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John Wilson Orchestra
The John Wilson Orchestra was formed by British orchestral conductor John Wilson in 1994. It is a symphony orchestra that includes a jazz big band. It performs the original arrangements of MGM musicals and the works of Rodgers and Hammerstein. The orchestra has performed annually in The Proms summer festival since 2009. Focus and configuration The John Wilson Orchestra has been acclaimed for showing how "authentic period performance" extends to screen musicals. In an interview with Rebecca Franks for the ''BBC Music Magazine'' prior to the 2010 Proms season, John Wilson explained how the specific make-up of the orchestra reflects this purpose: The orchestra’s been together a good 15 years and its make-up is very specific. It’s modelled on the old contract movie orchestras in America. And that's basically the combination of a dance-band brass, rhythm and saxophone section, so four trumpets, four trombones, five saxes who all double, and a rhythm section, who are all very sp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Wilson (conductor)
John Wilson (born 1972) is a British conductor, arranger and musicologist, who conducts orchestras and operas, as well as big band jazz. He is the creator of the John Wilson Orchestra and Associate Guest Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Education Wilson was born in Gateshead, Tyne & Wear. He attended Breckenbeds Junior High School in Low Fell, then Heathfield Senior High School in Gateshead (now closed). In the late 1980s he studied music at A-level at Newcastle College, where he conducted a variety of ensembles including a 96-piece orchestra and choir for a concert version of ''West Side Story''. He wrote and directed his own pantomime during this period and he also conducted for many local amateur dramatic societies. Later he attended the Royal College of Music, first as a percussionist, and later studying composition and conducting. During this time he won the institution's Tagore Gold Medal for outstanding academic excellence. Career In 2004 Wilson was ap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julian Ovenden
Julian Mark Ovenden (born 29 November 1976) is an English actor and singer. He has starred on Broadway and West End stages, in television series in both the United Kingdom and United States, in films, and performed internationally as a concert and recording artist. Early life and education Ovenden was born on 29 November 1976 in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. He is one of three children of the Reverend Canon John Ovenden, a former chaplain to Queen Elizabeth II. He sang in the St Paul's Cathedral Choir, London as a child. He later won a music scholarship to Eton College. He subsequently read music at New College, Oxford on a choral scholarship. Whilst he has received training as an opera singer, he has professionally used his music training in musical theatre. He continued academic studies in drama at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. Career His theatre work includes the multi award-winning '' Merrily We Roll Along'' and ''Grand Hotel'' for Michael Grandage at the Donma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
On Your Toes
''On Your Toes'' (1936) is a musical with a book by Richard Rodgers, George Abbott, and Lorenz Hart, music by Rodgers, and lyrics by Hart. It was adapted into a film in 1939. While teaching music at Knickerbocker University, Phil "Junior" Dolan III tries to persuade Sergei Alexandrovich, the director of the Russian Ballet, to stage the jazz ballet ''Slaughter on Tenth Avenue''. After becoming involved with the company's prima ballerina Vera Barnova, Junior is forced to assume the male lead in ''Slaughter''. Trouble ensues when he becomes the target of two thugs hired by Vera's lover and dance partner to kill him. ''On Your Toes'' marked the first time a Broadway musical made dramatic use of classical dance and incorporated jazz into its score. Films about ballet Background ''On Your Toes'' originally was conceived as a film, and as a vehicle for Fred Astaire. His refusal of the part, because he thought that the role clashed with his debonair image developed in his contempor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Rodgers
Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902 – December 30, 1979) was an American Musical composition, composer who worked primarily in musical theater. With 43 Broadway musicals and over 900 songs to his credit, Rodgers was one of the most well-known American composers of the 20th century, and his compositions had a significant influence on popular music. Rodgers is known for his songwriting partnerships, first with lyricist Lorenz Hart and then with Oscar Hammerstein II. With Hart he wrote musicals throughout the 1920s and 1930s, including ''Pal Joey (musical), Pal Joey'', ''A Connecticut Yankee (musical), A Connecticut Yankee'', ''On Your Toes'' and ''Babes in Arms.'' With Hammerstein he wrote musicals through the 1940s and 1950s, such as ''Oklahoma!'', ''Flower Drum Song'', ''Carousel (musical), Carousel'', ''South Pacific (musical), South Pacific'', ''The King and I'', and ''The Sound of Music''. His collaborations with Hammerstein, in particular, are celebrated for brin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Broadway Theatre
Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences), 130 of the 144 extant and extinct Broadway venues use (used) the spelling ''Theatre'' as the proper noun in their names (12 others used neither), with many performers and trade groups for live dramatic presentations also using the spelling ''theatre''. or Broadway, are the theatrical performances presented in the 41 professional theatres, each with 500 or more seats, located in the Theater District and the Lincoln Center along Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Broadway and London's West End together represent the highest commercial level of live theater in the English-speaking world. While the thoroughfare is eponymous with the district and its collection of 41 theaters, and it is also closely identified with Times Square, only three of the theaters are located on Broadway itself (namely the Broadwa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
My Fair Lady
''My Fair Lady'' is a musical based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play ''Pygmalion'', with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons from professor Henry Higgins, a phonetician, so that she may pass as a lady. Despite his cynical nature and difficulty understanding women, Higgins grows attached to her. The musical's 1956 Broadway production was a notable critical and popular success, winning six Tony Awards, including Best Musical. It set a record for the longest run of any musical on Broadway up to that time and was followed by a hit London production. Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews starred in both productions. Many revivals have followed, and the 1964 film version won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Plot Act I In Edwardian London, Eliza Doolittle is a flower girl with a thick Cockney accent. The noted phonetician Professor Henry Higgins encounters Eliza at Cov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Yazbeck
Tony Yazbeck (March 14, 1979) is an American actor, singer, and dancer, best known for his work on the Broadway stage, including the revival of '' On the Town'', for which he received 2015 Tony Award and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations for lead actor in a musical. Yazbeck is also known for his principal roles on Broadway, including J.M. Barrie in the Broadway production of '' Finding Neverland'', Tulsa in ''Gypsy'' starring Patti LuPone, Billy Flynn in ''Chicago'', Phil Davis in ''White Christmas'', Al Deluca in ''A Chorus Line'' and the original casts of Broadway's ''Never Gonna Dance'' and ''Oklahoma'' (2002 revival). In 2014 he appeared in a concert version of ''Kiss Me, Kate'' with the John Wilson Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall, London as part of that season's Promenade Concerts. In 2020, Yazbeck originated a leading role in the musical ''Flying Over Sunset'', directed by James Lapine. The production began in 2021 at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre. Production was delaye ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexandra Silber
Alexandra Michelle Silber is an American actress, singer, writer and educator. She has performed roles on Broadway, in London's West End, on television and film, and concert stages. Among other stage roles, in London, she created the role of Laura Fairlie in '' The Woman in White'' (2005), played Hodel in ''Fiddler on the Roof'' (2007) and Julie Jordan in ''Carousel'' (2008). In New York, she appeared in '' Hello Again'' (2010), ''Master Class'' (2011), created the role of Sara Jane in ''Arlington'' (2012–14) and as Tzeitel in the Broadway revival of ''Fiddler on the Roof'' (2015). Silber's debut novel ''After Anatevka'' (chronicling what happens to the characters of Hodel and Perchik made famous by the Sholem Aleichem stories and in the musical ''Fiddler on the Roof'') and ''White Hot Grief Parade'', a memoir about losing her father to cancer when she was 18, were both published by Pegasus Books in 2018. Life and career Silber was born in Los Angeles, and raised in metro-D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kiss Me, Kate
''Kiss Me, Kate'' is a musical written by Bella and Samuel Spewack with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The story involves the production of a musical version of William Shakespeare's ''The Taming of the Shrew'' and the conflict on and off-stage between Fred Graham, the show's director, producer, and star, and his leading lady, his ex-wife Lilli Vanessi. A secondary romance concerns Lois Lane, the actress playing Bianca, and her gambler boyfriend, Bill, who runs afoul of some gangsters. The original production starred Alfred Drake, Patricia Morison, Lisa Kirk and Harold Lang. ''Kiss Me, Kate'' was Porter's response to Rodgers and Hammerstein's ''Oklahoma!'' and other integrated musicals; it was the first show he wrote in which the music and lyrics were firmly connected to the script. The musical premiered in 1948 and proved to be Porter's only show to run for more than 1,000 performances on Broadway. In 1949, it won the first Tony Award for Best Musical. Inspiration The mu ... [...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] |
Scarlett Strallen
Scarlett Aimee Vaigncourt-Strallen (born 3 July 1982) is an English stage actress, best known for her work in musical theatre productions in the West End and on Broadway. She has received two Olivier Award nominations, in 2006 for her portrayal of Josephine in ''HMS Pinafore'', performed at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre and in 2012 for her role in ''Singin' in the Rain''. Strallen is also a former voice actress. Early life She is the eldest sister of Summer Strallen, Zizi Strallen and Saskia 'Sasi' Strallen, all of whom are also actresses. Zizi played Mary Poppins like her eldest sister, first in a new UK tour and subsequently in the West End. Her parents, performers Sandy Strallen and Cherida Langford, both performed in the original London production of Cats (but had met prior to this show). She is the niece of stage and TV actress Bonnie Langford (her mother's sister). Her godfather is Christopher Biggins. Biography Strallen played the title role in the West End productio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Claire Martin (singer)
Claire Martin, OBE (born 6 September 1967) is an English jazz singer. Music career Martin was born in Colliers Wood, London. She grew up in a house "full of music" thanks to jazz-loving parents. She cites Ella Fitzgerald's ''Song Books'' as the inspiration to study singing at the Doris Holford Stage School and in New York and London. Her professional career began at the age of 19 when she sang in a hotel band in at the Savoy Hotel after auditioning to be a bluecoat Bournemouth. For two years, she worked aboard the cruise ship '' Queen Elizabeth'', where she sang in the piano bar. When she was 21, she formed her own jazz quartet. In 1991, she was signed by the Scottish jazz label Linn Records and her debut album, ''The Waiting Game'', was released in 1992. Later that year, she opened for Tony Bennett at the Glasgow International Jazz Festival. Martin has performed all over Europe and Asia with her trio and, until his death in 2012, with Richard Rodney Bennett in an intimate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
