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Betty Comden, who with her longtime collaborator Adolph Green wrote the lyrics and often the librettos for some of the most celebrated musicals of stage and screen, died today at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. She was 89 and lived in Manhattan. The cause was heart failure, said Ronald Konecky, her lawyer and the executor of her estate. During a professional partnership that lasted for more than 60 years, and which finally ended with Mr. Green’s death in 2002, the Comden-Green blend of sophisticated wit and musical know-how lit up stage shows like “On the Town,” “Wonderful Town,” “Peter Pan” and “Bells Are...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Adolph Green, whose six-decade collaboration with Betty Comden helped create such joyous stage celebrations of New York as ``On the Town'' and ``Wonderful Town'' as well as the classic movie musical ``Singin' in the Rain,'' has died. He was 87. Green died at his Manhattan home Wednesday night, his son, Adam, said Thursday. On Broadway, Comden and Green (the billing was always alphabetical) worked most successfully with composers Leonard Bernstein, Jule Styne and Cy Coleman. The duo wrote lyrics and often the books for more than a dozen shows, many of them built around such stars...