Section:GDN 1J PaGe:9 Edition Date:190831 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 30/8/2019 16:33 cYanmaGentaYellowbla

Sat urday 31 Aug ust 2019 The Guardian •

9

Today’s birthdays: Queen Rania of

Jordan , rights campaigner, 49; Jerry

Allison , drummer, 80; Martin Bell ,

journalist and former independent

MP, 81; Nick Bitel , chair , Sport

England, 60 ; Serge Blanco , rugby

player, 61; Todd Carty , actor, 56 ;

Ann Coff ey , Independent Group

MP, 73; Tina Cook , equestrian , 49;

The Right Rev Stephen Cottrell ,

bishop of Chelmsford, 61; Roger

Dean , artist, 75; Dame Liz Forgan ,

writer and broadcaster, former chair

of the Scott Trust, 75; Richard Gere ,

actor, 70 ; Susan Gritton , soprano,

54; Daniel Harding , conductor,

44; Pádraig Harrington , golfer,

48; Prof Christine King , historian,

75; Clive Lloyd , cricketer, 75 ; Julie

Maxton , executive director, Royal

Society, 64; Sir Van Morrison ,

singer, songwriter and musician,

74; Ed Moses , hurdler, 64 ; Bryan

Organ , painter, 84; Dwayne Peel ,

rugby player, 38 ; Itzhak Perlman ,

violinist, 74; Glenn Tilbrook , singer

and songwriter, 62.

Tomorrow’s birthdays: Anthony

Allen , rugby player, 33 ; Richard

Burden , Labour MP, 65; Dame

Sue Carr , high court judge, 55; Sir

David Carter , clinical surgeon, 79 ;

Clare Connor , cricketer, 43; Sir

Ron Cooke , geographer, 78; Gloria

Estefan , singer and songwriter, 62;

Bruce Foxton , bassist, 64; Nicholas

Garland , political cartoonist, 84;

Nusrat Ghani , MP, transport and

maritime minister, 47; Sir Barry

Gibb , singer and producer, 73;

Burn Gorman , actor, 45; Jessica

Hand , diplomat, 62 ; Dr Stephen

Inglis , virologist, 67 ; Allen Jones ,

pop artist, 82; Padma Lakshmi ,

writer and broadcaster, 49; Dr

Alasdair McDonnell , former

SDLP MP and party leader, 70 ;

Manuel Piñero , golfer, 67; Genevra

Richardson , emeritus professor

of law, King’s College London,

71; Leonard Slatkin , conductor,

75; Daniel Sturridge , footballer,

30 ; Lily Tomlin , comedian, 80;

Alice Walpole , diplomat, 56; Matt

Warman , MP, minister for digital

and broadband, 38; Jasmine

Whitbread , chief executive,

London First, 56.

Martin Charnin

Lyricist of the hit musical

Annie who directed its

original Broadway run

W

hile being

far more

than a

one-hit

wonder,

Martin

Charnin,

who has

died aged 84, is indelibly associated

with one particular show, the high-

spirited musical Annie (1977), which

he conceived and directed and for

which he also wrote the lyrics.

Charnin did so only after securing

the reluctant participation of the

composer Charles Strouse and

the librettist Thomas Meehan , the

latter asking why he should write

a musical he would not want to go

and see. But as the project grew and

backers such as the great director

Mike Nichols came on board, so the

momentum proved unstoppable.

Strouse’s score to Charnin’s lyrics

was robustly melodic, with half a

dozen knock out numbers, including

Hooverville, Hard Knock Life ,

Easy Street and Annie’s signature

song, Tomorrow, which was soon

established as a much-recorded

standard of optimism and open-

hearted get-up-and-go.

The show, which was based on a

long-running American comic strip

and was about the tribulations of

an 11-year-old orphan in the US of

the Depression , won seven Tony

awards and initially ran for six years

on Broadway and for three in the

West End.

It is constantly revived and there

have been three fi lm versions, the

fi rst made in 1982 by John Huston ,

the second by Disney in 1999

and the third , a curious hip-hop

re conception , in 2014. Charnin

stayed close to the show all his life,

directing the 1998 London revival

starring Lesley Joseph and Kevin

Colson , two Broadway revivals and

two unsuccessful off -Broadway

sequels, as well as 42 US touring

productions.

He was born in New York, the son

of William Charnin, who sang in the

chorus of the Metropolitan Opera,

and his wife, Birdie (nee Blakeman).

He studied at the city’s high school

of music and art, and later at the

Cooper Union , spending a holiday at

a summer theatre in the Adirondack

mountains acting, writing revue

sketches and painting scenery.

There he also discovered that

he could sing and so he responded

to an audition call for “juvenile

delinquents” in the 1957 Broadway

premiere of West Side Story. He won

the part of Big Deal, one of the Jets

ranged in gang warfare against the

Sharks, staying in the show from the

opening night through more than

1,000 performances.

Charnin’s experience of working

at close quarters with Leonard

Bernstein , Stephen Sondheim and

Jerome Robbins developed his

enthusiasm for being a powerful

presence behind the scenes. He was

soon a complete man of the theatre,

directing off -Broadway revues and

nightclub shows for Shirley Jones,

Leslie Uggams, Dionne Warwick and

Nancy Wilson.

In 1959 he appeared in The Girls

Against the Boys, starring Bert Lahr

and Nancy Walker , and he was a

waiter in a Dick Van Dyke sketch.

He wrote lyrics for an ill-received

Judy Holliday vehicle, Hot Spot, in

1963 , and for a version of Federico

Fellini’ s movie La Strada (1969)

which closed on its opening night.

But there was more kudos, and more

success, when he collaborated with

the composer Richard Rodgers on

Two by Two (1970), a Noah’s ark

musical based on a Cliff ord Odets

play and starring Danny Kaye on his

return to Broadway after 30 years

away; it ran to 350 performances.

After Annie he followed up with

an adept and charming production

of Bar Mitzvah Boy – based on Jack

Rosenthal ’s 1976 television play,

with lyrics by Don Black and music

by Jule Styne – in which young Eliot

Green fl e es the synagogue on the

Charnin performing at a press preview in New York, 2013 WIREIMAGE

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the political turmoil of Greece
became increasingly frustrating
to Takis: while his work, at this
point derivative of Giacometti,
was beginning to be exhibited, by
1953 he had had enough. “Greece
is a prison,” he complained. With
the help of the art patron Caresse
Crosby , who was a regular visitor to
Greece, Takis left for Paris.
Living in hotels in Montparnasse,
he briefl y joined the studio of the
modernist sculptor Constantin
Brâncuși , but gained more practical
experience from a blacksmith. His
1955 exhibition at Han over Gallery
in London was characterised
by featureless iron and plaster
fi gures. Soon afterards, he started
to hang around the Beat Hotel
on Rue Gît-le-Cœur and became
friend ly with Burroughs and Allen
Ginsberg , as well as making his fi rst
Télésculptures. In 1961 the Greek
dealer Alexander Iolas gave him a
solo exhibition in New York. There
he befriended the artist Marcel
Duchamp , returning for a second
show at the gallery two years later.
Following his marriage to the
artist Liliane Lijn , Takis moved to
London in 1964, the same year that
Signals Gallery opened in the West
End, taking its name from Takis’s
work. He showed at the gallery later
that year. In 1966 he had a show at
Indica , in Mayfair, from which John
Lennon bought a sculpture. Takis
became friendly with the Beatles
and Yoko Ono , but by the end of the
decade had settled largely in the US,
where he was a visiting researcher
at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. There he began creating
work using hydromagnetic force,
inspired by “the perpetual moving
bicycle wheel of Marcel Duchamp”.
In 1969 MoMA included a
Télésculpture in a group exhibition
without the artist’s permission. Takis
storm ed the New York museum and
remov ed the work. This led, a year
later, to the formation of the Art
Workers’ Coalition.
In the 70s Takis began making
his Sculptures Musicales , in which
an electromagnet hidden behind a
wooden panel attracted and repelled
a needle which, in turn, struck a
metal string. Over the decades, as
well as shows in major institutions,
and public commissions, he began
to move into set design and music
composition for fi lm and theatre.
In 1995, having moved back
to Greece, and set up the Takis
Foundation there, the artist was
asked to represent his country at the
Venice Biennale. Takis insisted on
showing his work just outside the
national pavilion , stating : “I am a
citizen of the world.”
He is survived by his daughter,
Anna, from a relationship with the
artist Sheila Fell ; by his son, Thanos ,
from his marriage to Liliane , which
ended in divorce in 1970 ; by three
grandchildren ; and by a sister, Tita.
Oliver Basciano

Takis (Panayiotis Vassilakis), artist,
born 29 October 1925; died 9 August
2019

Discovering he

could sing, he

responded to an

audition call for

juvenile delinquents

in West Side Story

brink of his bar mitzvah. Th e show

played 78 performances at Her

Majesty’s.

A second show with Rodgers ,

I Remember Mama (1979), one of

Rodgers’ weakest, was a fl op, despite

starring Liv Ullmann , and a polite

veil also had to be drawn over The

First (1981), about Jackie Robinson,

the man who broke the colour

barrier in major league baseball, on

which he doubled again as lyricist

and director. In addition, a 1989

comedy revue starring Sid Caesar

had to close after fi ve performances.

One of my favourite revues,

however, was his Upstairs at O’Neal’s

(1982), above a restaurant on 43rd

Street in New York, which collated

many songs by former collaborators,

as well as by Marvin Hamlisch and

Sheldon Harnick. One of its many

literate and punchy numbers was

a spoof on the fad for short names,

invoking Uma, Uta, Ulu, Ava and

Oona in a single couplet. In another

item, Zubin Mehta was coming later

to the the-atre. Some of th at material

surfaced in a less eff ective version,

The 9 ½ Quid Revue (1999), at the

King’s Head in Islington, while he

was in London reviving Annie.

Charnin’s fi rst three marriages – to

the actors Lynn Ross and Genii Prior,

both of whom appeared in West Side

Story, and the fashion journalist Jade

Hobson – ended in divorce.

He is survived by his fourth wife,

the actor Shelly Burch , and by a

son, Randy, from his fi rst marriage,

a daughter, Sasha, from his second

marriage, three stepchildren, three

grandchildren and his sister, Rena

Mueller.

Michael Coveney

Martin Jay Charnin, theatre director

and lyricist, born 24 November 1934;

died 6 July 2019

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