Biography

August 14, 1929 · Ossining, New York, USA

August 21, 2017 · Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA (undisclosed)

Thomas Edward Meehan

Has won three Tony Awards as Best Book (Musical): in 1977, for "Annie"; in 2001, with collaborator Mel Brooks for "The Producers, the new Mel Brooks musical; and in 2003, with collaborator Mark O'Donnell, for "Hairspray".

Beginning his writing career as a writer with the New Yorker's "Talk of the Town" section and Meehan later earned an EMMY nomination in 1964 as one of the writers of the television series "That Was the Week That Was." Meehan made his Broadway debut with "Annie," alongside Martin Charnin and songwriter Charles Strouse. The 1977 original stage musical won the Tony for best musical, inspiring tours and revivals that never went out of style. Martin Charnin said, "Meehan was really very unique. He was somebody who you could literally call a wit. There are not a lot of wits left in comedy and Tom was a wit. I have no problem calling him that." "Annie" almost died at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut in 1976. But Charnin brought in noted stage and film director Mike Nichols, who signed on as a producer and helped him revise the show. With actress Andrea McArdle replacing Kristen Vigard as the red-haired moppet Annie and Dorothy Loudon added as Miss Hannigan, the production went on to open in New York in April 1977 with a smash-bang! The 1982 Columbia musical film version, with Carol Burnett in Loudon's role, was not nearly as well-received. The feature film was directed by John Huston; produced by Ray Stark; Executive Producer Joe Layton, also creator of the film's musical sequences; Associate Producer and screenplay Carol Sobieski; Book by Thomas Meehan. A stage sequel called "Annie Warbucks" ran off-Broadway in 1993. The original show was revived on Broadway in 2012 and was made into a film starring Quvenzhane Wallis in 2014.

Thomas Meehan wrote the books for three shows that each ran for more than 2,000 performances on Broadway: "Annie," with 2,377 performances; "The Producers," with Mel Brooks, at 2,502 performances; and "Hairspray," which he wrote with Mark O'Donnel and which reached 2,642 performances. Meehan's other shows include "Young Frankenstein" with Brooks, "Cry Baby" with O'Donnel, "Elf" with Bob Martin, "Chaplin" with Christopher Curtis, "Bombay Dreams" with Meera Syal and the musical "Rocky" with Sylvester Stalone.

Thomas Meehan told the Observer newspaper in 1999, "I wrote stories that were serious, very somber, trying to be in the style of William Falkner. My career has always been that every time I try something really serious, it's no good, but if I try to be funny, then it works".

The shameful fact is that I'm not remotely musical. I don't sing well. I don't play any instrument ...... Every once in a while, I think about going back to playwriting, frankly. I have a couple of ideas, but once I got on track of doing musicals, I stayed on it because Annie was out to be such an incredible, life-changing experience. Now I can't afford to go back.