|
A Connecticut Yankee (musical)
''A Connecticut Yankee'' is a musical based on the 1889 novel ''A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'' by American writer Mark Twain. Like most adaptations of the Twain novel, it focuses on the lighter aspects of the story. The music was written by Richard Rodgers, the lyrics by Lorenz Hart, and the book by Herbert Fields. It was produced by Lew Fields and Lyle D. Andrews. It enjoyed an original run on Broadway in 1927 of 421 performances and a number of revivals. The 1931 film of the same name starring Will Rogers was not adapted from this musical, nor was the 1949 musical film ''A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'', which starred Bing Crosby. The Rodgers and Hart ''Connecticut Yankee'', like many of the team's earlier musicals, has never been filmed for the big screen though a scene was staged for the 1948 biographical movie of the lives of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, '' Words and Music''. Productions ''A Connecticut Yankee'' opened on Broadway at t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Rodgers
Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902 – December 30, 1979) was an American composer who worked primarily in musical theater. With 43 Broadway musicals and over 900 songs to his credit, Rodgers was one of the most well-known American composers of the 20th century, and his compositions had a significant influence on popular music. Rodgers is known for his songwriting partnerships, first with lyricist Lorenz Hart and then with Oscar Hammerstein II. With Hart he wrote musicals throughout the 1920s and 1930s, including '' Pal Joey'', '' A Connecticut Yankee'', '' On Your Toes'' and '' Babes in Arms.'' With Hammerstein he wrote musicals through the 1940s and 1950s, such as '' Oklahoma!'', '' Flower Drum Song'', '' Carousel'', ''South Pacific'', ''The King and I'', and '' The Sound of Music''. His collaborations with Hammerstein, in particular, are celebrated for bringing the Broadway musical to a new maturity by telling stories that were focused on characters and drama ra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Gaxton
William Gaxton (né Arthur Anthony Gaxiola, December 2, 1893 – February 2, 1963) was an American star of vaudeville, film, and theatre. Gaxton was president of The Lambs Club from 1936 to 1939, 1952 to 1953, and 1957 to 1961. He and Victor Moore became a popular theatre team in the 1930s and 1940s; they also appeared in a film together. Biography Gaxton was born Arthur Anthony Gaxiola. He was of Spanish ancestry and a cousin of actor Leo Carrillo. He attended Boone Military Academy, Lowell High School, Santa Clara College, and the University of California. Gaxton appeared on film and onstage. He debuted on Broadway in the '' Music Box Revue'' on October 23, 1922. On radio Gaxton starred in ''Broadway Showtime'', a 30-minute musical drama that ran on CBS from December 27, 1943 to June 26, 1944. In 1961 and 1962, he and Arthur Treacher starred in Guy Lombardo's production of the musical '' Paradise Island'' at Jones Beach Marine Theater. He died from cancer on February ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eddie Albert
Edward Albert Heimberger (April 22, 1906 – May 26, 2005) was an American actor and activist. He was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor; the first nomination came in 1954 for his performance in ''Roman Holiday'', and the second in 1973 for '' The Heartbreak Kid''. Other well-known screen roles of his include Bing Edwards in the ''Brother Rat'' films, traveling salesman Ali Hakim in the musical ''Oklahoma!'', and the sadistic prison warden in 1974's '' The Longest Yard''. He starred as Oliver Wendell Douglas in the 1960s television sitcom ''Green Acres'' and as Frank MacBride in the 1970s crime drama ''Switch''. He also had a recurring role as Carlton Travis on ''Falcon Crest'', opposite Jane Wyman. Early life Edward Albert Heimberger was born in Rock Island, Illinois, on April 22, 1906, the eldest of the five children of Frank Daniel Heimberger, a real estate agent, and his wife, Julia Jones. His year of birth is often given as 1908, but this is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dick Foran
John Nicholas "Dick" Foran (June 18, 1910 – August 10, 1979) was an American actor, known for his performances in Western musicals and for playing supporting roles in dramatic pictures. Early years Foran was born in Flemington, New Jersey, the first of five sons to Arthur F. Foran and Elizabeth Foran. His father was a Republican member of the New Jersey Senate, as was Dick Foran's younger brother, Walter E. Foran. He attended Mercersburg Academy, where he competed on the track team under Scots-American athletics coach Jimmy Curran. After graduation he attended the Hun School, a college preparatory school in nearby Princeton, and then enrolled at Princeton University, pursuing a degree in geology. He played on the football team while taking courses in the arts, where he developed an interest in the theater. Foran studied music at the Leibling Studio in New York before singing on radio. As Nick Foran, he went on to become a lead singer with a band and later formed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vivienne Segal
Vivienne Sonia Segal (April 19, 1897 – December 29, 1992) was an American actress and singer. Early years Segal was born on April 19, 1897, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was the elder daughter of Jewish parents Bernhard Segal, a physician, and Paula (née Hahn) Segal, who encouraged Vivienne and her sisters Vera and Louise to seek careers in show business. Her obituary in ''The Guardian'' reported that her father "underwrote a local opera company in order to give her the chance to sing." She studied singing with Estelle Liebling, the voice teacher of Beverly Sills. Career Segal's career began when she was 15 years old and began performing with the Philadelphia Operatic Society. Her Broadway debut came in '' The Blue Paradise'' (1915), a production that was underwritten by her father. In 1924 and 1925, she was a member of the ''Ziegfeld Follies''. She was also a performer on the CBS Radio program '' Accordiana'' in 1934.Sies, Luther F. (2014). ''Encyclopedia of American R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al Hirschfeld Theatre
The Al Hirschfeld Theatre, originally the Martin Beck Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 302 West 45th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1924, it was designed by G. Albert Lansburgh in a Moorish and Byzantine style and was constructed for vaudevillian Martin Beck. It has 1,404 seats across two levels and is operated by Jujamcyn Theaters. Both the facade and the interior are New York City landmarks. The Al Hirschfeld's auditorium and stage house share a design for their facade. There is a double-height arcade with cast-stone columns at the base of the theater. The eastern section of the arcade contains the auditorium entrance, the center section includes a staircase with emergency exits, and the western section leads to the stage house. Red brick is used for the upper stories of the facade. Albert Herter, a muralist who frequently collaborated with Lansburgh, oversaw much of the interior design. A square ticket lobby is directly in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin Beck Theatre
The Al Hirschfeld Theatre, originally the Martin Beck Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 302 West 45th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1924, it was designed by G. Albert Lansburgh in a Moorish and Byzantine style and was constructed for vaudevillian Martin Beck. It has 1,404 seats across two levels and is operated by Jujamcyn Theaters. Both the facade and the interior are New York City landmarks. The Al Hirschfeld's auditorium and stage house share a design for their facade. There is a double-height arcade with cast-stone columns at the base of the theater. The eastern section of the arcade contains the auditorium entrance, the center section includes a staircase with emergency exits, and the western section leads to the stage house. Red brick is used for the upper stories of the facade. Albert Herter, a muralist who frequently collaborated with Lansburgh, oversaw much of the interior design. A square ticket lobby is directly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Percy Greenbank
Percy Greenbank (24 January 1878 – 9 December 1968) was an English lyricist and librettist, best known for his contribution of lyrics to a number of successful Edwardian musical comedies in the early years of the 20th century. His older brother, the dramatist Harry Greenbank, had a brilliant career in the 1890s that was cut short by his death at the age of 33. Percy picked up where his brother had left off, writing lyrics for some of the most popular musicals from 1900 through World War I and even afterwards. Life and career Greenbank was born in London, son of Richard and Mary Greenbank. He was Harry Greenbank's younger brother. Percy studied law, but instead decided to become a journalist, contributing to such journals as ''Punch'', ''The Sketch'' and ''The Tatler'', and to write for the theatre.Gaye, p. 672 After Harry's death, George Edwardes asked the younger Greenbank to collaborate with Adrian Ross on the lyrics for ''The Messenger Boy'' and also interpolated tw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vivian Ellis
Vivian John Herman Ellis, CBE (29 October 1903 – 19 June 1996) was an English musical comedy composer best known for the song "Spread a Little Happiness" and the theme " Coronation Scot". Life and work Ellis was born in Hampstead, London in 1903 and educated at Cheltenham College. He began a musical career as a concert pianist, but became a composer and lyricist. His grandmother, Julia Woolf, had also been a concert pianist as well as composing an opera, ''Carina''. He had great success with the foxtrot song "Over My Shoulder" in the early 20s. This led to further contributions of pieces for several revues in the 1920s. Another hit song was his "Yale Blues" which had a dance step called the "Yale" and became a craze in 1927 both in the UK, Europe and the US. He became well known in the London West End theatre community for providing the music and collaborating in the production of a large number of musical shows, spanning from 1925 to 1958. Ellis dominated the musical thea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Desmond Carter
Herbert Desmond Carter (15 June 1895 – 3 February 1939) was a British lyricist who worked with George and Ira Gershwin, Ivor Novello, and others, and also wrote one of the first English language versions of the notorious "suicide song", "Gloomy Sunday". He was born in Bristol. In 1924 he wrote most of the lyrics for the London musical '' Primrose'', for which Gershwin wrote the music, his first commission outside the US. The musical was revived in 2003, when one reviewer wrote: "...by far the most outstanding contribution to ''Primrose'' is the comedy lyrics of Desmond Carter, who penned the words to seventeen of the score's twenty-two songs and collaborated with Ira Gershwin on four of the remaining five. Two among them, "Isn't It Horrible What They Did to Mary, Queen of Scots" and "That New Fangled Mother of Mine," shine with humor and wordplay worthy of Noel Coward." In 1936, Carter wrote English lyrics for the song "Gloomy Sunday" (''"Szomorú vasárnap"''), which had ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Edwardes
George Joseph Edwardes (né Edwards; 8 October 1855 – 4 October 1915) was an English theatre manager and producer of Irish ancestry who brought a new era in musical theatre to the British stage and beyond. Edwardes started out in theatre management, soon working at a number of West End theatres. By the age of 20, he was managing theatres for Richard D'Oyly Carte. In 1885, Edwardes became a manager at the Gaiety Theatre with John Hollingshead, who soon retired. For the next three decades, Edwardes ruled a theatrical empire including the Gaiety, Daly's Theatre, the Adelphi Theatre and others, and sent touring companies around Britain and abroad. In the early 1890s, Edwardes recognised the changing tastes of musical theatre audiences and led the movement away from burlesque and comic opera to Edwardian musical comedy. Life and career Edwardes was born at Great Grimsby, Lincolnshire, England. He was the eldest of four sons and three daughters of James Edwards, comptroller of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
