Abbott, George Francis

Abbott, George Francis (1887–1995), American producer, director, and playwright, originally an actor. He had already had some success in the co-writing and co-directing of many different types of play, among them a melodrama, Broadway (1926), and a farce, Three Men on a Horse (1935), when he embarked on the long series of musicals for which he is mainly remembered. They include On Your Toes (1936), The Boys from Syracuse (1938), Where's Charley? (1948), based on Charley's Aunt, The Pajama Game (1954), Damn Yankees (1955; London, 1957), and Fiorello! (1959), all of which were written or co-authored by himself. In addition, he directed a number of musicals by other writers, among them Pal Joey (1940), On the Town (1944), Call Me Madam (1950), and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962; London, 1963). Abbott celebrated his 95th birthday by staging a revival of On Your Toes (1983; London, 1984), which had previously been revived in 1954. He was honoured in 1966 by having the Fifty-Fourth Street Theatre in New York named after him. It had opened in 1928 as the Craig, in 1934 became the Adelphi, and was pulled down in 1970. Its history was undistinguished, except for 1936–9, when it was taken over by the Federal Theatre Project.