American playwright, producer, and director. Abbott became a well-known name on Broadway as the co-author and director of such popular plays as The Fall Guy (1925), Broadway (1926), and Coquette (1928). His productions of Three Men on a Horse (1935) and The Boys from Syracuse (1938), based on A Comedy of Errors, established him as New York’s high priest of farce. Other Abbott hits, most of them were collaborations, include Call me Madam (1950), The Pajama Game (1954), Damn Yankees (1955), and Fiorello! (1959; with Jerome WEIDMAN), for which he was awarded the PULITZER PRIZE. He is also the author of a candid autobiography, Mister Abbott (1963), and of a novel Try-Out (1979). In 1983 there was a revival of the musical On Your Toes.