Musical theatre styles derive from many genres, including operetta, folk, and jazz. Remarkably, there are very few musicals that embrace the jazz and blues styles as the basis for their scores. Then came City of Angels, the jazziest, swingingest, bluesiest musical to ever hit Broadway, while also being an accurate pastiche of the Film Noir. City of Angels was assembled by some of Broadway's most unique talents. Music was composed by Cy Coleman who was well-known for scores such as Little Me, Sweet Charity, On the Twentieth Century, and Barnum. Coleman was one of the most eclectic of all composers, capable of writing in almost any musical style you could imagine. The book was by Larry Gelbart who, with Burt Shevlove, wrote the raucous libretto for the farcical musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Gelbart also served as a writer and producer for the prolific television comedy M*A*S*H. For lyrics, City of Angels would introduce audiences to the wit and wordplay of David Zippel who would go on to write the lyrics for the Disney film Hercules (with composer Alan Menken) and for the Broadway musical The Goodbye Girl (with composer Marvin Hamlisch).
