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Enter Laughing
''Enter Laughing'' is a 1963 play by Joseph Stein. A farce in two acts, it is based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Carl Reiner. The action centers on the journey of young aspiring actor David Kolowitz as he tries to extricate himself from overly protective parents (who want him to be a married pharmacist) and two too many girlfriends, while struggling to meet the challenge of his lack of talent in 1930s New York City. The Broadway production opened on March 13, 1963, and ran for over a year. It marked the Broadway directorial debut of Gene Saks. The cast included Alan Arkin, Vivian Blaine, Sylvia Sidney, Michael J. Pollard, and Alan Mowbray. Arkin won a Tony for his performance. Original cast In order of appearance: * Irving Jacobson as Mr. Foreman *Alan Arkin as David Kolowitz * Michael J. Pollard as Marvin * Meg Myles as Miss B. *Charles Randall as Pike *Pierre Epstein as Don Baxter *Walt Wanderman as Don Darwin *Alan Mowbray as Marlowe *Vivian Blaine as Angela * S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Stein
Joseph Stein (May 30, 1912 – October 24, 2010) was an American playwright best known for writing the books for such musicals as ''Fiddler on the Roof'' and '' Zorba''. Biography Born in New York City to Jewish parents, Charles and Emma (Rosenblum) Stein, who had immigrated from Poland, Stein grew up in the Bronx. He graduated in 1935 from CCNY, with a B.S. degree, then earned a Master of Social Work degree from Columbia University in 1937. He began his career as a psychiatric social worker from 1939 until 1945, while writing comedy on the side.Cote, David. "Now that he's a rich man", ''The Times'' (London), May 14, 2007, p. 16 A chance encounter with Zero Mostel led him to start writing for radio personalities, including Henry Morgan, Hildegarde, Tallulah Bankhead, Phil Silvers, and Jackie Gleason. He later started working in television for Sid Caesar when he joined the writing team of ''Your Show of Shows'' that included Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, and Neil S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enter Laughing (film)
''Enter Laughing'' is a 1967 comedy film, directed by Carl Reiner, based on his autobiographical novel and the 1963 stage play of the same name. It was Reiner's directorial debut. The film stars Jose Ferrer, Shelley Winters, Elaine May, Jack Gilford, Janet Margolin and newcomer Reni Santoni. It tells the story of a young Jewish man from the Bronx trying to break into the theater and launch a career in acting. The film has never been released on DVD or Blu-Ray. Plot summary David Kolowitz (Reni Santoni) works as a delivery boy and assistant for a machine shop in New York City in 1938, and is fascinated with the movies. Despite the misgivings of his girlfriend Wanda (Janet Margolin), his parents (Shelley Winters and David Opatoshu) and his employer ( Jack Gilford), David follows the suggestion of a friend (Michael J. Pollard) and becomes involved with an off-Broadway theater company run by Harrison B. Marlowe (Jose Ferrer). He admires Ronald Colman so he uses the stage name "Do ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Schramm (actor)
David Michael Schramm (August 14, 1946 – March 28, 2020) was an American actor. He was best known for playing the role of Roy Biggins, the curmudgeonly rival airline owner in the TV series ''Wings''. Early life and education Schramm was born on August 14, 1946, in Louisville, Kentucky. His father was a bookie. Schramm revealed in a 2008 interview that at the age of 17, "(my parents) always came to see me in school, where I won trophies for speaking, and then in those big outdoor dramas we have in Kentucky, and then as an apprentice actor at the playhouse that eventually became the Actors Theater of Louisville." Schramm also earned $25 a week for cleaning toilets and for being in a play. "I had been acting non-stop since I was a teenager," Schramm said in a 2012 interview. "But really I got started in acting because others helped me push into it. When I was a kid, it was other actors getting me to do it. Then I had a series of teachers who told me I was going to do it. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Picardo
Robert Alphonse Picardo (born October 27, 1953) is an American actor. He is best known for playing the Cowboy in ''Innerspace'', Coach Cutlip on ''The Wonder Years'', Captain Dick Richard on the ABC series ''China Beach'', the Doctor on '' Star Trek: Voyager'' and Richard Woolsey in the '' Stargate'' franchise. He is a frequent collaborator of Joe Dante and is a member of The Planetary Society's Board of Directors. Early life Picardo was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Joe Picardo. Robert is of Italian heritage, with his father's family originating from Montecorvino Rovella, Salerno, and his mother's parents originally from Bomba in Abruzzo. He graduated from William Penn Charter School in 1971 and originally entered Yale University as a pre-medical student, but opted to act instead. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in drama from Yale University. Picardo is an accomplished singer. While he was at Yale University, he was a member of the Society of Orpheus an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Kreppel
Paul Kreppel (born June 20, 1947) is an American actor and director. On television, he was best known as pianist Sonny Mann on the show ''It's a Living''. In his work as theater director-producer-creator, he received the 2007 Tony Award for '' Jay Johnson: The Two and Only''. Early theater career Kreppel was born in Kingston, New York to Adele and Irv Kreppel. He then moved to Boston to attend Emerson College and graduated with honors. Kreppel received an Alumni Achievement Award in '93 and is a member of the Class of 1969. From there, he had started his acting career by starring in the improvisational theater group, "The Proposition." When the group, which included Jane Curtin, Josh Mostel, Judith Kahan and Munson Hicks, moved to New York, Kreppel began starring in off-Broadway plays, including ''Godspell'' and ''Tuscaloosa's Calling Me...'' While appearing at the New York Shakespeare Festival, he notably starred with Meryl Streep in the musical, ''Alice in Concert'', by Elizabet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Kostroff
Michael Kostroff (born May 22, 1961) is an American actor. He appeared on the HBO program ''The Wire'' as defense attorney Maurice Levy. Kostroff starred in the fifth season of the series and appeared in all four earlier seasons as a guest star. Life and career Kostroff is best known for his five seasons playing drug lawyer Maury Levy on the HBO series ''The Wire'', and from his recurring appearances on ''The Blacklist, Billions, The Good Wife, Law and Order: SVU,'' and on the Disney Channel series ''Sonny with a Chance'' as Marshall Pike, the executive producer and the creator of ''So Random!''. He played Peter Madoff, brother of Bernie Madoff (Robert De Niro) in HBO's ''Wizard of Lies'' and Shepsie Tirschwell in David Simon's 2020 miniseries, ''The Plot Against America''. From 2002 to 2003, Kostroff performed in the first national tour of Mel Brooks' Broadway hit '' The Producers'', and from 2003 to 2004, he played the comic villain Thénardier in the touring company of '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alison Fraser
Alison Fraser (born in Natick, Massachusetts) is an American actress, voice actress and singer who has appeared on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in television and film. In concert, she has performed at such venues as Carnegie Hall, The White House, Town Hall, The Brooklyn Botanic Garden, The Tisch Center for the Arts, The Folger Shakespeare Library, The Wilma, The Emelin, Joe's Pub, 54 Below, and Symphony Space. Career Fraser is a two-time Tony Award nominee for ''The Secret Garden'' and ''Romance/Romance'', a Drama Desk Award nominee for both ''The Secret Garden'', and ''First Daughter Suite'' and a Carbonell Award winner for ''Romance/Romance''. Fraser is a Callaway Award-winner for ''Heartbreak House''. She played "Tessie Tura" in the New York City Center and Broadway productions of ''Gypsy'' starring Patti LuPone under the direction of Arthur Laurents. She was the first ever recipient of Philadelphia's Barrymore Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of "The Blond ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Farah Alvin
Farah Alvin (born September 28, 1976) is an American theatre actress. She is the daughter of cinematic poster artist John Alvin. Early life Alvin grew up in Los Angeles, the daughter of the artists John Alvin and Andrea Alvin. In 1993, at the age of sixteen, she won the Spotlights Award, a scholarship competition for the Los Angeles Music Center and performed at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. At eighteen, she received a scholarship to the Brooklyn College music conservatory and moved to New York City. Career During her senior year of high school, Alvin earned her Actors' Equity Association, Equity card when she performed in the Los Angeles premiere of ''Fame: The Musical''. Three weeks after moving to New York, she obtained a role in the musical ''A Christmas Carol (musical), A Christmas Carol'' at Madison Square Garden. Alvin's first Broadway theatre credit came was in the revival of the musical ''Grease (musical), Grease''. Subsequent Broadway credits have included the m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Josh Grisetti
Josh Grisetti (born December 1, 1981)Josh Grisetti biography IMDb.com is an American actor, director and author who works in theatre, television and film. Early life Grisetti was born in and grew up outside of ."Q & A Interview"Playbill.com He attended high school at the |
York Theatre
York Theatre is an off-Broadway theatre company based in East Midtown Manhattan, New York City. In its 50th year, York Theatre is dedicated to the production of new musicals and concert productions of forgotten musicals from the past. Each season consists of three or four mainstage productions, six or more concert presentations and dozens of developmental readings. It has had several transfers of its work to larger off-Broadway theatres and to Broadway. The company was awarded a special Drama Desk Award in 1996 to its artistic director Janet Hayes Walker and in 2006 for its "vital contributions to theater by developing and presenting new musicals". The York also received a Special Achievement Outer Critics Circle Award for 50 years of producing new and classic musicals. After Walker's death in 1997, the company has been run by James Morgan. From 1993 to 2020, the company performed at St. Peter's Church in the Citigroup Center at 619 Lexington Avenue at the corner of East 54th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
So Long, 174th Street
''So Long, 174th Street'' is a musical with a book by Joseph Stein and lyrics and music by Stan Daniels. Based on Stein's play ''Enter Laughing'', which had been adapted from the Carl Reiner book of the same name and served as the basis for a 1967 film, it focuses on the journey of David Kolowitz from factory helper to actor and from insecure adolescence to self-assured adulthood in three whirlwind days in New York City in the late 1930s. After six previews, the Broadway production, directed by Burt Shevelove and choreographed by Alan Johnson, opened on April 27, 1976, at the Harkness Theatre, where it closed after only 16 performances. The cast included Robert Morse, George S. Irving, Loni Ackerman, and Rita Rudner. Morse starred as David. Though "boyish looking," he was 45 years old and played a character half his age. Clive Barnes of the ''New York Times'' observed "The people involved are talented enough...So what went wrong? How did ''Enter Laughing'' end up leaving us y ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elaine May
Elaine Iva May (née Berlin; born April 21, 1932) is an American comedian, filmmaker, playwright, and actress. She has received numerous awards including an Oscar, a BAFTA, a Grammy, and a Tony. She made her initial impact in the 1950s with her improvisational comedy routines with Mike Nichols, before transitioning as a groundbreaking film director starting in the 1970s onward. In 1955, May moved to Chicago and became a founding member of the Compass Players, an improvisational theater group. She began working alongside Nichols and in 1957, they both quit the group to form their own stage act, Nichols and May. In New York they performed nightly in clubs in Greenwich Village alongside Joan Rivers and Woody Allen as well as on the Broadway stage. They also made regular appearances in television and radio broadcasts. They released multiple comedy albums and received four Grammy Award nominations winning Best Comedy Album for '' An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May'' in 1962 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
