The cause was complications of hypertension, said Stiles Colwill, the executor of his estate.
Bramble’s career on Broadway began in 1971, when he took a low-level position with the producer and showman David Merrick. Over the years Bramble worked as a director, producer and writer, among other theater jobs. His librettos were usually straightforward scaffolding for extravagant musical and dance numbers.
His first success as a writer was “Barnum,” a show about the circus impresario P.T. Barnum, directed by Joe Layton, with music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Michael Stewart. The show, which opened in 1980, starred Jim Dale as Barnum and Glenn Close as his wife. It won three Tony Awards, and Bramble’s book was nominated. “Barnum” ran for more than 850 performances before closing in 1982.
“42nd Street,” a stage adaptation of the celebrated 1933 Hollywood musical, also opened in 1980. It tells the story of a chorus girl, played by Wanda Richert, who becomes the star of a Broadway show after its lead actress, played by Tammy Grimes, is injured. Gower Champion’s choreography and direction anchored the show, and Stewart and Bramble wrote the book. (The credits for the production also said it was inspired by Bradford Ropes, the author of the novel that was the basis for the movie.)
“In adapting the film script to the stage, Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble have written a curious non-book; it’s not for nothing that the Playbill describes the libretto simply as ‘lead-ins and crossovers,’” the New York Times theater critic Frank Rich wrote in an otherwise positive review.
At the end of the opening-night performance, on Aug. 25, 1980, Merrick, the producer, shocked the crowd when he announced that Champion had died that day from a rare form of blood cancer.
Champion was posthumously awarded a Tony for best choreography in 1981. Merrick won the Tony for best musical; Bramble and Stewart were nominated for best book. “42nd Street” ran for nearly 3,500 performances and closed in 1989.
Mark Miller Bramble was born on Dec. 7, 1950, in Chestertown, Maryland, to David and Margaret (Kintner) Bramble. His father owned a construction company, and his mother was a homemaker who collected tea caddies, a hobby that Bramble later took up and wrote a book about, “A Tea Caddy Collection” (2017).
Mark graduated from the McDonogh School in Owings Mills, Maryland, and then studied theater and drama at Emerson College in Boston and New York University before going to work for Merrick.
Bramble lived in Chestertown. He is survived by two brothers, Danny and Alan.
After “42nd Street,” Bramble wrote a new libretto for a short-lived 1984 Broadway revival of the 1920s operetta version of “The Three Musketeers.” He had a much longer tenure as the director of a 2001 Broadway revival of “42nd Street,” which ran for more than 1,500 performances. He also directed a London revival that ran for almost two years and closed in January.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.