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Irene (musical)
''Irene'' is a musical with a book by James Montgomery, lyrics by Joseph McCarthy, and music by Harry Tierney. Based on Montgomery's play ''Irene O'Dare'', it is set in New York City's Upper West Side and focuses on immigrant shop assistant Irene O'Dare, who is introduced to Long Island's high society when she is hired by one of its leading grande dames to help redecorate her home. The musical opened on Broadway in 1919 and ran for 675 performances, at the time the record for the longest-running musical in Broadway history, which it maintained for nearly two decades. It starred Edith Day in the title role, who repeated the role in the London production. It was revived on Broadway in 1923, filmed twice, and had a major Broadway revival in 1973, starring Debbie Reynolds, followed by a 1976 London run that lasted 974 performances. Early productions The original Broadway production, directed by Edward Royce, opened on November 18, 1919 at the Vanderbilt Theatre, where it ran for 675 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edith Day
Edith Day (born Edith Marie Day; April 10, 1896 – May 1, 1971) was an American actress and singer best known for her roles in Edwardian musical comedies and operettas, first on Broadway and then in London's West End. Life and career Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota as Edith Marie Day, Day made her Broadway debut in ''Pom-pom'' in 1916, then ''Follow Me'' the same year. At the end of 1917, she starred in the musical comedy '' Going Up''. The show ran for 351 performances. Day then appeared in three silent films, ''The Grain of Dust'' (1918), ''A Romance of the Air'' (1918), and ''Children Not Wanted'' (1920).''Named Edith Day as Correspondent'', ''The New York Times'', May 5, 1921, p. 3''Miss Edith Day'', ''The Times'', May 3, 1971, p. 14 In 1919, she became a major star playing the title role in ''Irene'' on Broadway. Five months into the run, she was sent to create the role in the London production at the Empire Theatre, where she was embraced by the London critics. She nex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bertha Belmore
Bertha Belmore (22 December 1882 – 14 December 1953) was an English stage and film actress. Part of the Belmore family of British actors through her marriage to actor Herbert Belmore, she began her career as a child actress in British pantomimes and music hall variety acts. As a young adult she was one of the Belmore Sisters in variety entertainment before beginning a more serious acting career performing in classic plays by William Shakespeare with Ben Greet's Pastoral Players in a 1911 tour of the United States. She made her Broadway debut as Portia in Shakespeare's ''Julius Caesar'' in 1912. She returned to Broadway numerous times in mainly comedic character roles over the next 40 years, notably creating parts in the original Broadway productions of Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers's ''By Jupiter'' (1942) and Anita Loos's '' Gigi'' (1951). She worked in several productions mounted by Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., including appearing in the '' Ziegfeld Follies of 1925'' with W.C. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gower Champion
Gower Carlyle Champion (June 22, 1919 – August 25, 1980) was an American actor, theatre director, choreographer, and dancer. Early years Champion was born on June 22, 1919, in Geneva, Illinois, as the son of John W. Champion and Beatrice Carlisle. He was raised in Los Angeles, California, where he graduated from Fairfax High School. He studied dance from an early age and, at the age of fifteen, toured nightclubs with friend Jeanne Tyler billed as "Gower and Jeanne, America's Youngest Dance Team". In 1939, "Gower and Jeanne" danced to the music of Larry Clinton and his Orchestra in a Warner Brothers & Vitaphone film short-subject, "The Dipsy Doodler" (released in 1940). Career During the late 1930s and early 1940s, Champion worked on Broadway as a solo dancer and choreographer. After serving in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II, Champion met Marjorie Belcher, who became his new partner, and the two were married in 1947. In the early 1950s, Marge and Gower Champi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George S
George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States * George H. W. Bush, 41st President of the United States * George V, King of Great Britain, Ireland, the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 1910-1936 * George VI, King of Great Britain, Ireland, the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 1936-1952 * Prince George of Wales * George Papagheorghe also known as Jorge / GEØRGE * George, stage name of Giorgio Moroder * George Harrison, an English musician and singer-songwriter Places South Africa * George, Western Cape ** George Airport United States * George, Iowa * George, Missouri * George, Washington * George County, Mississippi * George Air Force Base, a former U.S. Air Force base located in California Characters * George (Peppa Pig), a 2-year-old pig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy De Wolfe
William Andrew Jones (February 18, 1907 – March 5, 1974), better known as Billy De Wolfe, was an American character actor. He was active in films from the mid-1940s until his death in 1974. Early life and early stage career Born William Andrew Jones in the Wollaston (Quincy, Massachusetts), Wollaston neighborhood of Quincy, Massachusetts, De Wolfe was the son of a Welsh people, Welsh bookbinder who encouraged him to become a Baptist minister. Instead, Billy developed an interest in the theatre. He found work as an usher before becoming a dancer with the Jimmy O'Connor Band.UPI. "Vet hoofer, actor Billy De Wolfe dies," ''Pacific Stars & Stripes'' (March 8, 1974), page 3. It was at this point that he changed his last name initially to "De Wolf" (the e was added later), which was the last name of the manager of the Massachusetts theatre where he worked. In 1925, De Wolfe landed chorus boy spots in the Broadway musicals ''Artists and Models (revue), Artists and Models'' and ''The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, (; 14 April 1904 – 21 May 2000) was an English actor and theatre director whose career spanned eight decades. With Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, he was one of the trinity of actors who dominated the British stage for much of the 20th century. A member of the Terry family theatrical dynasty, he gained his first paid acting work as a junior member of his cousin Phyllis Neilson-Terry's company in 1922. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art he worked in repertory theatre and in the West End theatre, West End before establishing himself at the Old Vic as an exponent of William Shakespeare, Shakespeare in 1929–31. During the 1930s Gielgud was a stage star in the West End and on Broadway theatre, Broadway, appearing in new works and classics. He began a parallel career as a director, and set up his own company at the Sondheim Theatre, Queen's Theatre, London. He was regarded by many as the finest Prince Hamlet, Hamlet of his era, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wally Harper
Wally Harper (c. 1941 – October 8, 2004) was an American musical director, composer, conductor, dance arranger, and musical supervisor for many Broadway and Off-Broadway productions. For three decades from the mid-1970s, he worked with Barbara Cook as pianist, music director and arranger. Career Harper was born in Akron, Ohio. His mother was a music teacher, and by age 12 he was playing the piano in church. He was a graduate of the New England Conservatory and the Juilliard School of Music, and first worked preparing vocal arrangements for the Broadway musical ''Half a Sixpence'' in 1965.Vallance, To"Wally Harper.Composer/arranger best known for his work with Barbara Cook"''The Independent'' (UK), October 14, 2004 Harper composed two musicals, with book and lyrics by Sherman Yellen. The first was ''Say Yes!'' Which was produced at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, Stockbridge, Massachusetts in 2000. The second was ''Josephine Tonight!'', which was produced (posthumously) by Theat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hugh Wheeler
Hugh Callingham Wheeler (19 March 1912 – 26 July 1987) was a British novelist, screenwriter, librettist, poet and translator. He resided in the United States from 1934 until his death and became a naturalized citizen in 1942. He had attended London University.Hugh Wheeler profile filmreference.com, accessed May 28, 2009. Under the noms de plume , Q. Patrick and Jonathan Stagge, Wheeler was the author or co-author of many novels and short stories. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry Rigby (producer)
Harry Rigby (c. 1925 – January 17, 1985) was an American theatre producer and writer. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Rigby joined forces with Jule Styne and Alexander H. Cohen to produce the short-lived 1951 Hugh Martin musical '' Make a Wish'' as his first Broadway outing. Two years later he enjoyed greater success with ''John Murray Anderson's Almanac'', a revue with an eclectic cast that included Harry Belafonte, Polly Bergen, Hermione Gingold, Billy Wolfe, Orson Bean, Kay Medford, Larry Kert, and Tina Louise. A decade passed before Rigby returned to Broadway, this time as a production associate for '' The Ballad of the Sad Cafe'', Edward Albee's adaptation of the Carson McCullers story. In 1971, he was the driving force behind the hit revival of ''No, No, Nanette'', which lured both Ruby Keeler and Busby Berkeley out of retirement and started the nostalgia craze on Broadway. His acrimonious relationship with fellow producer Cyma Rubin led to a lawsuit that resulted ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ruby Keeler
Ethel Ruby Keeler (August 25, 1909 – February 28, 1993) was an American actress, dancer, and singer who was paired on-screen with Dick Powell in a string of successful early musicals at Warner Bros., particularly ''42nd Street (film), 42nd Street'' (1933). From 1928 to 1940, she was married to actor and singer Al Jolson. She retired from show business in the 1940s, but made a widely publicized comeback on Broadway (theatre), Broadway in 1971. Early life Keeler was born in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, in 1909 to Ralph Hector and Nellie (''née'' Lahey) Keeler, one of six siblings in an Irish Catholic family. Two sisters, Helen and Gertrude, had brief performing careers. Her father was a truck driver. When Ruby was three years old, her family moved to New York City, where her father could get better pay. Although Keeler was interested in taking dance lessons, the family could not afford to send her. Keeler attended St. Catherine of Siena on New York's East Side, and one perio ... [...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] |
Anna Neagle
Dame Florence Marjorie Wilcox (''née'' Robertson; 20 October 1904 – 3 June 1986), known professionally as Anna Neagle, was an English stage and film actress, singer, and dancer. She was a successful box-office draw in the British cinema for 20 years and was voted the most popular star in Britain in 1949. She was known for providing glamour and sophistication to war-torn London audiences with her lightweight musicals, comedies, and historical dramas. Almost all of her films were produced and directed by Herbert Wilcox, whom she married in 1943. In her historical dramas, Neagle was renowned for her portrayals of British historical figures, including Nell Gwyn (''Nell Gwyn'', 1934), Queen Victoria (''Victoria the Great'', 1937 and ''Sixty Glorious Years'', 1938), Edith Cavell (''Nurse Edith Cavell'', 1939), and Florence Nightingale (''The Lady with a Lamp'', 1951). Biography Early life Neagle was born in Forest Gate, Essex, daughter of Florence Neagle and her husband, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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