Jeffrey Lane, Tony-Nominated Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Librettist and Emmy-Winning TV Writer, Dies at 71

Jeffrey Lane, the Emmy-winning television writer and producer who found a second act on Broadway as the Tony-nominated librettist of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, died on May 20 in New York following a lengthy illness, according to Deadline. He was 71.

Born Jeffrey Scott Lane on August 10, 1954, in St. Louis and raised in Wantagh on Long Island, he developed an early passion for theater, running a teenage theatrical troupe that performed throughout Nassau County. He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1976 with degrees in film history and theater.

Lane began his professional career as a production assistant on the daytime soap Ryan's Hope before joining the writing staff within a year. He later moved into primetime television with writing work on Lou Grant and eventually became a writer and story editor for Cagney & Lacey.

On TV, he was best known as executive producer and showrunner of the sitcom Mad About You, starring Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt. His television resume also included The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, The Murder of Mary Phagan, Ink starring Ted Tanson and the Bette Midler sitcom Bette. He also wrote and co-produced the Tony Award telecasts in 1987 and 1988, winning two Emmys for the latter.

Though widely celebrated for his work in television, Broadway audiences came to know him best through his collaborations with composer David Yazbek, beginning with the hit musical adaptation of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

Based on the 1988 film comedy, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels opened on Broadway in 2005 after premiering at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre. Directed by Jack O'Brien and starring John Lithgow, Norbert Leo Butz and Sherie Rene Scott, the production became a commercial and critical success, and was nominated for 11 Tony Awards. Lane received a Tony nomination for Best Book of a Musical.

Lane reunited with Yazbek for the musical adaptation of the Pedro Almodovar film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, which opened on Broadway in 2010 at the Belasco Theatre. Directed by Bartlett Sher, the musical featured an all-star cast that included Patti LuPone, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Laura Benanti and Scott.

Before his death, Lane and Yazbek had finished work on a new original musical, a period piece titled Whiz-Bang!, centered on a teenage inventor and reportedly inspired by classic young-adult sleuths like the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew.

Across his career, Lane earned eight Primetime Emmy nominations, winning three, along with a Daytime Emmy, multiple Writers Guild Award nominations, two Peabody Awards, a Tony nomination and a Golden Globe nomination. 

Lane is survived by his brothers Michael Lane, a former casting director, and playwright and author Eric Lane; sister Lisa Lane Crawley; their spouses, Meredith Wechter Lane, Bob Barnett and John Crawley; six nephews and one niece.