Sherman Yellen

Sherman Yellen, screenwriter, playwright, and lyricist, was nominated for a Tony Award for his book for the musical, The Rothschilds. Sherman's plays include Strangers, a biographical drama about Sinclair Lewis which was produced on Broadway, and most recently the drama December Fools, produced by the Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex in New York in January-March '06. His new musical, Josephine Tonight!, tracing the early life of Josephine Baker from Jim Crow America to Paris in the twenties, was produced in Chicago in February '06, and praised by the Chicago Sun-Times: with its "pure musical comedy style, and its funny, sexy, exuberant score, it has hit written all over it."
His recreation of The Rothschilds and "Rothschild & Sons" was produced by the York Theater in 2016 - it will be transferred to a London theater in 2017. In the summer of 2017 his revised version of "Rex" which he wrote with Richard Rodgers and Sheldon Harnick will be performed at the Utah Opera Festival. For the past few years Sherman has been writing memoirs. His first, "Cousin Bella: The Whore of Minsk" was published in 2015. His memoir of a New York City childhood, "Spotless" will appear in 2017.
Sherman's screenwriting has won him two Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award, first for his drama John Adams, Lawyer in the PBS series The Adams Chronicles, and later for An Early Frost, a groundbreaking drama about AIDS in America. His Beauty and the Beast with George C. Scott was nominated for an Emmy and won the Christopher Award. Yellen received a lifetime achievement award in Arts and Letters from Bard College.

Mr. Yellen's story "A Christmas Lilly" has been published for Amazon Kindle and an audio version is available through Amazon. This classic Christmas story is the bonus book that is published with his memoir of his old Cousin Bella, "COUSIN BELLA - THE WHORE OF MINSK" - paperback edition available through Amazon books. His collection of plays DECEMBER FOOLS and other plays has just been published and can be bought on Amazon.


Growing up in New York under FDR, Sherman has watched with great sadness the rise in bigotry and the dismantling of social programs and social progress in this country. He has been appalled by the heartlessness and greed that now passes for government policy. As an observer of contemporary American life, Sherman believes it is the obligation of artists to speak out against the erosion of our democracy during these troubling times. His web page, shermanyellen.com , is linked to his blog .