Joel Paley, a dancer, playwright and director who wrote the book and lyrics for “Ruthless!,” an award-winning Off Broadway musical about an ambitious girl who will do anything — including murder her rival — to star in a grade school show, died on Jan. 11 in Milford, Conn. He was 69.
His sister Barbara Paley Cohen confirmed the death but did not know the cause.
According to the Connecticut State Police, Mr. Paley had a medical emergency while driving on I-95 and pulled over at a rest stop in Milford. Someone who saw him in distress called 911, and medics administered lifesaving measures, but he died in a hospital. He lived in Redding, Conn.
Mr. Paley’s death followed by nearly six weeks that of Marvin Laird, his partner in marriage, who wrote the music to “Ruthless!,” which opened in 1992. When the show was revived Off Broadway in 2015, Mr. Paley surprised Mr. Laird during his remarks at an opening night party by saying, “Now that our child is alive and well and kicking, will you marry me?” Mr. Laird accepted, and they married a few months later.
Mr. Paley’s first major show business job — after taking ballet lessons — was with Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, a cross-dressing parody troupe, in 1975, a year after it was formed. He stayed three years.
“He was an absolutely natural comedian,” Peter Anastos, Trockadero’s founder, said in an interview. “He wasn’t a very good dancer, but none of us were in those days. Even the prima ballerinas were lacking.” He added, “He made his comedy chops with us. ‘Ruthless!’ might have been different if not for us.”
While dancing with Trockadero, Mr. Paley wrote “Seedy,” a musical parody of “The Bad Seed,” the novel, play and 1956 film about an 8-year-old girl who, despite her apparent sweetness, is actually a murderous psychopath. The script reflected Mr. Paley’s love of old movies.
In 1976, while rehearsing with Trockadero for a Shirley MacLaine TV special, Mr. Paley met Mr. Laird, a composer who was the show’s musical director. The two were immediately attracted to each other, and Mr. Paley showed him the “Seedy” script. Mr. Laird agreed to write the music to accompany it.
Over the next year, Mr. Paley told Broadway World in 2014, “I would send lyrics to Marvin and he would write the songs.”
But it took nearly two decades to turn “Seedy” into “Ruthless!” An early obstacle was the refusal by the estate of Maxwell Anderson, who had acquired the rights to the novel and wrote the 1954 play, to license the story to Mr. Paley and Mr. Laird. As a workaround, they expanded the story, adding references to films like “Gypsy” (1962), about an ambitious stage mother and her two daughters, and “All About Eve” (1950), the story of an aging actress whose life is invaded by a ruthless ingénue.
“Ruthless!” finally opened in 1992 at the Players Theater in Manhattan. It tells the story of Tina Denmark, who, by the end of the show, has murdered six people. In Tina’s song “Born to Entertain,” the lyrics go, in part:
From the top of my nose
To the tap of my shoes
Strike up the band
Hand me a hat and my cane.
In The Daily News, the critic Howard Kissel called “Ruthless!” “a hilarious show business musical” and wrote that Laura Bell Bundy, who played Tina, “is sensational, especially strong at conveying menace.” Her understudies were Britney Spears and Natalie Portman.
“Ruthless!” won the Outer Critics Circle Award for best Off Broadway musical and the Drama Desk Award for Mr. Paley’s lyrics. Mr. Paley directed the production. The musical has been performed hundreds of times around the world.
In 1996, Bernadette Peters starred in a concert version of “Ruthless!” in Los Angeles that was directed by Mr. Paley and raised money for an AIDS charity.
“We had a friendship as soon as Joel was with Marvin,” she said in an interview. “They were connected for so long, then that connection was over. One left and the other one left.”
Joel Paley was born on Oct. 6, 1955, in Philadelphia. His father, Bernard, was a salesman, and his mother, Norma (Bomze) Paley, managed the home.
Joel started acting as a child and at 13 had a role in the play “Summertree,” by Ron Cowen, staged at a theater at the University of Pennsylvania. He attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan for a year.
In addition to Trockadero and “Ruthless!,” Mr. Paley’s work included choreographing dances for a 1978 episode of the TV series “Maude,” starring Bea Arthur, for whom he was also a personal assistant; directing the only episode of the sketch comedy show “She TV” (1994); and, with Mr. Laird, writing nightclub acts for Abbe Lane and Donna Pescow.
Mr. Laird and Mr. Paley also collaborated on a revue, “The Yiddish Are Coming … The Yiddish Are Coming,” a tribute to the Yiddish language, which was produced in Denver in 2006.
In addition to Ms. Cohen, Mr. Paley is survived by another sister, Sheryl Beegal.
During the second Off Broadway run of “Ruthless!,” in 2015 at Playhouse 46 at St. Luke’s, Mr. Paley stepped into the role of Sylvia St. Croix, a histrionic agent, for a few performances, when the actor Paul Pecorino got sick.
For that role, Mr. Paley donned a black dress draped with a glittery shawl, an auburn wig and a plush black hat.
“Once again my dear mother, Norma, reaches down from heaven to take the stage,” he wrote on Facebook at the time. “All I need do is politely step aside.”
