Arthur Kopit

Arthur Lee Kopit (; May 10, 1937 – April 2, 2021) was an American playwright. He was a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist for Indians and Wings. He was also nominated for three Tony Awards: Best Play for Indians and Wings (1979), as well as Best Book of a Musical for Nine (1982). He won the Vernon Rice Award (now known as the Drama Desk Award) in 1962 for Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad and was nominated for another Drama Desk Award in 1979 for Wings.

Early life Kopit was born Arthur Lee Koenig in Manhattan on May 10, 1937. His family was of Jewish descent. His father, Henry, worked as an advertising salesman; his mother, Maxine (Dubin), was a millinery model. They divorced when he was two years old. He consequently adopted the surname of his stepfather, George Kopit, after his mother remarried. He studied engineering at Harvard University, graduating in 1959. He started to compose short plays featuring "outlandish" and long-winded titles, which were staged while he was still an undergraduate.

Career Early works After graduating from Harvard, Kopit undertook a graduate fellowship in Europe. It was during this time that he learned of a playwriting contest organized by the university, which he consequently signed up for.

Kopit continued his success with a series of one-act plays like The Day the Whores Came Out to Play Tennis, as well as the three-act On the Runway of Life, You Never Know What's Coming Off Next. He was inspired to write Indians (1969) after reading a newspaper article of a shooting incident in Saigon. but ran for only 96 performances. Kopit received $250,000 for the film rights. During this time, Kopit also created play cycles starting with "The Discovery of America". This was regarded by his friends as his "most imaginative work". He received his third and final Tony nomination, He collaborated again with Yeston for Phantom, starting in 1983.

Nine returned to Broadway in 2003, with Antonio Banderas as Guido. Kopit was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2017.

Works Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad (1963) Indians (1969), simultaneously a review of America's treatment of Native Americans and a critique of the Vietnam War; inspired the 1976 film by Robert Altman, Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson. End of the World with Symposium to Follow (1984), a mordant investigation of the arms race and nuclear destruction. Success (published in Plays in One Act, Ecco Press, 1991) Phantom (1992), a musical version of The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux. Music and Lyrics by Maury Yeston. High Society (Broadway musical, 1998) Y2K (2000) — subsequently published under the title Because He Can