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Center Stage (Helen Reddy Album)
''Center Stage'' is the sixteenth studio album by Australian-American pop singer Helen Reddy that was released in 1998 by Varèse Sarabande. Reddy describes the album as the perfect melding of two areas of her career: "the recording studio and the theatrical stage. I tried to select songs from various songwriters in different eras. I've also included (of course) a song from each of the musical shows I've performed in." __TOC__ Singles The album version of "Surrender" and a longer dance version were released together as a CD single but did not have any appearances on ''Billboards Hot 100. or Adult Contemporary charts.. Of the album version, Reddy writes, "Andrew Lloyd Webber is very rigid about his songs being sung exactly as written. I gave him his due in the first pass at this song from ''Sunset Boulevard'' (originally sung over the body of a dead monkey). However, my need for self-expression found its voice in the second half."(2006) ''The Woman I Am: The Definitive Collect ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helen Reddy
Helen Maxine Reddy (25 October 194129 September 2020) was an Australian-American singer, actress, television host, and activist. Born in Melbourne to a showbusiness family, Reddy started her career as an entertainer at age four. She sang on radio and television and won a talent contest on the television program ''Bandstand'' in 1966; her prize was a ticket to New York City and a record audition, which was unsuccessful. She pursued her international singing career by moving to Chicago, and subsequently, Los Angeles, where she made her debut singles " One Way Ticket" and " I Believe in Music" in 1968 and 1970, respectively. The B-side of the latter single, "I Don't Know How to Love Him", reached number eight on the pop chart of the Canadian magazine ''RPM''. She was signed to Capitol Records a year later. During the 1970s, Reddy enjoyed international success, especially in the United States, where she placed 15 singles on the top 40 of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Six made the top ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in film. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, Porter defied his grandfather's wishes for him to practice law and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn to musical theatre. After a slow start, he began to achieve success in the 1920s, and by the 1930s he was one of the major songwriters for the Broadway musical stage. Unlike many successful Broadway composers, Porter wrote the lyrics as well as the music for his songs. After a serious horseback riding accident in 1937, Porter was left disabled and in constant pain, but he continued to work. His shows of the early 1940s did not contain the lasting hits of his best work of the 1920s and 1930s, but in 1948 he made a triumphant comeback with his most successful musical, ''Kiss Me, Kate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burt Bacharach
Burt Freeman Bacharach ( ; born May 12, 1928) is an American composer, songwriter, record producer and pianist who composed hundreds of pop songs from the late 1950s through the 1980s, many in collaboration with lyricist Hal David. A six-time Grammy Award winner and three-time Academy Award winner, Bacharach's songs have been recorded by more than 1,000 different artists. , he had written 73 US and 52 UK Top 40 hits. He is considered one of the most important composers of 20th-century popular music. His music is characterized by unusual chord progressions, influenced by his background in jazz harmony, and uncommon selections of instruments for small orchestras. Most of Bacharach and David's hits were written specifically for and performed by Dionne Warwick but earlier associations (from 1957 to 1963) saw the composing duo work with Marty Robbins, Perry Como, Gene McDaniels and Jerry Butler. Following the initial success of these collaborations, Bacharach went on to write hits for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Zippel
David Joel Zippel (born May 17, 1954) is an American musical theatre lyricist, director, and producer. Early life and education Zippel was born and raised in Easton, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. Falling in love with theater as a child, Zippel first articulated his life's ambition to become a lyricist and director in junior high school. As an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania, he contributed lyrics to an equity production of "a bizarre political musical" called ''Rotunda'', which had a brief run in Washington, D.C. before graduating with a B.A. in 1976. Mindful of the difficulties of achieving success in theater, Zippel first obtained a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School, graduating in the class of 1979. At Harvard, Zippel continued to pursue his ambition of writing several pop songs with singer Pamala Stanley that appeared on her 1979 debut album, ''This Is Hot'', and collaborating on three songs with Wally Harper, Barbara Coo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cy Coleman
Cy Coleman (born Seymour Kaufman; June 14, 1929 – November 18, 2004) was an American composer, songwriter, and jazz pianist. Life and career Coleman was born Seymour Kaufman in New York City, United States, to Eastern European Jewish parents, and was raised in the Bronx. His mother, Ida (née Prizent) was an apartment landlady and his father was a brickmason.Berkvist, Rober"Cy Coleman, Composer Whose Jazz-Fired Musicals Blazed on Broadway, Dies at 75" ''The New York Times'', November 20, 2004. He was a child prodigy who gave piano recitals at venues such as Steinway Hall, Town Hall, and Carnegie Hall between the ages of six and nine.Jones, Kennet"Cy Coleman, a Master of the Show Tune, Is Dead at 75", Playbill.com, November 19, 2004. Before beginning his fabled Broadway career, he led the Cy Coleman Trio, which made many recordings and was a much-in-demand club attraction. Despite the early classical and jazz success, Coleman decided to build a career in popular music. His f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
City Of Angels (musical)
''City of Angels'' is a musical comedy with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by David Zippel, and a book by Larry Gelbart. The musical consists of two plots: The world of a writer trying to adapt his novel into a screenplay and the world of the film he is writing. The musical is an homage to the film noir genre of motion pictures of the 1940s. Productions ; Broadway ''City of Angels'' premiered on Broadway at the Virginia Theatre on December 11, 1989 and closed on January 19, 1992 after 879 performances and 24 previews. It was directed by Michael Blakemore with sets designed by Robin Wagner, costumes were by Florence Klotz and lighting was by Paul Gallo. ; US Tour While the show continued on Broadway, the Los Angeles company opened in June 1991 at the Shubert Theater in Century City, with Stephen Bogardus as Stine, Lauren Mitchell as the villainess, with Randy Graff (Friday Oolie) and James Naughton (Stone) recreating their original roles. Jeff McCarthy replaced Naughton and Cathe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rupert Holmes
David Goldstein (born February 24, 1947), better known as Rupert Holmes, is a British-American composer, singer-songwriter, dramatist and author. He is widely known for the hit singles "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" (1979) and " Him" (1980). He is also known for his musicals ''The Mystery of Edwin Drood'', which earned him two Tony Awards, and ''Curtains'', and for his television series ''Remember WENN''. Life and career Holmes was born David Goldstein in Northwich, Cheshire, England. His father, Leonard Eliot Goldstein, was a United States Army warrant officer and bandleader. His mother, Gwendolen Mary (''née'' Pynn), was English, and both were musical. Holmes has dual British and American citizenship. The family moved when Holmes was six years old to the northern New York City suburb of Nanuet, New York, where Holmes grew up and attended nearby Nyack High School and then the Manhattan School of Music (majoring in clarinet). Holmes's brother, Richard, is the principal lyr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drood
''The Mystery of Edwin Drood'' (or simply ''Drood'') is a musical based on the unfinished Charles Dickens novel. Written by Rupert Holmes, the show was the first ever Broadway musical with multiple endings (determined by audience vote). The musical won five Tony Awards out of eleven nominations, including Best Musical. Holmes received Tony awards for Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score. The musical debuted as part of the New York Shakespeare Festival in August 1985, and following revision, transferred to Broadway, where it ran until May 1987. Two national tours and production in London's West End followed. The Roundabout Theatre Company revived the musical in 2012. History Inspiration The musical ''Drood'' is derived from two major inspirations: Charles Dickens' final (and unfinished) novel, ''The Mystery of Edwin Drood'', and the British pantomime and music hall traditions that reached the height of their popularity in the years following Dickens' death. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill (March 2, 1900April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht. With Brecht, he developed productions such as his best-known work, ''The Threepenny Opera'', which included the ballad "Mack the Knife". Weill held the ideal of writing music that served a socially useful purpose,Kurt Weill Cjschuler.net. Retrieved on August 22, 2011. ''''. He also wrote several works for the concert hall and a number of works on Jewish themes. He became a United States citizen on August 27, 1943.
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Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry, Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. He famously wrote about the period that "the Negro was in vogue", which was later paraphrased as "when Harlem was in vogue." Growing up in a series of Midwestern towns, Hughes became a prolific writer at an early age. He moved to New York City as a young man, where he made his career. He graduated from high school in Cleveland, Ohio, and soon began studies at Columbia University in New York City. Although he dropped out, he gained notice from New York publishers, first in ''The Crisis'' magazine and then from book publishers, and became known in the creative community in Harlem. He eventually graduated from Lincoln University. In addition to poetry, Hughes wrote plays and short sto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Street Scene (opera)
''Street Scene'' is an American opera by Kurt Weill (music), Langston Hughes (lyrics), and Elmer Rice (book). Written in 1946 and premiered in Philadelphia that year, ''Street Scene'' is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1929 play of the same name by Rice. It was Weill who referred to the piece as an "American opera", intending it as a groundbreaking synthesis of European traditional opera and American musical theater. He received the inaugural Tony Award for Best Original Score for his work, after the Broadway premiere in 1947. Considered far more an opera than a musical, ''Street Scene'' is regularly produced by professional opera companies and has never been revived on Broadway. Musically and culturally, even dramatically, the work inhabits the mid-ground between Weill's ''Threepenny Opera'' (1928) and Leonard Bernstein's ''West Side Story'' (1957). The score contains operatic arias and ensembles, some of them, such as Anna Maurrant's "Somehow I Never Could Believe" and Fran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
