New York ? Adolph Green, the man who went “Singin’ in the Rain” and observed that “New York, New York” is a “helluva town,” died Wednesday night in his Manhattan apartment. He was 87.

With longtime collaborator Betty Comden, Green wrote a series of Broadway hit shows as well as the lyrics to many pop standards and the screenplay for the 1952 movie classic “Singin’ in the Rain.”

Best known for their musicals about New York City, which they portrayed as an irrepressibly jolly place, Green and Comden won five Tony Awards in their 60-year-long partnership.

Green and Comden began writing and performing together in the early ’40s as The Revuers, a comedy group that included neophyte actress Judy Holliday and a piano player named Leonard Bernstein, whose camp counselor had been Green.

Comden and Green continued to perform their songs and revue material as recently as two years ago, when they sang on the stage of Carnegie Hall for Isaac Stern’s 80th birthday.

In 1943, Bernstein, Comden and Green, with choreographer Jerome Robbins, created the musical “On the Town,” which contained the song “New York, New York.”

The three collaborated again in 1953 on the musical “Wonderful Town,” which starred Rosalind Russell.

In 1954 they worked with composer Jule Styne on music for “Peter Pan,” with Mary Martin. Two years later they wrote the musical “Bells Are Ringing” for Holliday, which contained “Just in Time” and “The Party’s Over.”

Holliday’s understudy was Phyllis Newman, whom Green married in 1960.

Their longest-running show, “The Will Rogers Follies,” opened in 1991 and ran for 983 performances. The Ziegfeld-styled retelling of the humorist’s life starred Keith Carradine, was directed by Tommy Tune and had a score by Coleman.

They received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1991.