Theatre Register

Norman Gimbel

Shows · Norman Gimbel

Lyricist 1927–2018

Norman Gimbel (November 16, 1927 – December 19, 2018) was an American lyricist and songwriter of popular songs and themes to television shows and films. He wrote the lyrics for songs including "Ready to Take a Chance Again" (with composer Charles Fox) and "Canadian Sunset". He also co-wrote "Killing Me Softly With His Song". He wrote English-language lyrics for many international hits, including "Sway", "Summer Samba", "The Girl from Ipanema", "How Insensitive", "Drinking-Water", "Meditation", "I Will Wait for You" and "Watch What Happens". Of the movie themes he co-wrote, five were nominated for Academy Awards or Golden Globe Awards or both, including "It Goes Like It Goes", from the film N…

Also credited on3 works

Take A Chance
The Conquering Hero
Whoop-Up

These come off the person record, which names a work and not a production. So we can say this name is attached to the work and we cannot say which staging, or in what capacity. For a composer or a writer that is the whole career we hold; there is no cast list to find them in.

In the literature6 passages

  • By 1958, producers Cy Feuer and Ernest Martin had had an unbroken string of hit musicals: Where’s Charley? Guys and Dolls, Can-Can, The Boy Friend, and Silk Stockings. They had their first flop with Whoop-Up, which they also cowrote and which Feuer directed. It was to have had a score by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, but Charlap and lyric…ebooks/Mandelbaum, Ken/Not Since Carrie_ Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops - Ken Mandelbaum.txt
  • Larry Gelbart wrote the books for only three Broadway musicals, all of which played on West Fifty-second Street. The second, which he wrote with Burt Shevelove, was for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at the Alvin; the third was for Coleman’s City of Angels, across the street at the Virginia—Gelbart won Tony Awards for both…ebooks/Mandelbaum, Ken/Not Since Carrie_ Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops - Ken Mandelbaum.txt
  • Another minority group came under scrutiny in the show that broke Feuer and Martin's string of smash hits-five till WhoopUp (1958). Based on Dan Cushman's novel Stay Away, Joe (the source as well of an Elvis Presley film, by the novel's title, ten years later), Whoop-Up is set on an Indian reservation in Montana. With a script by Feuer, M…ebooks/Mordden, Ethan/B0035RP5R8 EBOK - Ethan Mordden.txt
  • Charlap, more excitable and intense, had composed the music for three Broadway shows, among them Peter Pan. A small man, almost bald, he walked with a bounding gait and spoke in a quick and husky voice, generally accompanied by violent chopping motions in both hands. ICharlap had indeed composed Peter Pan for Jerome Robbins and Mary Marti…ebooks/Suskin, Steven/B001T4YWBO EBOK - Steven Suskin.txt
  • Feuer and Martin’s offer to Fosse—to choreograph and star in Stay Away, Joe, a new musical based on Dan Cushman’s novel— promised Fosse his biggest showcase yet. A gloss on Pal Joey ’s Joey Evans, the part of girl-chasing, matron-swindling Joe Champlain was heaven-sent, an overdue escape from the house of Abbott and the next big break Fos…ebooks/Wasson, Sam/Fosse - Sam Wasson.txt
  • Whitehead got it. The story gave Fosse satirical opportunities from nearly every angle, and its attention to phoniness, to the idea of putting on a show, metaphorically speaking, was a handy entrée to song and dance. Music and lyrics went to Morris “Moose” Charlap and Norman Gimbel; book to comedy writer Larry Gelbart, who wrote Fosse’s e…ebooks/Wasson, Sam/Fosse - Sam Wasson.txt

Passages naming this person, found by keyword across 178 books. A keyword match is not a biography, and a common name will pull in the wrong one.

What this page does not know

  • What this person played. No cast list we hold records a character against a performer.
  • Any staging. This name appears in no production cast list we hold — 1,877 of 7,139 people are in that position, most of them writers, composers and designers rather than performers.
  • Which of the credits above the roles on this record — lyricist — apply to. The roles sit on the person and never on a credit, so a director who also acted looks the same here as one who did not.

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