R.I.P. Marshall Brickman

How odd to learn one day after Woody Allen’s birthday (from Eve Golden, natch) that one of Allen’s prime collaborators has passed on. Marshall Brickman (1939-2024) was a behind-the-scenes figure, known mostly to hardcore comedy fans. He wrote stand-up material for Woody starting in the ’60s, and co-wrote the screenplays for Sleeper (1973), the Oscar-winning Annie Hall (1977), Manhattan (1979), and Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993). But there was much else to his credit, else I’m not certain I’d have undertaken his own stand-alone tribute, much as I love those movies.

Brickman attended the University of Wisconson at Madison (comedy birthplace of ZAZ, Chris Farley, and The Onion). He considered being a doctor, but he also studied music. His first show biz credits with folks groups in the early ’60s, including The Tarriers (with Alan Arkin, and Eric Weissberg, who later achieve fame with “Dueling Banjos” in the movie Deliverance) and The New Journeymen (with John and Michelle Phillips, later of The Mamas and the Papas).

At the same time, Brickman was breaking into TV writing. He contributed material to Candid Camera as early as 1960, and developed a reputation as a writer on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson (1963-70) and produced for The Dick Cavett Show (1971-72).

In the wake of his critically acclaimed successes with Allen, Brickman tried to launch himself as a writer/director on his own account: Simon (1980), starring Alan Arkin; Lovesick (1983) with Dudley Moore and Elizabeth McGovern; and his first non-comedy The Manhattan Project (1986). These films all underperformed at the box office, effectively ending his career as a director, although he did later adapt and helm a TV movie version of Christopher Durang’s Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You (2001). Brickman also co-wrote the screenplay for two films directed by Mark Rydell: For the Boys (1991) with Bette Midler and James Caan and Intersection (1994), based on Les choses de la vie (1970).

In the new century, Brickman shifted his focus to Broadway, co-writing the books to the shows Jersey Boys (2005, and the 2014 film adaption), and The Addams Family (2010) with Rick Elice.

Other earlier credits, all from the mid ’70s included several humor pieces for The New Yorker, an off-Broadway show called Straws in the Wind, and a couple of unsold TV pilots.

Brickman grew up in Flatbush, surely a point of connection with fellow Brooklynite Woody. Brickman was 85 at the time of his death on November 29.