|
Billy (musical)
''Billy'' is a musical theatre, musical based on the novel and play ''Billy Liar'' by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall. The book was written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, the music is by John Barry (composer), John Barry, and the lyrics are by Don Black (lyricist), Don Black. Productions ''Billy'' opened at the Palace Theatre, Manchester, before moving on 1 May 1974 to the West End theatre, West End at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, where it ran for 904 performances. The cast included Michael Crawford in the title role, with Bryan Pringle (Geoffrey Fisher), Avis Bunnage (Alice Fisher), Christopher Hancock (Mr. Shadrack), Billy Boyle, Diana Quick (Liz Benson), Gay Soper (Barbara), and Elaine Paige (Rita). The production was directed by Patrick Garland with choreography by Onna White, set by Ralph Koltai, Ralph Kotai, costumes by Annena Stubbs, and lighting by Jules Fisher. Roy Castle replaced Crawford late in the run. The first revival and reimagining of Billy was staged at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Barry (composer)
John Barry Prendergast (3 November 1933 – 30 January 2011) was a British composer and conductor of film music. He composed the scores for eleven of the ''James Bond'' films between 1963 and 1987, as well as arranging and performing the " James Bond Theme" for the first film in the series, 1962's '' Dr. No''. He wrote the Grammy- and Academy Award-winning scores to the films '' Dances with Wolves'' and '' Out of Africa'', as well as the scores of ''The Scarlet Letter'', '' Chaplin'', '' The Cotton Club'', ''Game of Death'', ''The Tamarind Seed'', ''Mary, Queen of Scots'' and the theme for the television series '' The Persuaders!'', in a career spanning over 50 years. In 1999, he was appointed with an OBE for services to music. Born in York, Barry spent his early years working in cinemas owned by his father. During his national service with the British Army in Cyprus, Barry began performing as a musician after learning to play the trumpet. Upon completing his national ser ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gay Soper
Gay Soper is an English actress and singer. Her career includes singing ''Turn Back, O Man'' in the original 1971 London production of ''Godspell''. She sang the role of Madam Thenardier on the complete symphonic recording of ''Les Misérables'' and she narrated the children's television show '' The Flumps.'' Education Soper was trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art between 1963 and 1965. Theatrical career Soper was an alternate Eliza Doolittle on the original UK tour of ''My Fair Lady'' in 1965. She was later cast in the original 1971 London production of the musical ''Godspell'', alongside Jeremy Irons, David Essex, Julie Covington and Marti Webb. The production opened at The Roundhouse, Chalk Farm and later transferred to Wyndhams Theatre. In 1974 she appeared as one of the two girlfriends in the original London production of the musical '' Billy,'' with lyrics by Don Black and music by John Barry, based on the story of Billy Liar. Billy was play ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz; May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, choreographer, actor, and singer. He is often called the greatest dancer in Hollywood film history. Astaire's career in stage, film, and television spanned 76 years. He starred in more than 10 Broadway and West End musicals, made 31 musical films, four television specials, and numerous recordings. As a dancer, he was known for his uncanny sense of rhythm, creativity, and tireless perfectionism. Astaire's most memorable dancing partnership was with Ginger Rogers, whom he co-starred with in 10 Hollywood musicals during the classic age of Hollywood cinema. Astaire and Rogers starred together in ''Top Hat'' (1935), '' Swing Time'' (1936), and ''Shall We Dance'' (1937). Astaire's fame grew in films like ''Holiday Inn'' (1942), '' Easter Parade'' (1948), '' The Band Wagon'' (1953), '' Funny Face'' (1957), and ''Silk Stockings'' (1957). The American Film Institute named Astaire the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gene Kelly
Eugene Curran Kelly (August 23, 1912 – February 2, 1996) was an American actor, dancer, singer, filmmaker, and choreographer. He was known for his energetic and athletic dancing style and sought to create a new form of American dance accessible to the general public, "dance for the common man." He starred in, choreographed, and co-directed with Stanley Donen some of the most well-regarded musical films of the 1940s and 1950s. Kelly is best known for his performances in '' An American in Paris'' (1951), which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, '' Singin' in the Rain'' (1952), which he and Donen directed and choreographed, and other musical films of that era such as '' Cover Girl'' (1944) and '' Anchors Aweigh'' (1945), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. '' On the Town'' (1949), which he co-directed with Donen, was his directorial debut. Later in the 1950s, as musicals waned in popularity, he starred in ''Brigadoon'' (1954) and '' It's Always ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Association Football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is to score more goals than the opposition by moving the ball beyond the goal line into a rectangular framed goal defended by the opposing side. Traditionally, the game has been played over two 45 minute halves, for a total match time of 90 minutes. With an estimated 250 million players active in over 200 countries, it is considered the world's most popular sport. The game of association football is played in accordance with the Laws of the Game, a set of rules that has been in effect since 1863 with the International Football Association Board (IFAB) maintaining them since 1886. The game is played with a football that is in circumference. The two teams compete to get the ball into the other team's goal (between the posts and under ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have been undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform. Throughout these changes, Yorkshire has continued to be recognised as a geographic territory and cultural region. The name is familiar and well understood across the United Kingdom and is in common use in the media and the military, and also features in the titles of current areas of civil administration such as North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire. Within the borders of the historic county of Yorkshire are large stretches of countryside, including the Yorkshire Dales, North York Moors and Peak District national parks. Yorkshire has been nicknamed "God's Own Country" or "God's Own County" by its i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was published on Saturday 26 March 2016, leaving only the online edition. The newspaper was controlled by Tony O'Reilly's Irish Independent News & Media from 1997 until it was sold to the Russian oligarch and former KGB Officer Alexander Lebedev in 2010. In 2017, Sultan Muhammad Abuljadayel bought a 30% stake in it. The daily edition was named National Newspaper of the Year at the 2004 British Press Awards. The website and mobile app had a combined monthly reach of 19,826,000 in 2021. History 1986 to 1990 Launched in 1986, the first issue of ''The Independent'' was published on 7 October in broadsheet format.Dennis Griffiths (ed.) ''The Encyclopedia of the British Press, 1422–1992'', London & Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992, p. 330 It was pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Offies
The Off West End Theatre Awards, nicknamed The Offies, were launched in 2010 to recognise and celebrate excellence, innovation and ingenuity of independent Off West End theatres across London. Over 80 theatres participate in the awards, with more than 400 productions being considered annually by a team of 40 assessors, with the winners chosen by a select panel of critics. History The Off West End Theatre Awards were launched in 2010 to commemorate and recognise on and off-stage talent within the theatre industry of around 80 of London's independent Off West End theatres. The first-ever award ceremony for The Offies was held on 27 February 2011 with Simon Callow hosting the event. The aim of the awards is to help raise the profile and status of independent theatres in London by rewarding productions not eligible for the Society of London Theatre- Laurence Olivier Awards. The winners are selected by a panel of theatre critics. In 2014, Phoebe Waller-Bridge won two Off West End Thea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Union Theatre, London
The Union Theatre is a fringe theatre situated in the borough of Southwark in London, England. It was established in 1998 by Sasha Regan, and has a reputation for staging musicals. Original premises In 1998, Sasha Regan took the initiative to convert a disused paper warehouse on Union Street near Southwark station into a functioning theatre. Set beneath railway arches, it was one of the more distinctive theatrical spaces in London. When its landlord, the publicly owned infrastructure body Network Rail, wished to redevelop the site for offices, a campaign was started to save the theatre, and also other small businesses nearby which were given just 12 weeks notice to relocate. The Union Theatre was given a stay of execution. Relocation In 2016, after almost twenty years in its original premises, the Union Theatre moved into new Network Rail premises just across the road from its original site. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roy Castle
Roy Castle (31 August 1932 – 2 September 1994) was an English dancer, singer, comedian, actor, television presenter and musician. In addition to being an accomplished jazz trumpet player, he could play many other instruments. Following a versatile career as a performer on stage, television and film, he became best known to British television viewers as the long-running presenter of the children's series '' Record Breakers''. Early career Castle was born in Scholes, near Holmfirth, West Riding of Yorkshire. The son of a railwayman, he was a tap dancer from an early age and trained at Nora Bray's school of dance with Audrey Spencer who later ran a big dance school, and after leaving Holme Valley Grammar School (now Honley High School) he started his career as an entertainer in an amateur concert party. As a young performer in the 1950s, he lived in Cleveleys near Blackpool and appeared there at the local Queen's Theatre, turning professional in 1953 as a stooge for Jimmy Cl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jules Fisher
Jules Fisher (born November 12, 1937) is an American lighting designer and producer. He is credited with lighting designs for more than 300 productions over the course of his 50-year career in Broadway and off-Broadway shows, as well extensive work in film, ballet, opera, television, and rock and roll concert tours. He has been nominated 20 times for Tony Awards (as a lighting designer) and won nine Tony Award for Best Lighting Design, Tony awards for Lighting Design, more than any other lighting designer. Biography Fisher was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania, Norristown, Pennsylvania, the son of Anne (Davidson) and Abraham Fisher, a retailer. He is a graduate of Carnegie Institute of Technology.Rothstein, Mervy"A Life in the Theatre: Lighting Designers Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer" playbill.com, June 23, 2005 He is married to choreographer-director Graciela Daniele. He has been in a professional partnership with lighting designer Peggy Eisenhauer since 1985, and they fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ralph Koltai
Ralph Koltai CBE, RDI (31 July 1924 – 15 December 2018), was a German-born, naturalised British stage designer, who worked as associate designer of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and latterly as a sculptor. Early life Koltai was born on 31 July 1924, in Berlin, Germany, to a family of Jewish descent. He was the only child of a Hungarian-born doctor Alfred and his wife Charlotte (née Weinstein) Koltai who was German. Their son was on the Kindertransport from Brussels to England in 1939. His parents survived the Holocaust; his mother was able to settle in Britain, while his father began again in Cuba. Koltai worked as a translator at the Nuremberg trials and later for the British Intelligence Corps as an investigator of war crimes. His military service ended in 1948. From 1943, Koltai trained to a commercial artist at Epsom School of Art before he entered the military. From 1948 to 1951, he studied at the Central School of Arts and Crafts (now Central Saint Martins) where ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
