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Michael Stewart (playwright)
Michael Stewart (August 1, 1924 – September 20, 1987) was an American playwright and dramatist, librettist, lyricist, screenwriter and novelist. Life and career Born Myron Stuart Rubin in Manhattan, Stewart attended Queens College, and graduated from the Yale School of Drama with a Master of Fine Arts in 1953.Gerard, Jeremy"Michael Stewart Is Dead 63; Author of Broadway Musicals"''The New York Times'', September 21, 1987, Section B, p.16 His early work was writing sketches for the revues ''The Shoestring Revue'' (1955), ''The Littlest Revue'' (1956), and ''Shoestring '57'' (1956, Barbizon-Plaza, New York). He then joined the staff writers of Sid Caesar's television program, '' Caesar's Hour''. He met Charles Strouse and Lee Adams in 1954, and several years after collaborated with them and Gower Champion on the 1960 Broadway musical ''Bye Bye Birdie''. He worked again with Champion and Jerry Herman, with their musical ''Hello, Dolly!'' opening on Broadway in 196 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Playwright
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Reading (process), reading. Ben Jonson coined the term "playwright" and is the first person in English literature to refer to playwrights as separate from Poet, poets. The earliest playwrights in Western literature with surviving works are the Ancient Greeks. William Shakespeare is amongst the most famous playwrights in literature, both in England and across the world. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English , from Old English ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word ''wikt:wwright'' is an archaic English term for a Artisan, craftsperson or builder (as in a wheelwright or Wagon, cartwright). The words combine to indicate a person who has "wrought" words, themes, and other elements into a dramatic form — a play. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Award For Best Author
The Tony Award for Best Author is a now retired category once presented to playwrights, authors and librettists of theatrical plays and musicals Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement .... Only nine awards were presented from 1947 to 1965, and it is often grouped with the category Best Book of a Musical. Winners and nominees 1940s 1960s See also * Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical * Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical External links Tony Awards Official siteTony Awards at Internet Broadway database ListingTony Awards at broadwayworld.com {{Tony Awards Tony Awards Awards established in 1947 1947 establishments in the United States 1965 disestablishments in the United States ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in Manhattan. The ceremony is usually held in June. The awards are given for Broadway productions and performances. One is also given for regional theatre. Several discretionary non-competitive awards are given as well, including a Special Tony Award, the Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre, and the Isabelle Stevenson Award. The awards were founded by theatre producer and director Brock Pemberton. They are named after Antoinette "Tony" Perry, an actress, producer and theatre director who was co-founder and secretary of the American Theatre Wing. The trophy consists of a spinnable medallion, with faces portraying an adaptation of the comedy and tragedy masks, mounted on a black base with a pewter swivel. The rules for the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Candide (operetta)
''Candide'' is an operetta with music composed by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics primarily by the poet Richard Wilbur, based on the 1759 novella of the same name by Voltaire. Other contributors to the text were John Latouche, Dorothy Parker, Lillian Hellman, Stephen Sondheim, John Mauceri, John Wells, and Bernstein himself. Maurice Peress and Hershy Kay contributed orchestrations. The operetta was first performed in 1956 with a libretto by Lillian Hellman, but since 1974 it has been generally performed with a book by Hugh Wheeler,"A Guide to Leonard Bernstein's ''Candide'' by Michael H. Hutchins which is more faithful to Voltaire's novella. Although unsuccessful at its premiere, ''Candide'' has overcome the unenthusiastic reaction of early audiences and critics, and achieved more popularity. O ...
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Jule Styne
Jule Styne ( ; born Julius Kerwin Stein; December 31, 1905 – September 20, 1994) was an English-American songwriter and composer widely known for a series of Broadway theatre, Broadway musical theatre, musicals, including several famous frequently-revived shows that also became successful films: ''Gypsy (1962 film), Gypsy,'' ''Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (musical), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,'' and ''Funny Girl (musical), Funny Girl.'' Early life Styne was born to a Jewish family in London, England. His parents, Anna Kertman and Isadore Stein, were emigrants from Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire) and ran a small grocery. Even before his family left Britain, he did impressions on the stage of well-known singers, including Harry Lauder, who saw him perform and advised him to take up the piano. At the age of eight, he moved with his family to Chicago, where he began taking piano lessons. He proved to be a Child prodigy, prodigy and performed with the Chicago, St. Louis, Missou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jerry Herman
Gerald Sheldon Herman (July 10, 1931December 26, 2019) was an American composer and lyricist, known for his work in Broadway theatre. One of the most commercially successful Broadway songwriters of his time, Herman was the composer and lyricist for a number of hit musicals, starting in the 1960s, that were characterized by an upbeat and optimistic outlook and what Herman called "the simple, hummable showtune". His shows include '' Hello, Dolly!'' (1964), at one time the longest-running musical in Broadway history, which also produced the hit title song for Louis Armstrong; ''Mame'' (1966), a vehicle for Angela Lansbury; and '' La Cage aux Folles'' (1984), the first hit Broadway musical about a gay couple. In 2009, Herman received the Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. He was a recipient of the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors. Early life Herman was born in Manhattan and raised in Jersey City, New Jersey, the only child of musically inclined, middle-class Jewish par ... [...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#-re, -er, American and British English spelling differences), many of the List of Broadway theaters, extant or closed Broadway venues use or used the spelling ''Theatre'' as the proper noun in their names. Many performers and trade groups for live dramatic presentations also use the spelling ''theatre''. or Broadway, is a theatre genre that consists of the theatrical performances presented in 41 professional Theater (structure), theaters, each with 500 or more seats, in the Theater District, Manhattan, Theater District and Lincoln Center along Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Broadway and London's West End theatre, West End together represent the highest commercial level of live theater in the English-speaking world. While the Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway thoroughfare is eponymous ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gower Champion
Gower Carlyle Champion (June 22, 1919 – August 25, 1980) was an American actor, theatre director, choreographer, and dancer. Early years Champion was born on June 22, 1919, in Geneva, Illinois, as the son of John W. Champion and Beatrice Carlisle. He was raised in Los Angeles, California, where he graduated from Fairfax High School. He studied dance from an early age and, at the age of fifteen, toured nightclubs with friend Jeanne Tyler billed as "Gower and Jeanne, America's Youngest Dance Team". In 1939, "Gower and Jeanne" danced to the music of Larry Clinton and his Orchestra in a Warner Brothers & Vitaphone film short-subject, "The Dipsy Doodler" (released in 1940). Career During the late 1930s and early 1940s, Champion worked on Broadway as a solo dancer and choreographer. After serving in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II, Champion met Marjorie Belcher, who became his new partner, and the two were married in 1947. In the early 1950s, Marge and Gower Champion ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lee Adams
Lee Richard Adams (born August 14, 1924) is an American lyricist best known for his musical theatre collaboration with Charles Strouse. Biography Lee Adams was born in Mansfield, Ohio, on August 14, 1924. He is the son of Dr. Leopold Adams, originally of Stamford, Connecticut, and Florence Ellis (originally Elishack) Adams, originally of Racine, Wisconsin. His family is Jewish. He is a graduate of Mansfield Senior High School. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Ohio State University and a Master's from Columbia University. While attending Ohio State, he was a brother of the Nu chapter of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity. He worked as a journalist for newspaper and magazines. He met Charles Strouse in 1949, and they initially wrote for summer-time revues. Adams won Tony Awards in 1961 for '' Bye Bye Birdie'', the first Broadway musical he wrote with Strouse, and in 1970 for '' Applause'' and was nominated for a Tony Award in 1965 for '' Golden Boy''. [...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] |
Caesar's Hour
''Caesar's Hour'' is a live, hour-long American sketch-comedy television program that aired on NBC from 1954 until 1957. The program starred, among others, Sid Caesar, Nanette Fabray, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, Janet Blair, and Milt Kamen, and featured a number of cameo roles by famous entertainers such as Joan Crawford and Peggy Lee. Widely considered a continuation of Caesar's earlier programs, the '' Admiral Broadway Revue'' and '' Your Show of Shows'', ''Caesar's Hour'' included most of the same writers and actors, with the notable addition of Larry Gelbart (who went on to co-create the '' M*A*S*H'' TV series with Gene Reynolds) in the latter show. Nanette Fabray replaced Imogene Coca, who opted to star in her own TV series in 1954, '' The Imogene Coca Show''. ''Caesar's Hour'' expanded on the format of ''Your Show of Shows'' with many sketches running a half-hour or more, including musical parodies such as "There's No Business" and "Towers Trot", and genre parodies s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sid Caesar
Isaac Sidney Caesar (September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2014) was an American comic actor and comedian. With a career spanning 60 years, he was best known for two pioneering 1950s live television series: ''Your Show of Shows'' (1950–1954), which was a 90-minute weekly show watched by 60 million people, and its successor, ''Caesar's Hour'' (1954–1957), both of which influenced later generations of comedians. ''Your Show of Shows'' and its cast received seven Emmy nominations between the years 1953 and 1954 and tallied two wins. He also acted in films; he played Coach Calhoun in ''Grease (film), Grease'' (1978) and its sequel ''Grease 2'' (1982) and appeared in the films ''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World'' (1963), ''Silent Movie'' (1976), ''History of the World, Part I'' (1981), ''Cannonball Run II'' (1984), and ''Vegas Vacation'' (1997). Caesar was considered a "sketch comic" and actor, as opposed to a stand-up comedian. He also relied more on body language, accents, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
