Franz Allers

Franz Allers (August 6, 1905, Carlsbad, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic) – January 26, 1995, Paradise, Nevada, U.S.A.) was a European-American conductor of ballet, opera, Broadway musicals, film scores, and symphony orchestras. He is best known for his work on Broadway, and especially for conducting the original Broadway productions of My Fair Lady and Camelot, for each of which he won the Tony Award for Best Conductor and Musical Director, in 1957 and 1961. Allers worked closely with the team of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, as the conductor for most of their musicals. Allers was married to German actress/playwright Janne Furch-Allers (née Ertel). According to The New York Times obituary, "Harold C. Schonberg of The New York Times wrote that Allers, along with the conductor Maurice Abravanel, 'completely revised the standards of Broadway pit work,' demanding the highest quality from both the orchestra players and the singers."[1]