Tom Santopietro
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Tom Santopietro is an American author and
Broadway theater Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences), 130 of the 144 extant and extinct Broadway venues use (used) the spelling ''Th ...
manager.New York Times
/ref> He worked for 25 years in the New York theater scene, managing over 30 Broadway shows. Tom Santopietro is the author of five books: ''The Sound of Music Story'', ''The Godfather Effect: Changing Hollywood, America, and Me'', ''Sinatra in Hollywood'', ''Considering Doris Day'' (a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice), and ''The Importance of Being Barbra''. A frequent media commentator in programs ranging from the PBS documentary The Italian Americans to the Jimmy van Heusen biography ''Swingin' With Frank & Bing'', Tom conducts monthly interviews for Barnes and Noble and lectures on classic films. Over the past thirty years he has managed more than two dozen Broadway shows.


Early life

Santopietro was born in
Waterbury, Connecticut Waterbury is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut on the Naugatuck River, southwest of Hartford and northeast of New York City. Waterbury is the second-largest city in New Haven County, Connecticut. According to the 2020 US Census, in 20 ...
. His paternal grandfather and grandmother, Orazio Santopietro and Maria Victoria Valleta, emigrated to the U.S. from Italy at an early age. Orazio was only 13, and arrived in America with twenty lira in his pocket. Together, Orazio and Maria Victoria opened a grocery store on Waterbury's Division Street. Santopietro's father, Olindo Oreste Santopietro, was a successful physician who also achieved an
MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...
. His mother, Nancy Edge Parker, supported many arts and civic projects, and was president of the Waterbury
Junior League The Association of Junior Leagues International, Inc. (Junior League or JL) is a private, nonprofit educational women's volunteer organization aimed at improving communities and the social, cultural, and political fabric of civil society. With ...
.


Education

Santopietro graduated from the
Taft School The Taft School is a private, coeducational school located in Watertown, Connecticut, United States. It teaches students in 9th through 12th grades and post-graduates. About three-quarters of Taft's roughly 600 students live on the school's ...
and was editor-in-chief of its school newspaper, ''The Papyrus.'' He then graduated from
Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
and the
University of Connecticut Law School The University of Connecticut School of Law (UConn Law) is the law school associated with the University of Connecticut and located in Hartford, Connecticut. It is the only public law school in Connecticut and one of only four in New England. I ...
.Tribute to Italian American Singers in Waterbury – Hartford Courant
/ref>Stage manager and Waterbury native has rainbow by the tail - The Middletown Press : Serving Middletown, CT
/ref>


Broadway theater

After graduating from the
University of Connecticut School of Law The University of Connecticut School of Law (UConn Law) is the law school associated with the University of Connecticut and located in Hartford, Connecticut. It is the only public law school in Connecticut and one of only four in New England. In ...
, Santopietro worked on Broadway shows as a stage and company manager. He handled the business affairs of major Broadway hits for 25 years and managed over 30 shows including ''
The Iceman Cometh ''The Iceman Cometh'' is a play written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill in 1939. First published in 1946, the play premiered on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre on October 9, 1946, directed by Eddie Dowling, where it ran for 136 perf ...
'', '' Blithe Spirit'', '' The Impossible Dream'', ''
Jersey Boys ''Jersey Boys'' is a jukebox musical with music by Bob Gaudio, lyrics by Bob Crewe, and book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. It is presented in a documentary-style format that dramatizes the formation, success and eventual break-up of the ...
'', ''
In the Heights ''In the Heights'' is a musical with concept, music, and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda and a book by Quiara Alegría Hudes. The story is set over the course of three days, involving characters in the largely Dominican American neighborhood of ...
'', and ''
Noises Off ''Noises Off'' is a 1982 play by the English playwright Michael Frayn. Frayn conceived the idea in 1970 while watching from the wings a performance of '' The Two of Us'', a farce that he had written for Lynn Redgrave. He said, "It was funnier ...
''. As both a company manager and house manager, Santopietro's responsibilities required a broad range of legal and business acumen. When working as a house manager, he dealt with the public and had to master the payroll system for everyone from the ushers to the stagehands who work for the theater. When working as a company manager, he dealt with the actors, the
Actor's Equity The Actors' Equity Association (AEA), commonly referred to as Actors' Equity or simply Equity, is an American labor union representing those who work in live theatrical performance. Performers appearing in live stage productions without a book ...
trade union, and a completely different
payroll A payroll is the list of employees of some company that is entitled to receive payments as well as other work benefits and the amounts that each should receive. Along with the amounts that each employee should receive for time worked or tasks pe ...
system. He even had to break up the occasional fistfight in the audience.


Authorship

An acclaimed biographer,The Importance of Being Barbra: The Brilliant, Tumultuous Career of Barbra ... - Tom Santopietro - Google Books
/ref> Santopietro wrote in-depth studies of several Hollywood icons, who reflected and defined the American cultural landscape. These included Doris Day (''Considering Doris Day''),
Barbra Streisand Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand (; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment, and is among the few performers awar ...
(''The Importance of Being Barbra''), and the definitive account of Frank Sinatra's Hollywood film career (''Sinatra in Hollywood''). Santopietro's latest book, ''The Sound of Music Story: How A Beguiling Young Novice, A Handsome Austrian Captain, and Ten Singing Von Trapp Children Inspired the Most Beloved Film of All Time'', is a behind-the-scenes chronicle of the filming of
The Sound of Music ''The Sound of Music'' is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, ''The Story of the Trapp Family Singers''. S ...
in
Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
and Hollywood. It reviews the real-life story of
Maria von Trapp Baroness Maria Augusta von Trapp DHS (; 26 January 1905 – 28 March 1987) was the stepmother and matriarch of the Trapp Family Singers. She wrote ''The Story of the Trapp Family Singers'', which was published in 1949 and was the inspiratio ...
, the critical controversy which greeted the movie, the film's relationship to the turbulent 1960s, and the super stardom which engulfed Julie Andrews in its immediate aftermath. Santopietro also provides a historian's critical analysis of the careers of director
Robert Wise Robert Earl Wise (September 10, 1914 – September 14, 2005) was an American film director, producer, and editor. He won the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture for his musical films ''West Side Story'' (1961) and ''The Sound of ...
and screenwriter
Ernest Lehman Ernest Paul Lehman (December 8, 1915 – July 2, 2005) was an American screenwriter. He was nominated six times for Academy Awards for his screenplays during his career, but did not win. At the 73rd Academy Awards in 2001, he received an Ho ...
. Santopietro's '' The Godfather Effect'', was a critically acclaimed study of the ''Godfather'' films - as well as
Mario Puzo Mario Francis Puzo (; ; October 15, 1920 – July 2, 1999) was an American author, screenwriter, and journalist. He is known for his crime novels about the Italian-American Mafia and Sicilian Mafia, most notably '' The Godfather'' (1969), whi ...
's novel - and their effect on American culture.Hollywood Reporter
/ref>Hollywood Reporter
/ref> According to Santopietro, ''The Godfather'' was a turning point in American cultural consciousness. With its emphasis on proud ethnicity, ''The Godfather'' changed not just the way Italian-Americans saw themselves, but how Americans of all backgrounds viewed their individual and national self-identities, their possibilities, and attendant disappointments. The "Godfather Effect" had a broader philosophical dimension, as well. As noted by Santopietro, "what Puzo delivered - brilliantly - was nothing less than a disquisition on the madness, glory, and failure of the American dream." Early in the novel,
Amerigo Bonasera This is a list of characters from the film series ''The Godfather'' consisting of ''The Godfather'' (1972), ''The Godfather Part II'' (1974) and ''The Godfather Part III'' (1990), based on Mario Puzo's best-selling 1969 novel of the same name, as ...
declares "I believe in America." The novel then depicts a nation where Mafia and big business are two sides of the same coin: both are corrupt, tell the truth selectively, and do exactly as they wish. ''The Godfather Effect'' was widely reviewed, and well received by the press. ''
The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...
'' called it "a beautiful narrative of the way pop culture shapes our self-image." ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' declared that "part memoir, part devotional film essay and part reflection on the meaning of ethnicity in American life, ''The Godfather Effect'' defines how the ''Godfather'' movies, along with the 1969 Mario Puzo novel from which they were adapted, reflected the madness, glory and failure of the American dream. By exploring that dream in distinctly Italian-American terms, the movies succeeded in delivering nothing less than the Italianization of American culture. In other words, they were so cool that everyone wanted to seem a little Italian." '' Newsday'' appreciated the personal dimension in Santopietro's book, noting, "In the end, it's the personal moments, such as Santopietro taking his aging dad to revisit the field where he played baseball as a child, that are most rewarding. The films make up the shell of ''The Godfather Effect'', but it's the connections with family that give it a center as sweet as cannoli cream."'The Godfather Effect' by Tom Santopietro
/ref>


''That's Life!''

Over the years, Santopietro developed and produced a succession of
cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining o ...
shows which commemorate Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, and other legendary American performers. These shows travelled and sold out all over the United States, and received extensive press coverage including
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
. ''The Best is Yet to Come'' was a lively yet intimate tribute to the musical legacy of Frank Sinatra. ''Sentimental Journey: A Tribute to Doris Day,'' written and staged by Santopietro, was a sparkling collaboration between Santopietro and composer
Billy Stritch Billy Stritch (born February 12, 1962, in Houston, Texas) is an American composer, arranger, vocalist, and jazz pianist. For many years, he was best known as a "confidant", music director, and piano player for Liza Minnelli. Early life and care ...
. The show performed to sold-out audiences all over the U.S. In his latest show, called ''That's Life!'', Santopietro and the noted singer/pianist
Tony DeSare Tony DeSare (born 1976) is an American jazz singer, pianist and songwriter. Early life DeSare was born in Glens Falls, New York in 1976. He began playing the piano as a young child, and had public performances in his late teens. He kept perform ...
saluted the great
Italian-American Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, ...
singers
Tony Bennett Anthony Dominick Benedetto (born August 3, 1926), known professionally as Tony Bennett, is an American retired singer of traditional pop standards, big band, show tunes, and jazz. Bennett is also a painter, having created works under his birt ...
, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. ''That's Life!'' was hailed as "an informative, entertaining mix of Santopietro's anecdote-packed mini-bios of the famous singers seguing back-and-forth with DeSare's renditions of classic songs forever associated with the three pop bel canto masters."


References


External links


Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Santopietro, Tom Year of birth missing (living people) American lawyers American theatre managers and producers Taft School alumni Trinity College (Connecticut) alumni University of Connecticut alumni Living people Italian male writers American lawyers and judges of Italian descent 21st-century American writers