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Crazy For You (musical)
''Crazy for You'' is a romantic comedy musical with a book by Ken Ludwig, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and music by George Gershwin. Billed as "The New Gershwin Musical Comedy", it is largely based on the songwriting team's 1930 musical ''Girl Crazy'', but also incorporates songs from several other productions. It won the 1992 Tony Award (Broadway), the 1993 Olivier Award (London), and the 1994 Dora Award (Toronto) for Best Musical. Productions Roger Horchow and Elizabeth Williams had been wanting to produce a new version of ''Girl Crazy''. They engaged Ken Ludwig to write the book, Mike Ockrent to direct, and Susan Stroman to do the choreography, and obtained permission from the Gershwin family. Richard Godwin, and Valerie Gordon were the associate producers. The production soon changed to become a new show, using various Gershwin songs from different times. Six songs from ''Girl Crazy'' were selected: "Bidin' My Time", "Could You Use Me?", "Embraceable You" , "I Got Rhythm", " But ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Gershwin
George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ''Rhapsody in Blue'' (1924) and ''An American in Paris'' (1928), the songs " Swanee" (1919) and "Fascinating Rhythm" (1924), the jazz standards "Embraceable You" (1928) and "I Got Rhythm" (1930), and the opera ''Porgy and Bess'' (1935), which included the hit " Summertime". Gershwin studied piano under Charles Hambitzer and composition with Rubin Goldmark, Henry Cowell, and Joseph Brody. He began his career as a song plugger but soon started composing Broadway theater works with his brother Ira Gershwin and with Buddy DeSylva. He moved to Paris, intending to study with Nadia Boulanger, but she refused him, afraid that rigorous classical study would ruin his jazz-influenced style; Maurice Ravel voiced similar objections when Gershwin inq ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mike Ockrent
Michael Robert Ockrent (18 June 1946 – 2 December 1999) was a British stage director, well-known both for his Broadway musicals and smaller niche plays. He was educated at Highgate School. Through directing ''Educating Rita'', '' The Nerd'' and ''Follies'', he became an established figure in London theatre. In 1986 he made a successful transition to New York City with '' Me and My Girl'' that earned several Tony Award nominations. In later life Ockrent worked in film, mainly straight-to-TV movies. In 1992 Ockrent worked with Susan Stroman on '' Crazy for You'' and other productions. They were married in 1996 and remained so until Ockrent's death from leukaemia in New York in 1999. Ockrent's son is the screenwriter and director Ben Ockrent. A charitable trust now exists in his name. The trust aims to give access to theatre for children with cancer, involving nights at the theatre with visits backstage afterwards. It also funds leukaemia research, "both mainstream and 'alterna ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Damsel In Distress (1937 Film)
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version can be written in two forms: the double-storey a and single-storey É‘. The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type. In English grammar, " a", and its variant " an", are indefinite articles. History The earliest certain ancestor of "A" is aleph (also written 'aleph), the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet, which consisted entirely of consonants (for that reason, it is also called an abjad to distinguish it fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shall We Dance (1937 Film)
''Shall We Dance'', released in 1937, is the seventh of the ten Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musical comedy films. The story follows an American ballet dancer (Astaire) who falls in love with a tap dancer (Rogers); the tabloid press concocts a story of their marriage, after which life imitates art. George Gershwin wrote the symphonic underscore and Ira Gershwin the lyrics, for their second Hollywood musical. Plot Peter P. Peters (Fred Astaire) is an amiable American ballet dancer billed as "Petrov", who cultivates a public image of being a serious, demanding and temperamental Russian, though his employer knows the truth. Peters dances for a ballet company in Paris owned by the bumbling Jeffrey Baird ( Edward Everett Horton), and secretly never wants to blend classical ballet with modern jazz dancing because they think it does not look very professional. When Peters sees a photo of famous tap dancer Linda Keene (Ginger Rogers), he falls in love with her. He contrives to meet her ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Primrose (musical)
''Primrose'' is a musical in three acts with a book by Guy Bolton and George Grossmith Jr., lyrics by Desmond Carter and Ira Gershwin, and music by George Gershwin. It centres on a writer whose story-within-a-story forms the basis of the plot. It was written expressly for the London stage, where it ran for 255 performances in 1924 and 1925. The musical played in Australia,Reilly, Lucas"A Forgotten George Gershwin Musical Just Made Its American Debut" ''Mental Floss'', 8 July 2017 but it was not performed in the United States until more than half a century after it was written.1987 sleeve notes by John McGlinn to EMI recording CDC 7 47977 2 George Gershwin, at 25 years old, was an established songwriter by 1924 when Grossmith and his producing partners, J. A. E. Malone and Edward Laurillard, hired him to produce the score for ''Primrose'' for them in London. The musical is the first in which Gershwin wrote some of the orchestrations himself. The year was one of the busiest for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Secaucus, New Jersey
Secaucus ( ) is a town in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the town's population was 16,264,DP-1 – Profile of General Population and Housing Characteristics: 2010 for Secaucus town, Hudson County, New Jersey , . Accessed December 25, 2011. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Treasure Girl
''Treasure Girl'' is a musical with a book by Fred Thompson and Vincent Lawrence, music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. The musical's best-known song is " (I've Got a) Crush on You", which has been recorded by a number of artists, including Frank Sinatra. After a tryout in Philadelphia beginning on October 15, 1928, the musical opened on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre on November 8, 1928. It ran for 68 performances before closing on January 5, 1929. It starred Gertrude Lawrence and featured Clifton Webb and Walter Catlett. Bertram Harrison directed, and Bobby Connelly choreographed. The critics praised the lyrics and some of the music but found the book "remorselessly dull".Pollack, Howard.''George Gershwin: his life and work'' pp. 429–30, Berkeley: University of California Press (2006). Musical numbers ;Act 1 *"Skull and Bones" – Ensemble *" (I've Got a) Crush on You" – Polly Tees, "Nat" McNally and Ensemble *"Oh, So Nice!" – Ann Wainwright and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Show Girl (1929 Musical)
''Show Girl'' is a musical by William Anthony McGuire that ran from Jul 2, 1929 to Oct 5, 1929. The show tells the story of aspiring Broadway showgirl Dixie Dugan (played by Ruby Keeler) as she is pursued by four suitors (played by Eddie Foy, Jr., Joseph Macaulay, Austin Fairman, and Frank McHugh). The music was written by George Gershwin, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin and Gus Kahn. The character of Dixie Dugan was created by J. P. McEvoy and was first introduced in ''Liberty'' before McEvoy published his 1928 novel ''Show Girl'' (on which the musical was loosely based). The Broadway production was produced by Florenz Ziegfeld, directed by McGuire, and choreographed by Bobby Connolly, with ballet sequences—including one set to ''An American in Paris—''by Albertina Rasch. Duke Ellington conducted the orchestra. The show opened on July 2, 1929 at the Ziegfeld Theatre and ran for 111 performances. The cast included Ruby Keeler as Dixie, Jimmy Durante, Eddie Foy, Jr., Frank M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
I Got Rhythm
"I Got Rhythm" is a piece composed by George Gershwin with lyrics by Ira Gershwin and published in 1930, which became a jazz standard. Its chord progression, known as the "rhythm changes", is the foundation for many other popular jazz tunes such as Charlie Parker's and Dizzy Gillespie's bebop standard "Anthropology (Thrivin' on a Riff)". Composition The song came from the musical ''Girl Crazy'', which also includes two other hit songs, "Embraceable You" and " But Not for Me", and has been sung by many jazz singers since. It was originally written as a slow song for ''Treasure Girl'' (1928) and found another, faster setting in ''Girl Crazy''. Ethel Merman sang the song in the original Broadway production and Broadway lore holds that George Gershwin, after seeing her opening reviews, warned her never to take a singing lesson. The four-note opening riff bears a striking resemblance to the opening melody of the third movement of William Grant Still's ''Symphony No. 1,'' "Afro-A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Embraceable You
"Embraceable You" is a jazz standard song with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. The song was written in 1928 for an unpublished operetta named ''East Is West''. It was published in 1930 and included in that year's Broadway musical ''Girl Crazy'', performed by Ginger Rogers in a song and dance routine choreographed by Fred Astaire. Billie Holiday's 1944 recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2005. Other versions * Nat King Cole – (1943) * Bing Crosby (recorded November 12, 1947) – included in the album ''Bing Crosby Sings Songs by George Gershwin''. * Ella Fitzgerald – ''Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook'' (1959) * Jane Froman – '' With a Song in My Heart'' * Judy Garland – ''Girl Crazy'', film (1943) * Erroll Garner * Herbie Hancock – ''Gershwin's World'' (1998) * Billie Holiday – 1944 * Billie Holiday – ''Body and Soul'' (1957) * Chet Baker – ''Embraceable You (album)'' (1957) * Charlie Parker â ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
