23rd Tony Awards
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23rd Tony Awards
The 23rd Annual Tony Awards was broadcast by NBC television on April 20, 1969, from the Mark Hellinger Theatre in New York City. Hosts were Diahann Carroll and Alan King. The ceremony Presenters: Lauren Bacall, Pearl Bailey, Harry Belafonte, Richard Benjamin, Godfrey Cambridge, Betty Comden, Patty Duke, Adolph Green, Dustin Hoffman, Angela Lansbury, Jack Lemmon, Ethel Merman, Arthur Miller, Robert Morse, Zero Mostel, Paula Prentiss, Robert Preston, Vanessa Redgrave, Leslie Uggams, Gwen Verdon, Shelley Winters. Musicals represented: * '' Zorba'' ("Life Is" - Lorraine Serabian and Company) * '' Promises, Promises'' ("She Likes Basketball"/"Turkey Lurkey Time" - Jerry Orbach, Donna McKechnie and Company) * ''1776'' ("Momma, Look Sharp" - Scott Jarvis, William Duell, B.J. Slater) * ''Hair'' ("Three-Five-Zero-Zero"/ Let The Sun Shine In" - Company) Scenes from plays were presented for the first time. Plays represented were: * '' Lovers'' (Scene with Art Carney and Anna Mannahan) * ' ...
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Mark Hellinger Theatre
The Mark Hellinger Theatre (formerly the 51st Street Theatre and the Hollywood Theatre) is a church building at 237 West 51st Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, which formerly served as a cinema and a Broadway theater. Opened in 1930, the Hellinger Theatre is named after journalist Mark Hellinger and was developed by Warner Bros. as a movie palace. It was designed by Thomas W. Lamb with a modern facade and a Baroque interior. It has 1,605 seats across two levels and has been a house of worship for the Times Square Church since 1989. Both the exterior and interior of the theater are New York City landmarks. The facade on 51st Street is designed in a modern 1930s style and is constructed with golden and brown bricks. The stage house to the west and the auditorium at the center are designed as one unit, with a cornice above the auditorium. The eastern section, containing the building's current main entrance, includes statues flanking the doors, as ...
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Jack Lemmon
John Uhler Lemmon III (February 8, 1925 – June 27, 2001) was an American actor. Considered equally proficient in both dramatic and comic roles, Lemmon was known for his anxious, middle-class everyman screen persona in dramedy pictures, leading ''The Guardian'' to coin him "the most successful tragi-comedian of his age." He starred in over sixty films and was nominated for an Academy Award eight times, winning twice, and received many other accolades, including six Golden Globe Awards (counting the honorary Cecil B. DeMille Award), two Cannes Film Festival Awards, two Volpi Cups, one Silver Bear, three BAFTA Awards, and two Emmy Awards. In 1988, he was awarded the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the American cinema. His best known films include '' Mister Roberts'' (1955, for which he won the year's Oscar for Best Supporting Actor), '' Some Like It Hot'' (1959), ''The Apartment'' (1960), '' Days of Wine and Roses'' (1962), ''Irm ...
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Turkey Lurkey Time
"Turkey Lurkey Time" is a song-and-dance number from Act 1 of '' Promises, Promises'', the Burt Bacharach/Hal David musical, with a book by Neil Simon. It was originally choreographed for the 1968 Broadway production by Michael Bennett. The dance takes place as part of an office Christmas party scene. The dance As conceived by Bennett "with stunning energy and inventiveness",Long, p. 227 "Turkey Lurkey Time" is a dance performed by three secretaries at an office Christmas party. Their infectious singing and gyrations build into a frenetic chorus dance, as the office staff copy the trio, climaxing with some atop the office desks. According to Neil Simon, "we were having some problems at the end of the first act ... the number ennettcame up with didn't just solve the problem, it was a sensation." Some of the dancers later claimed they had needed regular trips to the chiropractor, so severe was the strain of Bennett's relentless head-bopping choreography. The secretaries of the ori ...
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Promises, Promises (musical)
''Promises, Promises'' is a musical with music by Burt Bacharach, lyrics by Hal David and a book by Neil Simon. It is based on the 1960 film ''The Apartment'' written by Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond. The story concerns a junior executive at an insurance company who seeks to climb the corporate ladder by allowing his apartment to be used by his married superiors for trysts. The musical premiered in 1968 on Broadway with choreography by Michael Bennett and direction by Robert Moore. It starred Jerry Orbach as Chuck Baxter and Jill O'Hara as Fran Kubelik. It closed after 1,281 performances. A West End production opened in 1969 featuring Tony Roberts and Betty Buckley. The cast album was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, and two songs from the show (the title tune and "I'll Never Fall in Love Again") became hit singles for Dionne Warwick. Productions Broadway (1968–1972) After a tryout at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C. and the ...
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Zorba (musical)
''Zorba'' is a Musical theater, musical with a book by Joseph Stein, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and music by John Kander. Adapted from the 1946 novel ''Zorba the Greek (novel), Zorba the Greek'' by Nikos Kazantzakis and the subsequent 1964 Zorba the Greek (film), film of the same name, it focuses on the friendship that evolves between Zorba and Nikos, a young American who has inherited an abandoned mine on Crete, and their romantic relationships with a local widow and a French woman, respectively. The musical premiered on Broadway theatre, Broadway in 1968 in a production directed by Harold Prince. It was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical in a season that included ''Hair (musical), Hair'', ''Promises, Promises (musical), Promises, Promises'' and ''1776 (musical), 1776''. The last of these won the award. The original production ran for 305 performances, and a 1983 Broadway revival ran for 362 performances with a cast starring Anthony Quinn. Productions ;Original Broadway Pr ...
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Shelley Winters
Shelley Winters (born Shirley Schrift; August 18, 1920 – January 14, 2006) was an American actress whose career spanned seven decades. She appeared in numerous films. She won Academy Awards for ''The Diary of Anne Frank'' (1959) and ''A Patch of Blue'' (1965), and received nominations for '' A Place in the Sun'' (1951) and '' The Poseidon Adventure'' (1972). She also appeared in '' A Double Life'' (1947), '' The Night of the Hunter'' (1955), ''Lolita'' (1962), ''Alfie'' (1966), ''Next Stop, Greenwich Village'' (1976), and '' Pete's Dragon'' (1977). In addition to film, Winters appeared in television, including a tenure on the sitcom ''Roseanne'', and wrote three autobiographical books. Early life Shelley Winters was born Shirley Schrift in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Rose (née Winter), a singer with St. Louis Municipal Opera Theatre ("The Muny"), and Jonas Schrift, a designer of men's clothing. Her parents were Jewish; her father migrated from Grymalow, Austria-Hungar ...
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Gwen Verdon
Gwyneth Evelyn "Gwen" Verdon (January 13, 1925October 18, 2000) was an American actress and dancer. She won four Tony Awards for her musical comedy performances, and served as an uncredited choreographer's assistant and specialty dance coach for theater and film. Verdon was a critically acclaimed performer on Broadway in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, having originated many roles in musicals, including Lola in ''Damn Yankees'', the title character in ''Sweet Charity'' and Roxie Hart in ''Chicago''. She is also strongly identified with her second husband, director-choreographer Bob Fosse, remembered as the dancer-collaborator-muse for whom he choreographed much of his work and as the guardian of his legacy after his death. Early life Verdon was born in Culver City, California, the second child of Gertrude Lilian ( Standring) and Joseph William Verdon, British immigrants to the United States by way of Canada. Her brother was William Farrell Verdon. Her father was an electrician at MGM ...
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Leslie Uggams
Leslie Marian Uggams (born May 25, 1943) is an American actress and singer. Beginning her career as a child in the early 1950s, Uggams is recognized for portraying Kizzy Reynolds in the television miniseries ''Roots'' (1977), earning Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominations for her performance. She had earlier been highly acclaimed for the Broadway musical ''Hallelujah, Baby!'', winning a Theatre World Award in 1967 and the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1968. Later in her career, Uggams received renewed notice with appearances alongside Ryan Reynolds as Blind Al in ''Deadpool'' (2016) & ''Deadpool 2'' (2018) and in a recurring role on ''Empire''. Life and career Early life Uggams was born in Harlem, the daughter of Juanita Ernestine (Smith), a Cotton Club chorus girl/dancer, and Harold Coyden Uggams, an elevator operator and maintenance man, who was a singer with the Hall Johnson choir.
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Vanessa Redgrave
Dame Vanessa Redgrave (born 30 January 1937) is an English actress and activist. Throughout her career spanning over seven decades, Redgrave has garnered numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Television Award, two Golden Globe Awards, two Cannes Film Festival Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Volpi Cup and a Tony Award, making her one of the few performers to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting. She has also received various honorary awards, including the BAFTA Fellowship Award, the Golden Lion Honorary Award, and an induction into the American Theatre Hall of Fame. Redgrave made her acting debut on stage with the production of ' in 1958. She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in the Shakespearean comedy ''As You Like It'' with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since starred in more than 35 productions in London's West End and on Broadway, winning the 1984 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Rev ...
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Robert Preston (actor)
Robert Preston Meservey (June 8, 1918 – March 21, 1987) was an American stage and film actor and singer of Broadway and cinema, best known for his collaboration with composer Meredith Willson and originating the role of Professor Harold Hill in the 1957 musical ''The Music Man'' and the 1962 film adaptation; the film earned him his first of two Golden Globe Award nominations. Preston collaborated twice with filmmaker Blake Edwards, first in '' S.O.B.'' (1981) and again in ''Victor/Victoria'' (1982). For portraying Carroll "Toddy" Todd in the latter, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor at the 55th Academy Awards. Early life Preston was born Robert Preston Meservey in Newton, Massachusetts, the son of Ruth L. (née Rea) (1895–1973) and Frank Wesley Meservey (1899–1996), a garment worker and a billing clerk for American Express. After attending Abraham Lincoln High School in Los Angeles, he studied acting at the Pasadena Community Playhouse. ...
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Paula Prentiss
Paula Prentiss (née Ragusa; born March 4, 1938) is an American actress. She is best known for her film roles in ''Where the Boys Are'' (1960), ''What's New Pussycat?'' (1965), ''Catch-22 (film), Catch-22'' (1970), ''The Parallax View'' (1974), and ''The Stepford Wives (1975 film), The Stepford Wives'' (1975). From 1967 to 1968, Prentiss co-starred with her husband Richard Benjamin in the CBS sitcom ''He & She'', for which she received a nomination for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. Early life Prentiss was born Paula Ragusa in San Antonio, Texas, the elder daughter of Paulene (née Gardner) and Thomas J. Ragusa, a social sciences professor at San Antonio's University of the Incarnate Word. Her father was of Sicily, Sicilian descent, and Prentiss was raised Catholic Church, Roman Catholic. She had a younger sister, Ann Prentiss, who was also an actress. Before high school, Paula, who grew to , was always the tallest person in class. She at ...
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Zero Mostel
Samuel Joel "Zero" Mostel (February 28, 1915 – September 8, 1977) was an American actor, comedian, and singer. He is best known for his portrayal of comic characters such as Tevye on stage in ''Fiddler on the Roof'', Pseudolus on stage and on screen in ''A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum'', and Max Bialystock in the original film version of Mel Brooks' '' The Producers'' (1967). Mostel was a student of Don Richardson, and he used an acting technique based on muscle memory. He was blacklisted during the 1950s; his testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee was well publicized. Mostel later starred in the Hollywood Blacklist drama film ''The Front'' (1976) alongside Woody Allen, for which Mostel was nominated for the British Academy Film Award for Best Supporting Actor. Mostel was an Obie Award and three-time Tony Award winner. He is also a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame, inducted posthumously in 1979. Early life Mostel was born in ...
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