Stage lyricist Comden dies at 89

Betty Comden worked with the late composer Adolf Green for 60 years

Broadway lyricist Betty Comden, best known for the stage musicals On the Town and Singin' in the Rain, has died at the age 89.

Comden died of heart failure in a New York hospital on Thursday. She had been ill for some time.

Long-time lawyer Ronald Konecky called her "legendary": "She was a dynamic figure in the arts, theatre and film."

Comden's 60-year collaboration with the late composer Adolf Green saw the pair win five Tony awards.

The duo wrote lyrics, and often the books, for more than a dozen shows, featuring stars including Rosalind Russell, Judy Holliday and Lauren Bacall.

The song New York, New York, an exuberant tribute to their favourite city, was typical of the pair's style.

'Lonely'

"A lot of people don't believe this, but at the end of the day we usually don't remember who thought up what," Comden once said of her partnership with Green.

The pair received the Kennedy Center honours, one of America's most prestigious cultural accolades, in 1991.

At a memorial service for Green, who died in 2002, Comden said: "It's lonely up here. It was always more fun with Adolph."

Comden married the designer Steven Kyle in 1942. He died 37 years later. They had two children; their son, Alan, died in 1990.