Later Life
In the 1970s he remained active, particularly as a Las Vegas and Catskills Borscht Belt resort performer and talk show guest, but his career had begun to flounder. He had taken risks that eventually led to his downfall in Hollywood. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s he worked to achieve a comeback.He staged a successful American tour of his Stop The World - I Want To Get Off in 1986-87. The production co-starred a then unknown Suzie Plakson, whom Newley had discovered. The tour garnered her some strong notices and led to a steady career on stage and television. In 1987 he was also featured as the Mad Hatter in Steve Allen's all-star television adaptaion of Alice In Wonderland. In his later years as a mature singer Newley recorded songs from Fiddler on the Roof and Scrooge. He enjoyed his final popular success onstage when he starred in the latter musical which showed in London and toured UK cities including Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester, in the 1990s. At the time of his death he had been working on a musical of Shakespeare's Richard III.He died of renal cancer at the age of 67, soon after he had become a grandfather.
In recognition of his creative skills and body of work, Newley was elected to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1989.
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