Joseph Stein papers

1955-1993

Joseph Stein was born in the Bronx, New York, on May 30, 1912. He graduated from City College of New York in 1934 and earned a master's degree in social work from Columbia University in 1937. He worked as a social worker for many years until a chance meeting with the comedian Zero Mostel led to Stein writing material for a radio show. He started writing sketches and landed one in the Broadway revue, Lend an Ear (1948).

Stein's first full-length play on Broadway was the 1949 comedy Mrs. Gibbon's Boys, a collaboration with Will Glickman. In 1950, he wrote sketches for the revue Alive and Kicking. During the next decade he wrote the librettos for the musicals Plain and Fancy (1955), Mr. Wonderful (1956), The Body Beautiful (1958), Juno (1959), and Take Me Along (1959).

In 1963, Stein adapted actor and comedian Carl Reiner's semi-autobiographical novel, Enter Laughing (1958), into a hit Broadway comedy. Stein wrote the screenplay for the 1967 film version of Enter Laughing, as well as the libretto for the 1976 musical version, So Long, 174th Street. During the 1950s and 1960s Stein also wrote material for several television shows, most notably Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows.

In 1964, Stein wrote the libretto for Fiddler on the Roof, one of the most critically and commercially successful musicals of all time, and he later wrote the screenplay for the 1971 film version. After Fiddler, Stein wrote librettos for such musicals as Zorba (1968), Irene (1973), King of Hearts (1978), Carmelina (1979), and Rags (1986). Stein wrote librettos for some musicals that were never produced on Broadway including the cult classic The Baker's Wife, and Kander and Ebb's All About Us (an adaptation of Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth).

Joseph Stein was married to Sadie Singer, with whom he had three sons, until her death in 1974. In 1975 he married actress and psychotherapist Elisa Loti. Joseph Stein died in New York on October 24, 2010.