Lindsay and Crouse

Lindsay and Crouse was the writing team of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, who collaborated famously from 1935 to 1962 on a succession of Broadway comedies and musicals. Their first collaboration was the rewriting of the book of Anything Goes (1935), which became a major hit and has been frequently revived. In 1946, they were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for their 1945 play, State of the Union.

Crouse named his daughter, Lindsay Ann Crouse, in honor of his longstanding partnership with Lindsay.

Shared work

They wrote the play Life with Father, which opened in 1939 and starred Lindsay and his wife Dorothy Stickney. It ran for over seven years to become the longest-running non-musical play on Broadway.

Other work included the books for The Sound of Music, the Cole Porter musical Red, Hot and Blue, the Irving Berlin musicals Call Me Madam, and the production of the play Arsenic and Old Lace. Their last collaboration was the 1962 Irving Berlin musical, Mr. President.

In addition to writing the books for Broadway shows, they were also "show doctors" who were asked to come improve Broadway shows in out-of-town tryouts, assisting the director and author of the show to improve the script.