the son of Birdie and William Martin Charnin, an opera singer.
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Martin Charnin began his theatrical career as a performer, appearing as "Big Deal", one of the Jets in the original production of West Side Story.
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Martin Charnin played the role for 1,000 performances on Broadway and on the road.
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Martin Charnin wrote music and lyrics for numerous Off-Broadway and cabaret revues, many of them for Julius Monk.
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Martin Charnin then went on to write, direct, and produce nightclub acts for Dionne Warwick, Nancy Wilson, Mary Travers, Larry Kert, Jose Ferrer, and Leslie Uggams.
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Martin Charnin contributed lyrics to Vernon Duke's musical Zenda which ran in California in 1963 but did not reach Broadway.
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Martin Charnin wrote lyrics to Richard Rodgers' music and Peter Stone's book for the musical Two by Two, which starred Danny Kaye and ran on Broadway for 10 months.
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Martin Charnin supplied music and lyrics for the song "The Best Thing You've Ever Done", sung by Barbra Streisand on her multi-platinum album The Way We Were.
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Martin Charnin directed The National Lampoon Show and its road company.
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Martin Charnin then created, wrote the lyrics for and directed Annie at the Goodspeed Opera House.
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Martin Charnin went on to direct the five US national companies of Annie and three productions in the West End in London.
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Martin Charnin wrote the lyrics for I Remember Mama with music by Richard Rodgers, and directed, wrote the lyrics for, and co-wrote the book for The First, a musical about Jackie Robinson and the integration of baseball, for which he was nominated for two Tony Awards.
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Martin Charnin directed A Little Family Business on Broadway in 1982, which starred Angela Lansbury and John McMartin, and Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson in The Flowering Peach for Tony Randall's National Theatre, on Broadway.
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Martin Charnin wrote additional lyrics for La Strada and The Madwoman of Central Park West.
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Martin Charnin directed Cafe Crown in 1988 at the Off-Broadway Public Theater, which subsequently transferred to Broadway in 1989.
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Martin Charnin directed Laughing Matters in 1989 at the Theater at St Peter's Church, New York, a revue written by and starring Peter Tolan and Linda Wallem.
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Martin Charnin directed Jeanne La Pucelle in Montreal, with book and lyrics by Vincent de Tourdonnet and music by Peter Sipos.
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Martin Charnin directed the 20th anniversary production of Annie on Broadway, and in 2004, he directed the 30th anniversary production of Annie, produced by Ken Gentry and Networks.
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Martin Charnin conceived and directed the cabaret revue Upstairs at O'Neals, which ran Off-Broadway from October 1982 to July 1983 at O'Neal's restaurant.
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Martin Charnin directed and wrote the book with Douglas Bernstein and Denis Markell and music with Marvin Hamlisch, Thomas Meehan, Billy Weeden and David Finkle for The No Frills Revue; sketches were written by Ronny Graham among others.
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Martin Charnin directed the premiere stage adaptation of Jules Feiffer's Carnal Knowledge Off-Broadway at the Kaufman Theatre in 1990 and Wallach and Jackson in In Persons.
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Martin Charnin wrote the lyrics, with music by Peter Sipos and the book by Thomas Meehan, and the cast featured Shelly Burch.
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Martin Charnin created, wrote or directed regional shows including Love is Love, Shadowlands, and in 2010, Sleuth, all for the Village Theatre in Issaquah.
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Martin Charnin moved back to the East Coast for the 35th Anniversary revival of Annie, which opened on Broadway at the Palace Theatre in November 2012 and ran until January 2014.
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Martin Charnin created, produced and directed night club acts for his wife, Shelly Burch, and prepared a new one-woman theatrical entertainment for her for Fall 2014.
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Martin Charnin directed the revival of Two by Two, starring Jason Alexander as Noah, and Tovah Feldshuh as Noah's wife.
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Martin Charnin moved to Issaquah, Washington after directing Robin Hood and stayed there until he returned to New York in 2012.
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Martin Charnin suffered a heart attack on July 3,2019 and died on July 6,2019, aged 84, following a period of hospitalization.