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Minsky's
''Minsky's'' is a musical by Bob Martin (book), Charles Strouse (music), and Susan Birkenhead (lyrics), and is loosely based on the 1968 movie ''The Night They Raided Minsky's''. Set during the Great Depression era in Manhattan, the story centers around a jaded burlesque producer (Billy Minsky), a politician trying to shut him down (Randolph Sumner), and an innocent young girl who gets caught between them (Sumner's daughter, Mary). Production history ''Minsky's'' began previews at the Ahmanson Theater on January 21, 2009, officially opened on February 6, 2009, and ran through March 1, 2009. Directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw, it starred Christopher Fitzgerald as Billy Minsky, Katharine Leonard as Mary Sumner, George Wendt as Randolph Sumner, and Rachel Dratch in the comedic role of Beula. Costume design was by Gregg Barnes, and lighting design by Ken Billington. In March 2010, the production won LA Drama Critics Awards for Music Direction, Musical Score, and Costum ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Night They Raided Minsky's
''The Night They Raided Minsky's'' is a 1968 American musical comedy film directed by William Friedkin and produced by Norman Lear. Based on the 1960 novel by Rowland Barber, it is a fictional account of the invention of the striptease at Minsky's Burlesque in 1925. Plot Rachel Schpitendavel, an innocent Amish girl from rural Pennsylvania, arrives in New York's Lower East Side hoping to make it as a dancer. Rachel's dances are based on Bible stories. She auditions at Minsky's Burlesque, but her dances are much too dull and chaste for the bawdy show. But Billy Minsky and the show's jaded straight man, Raymond Paine, concoct a plan to use Rachel to foil moral crusader Vance Fowler, who is intent on shutting down the theater. Minsky publicizes Rachel as the notorious Madamoiselle Fifi, performing the "dance that drove a million Frenchmen wild", hoping it will prompt a raid by Fowler and the police. Instead, Billy would let Rachel perform her innocuous Bible dances, thus humiliating ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minsky's Burlesque
Minsky's Burlesque refers to the brand of American burlesque presented by four sons of Louis and Ethel Minsky: Abraham 'Abe' Bennett Minsky (1880–1949), Michael William 'Billy' Minsky (1887–1932), Herbert Kay Minsky (1891–1959), and Morton Minsky (1902–1987). They started in 1912 and ended in 1937 in New York City. Although the shows were declared obscene and outlawed, they were rather tame by modern standards. History The eldest brother, Abe, launched the business in 1908 with a Lower East Side nickelodeon showing racy films. His own father shut him down and bought the National Winter Garden on Houston Street, which had a theater inconveniently located on the sixth floor. He gave the theater to Abe and his brothers Billy and Herbert. At first they tried showing respectable films but could not compete with the large theater chains. The Minskys tried to bolster their shows by bringing in vaudevillians but could not afford good acts. Then they considered burlesque. Burlesq ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Strouse
Charles Strouse (born June 7, 1928) is an American composer and lyricist best known for writing the music to such Broadway musicals as ''Bye Bye Birdie (musical), Bye Bye Birdie'', ''Applause (musical), Applause'', and ''Annie (musical), Annie''. Life and career Strouse was born in New York City, to Jewish parents, Ethel (née Newman) and Ira Strouse, who worked in the tobacco business. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, he studied under Arthur Victor Berger, Arthur Berger, David Diamond (composer), David Diamond, Aaron Copland and Nadia Boulanger."Charles Strouse" masterworksbroadway.com, retrieved December 11, 2017 Strouse's first Broadway theatre, Broadway musical theatre, musical was ''Bye Bye Birdie (musical), Bye Bye Birdie'', with lyrics by Lee Adams, which opened in 1960. Adams became his long-time colla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Casey Nicholaw
Casey Nicholaw (born October 6, 1962) is an American theatre director, choreographer, and performer. He has been nominated for several Tony Awards for his work directing and choreographing ''The Drowsy Chaperone'' (2006), ''The Book of Mormon'' (2011), ''Aladdin'' (2014), ''Something Rotten!'' (2015), ''Mean Girls'' (2018), and '' The Prom'' (2019), and for choreographing ''Monty Python's Spamalot'' (2005), winning for his co-direction of ''The Book of Mormon'' with Trey Parker. He also was nominated for the Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Direction and Choreography for ''The Drowsy Chaperone'' (2006) and ''Something Rotten!'' (2015) and for Outstanding Choreography for ''Spamalot'' (2005). Biography The son of Andy and Kay Nicholaw and the oldest of three children, Nicholaw grew up in San Diego, California, and performed in community theatre there as a teenager. He graduated from Clairemont High School in 1980 and attended the University of California, Los Angeles. He is a nephe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Martin (comedian)
Robert Martin (born December 8, 1962) is a television and musical theatre actor and writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Career Theatre Martin began his career as an actor and director at The Second City in Toronto in 1996. He served as Second City Toronto's artistic director from 2003–2004. In 2005, he made his Broadway debut starring as “Man in Chair” in the musical ''The Drowsy Chaperone'', which he co-wrote with Don McKellar (book), and Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison (music and lyrics). He was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical and won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical with Don McKellar. He reprised his role in London's West End production of ''The Drowsy Chaperone'', for which he received an Olivier nomination. Martin then kicked off the show's North American tour on its first stop in Toronto. Martin wrote the book for the musical ''Minsky's'', which premiered at the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles in 2009. He returned to Broadway as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burlesque
A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects."Burlesque" ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, accessed 16 February 2011 The word derives from the Italian ', which, in turn, is derived from the Italian ' – a joke, ridicule or mockery. Burlesque overlaps in meaning with caricature, parody and travesty, and, in its theatrical sense, with extravaganza, as presented during the Victorian burlesque, Victorian era. "Burlesque" has been used in English in this literary and theatrical sense since the late 17th century. It has been applied retrospectively to works of Geoffrey Chaucer, Chaucer and William Shakespeare, Shakespeare and to the Graeco-Roman classics.Baldick, Chris [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gregg Barnes
Gregg Barnes is an American costume designer for stage and film. Barnes is a two-time winner of the Tony Award for Best Costume Design in a Musical for his work on the Broadway productions of ''The Drowsy Chaperone'' (2006) and ''Follies'' (2011). Education Barnes has a MFA in Design from New York University and an undergraduate degree from San Diego University. Career Barnes grew up in the San Diego, California area and credits seeing the circus, ice shows, and a local production of ''As You Like It'' in his youth as his inspiration to pursue a career in the theatre. He worked at Grossmont College in the Costume Department with other costume designers and artists such as Clark Mires, James "Biff" Baker, and Rebecca McKee. He taught at the New York University graduate school for 20 years. Barnes served as the resident costume designer for Paper Mill Playhouse, in Millburn, New Jersey for 9 years. Broadway credits *''Side Show'' (1997) *''Flower Drum Song'' (2002) *'' Dirty Rotte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Susan Birkenhead
Susan Birkenhead is an American lyricist. Birkenhead made her Broadway debut as one of a team of songwriters contributing to '' Working'' (1978), for which she received her first Tony Award nomination. Her second was earned for ''Jelly's Last Jam'' (1992), which won her the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics and a Grammy Award nomination. Additional Broadway credits include '' Triumph of Love'' (Drama Desk nomination) and additional lyrics for the Cole Porter tunes in the 1998 revival of ''High Society''. Birkenhead's Off-Broadway and regional theatre credits include ''What About Luv?'', a musical adaptation of the Murray Schisgal play '' Luv'', for which she won the Outer Critics Circle Award; ''Pieces of Eight'' with Jule Styne and Michael Stewart; ''Fanny Hackabout Jones'' with Erica Jong and Lucy Simon; ''The Night They Raided Minsky's'' with Charles Strouse and Evan Hunter, the new musical ''Minsky's'' based on the same; and, in collaboration with Henry Krieger, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christopher Fitzgerald (actor)
Christopher Cantwell Fitzgerald (born November 26, 1972) is an American actor and singer. He is known for his role as Boq in the musical ''Wicked'' and his role of Igor in ''Young Frankenstein'', for which he earned Outer Critics Circle Award, Drama Desk Award, and Tony Award nominations. He also starred as Ogie Anhorn in the Broadway production of ''Waitress'', with songs composed by Sara Bareilles. Early life Fitzgerald was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, the son of Victoria D. Field, who worked for the American Kennel Club, and James W. Fitzgerald, Jr., a real estate agent at Coldwell Banker. He grew up in South Portland, Maine and attended Waynflete School in Portland in 1991. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Theater from Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. He is a member of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. He also gained a master's degree in Fine Arts from the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. He studied "techniques of clowning but also mime and storyte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ahmanson Theater
The Ahmanson Theatre is one of the four main venues that compose the Los Angeles Music Center. History The theatre was built as a result of a donation from Howard F. Ahmanson Sr, the founder of H.F. Ahmanson & Co., an insurance and savings and loans company. It was named for his second wife, businesswoman and philanthropist Caroline Leonetti Ahmanson.David Wise, ''Tiger Trap: America's Secret Spy War with China'', Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011, p. 3/ref> Welton Becket, Welton Becket & Associates was the architect. Construction began on March 9, 1962 and was undertaken by Peter Kiewit & Sons (now Kiewit Corporation). The theatre's inaugural event was held on April 12, 1967, with the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera Association sponsoring the national cast production of ''Man of La Mancha'', starring Richard Kiley and Joan Diener. The theatre also was the U.S. premiere of ''More Stately Mansions'' starring Ingrid Bergman, Arthur Hill, and Colleen Dewhurst, which opened Septembe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state of New York. Located near the southern tip of New York State, Manhattan is based in the Eastern Time Zone and constitutes both the geographical and demographic center of the Northeast megalopolis and the urban core of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass. Over 58 million people live within 250 miles of Manhattan, which serves as New York City’s economic and administrative center, cultural identifier, and the city’s historical birthplace. Manhattan has been described as the cultural, financial, media, and entertainment capital of the world, is considered a safe haven for global real estate investors, and hosts the United Nations headquarters. New York City is the headquarters of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Wendt
George Robert Wendt Jr. (born October 17, 1948) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for playing Norm Peterson on the television sitcom ''Cheers'' (1982–1993), which earned him six consecutive nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. He also played the role in the short-lived spin-off ''The Tortellis'' and in an episode of ''Wings'', which was made by the same creators. Wendt has also appeared in his own sitcom, ''The George Wendt Show'', following ''Cheers,'' but it was cancelled after only a few episodes. His numerous film roles include '' Fletch'', ''Gung Ho'', '' Dreamscape'', ''House'', '' Forever Young'', ''Hostage for a Day'', '' Man of the House'', and ''Lakeboat.'' Early life George Robert Wendt Jr. was born in the Beverly neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, Illinois. His parents were Loretta Mary (née Howard) and George Robert Wendt, an officer in the Navy and a realtor. He is one of nine ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
