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Memphis Bound!
''Memphis Bound'' (usually styled ''Memphis Bound!'') is a 1945 American musical based on the Gilbert and Sullivan opera ''H.M.S. Pinafore''. The score was adapted and augmented by Don Walker and Clay Warnick, with a libretto credited to Albert Barker and Sally Benson, "with gratitude to W. S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan." The original production starred an all-black cast including Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Avon Long, Billy Daniels, Ada Brown, and Sheila Guyse. Plot An all-African-American touring company is traveling to Memphis on a showboat, the ''Calliboga Queen''. When the boat is run aground in Tennessee, the company mounts a production of Gilbert and Sullivan's ''H.M.S. Pinafore'' to raise funds to get it unstuck. Much of the musical consists of a play within a play, as the company presents a musically updated version of the Gilbert and Sullivan opera; the boat pilot (played by Bill Robinson in the original production) takes a major role as Sir Joseph Porter, First Lo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (13 May 1842 – 22 November 1900) was an English composer. He is best known for 14 comic opera, operatic Gilbert and Sullivan, collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including ''H.M.S. Pinafore'', ''The Pirates of Penzance'' and ''The Mikado''. His works include 24 operas, 11 major orchestral works, ten choral works and oratorios, two ballets, incidental music to several plays, and numerous church pieces, songs, and piano and chamber pieces. His hymns and songs include "Onward, Christian Soldiers" and "The Lost Chord". The son of a military bandmaster, Sullivan composed his first anthem at the age of eight and was later a soloist in the boys' choir of the Chapel Royal. In 1856, at 14, he was awarded the first Mendelssohn Scholarship by the Royal Academy of Music, which allowed him to study at the academy and then at the Felix Mendelssohn College of Music and Theatre, Leipzig Conservatoire in Germany. His graduation piece, inc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andrews Sisters
The Andrews Sisters were an American close harmony singing group of the swing and boogie-woogie eras. The group consisted of three sisters: contralto LaVerne Sophia Andrews (July 6, 1911 – May 8, 1967), soprano Maxene Anglyn Andrews (January 3, 1916 – October 21, 1995), and mezzo-soprano Patricia "Patty" Marie Andrews (February 16, 1918 – January 30, 2013). The sisters have sold an estimated 80 million records. Their 1941 hit "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" can be considered an early example of jump blues. Other songs closely associated with the Andrews Sisters include their first major hit, " Bei Mir Bist Du Schön (Means That You're Grand)" (1937), "Beer Barrel Polka (Roll Out the Barrel)" (1939), "Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar" (1940), " Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree (With Anyone Else but Me)" (1942), and "Rum and Coca Cola" (1945), which helped introduce American audiences to calypso. The Andrews Sisters' harmonies and songs are still influential today, and have been cop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vinton Freedley
Vinton Freedley (November 5, 1891 – June 5, 1969) was an American theater and television producer known for his productions of the works of Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers and television shows such as Talent Jackpot and ''Showtime U.S.A.''. Early life and education Freedley was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated Harvard University in 1914 where he was a member of The Delphic Club and The Hasty Pudding. He later attended The University of Pennsylvania where he earned a JD degree. He later became a member of the historic theatrical club, The Lambs in 1918 Producing Soon after graduating college, Freedley met Alexander A. Aarons with whom he formed a long term producing partnership. Their first major hit was '' Lady Be Good!'' (1924) with music and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin and featuring Fred Astaire and Adele Astaire. Over the next ten years the pair produced some of the most important works in the Broadway musical canon, featuring some of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eva Jessye
Eva Jessye (January 20, 1895 – February 21, 1992) was an American conductor who was the first black woman to receive international distinction as a professional choral conductor. She is notable as a choral conductor during the Harlem Renaissance. She created her own choral group which featured widely in performance. Her professional influence extended for decades through her teaching as well. Her accomplishments in this field were historic for any woman. She collaborated in productions of groundbreaking works, directing her choir and working with Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein on ''Four Saints in Three Acts'' (1933), and serving as musical director with George Gershwin on his innovative opera ''Porgy and Bess'' (1935). Early life and education Eva Jessye was born January 20, 1895 in Coffeyville, Kansas. She was educated at Western University, a historically black university in Kansas, and Langston University in Oklahoma. She later studied privately with Will Marion Cook ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anna Lucasta (play)
''Anna Lucasta'' is a 1944 American play by Philip Yordan. Inspired by Eugene O'Neill's ''Anna Christie'', the play was originally written about a Polish American family. The American Negro Theatre director Abram Hill and director Harry Wagstaff Gribble adapted the script for an all African American cast, and presented the first performance on June 16, 1944. The play moved from Harlem to Broadway's Mansfield Theatre, running August 30, 1944 – November 30, 1946. The Broadway cast included Hilda Simms, Canada Lee, and Alice Childress. History The play ''Anna Lucasta'' was a breakthrough for writer Philip Yordan, who went on to a prolific career as a screenwriter. The story of a prostitute who struggles for respectability is similar to that of Eugene O'Neill's ''Anna Christie''. Originally titled ''Anna Lukaska'', Yordan's three-act drama was conceived as being about a Polish-American woman and her predatory family. When he was unable to find a Broadway producer for the play, Yor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philip Yordan
Philip Yordan (April 1, 1914 – March 24, 2003) was an American screenwriter of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s who produced several films. He acted as a front for blacklisted writers although his use of surrogate screenwriters predates the McCarthy era. His actual contributions to the scripts he is credited with writing is controversial and he was known to some as a credit-grabber. Born to Polish immigrants, he earned degrees from both University of Illinois and Chicago-Kent College of Law. Early life Philip Yordan was born to Polish Jewish immigrants on April 1, 1914 in Chicago. From a young age he had taken an interest in writing. As a teenager, he ran a mail-order beauty supply business out of the family basement. Yordan was an avid fan of detective stories; he contemplated a career as a writer. After graduating from high school, he acted at the Goodman Theatre before graduating from the University of Illinois and then from Kent College of Law in Chicago. A common anecdote in H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Wildberg
John J. Wildberg (September 4, 1902 – February 8, 1959) was an American copyright attorney, who later became a theatre producer. He was born Jacques Wildberg in New York, NY, the eldest son of Jacob and Joan Wildberg. Wildberg's most successful show; Anna Lucasta was produced in 1944. Together with Cheryl Crawford, he co-produced the first revival of Porgy and Bess (1942) and One Touch of Venus (1943). Wildberg's fourth marriage (her third), to novelist Ursula Parrott in 1934, ended in June 1938 on the grounds of his intolerable cruelty. In 1950 his fifth wife took an overdose of sedatives and died in bed next to him. Wildberg had various business ventures in London, England, and eventually moved there in 1951. He died there on February 8, 1959, and was cremated in Golders Green Crematorium. Selected productions * A Woman's a Fool - to Be Clever, October 18, 1938 - October 1938 * Porgy and Bess, January 22, 1942 - September 26, 1942 (co-producer) * Porgy and Bess, Septe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Swing Mikado
''The Swing Mikado'' is a musical theatre adaptation, in two acts, of Gilbert and Sullivan's 1885 comic opera, ''The Mikado'', with music arranged by Gentry Warden. It featured a setting transposed from Japan to a tropical island. The show was first staged by an all-black company in Chicago, Illinois, in 1938. Later that year, it transferred to Broadway. Other changes from the original work included the re-scoring of five of the musical numbers in "swing" style, the insertion of popular dance sequences including The Truck and the Cakewalk, and the rewriting of some of the dialogue in an attempt at black dialect. Other than that, the original dialogue and score of 1885 were used.Dennis, Lucas"Reinforcing or Debunking Racial Stereotypes? A Tale of Two Mikados" Graduate Student Symposium, Tufts University, April 5, 2003 Background and productions ''The Swing Mikado'' was a production of the Chicago division of the WPA's Federal Theatre Project. The production was conceived, staged ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Mikado
''The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu'' is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen Gilbert and Sullivan, operatic collaborations. It opened on 14 March 1885, in London, where it ran at the Savoy Theatre for 672 performances, the second-longest run for any work of musical theatre and one of the longest runs of any theatre piece up to that time.The longest-running piece of musical theatre was the operetta ''Les Cloches de Corneville'', which held the title until ''Dorothy (opera), Dorothy'' opened in 1886, which pushed ''The Mikado'' down to third place. By the end of 1885, it was estimated that, in Europe and America, at least 150 companies were producing the opera.H. L. Mencken, Mencken, H. L.]Article on ''The Mikado'', ''Baltimore Evening Sun'', 29 November 1910 ''The Mikado'' is the most internationally successful Savoy opera and has been especially popular with amateur and school productions. The work has ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Hot Mikado (1939 Production)
''The Hot Mikado'' was a musical theatre adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan's 1885 comic opera ''The Mikado'' with an African-American cast. It was first produced by Mike Todd on Broadway in 1939. It starred Bill "Bojangles" Robinson in the title role, with musical arrangements by Charles L. Cooke and direction by Hassard Short. Background Mike Todd produced ''The Hot Mikado'' after the Federal Theatre Project turned down his offer to manage the WPA production of ''The Swing Mikado'' (another all-black adaptation of ''The Mikado'').Morddenp. 240/ref>Weinberg-Harter, George"''Hot Mikado'' at Starlight Theatre", ''San Diego Arts'', June 25, 2006 Todd's adaptation was jazzier than ''The Swing Mikado'' and had a "full-voiced, star-studded cast to back up its sass." It follows both the story line of ''The Mikado'' and the spectacle of the original and was noted for its wild costuming. "Rosa Brown's outfit, a winged dress with train and a gigantic hat, weighed thirty-five pounds." The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mike Todd
Michael Todd (born Avrom Hirsch Goldbogen; June 22, 1909 – March 22, 1958) was an American theater and film producer, best known for his 1956 production of ''Around the World in 80 Days'', which won an Academy Award for Best Picture. Actress Elizabeth Taylor was his third wife, and Todd was the third husband of Taylor's seven husbands, and is the only one whom Taylor did not divorce - Todd died in a private plane accident a year after their marriage. He was the driving force behind the development of the eponymous Todd-AO widescreen film format. Early life Todd was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Chaim Goldbogen (an Orthodox rabbi), and Sophia Hellerman, both of whom were Polish Jewish immigrants. He was one of nine children in a poor family, the youngest son, and his siblings nicknamed him "Tod" (pronounced "Toat" in German) to mimic his difficulty pronouncing the word "coat." It was from this that his name was derived. The family later moved to Chicago, arriving on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colonial Theatre (Boston)
The Colonial Theatre in Boston, Massachusetts, opened in 1900, is the oldest continually-operating theatre in the city. It is located at 106 Boylston Street on Boston Common at the former site of the Boston Public Library. It is a pending Boston Landmark. History The Colonial Theatre was designed by the architectural firm of Clarence Blackall and paid for by Frederick Lothrop Ames Jr. The theatre first opened its doors for a performance of '' Ben-Hur'' on December 20, 1900 with a sold out show and Winston Churchill attending. ''Ben-Hur'' operated with a cast and crew of 350 people and featured eight live horses on stage in full gallop during the chariot race scene. The play was so mechanically and technically extraordinary, it was featured on the cover of Scientific American. George Bernard Shaw's play, Too True To Be Good received its world premiere at the Colonial Theatre on 29 February 1932. Recent history In the 1990s, Colonial president Jon Platt led a renovation of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
