Broadway mourns 'Guys and Dolls' producer Feuer

NEW YORK, May 19 (Reuters) Veteran Broadway producer and composer Cy Feuer, who produced the classic musical ''Guys and Dolls,'' has died at the age of 95 in New York.

Broadway theaters and others around the United States planned to dim their lights for one minute yesterrday evening in tribute to Feuer, who died on Wednesday.

''A director and a musician as well as a producer, Cy was a showman of impeccable taste, and a true legend in his field,'' Jed Bernstein, President of the League of American Theatres and Producers, said in a statement.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1911, Feuer studied music at Juilliard. He played the trumpet at Radio City and composed music for the movies in the 1930s and 1940s before turning to Broadway after serving in the Air Force during World War Two.

He produced the musical ''Can-Can'' in 1953 and went on to produce a string of hits such as the Pulitzer-Prize winning ''How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.'' Feuer was nominated for nine Tony Awards and won three -- one for ''Guys and Dolls'' and two for ''How to Succeed'' -- and he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003.

He also produced the Oscar-winning movie ''Cabaret'' in 1972 with his long-time producing partner Ernest Martin.

''In the press they were 'the King and Cy,' a producing team with a widely admired knack for sensing what the public, if not always the critics, would like,'' The New York Times said in its obituary yesterday.

The paper quoted his son Jed as saying Feuer had died of bladder cancer at his home in Manhattan.

In 2003, Feuer published his memoir ''I Got the Show Right Here: The Amazing True Story of How an Obscure Brooklyn Horn Player Became the Last Great Broadway Showman.'' In it he wrote about working with the likes of Bob Fosse, George S. Kaufman, Cole Porter and Julie Andrews.

REUTERS SRS PM1057