Off Stage

Betty Comden and Adolph Green together have written musicals for the theater and scripts for the movies over an astonishing seven decades, including titles from Bells Are Ringing and The Will Rogers Follies to Singin' in the Rain and Band Wagon. Now Comden has written a memoir of her private life. She barely mentions her successes as a writer for stage and screen; even her collaborator, Green, is passed over. Instead, she recalls her Brooklyn childhood and her successful marriage to Steven Kyle, an artist, who died of pancreatitis in 1979. They had two children. Son Alan's addiction to drugs led to his death from AIDS. Comden's sorrow and guilt permeate this memoir. It is ungracious to ask for what a writer is not offering us, but there is not enough in the domestic joys and tragedies of Comden's private life to justify this account. There are tidbits for her fans and information about famous friends, including Lauren Bacall, James Jones, Penelope Gilliat and Charles Chaplin, but little is added to our understanding of what combination of talents and chemistry fueled this brilliant and creative half of the legendary Comden-Green partnership. Photos not seen by PW. (Mar.)