A Class Act
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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 considerabl ...
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Edward Kleban
Edward "Ed" Kleban (April 30, 1939 – December 28, 1987) was an American musical theatre composer and lyricist. Kleban was born in the Bronx, New York City, in 1939 and graduated from New York's High School of Music & Art and Columbia University, where he attended with future playwright Terrence McNally. Kleban is best known as lyricist of the Broadway hit ''A Chorus Line''. He and composer Marvin Hamlisch won the 1976 Tony Award for Best Original Score, and he shared the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1976 with Hamlisch and three other contributors to the musical. The one-woman Phyllis Newman show, ''The Madwoman of Central Park West'' (1979), featured a few tunes with his lyrics. For several years he worked at Columbia Records, where he produced albums by performers as diverse as Igor Stravinsky and Percy Faith, and the albums for the Off-Broadway musicals '' Now Is The Time For All Good Men'' and ''Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris''. He was a teacher for m ...
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Ambassador Theatre (New York)
The Ambassador Theatre is a Broadway theater at 219 West 49th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1921, the Ambassador Theatre was designed by Herbert J. Krapp and was constructed for the Shubert brothers. It has 1,125 seats across two levels and is operated by The Shubert Organization. The auditorium interior is a New York City designated landmark. The theater is oriented on a diagonal axis, maximizing seating capacity on its small site of . The facade is largely made of golden brick and is simple in design. The most prominent part of the facade is a curved entrance at the southeast corner, facing Broadway, where a lobby leads to the rear of the theater's orchestra level. The auditorium contains Adam-style detailing, a large balcony, and box seats with decorated arches above them. The auditorium contains a segmental proscenium arch topped by a curved sounding board. The Shuberts developed the Ambassador, along with the neighbori ...
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Drama Desk Award For Outstanding Lyrics
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics is an annual award presented by Drama Desk in recognition of achievements in the theatre among Broadway, Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway productions. Stephen Sondheim holds the record for most wins and nominations for the award, with ten wins out of twelve nominations. Winners and nominees 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Multiple wins ; 10 wins * Stephen Sondheim ; 2 wins * Gerard Alessandrini * Fred Ebb * David Yazbek Multiple nominations ; 12 nominations * Stephen Sondheim ; 5 nominations * Jason Robert Brown * Michael John LaChiusa ; 4 nominations * Fred Ebb * David Yazbek ; 3 nominations * Lynn Ahrens * Gerard Alessandrini * Howard Ashman * Chad Beguelin * Rick Crom * William Finn * Amanda Green * Michael Korie * Lin-Manuel Miranda * Tim Rice * Marc Shaiman * Scott Wittman * Maury Yeston ; 2 nominations * Susan Birkenhead * Mel Brooks * Craig Carnelia * Michael Friedman * Jerry Herman * John Kander ...
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Drama Desk Award For Outstanding Featured Actress In A Musical
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical is an annual award presented by Drama Desk in recognition of achievements in the theatre among Broadway, Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway productions. The awards were established in 1955, with acting awards being given without making distinctions between roles in plays and musicals, or actors and actresses. The new award categories were later created in the 1975 ceremony. 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s See also * Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical * Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical * Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical The Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical has been presented since 1950. The award was not given at the first three Tony Award ceremonies. Nominees were not announced publicly until 1956. Winners and nominees 1950s ... References * Ex ...
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Drama Desk Award
The Drama Desk Award is an annual prize recognizing excellence in New York theatre. First bestowed in 1955 as the Vernon Rice Award, the prize initially honored Off-Broadway productions, as well as Off-off-Broadway, and those in the vicinity. Following the 1964 renaming as the Drama Desk Awards, Broadway productions were included beginning with the 1968–69 award season. The awards are considered a significant American theater distinction. History The Drama Desk organization was formed in 1949 by a group of New York theater critics, editors, reporters and publishers, in order to make the public aware of the vital issues concerning the theatrical industry. They debuted the presentations of the ''Vernon Rice Awards''. The name honors the ''New York Post'' critic Vernon Rice, who had pioneered Off-Broadway coverage in the New York press. The name was changed for the 1963–1964 awards season to the ''Drama Desk Awards''. In 1974, the Drama Desk became incorporated as a not-for-pr ...
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The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid digital subscribers. It also is a producer of popular podcasts such as '' The Daily''. Founded in 1851 by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones, it was initially published by Raymond, Jones & Company. The ''Times'' has won 132 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any newspaper, and has long been regarded as a national " newspaper of record". For print it is ranked 18th in the world by circulation and 3rd in the U.S. The paper is owned by the New York Times Company, which is publicly traded. It has been governed by the Sulzberger family since 1896, through a dual-class share structure after its shares became publicly traded. A. G. Sulzberger, the paper's publisher and the company's chairman, is the fifth generation of the family to head the pa ...
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Marvin Hamlisch
Marvin Frederick Hamlisch (June 2, 1944 – August 6, 2012) was an American composer and conductor. Hamlisch was one of only seventeen people to win Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards. This collection of all four is referred to as an " EGOT". He is one of only two people (along with composer Richard Rodgers) to have won those four prizes and a Pulitzer Prize (" PEGOT"). Early life Hamlisch was born in Manhattan, to Viennese-born Jewish parents Lilly (née Schachter) and Max Hamlisch. His father was an accordionist and bandleader. Hamlisch was a child prodigy and, by age five, he began mimicking the piano music he heard on the radio. A few months before he turned seven, in 1951, he was accepted into what is now the Juilliard School Pre-College Division.Marvin Hamlisch biography
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Michael Bennett (theater)
Michael Bennett (April 8, 1943 – July 2, 1987) was an American musical theatre director, writer, choreographer, and dancer. He won seven Tony Awards for his choreography and direction of Broadway theatre, Broadway shows and was nominated for an additional eleven. Bennett choreographed ''Promises, Promises (musical), Promises, Promises'', ''Follies'' and ''Company (musical), Company''. In 1976, he won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical and the Tony Award for Best Choreography for the musical ''A Chorus Line''. Bennett, under the aegis of producer Joseph Papp, created ''A Chorus Line'' based on a workshop process which he pioneered. He also directed and co-choreographed ''Dreamgirls'' with Michael Peters (choreographer), Michael Peters. Early life and career Bennett was born Michael Bennett DiFiglia in Buffalo, New York, the son of Helen (née Ternoff), a secretary, and Salvatore Joseph DiFiglia, a factory worker. His father was Italian American and his mother was Je ...
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Oncologist
Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the study, treatment, diagnosis and prevention of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''. The name's etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγκος (''ónkos''), meaning "tumor", "volume" or "mass". Oncology is concerned with: * The diagnosis of any cancer in a person (pathology) * Therapy (e.g. surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and other modalities) * Follow-up of cancer patients after successful treatment * Palliative care of patients with terminal malignancies * Ethical questions surrounding cancer care * Screening efforts: ** of populations, or ** of the relatives of patients (in types of cancer that are thought to have a hereditary basis, such as breast cancer) Diagnosis Medical histories remain an important screening tool: the character of the complaints and nonspecific symptoms (such as fatigue, weight loss, unexplained anemia, fever of unknown origin, paraneoplastic phenomena ...
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BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop
Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) is a performance rights organization in the United States. It collects blanket license fees from businesses that use music, entitling those businesses to play or sync any songs from BMI's repertoire of over 20.6 million musical works. On a quarterly basis, BMI distributes the money to songwriters, composers, and music publishers as royalties to those members whose works have been performed. In FY 2022, BMI collected $1.573 billion in revenues and distributed $1.471 billion in royalties. BMI's repertoire includes over 1.3 million songwriters and 20.6 million compositions. BMI is the biggest performing rights organization in the United States and is one of the largest such organizations in the world. BMI songwriters create music in virtually every genre. BMI represents artists such as Patti LaBelle, Selena, Miley Cyrus, Lil Wayne, Lil Nas X, Birdman, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Eminem, Rihanna, Shakira, Doja Cat, Megan Thee Stallion, Ed Sheeran, Karol G ...
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Lehman Engel
A. Lehman Engel (born September 14, 1910, Jackson, Mississippi - died August 29, 1982, New York City) was an American composer and conductor of Broadway musicals, television and film. Work in theatre, television and films Engel worked in a variety of positions on television specials. He was composer and conductor of the music for the famed 1954 television production of Shakespeare's ''Macbeth'', starring Maurice Evans and Judith Anderson, but did not work on the 1960 remake starring the same two actors. He was conductor of the first (and so far, the only) television version of Leonard Bernstein's ''Wonderful Town'' (1958) (TV), as well as, in the preceding years, of the ''Hallmark Hall of Fame'' productions of Shakespeare's ''The Taming of the Shrew'' in 1956, ''Twelfth Night'' in 1957, and '' The Tempest'' in 1960, all with Maurice Evans. He also conducted the music for the Broadway musical version of ''Li'l Abner'', but not for the 1959 film version of the show. The music in ...
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Sara Ramirez
Sara Elena Ramírez (; born August 31, 1975) is a Mexican-American actor and singer. Born in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Ramírez moved to the United States at eight years old, eventually graduating with a fine arts degree from the Juilliard School. Ramírez began acting in Broadway theatre, Broadway productions, making their debut in Paul Simon's ''The Capeman'', and later ventured into film and television roles. Ramírez's breakthrough came with their portrayal of the original Lady of the Lake in the 2005 Broadway musical ''Spamalot'', winning the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Ramírez was offered to pick their own primetime television show in an array of American Broadcasting Company, ABC lineups, choosing ''Grey's Anatomy''. They portrayed Callie Torres, Dr. Callie Torres, one of the longest-running LGBT characters in US television history, appearing in 11 seasons and 239 episodes. Ramírez's volunteered addition of the character's bisexuality marked one of the ...
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