Playwright Pam Gems Passes Away at 85
By: Nicole Rosky May. 16, 2011
According to published reports, playwright Pam Gems died in her sleep on Friday. She was 85 years old.
Gems may be best-known for the 1978 musical, Piaf about Édith Piaf, starring Jane Lapotaire and Zoë Wanamaker, Virginia Lago, Elaine Paige, Laura Canoura and Elena Roger in different productions of the show.
She was been nominated for two Tony Awards: for Stanley (Best Play) in 1997, and for Marlene (Best Book of a Musical), starring Siân Phillips as Marlene Dietrich, in 1999. Gems adapted works by dramatists ranging from Henrik Ibsen, Federico García Lorca and Anton Chekhov to Marguerite Duras.
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