Jeffrey Seller
Jeffrey Seller (born 1964) is an American theatrical producer. He is known for his work on ''Rent'' (1996), '' Avenue Q'' (2003), '' In the Heights'' (2008), and ''Hamilton'' (2015), as well as inventing Broadway's first rush ticket and lottery ticket policies. Biography Seller was born in Oak Park, Michigan, in 1964 at Sinai-Grace Hospital. He was adopted three months later into a Jewish family, and considers himself Jewish. Seller is a 1986 graduate of the University of Michigan. After school, he moved to New York City, where he worked as a publicist, booking agent and theatrical producer. With his business partner, Kevin McCollum, he produced three Best Musical Tony Award-winning Broadway shows; ''Rent'' (1996), ''Avenue Q'' (2003), and ''In the Heights'' (2008). With Broadway ticket prices increasing through the 1980s and 1990s, Seller and McCollum invented Broadway's first rush-ticket policy early on in the production of ''Rent''. The idea was to keep the show acces ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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University Of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Michigan is one of the earliest American research universities and is a founding member of the Association of American Universities. In the fall of 2023, the university employed 8,189 faculty members and enrolled 52,065 students in its programs. The university is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". It consists of nineteen colleges and offers 250 degree programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The university is Higher education accreditation in the United States, accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. In 2021, it ranked third among American universities in List of countries by research and development spending, research expe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Andrew Lippa
Andrew Lippa (born December 22, 1964) is an American composer, lyricist, libretto, book writer, performer, and theatrical producer, producer. He is a resident artist at the Ars Nova Theater in New York City. Early life Lippa was born in Leeds, England, to English parents. He emigrated to the United States in October 1967 and grew up in Oak Park, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. Lippa attended Oak Park High School (Michigan), Oak Park High School and later the University of Michigan, where he studied vocal performance but eventually transferred into music education and received his bachelor's degree in music education. After graduating from college, Lippa moved to New York City in 1987 and became a middle school music teacher at Columbia Grammar and Prep School (CGPS) on the Upper West Side. He was promoted his second year at CGPS to dean of 7th and 8th grade students – an assistant principal position – and held that post, in addition to teaching music, until June 1991. In 1988 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Yuval Sharon
Yuval Sharon is an American opera and theater director from Naperville, Illinois, based in Los Angeles. He is the founder and co-artistic director of The Industry Opera. Since 2020, he has served as the Gary L. Wasserman Artistic Director of Detroit Opera. Early life and education Sharon was born in 1979 in Chicago to two Israeli parents. He earned a B.A. in 2001 from the University of California, Berkeley studying English and dramatic arts, before spending a year in Berlin. Seeing Anthony Davis's ''Amistad'' and Meredith Monk's ''Atlas'' as a college student and his time in Berlin led him towards opera. Sharon then lived in New York, where he founded a theater company called Theater Faction and worked at the New York City Opera, directing its VOX program from 2006 to 2009, before moving to Los Angeles. He found Los Angeles to be the ideal home for experimental work in opera and founded The Industry to put on innovative productions. Career Sharon serves as co-artistic dir ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jules Feiffer
Jules Ralph Feiffer ( ; January 26, 1929 – January 17, 2025) was an American cartoonist and author, who at one time was considered the most widely read satirist in the country. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning, editorial cartooning, and in 2004 he was inducted into the List of Eisner Award winners, Comic Book Hall of Fame. He wrote the animated short ''Munro (film), Munro'', which won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1961. The Library of Congress has recognized his "remarkable legacy", from 1946 to the present, as a cartoonist, playwright, screenwriter, adult and children's book author, illustrator, and art instructor. When Feiffer was 17 (in the mid-1940s) he became assistant to cartoonist Will Eisner. There he helped Eisner write and illustrate his comic strips, including ''Spirit (comics character), The Spirit''. In 1956, he became a staff cartoonist at ''The Village Voice'', where he produced the weekly comic st ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly Wide-format printer, large-format print magazine with a revamped website. As of 2020, the day-to-day operations of the company are handled by Penske Media Corporation through a joint venture with Eldridge Industries. The magazine also sponsors and hosts major industry events. History Foundation and early years ''The Hollywood Reporter'' was founded in 1930 by William R. Wilkerson, William R. "Billy" Wilkerson (1890–1962) as Hollywood's first daily entertainment trade newspaper. The first edition appeared on September 3, 1930, and featured Wilkerson's front-page "Tradeviews" column, which became influential. The newspaper appeared Monday-to-Saturday for the first 10 years, except for a brief period, t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lin-Manuel Miranda
Lin-Manuel Miranda (; born January 16, 1980) is an American songwriter, actor, singer, filmmaker, rapper, and librettist. He created the Broadway musicals '' In the Heights'' and ''Hamilton'', and the soundtracks for the animated films '' Moana'', '' Vivo'', and '' Encanto''. He has received numerous accolades including a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, three Tony Awards, two Laurence Olivier Awards, two Emmy Awards, and five Grammy Awards, along with nominations for two Academy Awards. He received the Kennedy Center Honor in 2018. Miranda made his Broadway debut in 2008, writing the music and lyrics for and starring in the musical ''In the Heights'', which won the Tony Award for Best Musical and Best Original Score and the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. It was later adapted as a 2021 film of the same name. Miranda returned to Broadway in 2015, writing the script, music, and lyrics, as well as starring in the musical ''Hamilton'', which was praised by critics and be ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Last Ship (album)
''The Last Ship'' is the eleventh studio album by English musician Sting, released on 20 September 2013 in Germany and on 24 September 2013 in the UK and US. It contains songs written for and inspired by the musical '' The Last Ship'', which was then in production and would premiere in June 2014. ''The Last Ship'' is the first full-length LP of original material released by Sting since his 2003 album ''Sacred Love''. The album, like the musical, takes inspiration from the closing of the shipyards in and around the historic shipbuilding town of Wallsend, where Sting grew up. The album features guest artists with roots in the northeast of England, including Brian Johnson from AC/DC, Jimmy Nail, The Unthanks, The Wilson Family, and Kathryn Tickell. Background The album is inspired by the musical of the same name, which premiered in June 2014, and whose songs were written by Sting. The play explores the themes of homecoming and self-discovery, drawing upon Sting's memories of gro ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Last Ship (musical)
''The Last Ship'' is an original musical with music and lyrics by Sting and a book by Lorne Campbell. Following a UK national tour and subsequent six-week run at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto, it embarked on a US national tour with the official opening at the Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles on 22 January 2020. Inspired by Sting's own childhood experiences and the shipbuilding industry in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, an earlier version of the musical with book by John Logan and Brian Yorkey played at the Bank of America Theatre in Chicago, before moving to the Neil Simon Theatre on Broadway in 2014. The musical received two Tony Award nominations in 2015, for Best Original Score and Best Orchestrations. Premise ''The Last Ship'' was initially inspired by Sting's 1991 album '' The Soul Cages'' and Sting's own childhood experiences, particularly his relationship with his father who had been an engineer in a family of shipwrights. It tells the story about community and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sting (musician)
Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner (born 2 October 1951), known as Sting, is an English musician, activist, and actor. He was the frontman, principal songwriter and bassist for New wave music, new wave band the Police from 1977 until their breakup in 1986. He launched a solo career in 1985 and has included elements of rock, jazz, reggae, classical, New-age music, new-age, and worldbeat in his music. Sting has sold a combined total of more than 100 million records as a solo artist and as a member of the Police. He has received three Brit Awards, including Brit Award for British Male Solo Artist, Best British Male Artist in 1994 and Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, Outstanding Contribution to Music in 2002; a Golden Globe Award, Golden Globe; an Emmy Award, Emmy; and four Academy Awards, Academy Award nominations. As a solo musician and as a member of the Police, Sting has received 17 Grammy Awards. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rent (film)
''Rent'' is a 2005 American musical drama film directed by Chris Columbus. It is an adaptation of Jonathan Larson's 1996 Broadway musical of the same name, in turn based on the 1896 opera ''La bohème'' by Giacomo Puccini, Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, which is itself based on the 1851 novel '' Scenes of Bohemian Life'' by Henri Murger. The film, which features six of the eight original Broadway cast members reprising their lead roles, depicts the lives of several bohemians and their struggles with sexuality, drugs, paying their rent, and life under the shadow of AIDS in the gritty East Village of New York City from 1989 to 1990. The film received mixed reviews from critics who praised the performances but criticized its writing, casting, and direction. It failed to cover its production costs at the box office. Plot On Christmas Eve 1989, aspiring filmmaker Mark Cohen, and his roommate, Roger Davis, learn that the rent previously waived by their old friend and now ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bengal Tiger At The Baghdad Zoo
''Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo'' is a play by Rajiv Joseph. The show is about "a tiger that haunts the streets of present-day Baghdad seeking the meaning of life. As he witnesses the puzzling absurdities of war, the tiger encounters Americans and Iraqis who are searching for friendship, redemption, and a toilet seat made of gold." The back of the book gives a synopsis: "The lives of two American Marines and an Iraqi translator are forever changed by an encounter with a quick-witted tiger who haunts the streets of war-torn Baghdad attempting to find meaning, forgiveness and redemption amidst the city's ruins. Rajiv Joseph's groundbreaking play exposes both the power and peril of human nature." Synopsis A Bengal tiger lives in Baghdad Zoo. He tells the audience that most of the animals have fled to "freedom" because of the Iraq invasion, only to be shot dead by soldiers. That night, United States soldiers come to guard the zoo. Two soldiers are stationed in front of the tig ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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West Side Story
''West Side Story'' is a Musical theatre, musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a Book (musical theatre), 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 worker, blue-collar neighborhood. The musical explores the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs of different ethnicity, ethnic backgrounds. The Sharks, who are recent migrants Stateside Puerto Ricans, from Puerto Rico, and the Jets, who are White Americans, 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 st ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |