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Donald Saddler
Donald Edward Saddler (January 24, 1918 – November 1, 2014) was an American choreographer, dancer, and theatre director. Biography Born in Van Nuys, California, Saddler studied dance at an early age to regain his strength after a bout of scarlet fever. He spent his school vacations at the MGM studios, eventually dancing in the chorus of movie musicals such as ''The Great Ziegfeld'' (1936), '' Rosalie'' (1937), ''Broadway Melody of 1938'' (1937), ''Babes in Arms'' (1939), and '' The Wizard of Oz'' (1939) . Saddler was an original member of the American Ballet Theatre, appearing in ''Giselle'', ''Pillar of Fire'', and ''Fancy Free'' before heading overseas to serve in World War II. When he returned, he decided to forego ballet in favor of Broadway musicals, appearing in ''High Button Shoes'' (1947) and two 1950 revues, ''Dance Me a Song'' and ''Bless You All'', before winning his first assignment as a choreographer for ''Wonderful Town'' in 1953, for which he won the Tony Aw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Van Nuys, California
Van Nuys () is a neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Home to Van Nuys Airport and the Valley Municipal Building, it is the most populous neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley. History In 1909, the Suburban Homes Company – a syndicate led by Hobart Johnstone Whitley, general manager of the board of control, along with Harry Chandler, H. G. Otis, M. H. Sherman and O. F. Brandt – purchased 48,000 acres of the Farming and Milling Company for $2.5 million. Henry E. Huntington extended his Pacific Electric Railway (Red Cars) through the Valley to Owensmouth (now Canoga Park). The Suburban Home Company laid out plans for roads and the towns of Van Nuys, Reseda (Marian) and Canoga Park (Owensmouth). The rural areas were annexed into the city of Los Angeles in 1915. The town was founded in 1911 and named for Isaac Newton Van Nuys, a rancher, entrepreneur and one of its developers. It was annexed by Los Angeles on May 22, 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Musical Theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole. Although musical theatre overlaps with other theatrical forms like opera and dance, it may be distinguished by the equal importance given to the music as compared with the dialogue, movement and other elements. Since the early 20th century, musical theatre stage works have generally been called, simply, musicals. Although music has been a part of dramatic presentations since ancient times, modern Western musical theatre emerged during the 19th century, with many structural elements established by the works of Gilbert and Sullivan in Britain and those of Harrigan and Hart in America. These were followed by the numerous Edwardian musical comedies and the musical theatre w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
No, No, Nanette
''No, No, Nanette'' is a musical comedy with lyrics by Irving Caesar and Otto Harbach, music by Vincent Youmans, and a book by Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel, based on Mandel's 1919 Broadway play ''My Lady Friends''. The farcical story involves three couples who find themselves together at a cottage in Atlantic City in the midst of a blackmail scheme, focusing on a young, fun-loving Manhattan heiress who naughtily runs off for a weekend, leaving her unhappy fiancé. Its songs include the well-known " Tea for Two" and "I Want to Be Happy". During its 1924 pre-Broadway tour, ''No, No, Nanette'' became a hit in Chicago, and the production stayed there for over a year. In 1925, the show opened both on Broadway and in the West End, running 321 and 665 performances respectively. Film versions and revivals followed. A popular 1971 Broadway revival, with a book adapted by Burt Shevelove, led to the piece becoming a favorite of school and community groups for a time. A popular myth holds ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jo Sullivan
Elizabeth Josephine Sullivan Loesser (née Sullivan; August 28, 1927 – April 28, 2019) was an American actress and high lyric soprano singer. She became a musical theatre star with her performance in the original production of '' The Most Happy Fella'', for which she was nominated for a Tony Award in 1957. Early years She was the daughter of Hessie Boone Sullivan and Eileen Celeste Woods Sullivan, who worked for a lumber-distributing company and sold cosmetics, respectively. She was born in Mounds, Illinois, on August 28, 1927, and attended Cleveland High School. After studying singing in St. Louis, in the late 1940s, she studied music at Columbia University after failing to be accepted at Juilliard School and working at Lord & Taylor department store in New York to support herself. She competed on the ''Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts'' radio program but lost to a pair of harmonica players. Career Sullivan played Polly Peachum in Marc Blitzstein's English-language adaptation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Loesser
Frank Henry Loesser (; June 29, 1910 – July 28, 1969) was an American songwriter who wrote the music and lyrics for the Broadway musicals ''Guys and Dolls'' and ''How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying'', among others. He won a Tony Award for ''Guys and Dolls'' and shared the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for ''How to Succeed''. He also wrote songs for over 60 Hollywood films and Tin Pan Alley, many of which have become standards, and was nominated for five Academy Awards for best song, winning once for Baby, It's Cold Outside. Early years Frank Henry Loesser was born to a Jewish family in New York City to Henry Loesser, a pianist,Frank Loesser biography pbs.org, accessed December 5, 2008 and Julia Ehrlich. He grew up in a house on West 107th Street in M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Abbott
George Francis Abbott (June 25, 1887 – January 31, 1995) was an American theatre producer, director, playwright, screenwriter, film director and producer whose career spanned eight decades. Early years Abbott was born in Forestville, New York, to George Burwell Abbott (May 1858 Erie County, New York – February 4, 1942 Hamburg, New York) and Hannah May McLaury (1869 – June 20, 1940 Hamburg, New York). He later moved to the city of Salamanca, which twice elected his father mayor. In 1898, his family moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming, where he attended Kearney Military Academy. Within a few years, his family returned to New York, and he graduated from Hamburg High School in 1907. In 1911 he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Rochester, Sweeney, Louise"Director George Abbott"''Christian Science Monitor'', January 6, 1983 where he wrote his first play, ''Perfectly Harmless'', for the University Dramatic Club. Abbott then attended Harvard University, to take a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ethel Merman
Ethel Merman (born Ethel Agnes Zimmermann, January 16, 1908 – February 15, 1984) was an American actress and singer, known for her distinctive, powerful voice, and for leading roles in musical theatre.Obituary ''Variety'', February 22, 1984. She has been called "the undisputed First Lady of the musical comedy stage". Over her distinguished career in theater she became known for her performances in shows such as ''Anything Goes'', '' Annie Get Your Gun'', ''Gypsy'', and '' Hello, Dolly!'' She is also known for her film roles in ''Anything Goes'' (1936), ''Call Me Madam'' (1953), ''There's No Business Like Show Business'' (1954), and ''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World'' (1963). Among many accolades, she received the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance in ''Call Me Madam'', a Grammy Award for ''Gypsy'' and Drama Desk Award for '' Hello, Dolly!'' Among the many standards introduced by Merman in Broadway musicals are "I Got Rhythm" (from ''Girl Crazy''); ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Martin
Mary Virginia Martin (December 1, 1913 – November 3, 1990) was an American actress and singer. A muse of Rodgers and Hammerstein, she originated many leading roles on stage over her career, including Nellie Forbush in '' South Pacific'' (1949), the title character in ''Peter Pan'' (1954), and Maria von Trapp in ''The Sound of Music'' (1959). She was named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1989. She was the mother of actor Larry Hagman. Early life Martin was born in Weatherford, Texas. Her autobiography described her childhood as secure and happy. She had close relationships with both of her parents as well as her siblings. As a young actress Martin had an instinctive ear for recreating musical sounds. Martin's father, Preston Martin, was a lawyer, and her mother, Juanita Presley, was a violin teacher. Although the doctors told Juanita that she would risk her life if she attempted to have another baby, she was determined to have a boy. Instead, she had Mary, who later obliged by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Winesburg, Ohio (novel)
''Winesburg, Ohio'' (full title: ''Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small-Town Life'') is a 1919 short story cycle by the American author Sherwood Anderson. The work is structured around the life of protagonist George Willard, from the time he was a child to his growing independence and ultimate abandonment of Winesburg as a young man. It is set in the fictional town of Winesburg, Ohio (not to be confused with the actual Winesburg, Ohio), which is based loosely on the author's childhood memories of Clyde, Ohio. Mostly written from late 1915 to early 1916, with a few stories completed closer to publication, they were "...conceived as complementary parts of a whole, centered in the background of a single community."Phillips (1951), 17-18 The book consists of twenty-two stories, with the first story, "The Book of the Grotesque", serving as an introduction. Each of the stories shares a specific character's past and present struggle to overcome the loneliness and isolation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson (September 13, 1876 – March 8, 1941) was an American novelist and short story writer, known for subjective and self-revealing works. Self-educated, he rose to become a successful copywriter and business owner in Cleveland and Elyria, Ohio. In 1912, Anderson had a nervous breakdown that led him to abandon his business and family to become a writer. At the time, he moved to Chicago and was eventually married three additional times. His most enduring work is the short-story sequence ''Winesburg, Ohio,'' which launched his career. Throughout the 1920s, Anderson published several short story collections, novels, memoirs, books of essays, and a book of poetry. Though his books sold reasonably well, '' Dark Laughter'' (1925), a novel inspired by Anderson's time in New Orleans during the 1920s, was his only bestseller. Early life Sherwood Berton Anderson was born on September 13, 1876, at 142 S. Lafayette Street in Camden, Ohio, a farming town with a population of ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival
Jacob's Pillow is a dance center, school and performance space located in Becket, Massachusetts, in the Berkshires. The organization is known for a Summer dance festival. The facility also includes a professional school and extensive archives as well as year-round community programs. The facility itself was listed as a National Historic Landmark District in 2003. History The site of Jacob's Pillow in Becket, Massachusetts was originally settled in 1790 by Jacob Carter III. Because of the zigzagging road leading to the hilltop property, it became known as "Jacob's Ladder", after Jacob's Ladder, the Biblical story, and a pillow-shaped rock on the property prompted the farm to acquire the name "Jacob's Pillow". The farm was purchased in 1931 by modern dance pioneer Ted Shawn as a dance retreat. Shawn and his wife, Ruth St. Denis, led the highly regarded Denishawn Company, which had popularized dance forms rooted in theater and cultural traditions outside European ballet. They we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Award For Best Choreography
The Tony Award for Best Choreography is awarded to acknowledge the contributions of choreographers in both musicals and plays. The award has been given since 1947, but nominees were not announced until 1956. Winners and nominees 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Award records Multiple wins ;8 Wins * Bob Fosse ;5 Wins * Michael Bennett * Gower Champion * Michael Kidd ;4 Wins * Susan Stroman * Tommy Tune ;3 Wins * Andy Blankenbuehler * Kathleen Marshall * Jerome Robbins ;2 Wins * Bob Avian * Agnes de Mille * Ron Field * Bill T. Jones * Joe Layton * Jerry Mitchell * Donald Saddler * Christopher Wheeldon Multiple nominations ;11 Nominations * Bob Fosse ;10 Nominations * Michael Bennett * Susan Stroman ;8 Nominations * Graciela Daniele * Michael Kidd * Onna White ;7 Nominations * Rob Ashford * Gower Champion * Jerry Mitchell ;6 Nominations * Wayne Cilento * Casey Nicholaw * Tommy Tune ;5 Nominations * Patricia Birch * Andy Bla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
