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Jack Bradford
Jack Bradford (born July 26, 1959) is an American / Australian stage actor and director. He is perhaps best known by many in Brisbane for founding the Brisbane Junior Theatre company which presented its first production – ''The Pirates of Penzance'' – in April 2001. Bradford, the son of Gerald and Rose Bradford, was born in 1959 at Milton, Florida, US. His father was a Navy captain, which meant that Jack and his seven siblings were regularly on the move. His first stage role was taking the part of Jesus in ''Godspell'' working alongside Kathy Najimy Kathy Ann Najimy ( ; ar, كاثي ان نجيمي ; born February 6, 1957) is an American actress and activist. She is best known for her roles in the films ''Soapdish'' (1991), ''Sister Act'' (1992), '' Hocus Pocus'' (1993), ''Hope Floats'' (1 ... in 1975. After completing his Bachelor of Arts degree in theatre, he moved to Brisbane, Australia, in 1988, having married an Australian, Deborah Onions, whom he had met on a visit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean Valjean
Jean Valjean () is the protagonist of Victor Hugo's 1862 novel ''Les Misérables''. The story depicts the character's struggle to lead a normal life and redeem himself after serving a 19-year-long prison sentence for stealing bread to feed his sister's starving children and attempting to escape from prison. Valjean is also known in the novel as Monsieur Madeleine, Ultime Fauchelevent, Monsieur Leblanc, and Urbain Fabre. Valjean and police Inspector Javert, who repeatedly encounters Valjean and attempts to return him to prison, have become archetypes in literary culture. In the popular imagination, the character of Jean Valjean came to represent Hugo himself. Outline of the novel As a parolee, Valjean is issued a yellow passport with marching orders to Pontarlier, where he will be forced to live under severe restrictions. This document, often called a "passeport jaune" (yellow passport), identifies him to all as a former convict and immediately brands Valjean an outcast wherev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bartley Campbell
Bartley Theodore Campbell (August 12, 1843 – July 30, 1888) was an American playwright of the latter 19th century. Early years Campbell was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on August 12, 1843, to parents who had emigrated from Ireland. His writing career began at the age of 15 in 1858, when he took a job as a reporter for the ''Pittsburgh Post''. He later became a drama critic for the '' Pittsburgh Leader'', editor of the ''McKeesport Times'', and founder of the ''Pittsburg Evening Mail'' and the ''Southern Monthly Magazine''. Playwright years Campbell's playwright career began in 1871 with the play ''Through Fire'', which ran for four weeks and motivated him to quit journalism. He wrote numerous plays for Pittsburgh's theatres which garnered him national attention. He was quite successful and is often noted as the first American to earn a living solely as a playwright; however, there is some debate about whether or not he was truly the first. His other plays include ''Peri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guys And Dolls (musical)
''Guys and Dolls'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. It is based on "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" (1933) and "Blood Pressure", which are two short stories by Damon Runyon, and also borrows characters and plot elements from other Runyon stories, such as "Pick the Winner". The show premiered on Broadway in 1950, where it ran for 1,200 performances and won the Tony Award for Best Musical. The musical has had several Broadway and London revivals, as well as a 1955 film adaptation starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra and Vivian Blaine. ''Guys and Dolls'' was selected as the winner of the 1951 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. However, because of writer Abe Burrows' communist sympathies as exposed by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), the Trustees of Columbia University vetoed the selection, and no Pulitzer for Drama was awarded that year. In 1998, Vivian Blaine, Sam Levene, Robert Alda and Isab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
''Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'' (often colloquially known as ''Joseph'') is a sung-through musical with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the character of Joseph from the Bible's Book of Genesis. This was the first Lloyd Webber and Rice musical to be performed publicly; their first collaboration, ''The Likes of Us'', written in 1965, was not performed until 2005. Its family-friendly retelling of Joseph, familiar themes, and catchy music have resulted in numerous stagings. According to the owner of the copyright, the Really Useful Group, by 2008 more than 20,000 schools and amateur theatre groups had staged productions. ''Joseph'' was first presented as a 15-minute " pop cantata" at Colet Court School in London in 1968, and was published by Novello and recorded in an expanded form by Decca Records in 1969. After the success of the next Lloyd Webber and Rice piece, ''Jesus Christ Superstar'', ''Joseph'' received amateur stage productio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harvest Rain Theatre Company
Harvest Rain Theatre Company is a theatre company based in Brisbane, Australia, known for presenting professional musical theatre. Since its inception in 1985, Harvest Rain has produced theatre productions at a range of venues throughout Brisbane. From 1985 to 2008 the company operated out of the Sydney Street Theatre in New Farm. Now, Harvest Rain presents most of its major productions at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre at South Bank. Harvest Rain's CEO and Artistic Director is Tim O'Connor. Early history Harvest Rain began in 1985 as a small drama group in New Farm, Queensland, Australia. The founding members of the company were the brothers Robbie Parkin and David Parkin and the husband and wife team Chris Crooks and Judy Crooks. The name "Harvest Rain" was chosen because Chris Crooks liked the word "harvest" and the team felt that the word "rain" softened it. The company initially staged a range of amateur productions and the shows featured a small ensemble of de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Man Of La Mancha
''Man of La Mancha'' is a 1965 musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, music by Mitch Leigh, and lyrics by Joe Darion. It is adapted from Wasserman's non-musical 1959 teleplay ''I, Don Quixote'', which was in turn inspired by Miguel de Cervantes and his 17th-century novel ''Don Quixote''. It tells the story of the "mad" knight Don Quixote as a play within a play, performed by Cervantes and his fellow prisoners as he awaits a hearing with the Spanish Inquisition. The work is not and does not pretend to be a faithful rendition of either Cervantes' life or ''Don Quixote''. Wasserman complained repeatedly about people taking the work as a musical version of ''Don Quixote''. The original 1965 Broadway production ran for 2,328 performances and won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The musical has been revived four times on Broadway, becoming one of the most enduring works of musical theatre. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antigone (Sophocles)
''Antigone'' ( ; grc, Ἀντιγόνη) is an Athenian tragedy written by Sophocles in (or before) 441 BC and first performed at the Festival of Dionysus of the same year. It is thought to be the second oldest surviving play of Sophocles, preceded by ''Ajax'', which was written around the same period. The play is one of a triad of tragedies known as the three Theban plays, following ''Oedipus Rex'' and ''Oedipus at Colonus''. Even though the events in Antigone occur last in the order of events depicted in the plays, Sophocles wrote ''Antigone'' first. The story expands on the Theban legend that predates it, and it picks up where Aeschylus' ''Seven Against Thebes'' ends. The play is named after the main protagonist Antigone. After Oedipus' self-exile his sons Eteocles and Polynices engaged in a civil war for the Theban throne, which resulted in both brothers dying fighting each other. Oedipus' brother-in-law and new Theban ruler Creon ordered the public honor of Eteocles an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Annie (musical)
''Annie'' is a Broadway theatre, Broadway musical theatre, musical based upon the popular Harold Gray comic strip ''Little Orphan Annie'' and loosely based on the 1885 poem "Little Orphant Annie" written by James Whitcomb Riley. The musical includes music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and a musical theater, book by Thomas Meehan (writer), Thomas Meehan. The original Broadway production opened in 1977 and ran for nearly six years, setting a record for the Alvin Theatre (now the Neil Simon Theatre). It spawned numerous productions in many countries, as well as national tours, and won seven Tony Awards, including the Tony Award for Best Musical. The musical's songs "Tomorrow (song from Annie), Tomorrow" and "It's the Hard Knock Life" are among its most popular musical numbers. Background Charnin first approached Meehan to write the book of a musical about ''Little Orphan Annie'' in 1972. Meehan researched by rereading prints of the comic strip, but was unable to fin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amadeus (play)
''Amadeus'' is a play by Peter Shaffer which gives a fictional account of the lives of composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri, first performed in 1979. It was inspired by Alexander Pushkin's short 1830 play '' Mozart and Salieri'', which Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov used in 1897 as the libretto for an opera of the same name. The play makes significant use of the music of Mozart, Salieri and other composers of the period. The premieres of Mozart's operas ''The Abduction from the Seraglio'', '' The Marriage of Figaro,'' '' Don Giovanni'', and ''The Magic Flute'' are the settings for key scenes. It was presented at the Royal National Theatre, London in 1979, then moved to Her Majesty's Theatre in the West End followed by a Broadway production. It won the 1981 Tony Award for Best Play and Shaffer adapted it for the 1984 film of the same name. Plot ince the play's original run, Shaffer extensively revised his play, including changes to plot details; the following is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Hunt Of The Sun
''The Royal Hunt of the Sun'' is a 1964 play by Peter Shaffer that dramatizes the relation of two worlds entering in a conflict by portraying two characters: Atahuallpa Inca and Francisco Pizarro. Performance history Premiere ''The Royal Hunt of the Sun'' was first presented at the Chichester Festival by the National Theatre and subsequently at the Old Vic in July 1964. It was directed by John Dexter and designed by Michael Annals with music composed by Marc Wilkinson and movement by Claude Chagrin. The cast was led by Robert Stephens as Atahuallpa and Colin Blakely as Francisco Pizarro and included Oliver Cotton, Graham Crowden, Paul Curran, Michael Gambon, Edward Hardwicke, Anthony Hopkins, Derek Jacobi, Robert Lang, John McEnery, Edward Petherbridge, Louise Purnell and Christopher Timothy. The production was a critical and commercial success. In addition to its run at the Old Vic, it played at the Queen's Theatre, London, and toured to Aberdeen, Glasgow, Stratford, L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Princess Ida
''Princess Ida; or, Castle Adamant'' is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was their eighth operatic collaboration of fourteen. ''Princess Ida'' opened at the Savoy Theatre on 5 January 1884, for a run of 246 performances. The piece concerns a princess who founds a women's university and teaches that women are superior to men and should rule in their stead. The prince to whom she had been married in infancy sneaks into the university, together with two friends, with the aim of collecting his bride. They disguise themselves as women students, but are discovered, and all soon face a literal war between the sexes. The opera satirizes feminism, women's college, women's education and Charles Darwin, Darwinian evolution, which were controversial topics in conservative Victorian era, Victorian England. ''Princess Ida'' is based on a narrative poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson called ''The Princess (Tennyson poem), The Princess'' (1847), and Gilb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Grizzard
George Cooper Grizzard Jr. (April 1, 1928 – October 2, 2007) was an American stage, television, and film actor. He was the recipient of a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and a Tony Award, among other accolades. Life and career Grizzard was born in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, the son of Mary Winifred (née Albritton) and George Cooper Grizzard, an accountant. Grizzard was raised in Washington, DC, and attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, returning to Washington after graduation to work in advertising. He began his acting career at Washington's Arena Stage. Grizzard memorably appeared as an unscrupulous United States Senator in the film ''Advise and Consent'' in 1962. His other theatrical films included the drama ''From the Terrace'' with Paul Newman (1960), the Western story ''Comes a Horseman'' with Jane Fonda (1978), and a Neil Simon comedy, '' Seems Like Old Times'' (1980). Grizzard made his Broadway debut in '' The Desperate Hours'' in 1955 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
