Albert Hague

Although he achieved late-in-life fame as the white bearded, bespectacled and eccentric Professor Shorofsky in both the film and TV series "Fame," Albert Hague had already achieved success as a composer for stage and screen. When one considers that he spoke no English when he arrived in the USA in 1939 as an emigre from Germany, his success is quite amazing. He was born Albert Marcuse in Berlin, the son of a psychiatrist and a chess champion, who was a musical prodigy. By the time his family had settled in America and he had been adopted by his stepfather, Hague was concentrating on a career as a classical pianist. He studied in Rome and earned a scholarship to the University of Cincinnati. During WWII, he served in the US Army's special services band. After the war, Hague settled in NYC but it was Cleveland that saw his first produced stage show, "Reluctant Lady," in 1948. (The leading lady Renee Orin was to become Mrs. Hague.) Later that year, he debuted on Broadway with incidental music for "The Madwoman of Chaillot" but it was several years before he enjoyed his first major success, the 1955 musical "Plain and Fancy" about the Amish, which yielded the lovely standard "Young and Foolish." Hague had his biggest success with the Tony-winning murder mystery musical "Redhead" (1959). Following that, his stage career petered out, as shows like "The Fig Leaves Are Falling" (1969) and "Miss Moffatt" (1974) proved unsuccessful. Hague did have one other major achievement that is perhaps his best-known work: the score to the perennial holiday special "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (originally aired on CBS in 1966).