*

Lyricist David Zippel once pitched his City of Angels composer Cy Coleman the idea of a musical revue drawing on the large catalogue of songs that Coleman had written for pop stars, films and Broadway musicals. Coleman told Zippel that such an idea was for later — like, way later, after the composer's death. There were new songs and shows yet to be written, Coleman said. Among those new shows would be Pamela's First Musical by Wendy Wasserstein, Zippel and Coleman, and a musical comedy called N, about Napoleon and Josephine, by Coleman, Zippel and City of Angels librettist Larry Gelbart. The former has yet to have world premiere, and the latter was only partly completed at the time of the deaths of both Gelbart and Coleman.

After Coleman died in 2004, Zippel approached his widow, Shelby, with that idea of a revue of Coleman songs — something to celebrate his body of work, mixing the standalone tunes "The Best Is Yet to Come," "It Amazes Me" and "Witchcraft" (and more) with his famous show tunes "I've Got Your Number," "Hey, Look Me Over," "You're Nothing Without Me" and "The Colors of My Life" (and more). She gave her blessing, and conceiver-director Zippel crafted an evening (called The Best Is Yet to Come) with music director Billy Stritch for a California production that has now moved to Off-Broadway's 59E59 Theaters. Commercial producers are circling the show, considering it for a wider life. We spoke to Zippel, who splits his time between New York and California, shortly after the May 25 Off-Broadway opening.

	Cy Coleman in 1960

You're a lyricist with a healthy ego. I have to say, one of the things that I really appreciated and was surprised to see was that there wasn't more David Zippel in this show. You really honored other lyricists' work in this show, especially Carolyn Leigh who gets, I think, 13 songs.
DZ: Carolyn Leigh is just an extraordinary lyricist, and I think she's the person who's represented the most, but that's also because she was Cy's first theatrical collaborator and [collaborated on] most of his pop songs. When we did the show initially, the mega-mix [at the end of the show] had about five more songs in it — it was a little more mega — but they were ballads, and there were songs that I just hated cutting out of the show, but it felt like we were going back into the show and it didn't feel like we were coming to a conclusion. So, sadly, we took out "When in Rome," and we took out a Joe McCarthy song, I think Cy's first hit — "Why Try to Change Me Now?" — and we took out "The Colors of My Life," which we are going to put back in, in another arrangement — an up-tempo arrangement — at some point. But cutting those songs out was hard to do because it just felt like they belonged there. For every song I mention, I can probably think of eight more that would have been great to put in this show.

There are great songs like "I Walk a Little Faster," which has and extraordinary Carolyn Leigh lyric in it and a really cool melody, but it's in the "It Amazes Me" bag, and I just felt like [that feeling] was already represented. Again, it was choosing among a vault full of jewels — it was great. There are so many wonderful songs, and there are so many funny songs, I mean, there's a couple of things from [the musical] Welcome to the Club that are really beautiful. I felt we had to earn the ballads — an evening full of ballads, we wouldn't have any momentum, and so we were just very careful of how we built those moments.

Knowing Cy's canon as well as I do, I have to say that the only thing I sort of actively missed was "The Colors of My Life" from Barnum.

DZ: Well, that's going to go back in at some point when we have some time. In its next incarnation — which I hope will happen. There is a lot of encouragement for that to happen.

Do you mind talking a little bit more about Carolyn Leigh? She's a favorite of mine, and I remember talking about her with Cy, who said she was difficult, but incredibly gifted. There's a sexy quality to everything she wrote and she wrote very specific lyrics.
DZ: Carolyn Leigh is as good as any lyricist that wrote for the theatre or pop. She was first rate, and she had such wit and style, and her rhyme schemes were so fresh and surprising. I mean look at a song like "Little Me," it's just chock-a-block full of amazing rhymes and funny, witty thoughts. I'm a bit in awe of her talent.

There's a great version of "Little Me" in your show, with Lillias White and Billy Stritch singing variant lyrics that I'd never heard.
DZ: I kind of picked and chose among the more interesting versions because I wanted it to highlight Billy and Lillias. I think [I drew from] a piano/vocal version and I think some of it's from the show, as well.

You were a young lyricist when she was still alive. Did you ever meet her?
DZ: I met her once. I met her at the closing performance of the 1982 revival of Little Me, and talked to her for a couple of minutes. In fact, it was interesting because I was introduced to her and I told her that I was a huge fan, and I also told her that I loved the new songs that she wrote for that version of Little Me — both of which happened to be in this revue. One was "Don't Ask a Lady," and one was "I Wanna Be Yours." The response to the compliment was, "Really?" It was like she didn't — there was a little insecurity to it that just sort of struck me. She was very vulnerable and I was kind of surprised by that because she is a master; she was a master.