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Big Deal (play)
''Big Deal'' is a musical with a book by Bob Fosse using songs from various composers such as Ray Henderson, Eubie Blake, and Jerome Kern. It was based on the 1958 film ''Big Deal on Madonna Street'' by Mario Monicelli. The musical received five Tony Award nominations, with Fosse winning for Choreography. The production was Fosse's final work, as he died the next year. Production and background After shopping the project around to various composers (including Stephen Sondheim and Peter Allen), Fosse eventually settled on using popular songs of the 1920s and 30s. Fosse said that by using existing songs: "I can pick the perfect songs that will say the right things, and they're known. We'll have the greatest score in the world because they're all hit songs." Fosse said of the main character, Charley: "That's my part! A swaggering bumbler who thinks he's a ladies' man, and he's not." ''Big Deal'' opened on Broadway at the Broadway Theatre on April 10, 1986, and closed on June 8, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Fosse
Robert Louis Fosse (; June 23, 1927 – September 23, 1987) was an American actor, choreographer, dancer, and film and stage director. He directed and choreographed musical works on stage and screen, including the stage musicals ''The Pajama Game'' (1954), ''Damn Yankees'' (1955), ''How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying'' (1961), '' Sweet Charity'' (1966), ''Pippin'' (1972), and ''Chicago'' (1975). He directed the films '' Sweet Charity'' (1969), ''Cabaret'' (1972), '' Lenny'' (1975), '' All That Jazz'' (1979), and ''Star 80'' (1983). Fosse's distinctive style of choreography included turned-in knees and " jazz hands". He is the only person ever to have won Oscar, Emmy, and Tony awards in the same year (1973). He was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning Best Director for ''Cabaret'', and won the Palme D'Or in 1980 for ''All That Jazz.'' He won a record eight Tonys for his choreography, as well as one for direction for ''Pippin''. Early life Fosse was born ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Valarie Pettiford
Valarie Pettiford (born July 8, 1960) is an American stage and television actress, dancer, and jazz singer. She received a Tony Award nomination for her role in the broadway production '' Fosse''. She is also known for her role as "Big Dee Dee" Thorne on the UPN television sitcom ''Half & Half''. Stage Pettiford began her career as a dancer and choreographer in Bob Fosse productions on Broadway. Alvin Klein of the ''New York Times'' wrote of her role in the 1983 musical revue ''Ladies and Gentlemen, Jerome Kern!'' that "You will not for a moment take your eyes off Valarie Pettiford, the show's standout: a sinewy dancer who can be sultry or sweet, measure for measure, as prescribed.... Miss Pettiford appears to be a superbly trained dancer, schooled in balletic finesse and Broadway-style razzmatazz - and a stunning presence." Leah Frank, also in the ''NYT'', wrote of Pettiford's appearance in ''West Side Story'' in 1987: "The mainstay of the supporting cast is Valarie Pettiford, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dorothy Fields
Dorothy Fields (July 15, 1904 – March 28, 1974) was an American librettist and lyricist. She wrote over 400 songs for Broadway musicals and films. Her best-known pieces include "The Way You Look Tonight" (1936), "A Fine Romance" (1936), "On the Sunny Side of the Street" (1930), " Don't Blame Me" (1948), "Pick Yourself Up" (1936), "I'm in the Mood for Love" (1935), "You Couldn't Be Cuter" (1938) and " Big Spender" (1966). Throughout her career, she collaborated with various influential figures in the American musical theater, including Jerome Kern, Cy Coleman, Irving Berlin, and Jimmy McHugh. Along with Ann Ronell, Dana Suesse, Bernice Petkere, and Kay Swift, she was one of the first successful Tin Pan Alley and Hollywood female songwriters. Early life Fields was born in Allenhurst, New Jersey, and grew up in New York City. In 1923, Fields graduated from the Benjamin School for Girls in New York City. At school, she was outstanding in the subjects of English, drama, and baske ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pick Yourself Up
"Pick Yourself Up" is a popular song composed in 1936 by Jerome Kern, with lyrics by Dorothy Fields. It has a verse and chorus, as well as a third section, though the third section is often omitted in recordings. Like most popular songs of the era it features a 32 bar chorus, though with an extended coda. Background The song was written for the film ''Swing Time'' (1936), where it was introduced by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Rogers plays a dance instructor whom Astaire follows into her studio; he pretends to have "two left feet" in order to get her to dance with him. Astaire sings the verse to her and she responds with the chorus. After an interlude, they dance to the tune. (Author John Mueller has written their dance "is one of the very greatest of Astaire's playful duets: boundlessly joyous, endlessly re-seeable.") In 1936, Astaire recorded the song on his own for the Brunswick label. The song has been covered many times, including by: *Nat King Cole 1944 *George ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fred Fisher
Fred Fisher (born Alfred Breitenbach, September 30, 1875 – January 14, 1942) was a German-born American songwriter and Tin Pan Alley music publisher. Biography Fisher was born in Cologne, Germany. His parents were Max and Theodora Breitenbach. After visiting the United States in 1892, he immigrated in 1900, where he adopted the name Fred Fischer. He founded the Fred Fischer Music Publishing Company in 1907. During World War I he changed his surname to Fisher to make it seem less Germanic. In 1914, Fred Fisher married Ana Fisher (' Davidovitch, later anglicized as Davis; born 1896). Their children – Daniel ("Danny"; 1920–2001), Marvin (1916–1993), and Doris (1915–2003) – also wrote songs professionally. Fisher died in Manhattan, New York, and was interred at Maimonides Cemetery in Brooklyn. In 1970, Fred Fisher was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. The Ripley's " Believe It or Not" column credited him with writing more Irish songs than anyone else.Ja ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chicago (That Toddlin' Town)
"Chicago" is a popular song written by Fred Fisher and published in 1922. The original sheet music variously spelled the title "Todd'ling" or "Toddling." The song has been recorded by many artists, but the best-known versions are by Frank Sinatra & Ben Selvin. The song alludes to the city's colorful past, feigning "... the surprise of my life / I saw a man dancing with his own wife", mentioning evangelist Billy Sunday as having not been able to "shut down" the city, and State Street where "they do things they don't do on Broadway". The song made a minor appearance on the U.S. pop charts, reaching #84 in the fall of 1957. It was the first of two charting songs about Chicago recorded by Sinatra. The other was " My Kind of Town" from 1964, which reached U.S. #110. Lyrics As with many similar songs, the lyrics have undergone a number of reworkings. The original third verse included the lines, "More Colored people up in State Street you can see,/ Than you'll see in Louisiana or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard A
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong in rule'. Nicknames include "Richie", "Dick", "Dickon", " Dickie", "Rich", "Rick", "Rico", "Ricky", and more. Richard is a common English, German and French male name. It's also used in many more languages, particularly Germanic, such as Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, and Dutch, as well as other languages including Irish, Scottish, Welsh and Finnish. Richard is cognate with variants of the name in other European languages, such as the Swedish "Rickard", the Catalan "Ricard" and the Italian "Riccardo", among others (see comprehensive variant list below). People named Richard Multiple people with the same name * Richard Andersen (other) * Richard Anderson (other) * Richard Cartwright (other) * Ri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Raymond B
Raymond is a male given name. It was borrowed into English from French (older French spellings were Reimund and Raimund, whereas the modern English and French spellings are identical). It originated as the Germanic ᚱᚨᚷᛁᚾᛗᚢᚾᛞ (''Raginmund'') or ᚱᛖᚷᛁᚾᛗᚢᚾᛞ (''Reginmund''). ''Ragin'' (Gothic) and ''regin'' (Old German) meant "counsel". The Old High German ''mund'' originally meant "hand", but came to mean "protection". This etymology suggests that the name originated in the Early Middle Ages, possibly from Latin. Alternatively, the name can also be derived from Germanic Hraidmund, the first element being ''Hraid'', possibly meaning "fame" (compare ''Hrod'', found in names such as Robert, Roderick, Rudolph, Roland, Rodney and Roger) and ''mund'' meaning "protector". Despite the German and French origins of the English name, some of its early uses in English documents appear in Latinized form. As a surname, its first recorded appearance in Bri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ain't We Got Fun?
"Ain't We Got Fun" is a popular foxtrot published in 1921 with music by Richard A. Whiting, lyrics by Raymond B. Egan and Gus Kahn. It was first performed in 1920 in the Fanchon and Marco revue ''Satires of 1920'', then moved into vaudeville and recordings. "Ain't We Got Fun?" and its jaunty response to poverty and its promise of fun ("Every morning / Every evening," and "In the meantime, / In between time") have become symbolic of the Roaring Twenties, and it appears in some of the major literature of the decade, including ''The Great Gatsby'' by F. Scott Fitzgerald and in Dorothy Parker's award-winning short story of 1929, "Big Blonde." The song also contains variations on the phrase "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer" (substituting, ''e.g.'', "children" for "poorer"); though this phrase predates the song, its use increased with the song's popularity. Composition "Ain't We Got Fun" follows the structure of a foxtrot. The melody uses mainly quarter notes, and has an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Freed
Arthur Freed (September 9, 1894 – April 12, 1973) was an American lyricist and Hollywood film producer. He won the Academy Award for Best Picture twice, in 1951 for ''An American in Paris'' and in 1958 for '' Gigi''. Both films were musicals. In addition, he produced and was also a co-lyricist for the now-iconic film '' Singin' in the Rain''. Early life Freed was born to a Jewish family in Charleston, South Carolina, and wrote poetry while a high schooler at Phillips Exeter Academy. After graduating in 1914, he began his career as a song-plugger and pianist in Chicago. After meeting Minnie Marx, he sang as part of the act of her sons, the Marx Brothers, on the vaudeville circuit, and also wrote material for the brothers. He soon began to write songs, and was eventually hired by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. For years, he wrote lyrics for numerous films, many set to music by Nacio Herb Brown. Career In 1939, after working (uncredited) in the role of associate producer on '' The Wiza ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nacio Herb Brown
Ignacio Herbert "Nacio Herb" Brown (February 22, 1896 – September 28, 1964) was an American songwriter, writer of popular songs, movie scores and Broadway theatre music in the 1920s through the early 1950s. Amongst his most enduring work is the score for the 1952 musical film ''Singin' in the Rain''. Life and career Ignacio Herbert Brown was born in Deming, New Mexico, United States, to Ignacio and Cora Brown.1900 United States Federal Census He had an older sister, Charlotte. In 1901, his family moved to Los Angeles, where he attended Manual Arts High School. His music education started with instruction from his mother, Cora Alice (Hopkins) Brown. Brown first operated a tailoring business (1916), and then became a financially successful realtor, but he always wrote and played. After his first hit "Coral Sea" (1920) and a first big hit, "When Buddha Smiles" (1921), he eventually became a full-time composer. He joined American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gus Kahn
Gustav Gerson Kahn (November 6, 1886October 8, 1941) was an American lyricist who contributed a number of songs to the Great American Songbook, including "Pretty Baby", "Ain't We Got Fun?", "Carolina in the Morning", "Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Goo' Bye!)", " My Buddy" " I'll See You in My Dreams", " It Had to Be You", " Yes Sir, That's My Baby", " Love Me or Leave Me", "Makin' Whoopee", " My Baby Just Cares for Me", "I'm Through with Love", "Dream a Little Dream of Me" and "You Stepped Out of a Dream". Life and career Kahn was born in 1886 in Bruschied, in the Rhine Province of the Kingdom of Prussia, the son of Theresa (Mayer) and Isaac Kahn, a cattle farmer. The Jewish family emigrated to the United States and moved to Chicago in 1890. After graduating from high school, he worked as a clerk in a mail order business before launching one of the most successful and prolific careers from Tin Pan Alley. Kahn married Grace LeBoy in 1916 and they had two children, Donald and Irene. In hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
