Warren Casey (April 20, 1935 â€" November 8, 1988) was an American
theatre composer, lyricist, writer, and actor. He was the writer and
composer, with Jim Jacobs, of the stage musical Grease.Casey was born
on April 20, 1935, in Yonkers, New York to Peter L., a steamfitter,
and Signe, a nurse, (Ginman) Casey. Casey received his Fine Arts
Degree from the Syracuse University School of Visual and Performing
Arts in 1957.In the mid-1960s, Casey met Jim Jacobs while acting with
the Chicago Stage Guild, and the two began collaborating on a play
with music about high-school life during the golden age of rock 'n'
roll in the 1950s. Entitled Grease, it premiered in 1971 at the
Kingston Mines Theater, one of the pioneering companies of Chicago's
off-Loop theater movement, in the Lincoln Park section of Chicago.
Producers Ken Waissman and Maxine Fox saw the show and suggested to
the playwrights that it might work better as a musical, and told them
if the creative partners were willing to rework it and they liked the
end result, they would produce it off-Broadway. Casey quit his day job
as a department store lingerie buyer and the team headed to New York
City to collaborate on what would become Grease, which opened at the
Eden Theatre in downtown Manhattan, moved to Broadway, and earned him
a Tony Award nomination for Best Book of a Musical. The show went on
to become a West End hit, a hugely successful film (for which he and
Jacobs wrote additional songs), and a staple of regional theatre,
summer stock, community theatre, and high school drama groups.Casey's
acting credits include the original production of David Mamet's Sexual
Perversity in Chicago in 1974 at the Organic Theater Company. Under
Stuart Gordon's direction, Casey created the role of foul-mouthed
self-styled makeout artist Bernie Litko, delivering a comically
outrageous performance tinged with pathos. In the same year he fronted
$1,000 to help start Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago. In 1976, he
wrote Mudgett. He wrote (with Jim Jacobs) Island of Lost Coeds, a
two-act musical, produced at Columbia College Chicago under the
direction of Sheldon Patinkin. He also contributed incidental music to
Twelfth Night in 1976 and new lyrics to June Moon in 1977.
theatre composer, lyricist, writer, and actor. He was the writer and
composer, with Jim Jacobs, of the stage musical Grease.Casey was born
on April 20, 1935, in Yonkers, New York to Peter L., a steamfitter,
and Signe, a nurse, (Ginman) Casey. Casey received his Fine Arts
Degree from the Syracuse University School of Visual and Performing
Arts in 1957.In the mid-1960s, Casey met Jim Jacobs while acting with
the Chicago Stage Guild, and the two began collaborating on a play
with music about high-school life during the golden age of rock 'n'
roll in the 1950s. Entitled Grease, it premiered in 1971 at the
Kingston Mines Theater, one of the pioneering companies of Chicago's
off-Loop theater movement, in the Lincoln Park section of Chicago.
Producers Ken Waissman and Maxine Fox saw the show and suggested to
the playwrights that it might work better as a musical, and told them
if the creative partners were willing to rework it and they liked the
end result, they would produce it off-Broadway. Casey quit his day job
as a department store lingerie buyer and the team headed to New York
City to collaborate on what would become Grease, which opened at the
Eden Theatre in downtown Manhattan, moved to Broadway, and earned him
a Tony Award nomination for Best Book of a Musical. The show went on
to become a West End hit, a hugely successful film (for which he and
Jacobs wrote additional songs), and a staple of regional theatre,
summer stock, community theatre, and high school drama groups.Casey's
acting credits include the original production of David Mamet's Sexual
Perversity in Chicago in 1974 at the Organic Theater Company. Under
Stuart Gordon's direction, Casey created the role of foul-mouthed
self-styled makeout artist Bernie Litko, delivering a comically
outrageous performance tinged with pathos. In the same year he fronted
$1,000 to help start Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago. In 1976, he
wrote Mudgett. He wrote (with Jim Jacobs) Island of Lost Coeds, a
two-act musical, produced at Columbia College Chicago under the
direction of Sheldon Patinkin. He also contributed incidental music to
Twelfth Night in 1976 and new lyrics to June Moon in 1977.
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