David Brooks, the actor who introduced songs from the first hit by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, Brigadoon, died March 31 at the Jewish Home and Hospital in Manhattan, according to The New York Times. He was 83.
Mr. Brooks played Tommy Albright in Brigadoon, the 1947 Broadway musical fantasy about New Yorkers who stumble upon a magical Scottish village while on a hunting trip. He sang "The Heather on the Hill" and "Almost Like Being in Love," two staples from the Lerner and Loewe songbook.
Earlier, in 1945, he had sung Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg's work in the Civil War-set musical, Bloomer Girl, introducing "Evelina" and "Right as the Rain."
Mr. Brooks directed and produced plays in Milan, Italy, in the 1950s, according to The Times, and founded Rooftop Productions in the United States. Rooftop staged American premieres of works by Beckett, Ionesco and James Joyce Off-Broadway.
The Portland, OR, native studied at the University of Washington and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. His career included non-singing TV and stage roles, despite his opera training. He is survived by a companion, Frances Kessler, and a brother, Ben Berger, of Portland, the Times reported.
-- By Kenneth Jones