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Drama Desk Award For Outstanding Musical ...
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical is an annual award presented by Drama Desk in recognition of achievements in theatre across collective Broadway, off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions in New York City. Winners and nominees 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s See also * Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical * Tony Award for Best Musical References {{DEFAULTSORT:Drama Desk Award Musical Musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drama Desk Award
The Drama Desk Awards are among the most esteemed honors in New York theater, recognizing outstanding achievements across Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway productions within the same categories. The awards are considered a significant American theater honor and have been referred to as "the Golden Globes of Theatre." Established in 1955, the awards are presented annually by the Drama Desk organization, a collective of New York City-based theatre critics, journalists, editors, and publishers dedicated to celebrating excellence in the performing arts. The awards are represented by long-time Broadway press agency, Keith Sherman & Associates. History and mission The Drama Desk organization was founded in 1949 by a group of theater critics and journalists aiming to spotlight significant issues in the theatrical industry and to support the development of New York theater. In 1955, the organization began presenting awards known as the ''Vernon Rice Awards'', named af ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Chorus Line
''A Chorus Line'' is a 1975 musical conceived by Michael Bennett with music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Edward Kleban, and a book by James Kirkwood Jr. and Nicholas Dante. Set on the bare stage of a Broadway theater, the musical is centered on seventeen Broadway dancers auditioning for spots on a chorus line. ''A Chorus Line'' provides a glimpse into the personalities of the performers and the choreographer, as they describe the events that have shaped their lives and their decisions to become dancers. Following several workshops and an Off-Broadway production, ''A Chorus Line'' opened at the Shubert Theatre on Broadway July 25, 1975, directed by Michael Bennett and co-choreographed by Bennett and Bob Avian. An unprecedented box office and critical hit, the musical received twelve Tony Award nominations and won nine, in addition to the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The original Broadway production ran for 6,137 performances, becoming the longest-running producti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin Charnin
Martin Charnin (November 24, 1934 – July 6, 2019) was an American lyricist, writer, and theatre director. Charnin's best-known work is as conceiver, director, and lyricist of the musical '' Annie.'' Life and career Charnin was born in New York City, the son of Birdie (Blakeman) and William Charnin, an opera singer. His family was Jewish. Charnin graduated from The High School of Music & Art and then from The Cooper Union, where he earned a BFA."Martin Charnin Biography". FilmReference.com, accessed July 11, 2012 Charnin began his theatrical career as a performer, appearing as "Big Deal", one of the Jets in the original production of '' West Side Story''. He played the r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Strouse
Charles Louis Strouse (June 7, 1928 – May 15, 2025) was an American composer and lyricist best known for writing the music to the Broadway musicals ''Bye Bye Birdie'', ''Applause (musical), Applause'', and ''Annie (musical), Annie''. Background Charles Louis Strouse, a native of the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City, was born on June 7, 1928, to Jewish parents, Ethel (née Newman) and Ira Strouse, who worked in the tobacco business. His parents suffered from physical and mental health issues, and the family found respite from their troubles when they would sing songs together at the piano, which his mother played. He graduated from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied under Arthur Victor Berger, Arthur Berger, David Diamond (composer), David Diamond, Aaron Copland, and Nadia Boulanger."Charles Strouse" ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Meehan (writer)
Thomas Edward Meehan (August 14, 1929 – August 21, 2017) was an American playwright. He wrote the Musical theatre#Book musicals, books for the musicals ''Annie (musical), Annie'', ''The Producers (musical), The Producers'', ''Hairspray (musical), Hairspray'', ''Young Frankenstein (musical), Young Frankenstein'' and ''Cry-Baby (musical), Cry-Baby''. He co-wrote the books for ''Elf: The Musical'' and ''Limelight: The Story of Charlie Chaplin''. He received the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical three times—in 1977 for ''Annie'', in 2001 for ''The Producers'' (shared with Mel Brooks), and in 2003 for ''Hairspray'' (shared with Mark O'Donnell). Early life Meehan was born in Ossining (town), New York, Ossining, New York, but grew up in Suffern, New York, Suffern, New York. His father, Thomas, was a businessman, and his mother, Helen Cecilia O'Neill, was an emergency department nurse. He graduated from Hamilton College (New York), Hamilton College. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Annie (musical)
''Annie'' is a musical with music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and a book by Thomas Meehan. It is based on the 1924 comic strip ''Little Orphan Annie'' by Harold Gray (which in turn was inspired from the poem '' Little Orphant Annie'' by James Whitcomb Riley). The original Broadway production opened in 1977 and ran for nearly six years, setting a record for the Alvin Theatre (now the Neil Simon Theatre). It spawned numerous productions in many countries, as well as national tours, and won seven Tony Awards, including for Best Musical. The musical's songs " Tomorrow" and " It's the Hard Knock Life" are among its most popular musical numbers. Background Martin Charnin first approached Thomas Meehan to write the book of a musical about ''Little Orphan Annie'', in 1972. Meehan researched, by rereading prints of the comic strip, but he was unable to find any satisfactory material for a musical, other than the characters of Annie, Oliver Warbucks, and Sandy, s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Waldman
Robert Waldman (born 1936) is an American composer, musical arranger, and orchestrator. Waldman has collaborated with Alfred Uhry twice, on ''Here's Where I Belong'', the disastrous 1968 adaptation of John Steinbeck's ''East of Eden (novel), East of Eden'' that closed on opening night, and the considerably more successful ''The Robber Bridegroom (musical), The Robber Bridegroom'', which was produced on Broadway theatre, Broadway in both 1975 and 1976, enjoyed a year-long US national tour, and has become a staple of Regional theatre in the United States, regional theatres. It garnered Waldman a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Music. Over the years he has composed, arranged, and orchestrated incidental music for the Broadway stagings of numerous dramatic plays, including ''The Rivals'', ''Dinner at Eight (play), Dinner at Eight'', ''Ivanov (play), Ivanov'', ''The Last Night of Ballyhoo'', ''The School for Scandal'', ''The Heiress'', and ''Abe Lincoln in Illinois (play), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alfred Uhry
Alfred Fox Uhry (born December 3, 1936) is an American playwright and screenwriter. He is the recipient of the two Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for '' Driving Miss Daisy'', as well as the Academy Award for the 1989 film adaptation of the play. He is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Early life Uhry was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the son of Alene (Fox), a social worker, and Ralph K. Uhry, a furniture designer and artist. He was born into a German Jewish family with one sister, the author Ann Uhry Abrams. Uhry graduated from Druid Hills High School in 1954 and went on to graduate from Brown University in 1958 Harrison, Leah R"Real Life Inspired Uhry's Midlife Success"''Jewish Times'', December 1, 2015 where he wrote two original musicals with Brownbrokers. Druid Hills High School's Uhry Theater is named in honor of Uhry. During his first years in New York City, learning the craft of lyric-writing, Uhry received a stipend from Frank Loesser; afte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Robber Bridegroom (musical)
''The Robber Bridegroom'' is a musical theatre, musical with a book and lyrics by Alfred Uhry and music by Robert Waldman. The story is based on the 1942 novella by Eudora Welty of The Robber Bridegroom (novel), the same name, with a Robin Hood-like hero; the adaptation placed it in a late 18th-century United States, American setting. The musical ran on Broadway theatre, Broadway in 1975 and again in 1976. Production history The show started with an early 1970s production at St Clements Theatre in theatre producer, producer Stuart Ostrow's Musical Theatre Lab, which invented the concept of the "workshop" development process for musicals. Raul Julia starred as Lockhart. Other cast members included Steve Vinovich (Clemment Musgrove), Rhonda Coullet (Rosamund), John Getz (Mike Fink), Bill Nunnery (Little Harp), Ernie Sabella (Little Harp), Trip Plymale (Goat), Cynthia Herman (Airie), and Susan Berger (Salome). John Houseman bought the show for his group, The Acting Company and took ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim (; March22, 1930November26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. Regarded as one of the most important figures in 20th-century musical theater, he is credited with reinventing the American musical. He received List of awards and nominations received by Stephen Sondheim, numerous accolades, including eight Tony Awards, an Academy Award, eight Grammy Awards, an Olivier Award, and the Pulitzer Prize. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1982, and awarded the Kennedy Center Honor in 1993 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. Sondheim was mentored at an early age by Oscar Hammerstein II and later frequently collaborated with Harold Prince and James Lapine. His Broadway theatre, Broadway musicals tackle themes that range beyond the genre's traditional subjects, while addressing darker elements of the human experience. His music and lyrics are tinged with complexity, sophistication, and ambivalence about various aspects of li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Weidman
John Weidman (born September 25, 1946) is an American librettist and television writer for ''Sesame Street''. He has worked on stage musicals with Stephen Sondheim and Susan Stroman. Career Weidman was born in New York City and grew up in Westport, Connecticut, the son of Peggy Wright and librettist and novelist Jerome Weidman."Storytelling with Sondheim" harvardmagazine.com, January–February 2011 He received a B.A. from with a major in East Asian history and a J.D. from . [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pacific Overtures
''Pacific Overtures'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by John Weidman, with "additional material by" Hugh Wheeler. Set in nineteenth-century Japan, it tells the story of the country's westernization starting in 1853, when American ships forcibly opened it to the rest of the world. The story is told from the point of view of the Japanese, and focuses in particular on the lives of two friends who are caught in the change. Sondheim wrote the score in a quasi-Japanese style of parallel 4ths and no leading-tone. He did not use the pentatonic scale; the 4th degree of the major scale is represented from the opening number through the finale, as Sondheim found just five pitches too limiting. The music contrasts Japanese contemplation ("There Is No Other Way") with Western ingenuousness ("Please Hello") while over the course of the 127 years, Western harmonies, tonality and even lyrics are infused into the score. The score is generally considered to be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
