Warren Casey, 53, a Chicago lyricist and composer, was co-author of the musical, ”Grease.” He also was an actor and created the role of Bernie in the original performance of David Mamet`s ”Sexual Perversity in Chicago.”
Memorial services for Mr. Casey, a resident of the Lincoln Park neighborhood, are pending. He died Tuesday in St. Joseph Hospital of complications of AIDS.
”Warren was the funniest man I ever knew,” said Jim Jacobs, co-author of ”Grease.” ”He was the smartest, most intelligent person I ever met. He was also the most eccentric. He was my best friend. I was married twice, and he was my best man both times.”
Mr. Casey was moving from a job as a lingerie salesman to an advertising copywriter when he started composing scenes for ”Grease,” a parody on high school days in the 1950s. It premiered in 1971 at the Kingston Mines Theater and moved to New York, to become the second longest-running show on Broadway. In his 1974 role in ”Sexual Perversity in Chicago,” Mr. Casey helped create in Bernie one of those easily and long-remembered characters whose bragging and empty lifestyle especially endeared him to audiences. It was his last performance as an actor, a friend said.
”He is remembered for `Grease,` of course,” said his companion, Burt Cohen. ”But he did a lot of theater work since then. Until he became too sick to continue it, he was working on a musical with Brazilian performer Veluchia de Castro. Many of his songs for it have already been professionally recorded. He was very quiet, very funny and worked very diligently.”
Survivors include his mother, Signe, and two brothers.
