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Brent Crayon
Brent Crayon is an American pianist, musical director, orchestrator and copyist. Early life and education Crayon was born and grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana. He graduated from Loyola University New Orleans with a Bachelor of Music degree in music performance, in 1995. He subsequently earned a Master of Fine Arts in piano performance from the California Institute of the Arts, in Valencia, California, in 1997. Musical director Crayon began his musical career as a trained classical pianist. After serving as the musical director for several productions at the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura, California and elsewhere, he made his Los Angeles theatrical debut at the Mark Taper Forum, with the pre-Broadway revival of ''Flower Drum Song,'' in 2001. Since then, he subsequently musical directed productions of '' Les Miserables'' in Alaska, ''Dreamgirls'' in Tokyo, ''Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris,'' ''Ecstasy, the Musical,'', ''A Class Act,'' '' Triumph of Love,'' ''Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans . ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nueva Orleans) is a consolidated city-parish located along the in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of . With a population of 383,997 accord ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Broadway Theatre
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 ''Theatre'' as the proper noun in their names (12 others used neither), with many performers and trade groups for live dramatic presentations also using the spelling ''theatre''. or Broadway, are the theatrical performances presented in the 41 professional theatres, each with 500 or more seats, located in the Theater District and the Lincoln Center along Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Broadway and London's West End together represent the highest commercial level of live theater in the English-speaking world. While the thoroughfare is eponymous with the district and its collection of 41 theaters, and it is also closely identified with Times Square, only three of the theaters are located on Broadway itself (namely the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Gordon (composer)
Paul Howard Gordon is a composer of popular songs and music for the theatre. Career Gordon composed the music and lyrics for the stage musical ''Jane Eyre'' which ran on Broadway in 2000–2001, for which he received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Original Score. The musical was later produced by TheatreWorks at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts in Mountain View, California, in 2003. Of this production, the ''talkinbroadway.com'' reviewer wrote: "The music of Paul Gordon fits this production like a glove, with unbroken strings of music and lyrics that give the audience the mood of the story." The ''Wall Street Journal'' noted the musical has "a lyrical score". His musical ''Emma'' played an engagement at the Old Globe Theatre (San Diego, California) in 2011. The stage musical ''The Front'', for which Gordon wrote the music and lyrics with Jay Gruska, had a reading at the Manhattan Theatre Club in April 2007, and private industry readings in 2008. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Bucchino
John Bucchino (born 1952) is an American songwriter of both lyrics and music, an accompanist, a cabaret performer, and a teacher. He has been called "super-talented". Stephen Schwartz said his songs have "insightful lyrics and gorgeous melodies", "rich harmonic textures and subtle…inner voicings." His music has "beautiful intricacies." Career Bucchino was born in South Philadelphia, son of an accountant; his family moved to Palm Springs, California when he was 12. He started writing songs in high school. After college he moved to Los Angeles. He never had music lessons of any sort. He does not read music, and he taught himself to play the piano by ear. Bucchino did not seek out a career as songwriter for musicals; he "wanted to be a singer/songwriter/piano player ala Billy Joel or Elton John or Joni Mitchell". Bucchino has been an accompanist for Holly Near starting in the mid 1980s, and for the Australian singer David Campbell. "He composes at the piano and makes casset ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephen Schwartz (composer)
Stephen Lawrence Schwartz (born March 6, 1948) is an American musical theater lyricist and composer. In a career spanning over five decades, Schwartz has written such hit musicals as ''Godspell'' (1971), '' Pippin'' (1972), and '' Wicked'' (2003). He has contributed lyrics to a number of successful films, including ''Pocahontas'' (1995), '' The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' (1996), '' The Prince of Egypt'' (1998, music and lyrics), and '' Enchanted'' (2007). Schwartz has won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics, three Grammy Awards, three Academy Awards, and has been nominated for six Tony Awards. He received the 2015 Isabelle Stevenson Award, a special Tony Award, for his commitment to serving artists and fostering new talent. Early life and education Schwartz was born to a Jewish family in New York City, the son of Sheila Lorna (née Siegel), a teacher, and Stanley Leonard Schwartz, a businessman. He grew up in the Williston Park area of Nassau County, New York, where ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West Side Story
''West Side Story'' is a musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents. Inspired by William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo and Juliet'', the story is set in the mid-1950s in the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, then a multiracial, blue-collar neighborhood. The musical explores the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds. The Sharks, who are immigrants from Puerto Rico, and the Jets, who are white, vie for dominance of the neighborhood, and the police try to keep order. The young protagonist, Tony, a former member of the Jets and best friend of the gang's leader, Riff, falls in love with Maria, the sister of Bernardo, the leader of the Sharks. The dark theme, sophisticated music, extended dance scenes, tragic love story, and focus on social problems marked a turning point in musical theatre. The original 1957 Broadway production, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Fantasticks
''The Fantasticks'' is a 1960 musical with music by Harvey Schmidt and book and lyrics by Tom Jones. It tells an allegorical story, loosely based on the 1894 play ''The Romancers'' (''Les Romanesques'') by Edmond Rostand, concerning two neighboring fathers who trick their children, Luisa and Matt, into falling in love by pretending to feud. The show's original off-Broadway production ran a total of 42 years (until 2002) and 17,162 performances, making it the world's longest-running musical. The musical was produced by Lore Noto. It was awarded Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre in 1991. The poetic book and breezy, inventive score, including such familiar songs as " Try to Remember", helped make the show durable. Many productions followed, as well as television and film versions. ''The Fantasticks'' has become a staple of regional, community and high school productions since its premiere, with approximately 250 new productions each year. It is played with a small cast, two ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Spitfire Grill (musical)
''The Spitfire Grill'' is an American musical with music and book by James Valcq and lyrics and book by Fred Alley, based on the 1996 film of the same name by Lee David Zlotoff. The off-Broadway production by Playwrights Horizons began previews at the Duke Theatre on 42nd Street on September 7, 2001, and concluded its scheduled run on October 14, 2001. It won the Richard Rodgers Production Award, administered by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The musical depicts the journey of a young woman just released from prison, who decides to start her life anew in a rural town in Wisconsin. She participates in a journey within the town toward its own tenuous reawakening. History Authors James Valcq and Fred Alley had been friends since high-school music camp in 1980, but they did not collaborate until 1994 on ''The Passage'' for Alley's American Folklore Theatre in Wisconsin. New York-based Valcq was seeking a follow-up project for the pair after his ''Zombies from the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Triumph Of Love (musical)
''Triumph of Love'' is a musical with a book by James Magruder, lyrics by Susan Birkenhead, and music by Jeffrey Stock. Overview Resembling a chamber musical more than a traditional book musical, it is based on the 1732 Pierre de Marivaux commedia dell'arte play ''Le Triomphe de l'Amour'' and centers on Spartan princess Léonide, whose love for Agis is complicated by the fact her throne was wrongfully wrested by her family from the object of her affection. Agis has been raised an educated man ruled by reason rather than passion by his uncle Hermocrates and his aunt Hesione. The princess, conspiring with her servant Corine, disguises herself as Phocion in order to infiltrate the guarded "men-only" palace compound occupied by Agis, who is plotting her assassination. Complications ensue when both Agis and Hermocrates separately guess her secret, and she tells the former she's Cécile, on the lam from an undesirable paramour, and to the latter claims to be Aspasie, who wishes to stud ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Class Act
''A Class Act'' is a quasi-autobiographical musical loosely based on the life of composer-lyricist Edward Kleban, who died at the age of 48 in 1987. Featuring a book by Linda Kline and Lonny Price along with music and lyrics by Kleban himself, the musical uses flashbacks and the device of time running backwards to retrace the high and low points of the composer's personal and professional life. The original production concept was haphazardly thrown together by Kleban's close friend and author of the book by using a trunkful of songs that Kleban had written for a number of unproduced musicals, and writing new scenes or reworking original scenes around them, with Price polishing up the results. In addition to serving as a tribute to one of the award-winning collaborators of ''A Chorus Line'', ''A Class Act'' provides yet another behind-the-scenes glimpse at how a musical is created and brought to the stage. In contrast to ''A Chorus Line'' however, the piece offers a consider ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacques Brel Is Alive And Well And Living In Paris
''Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris'' is a musical revue of the songs of Jacques Brel. Brel's songs were translated into English by Eric Blau and Mort Shuman, who also provided the story. The original 1968 Off-Broadway production ran for four years and spawned international and regional productions, as well as a West End production and Off-Broadway revival, among others. A film adaptation was released in 1975. In 2003, David Bowie included the cast recording in a list of 25 of his favourite albums, "Confessions of a Vinyl Junkie". Early productions The revue debuted Off-Broadway on January 22, 1968 at The Village Gate Theater in Greenwich Village and ran for more than four years. Its original performers were Elly Stone, Mort Shuman, Shawn Elliott, and Alice Whitfield. The production was directed by Moni Yakim. The revue, consisting of around 25 songs, is performed by four vocalists, two male and two female. Brel contributed most of the music and French ly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dreamgirls
''Dreamgirls'' is a Broadway musical, with music by Henry Krieger and lyrics and book by Tom Eyen. Based on the show business aspirations and successes of R&B acts such as The Supremes, The Shirelles, James Brown, Jackie Wilson, and others,Grossberg, Michael " 'Dreamgirls' continues to spark questions about its Motown inspiration" ''The Columbus Dispatch'', March 6, 2015 the musical follows the story of a young female singing trio from Chicago, Illinois called "The Dreams", who become music superstars. Staged with a mostly African-American cast and originally starring Jennifer Holliday, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Loretta Devine, Ben Harney, Cleavant Derricks, Vondie Curtis-Hall, and Obba Babatundé, the musical opened on December 20, 1981, at the Imperial Theatre on Broadway. The musical was then nominated for 13 Tony Awards, including the Tony Award for Best Musical, and won six. It was later adapted into a motion picture from DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures in 2006. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
