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Nancye Hayes
Nancye Lee Bertles AM ( Hayes; born January 1943), billed under her maiden name as Nancye Hayes, is an Australian actress, dancer, singer and choreographer/director and narrator. She has been a leading figure in Australian musical theatre since the 1960s. Although her roles have been almost exclusively in theatre, she has briefly worked in television in series and mini-series, as a character actress including filling in for an Judy Nunn in the series '' Home and Away''. Early life Hayes grew up in the New South Wales's Sydney suburb of Manly and was an only child. At the age of seven, she had an operation to remove a growth in her hip joint, and the recovery included strapping her leg with irons. After her father died in a car crash when Hayes was eleven, her mother became a barmaid at the old Pacific Hotel in Manly. She began dancing lessons at age nine at Hazel and Violet Meldrum's studio. Hazel had been a choreographer for the leading Australian theatrical firm J.&nb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Todd McKenney
Todd McKenney (born 31 May 1965) is an Australian dancer, theatre performer and TV personality. He is best known as a judge on Australian television talent show '' Dancing with the Stars''. As a theatre performer, he has appeared in numerous productions, but is most renowned for his portrayal of singer Peter Allen in the theatre production ''The Boy from Oz''. Early life McKenney grew up in Perth, where his father was a jail warden and his mother a dance teacher. They separated when he was 9. He began his entertainment career on a children's television show as Percy Penguin. McKenney trained in jazz, tap, acrobatics and ballroom dancing. He represented Australia in ballroom and Latin American dancing, and won many international awards. Career McKenney has performed on stage since 1983 in productions including '' 42nd Street'', ''The Pirates of Penzance'', ''Camelot'', '' La Cage aux Folles'', ''Singin' in the Rain'', and ''Priscilla Queen of the Desert - the Musical''. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Little Me (musical)
''Little Me'' is a musical written by Neil Simon, with music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Carolyn Leigh. The original 1962 Broadway production featured Sid Caesar in multiple roles with multiple stage accents, playing all of the heroine's husbands and lovers. One of the better-known songs from the musical is " I've Got Your Number". Background The musical ''Little Me'' is based on the novel by Patrick Dennis titled '' Little Me: The Intimate Memoirs of that Great Star of Stage, Screen and Television/Belle Poitrine'', an illustrated autobiography of an imaginary diva (published in 1961). In his memoir ''Rewrites: A Memoir,'' Neil Simon wrote that aside from tailoring the musical's book to the talents of Sid Caesar, the second attraction of the project was a chance to work with choreographer Bob Fosse. "With the exception of Jerome Robbins, for my money Fosse was the best choreographer who ever worked in the theater." (Simon and Caesar had worked together on the television variety pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grey Gardens (musical)
''Grey Gardens'' is a musical with book by Doug Wright, music by Scott Frankel, and lyrics by Michael Korie, produced in 2006 and based on the 1975 documentary of the same title about the lives of Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale ("Big Edie") and her daughter Edith Bouvier Beale ("Little Edie") by Albert and David Maysles. The Beales were Jacqueline Kennedy's aunt and cousin, respectively. Set at Grey Gardens, the Bouviers' mansion in East Hampton, New York, the musical tracks the progression of the two women's lives from their original status as rich and socially polished aristocrats to their eventual largely isolated existence in a home overrun by cats and cited for repeated health code violations. However, its more central purpose is to untangle the complicated dynamics of their dysfunctional mother/daughter relationship. Storyline The first act depicts the characters in their heyday and is a speculative take on what their lives might have been like when they were younger, when L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Little Night Music
''A Little Night Music'' is a Musical theatre, musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. Inspired by the 1955 Ingmar Bergman film ''Smiles of a Summer Night'', it involves the romantic lives of several couples. Its title is a literal English translation of the German name for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mozart's Serenade No. 13, Köchel catalogue, K. 525, ''Eine kleine Nachtmusik''. The musical includes the popular song "Send In the Clowns", written for Glynis Johns. Since its original 1973 Broadway theatre, Broadway production, the musical has enjoyed professional productions in the West End theatre, West End, by opera companies, in a 2009 Broadway revival, and elsewhere, and it is a popular choice for regional groups. It was A Little Night Music (film), adapted for film in 1977, with Harold Prince directing and Elizabeth Taylor, Len Cariou, Lesley-Anne Down, and Diana Rigg starring. Synopsis Act One The setting is Sweden, around the year 1900. O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Opera Australia
Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House accompanied by the Opera Australia Orchestra runs for approximately eight months of the year, with the remainder of its time spent in the Arts Centre Melbourne, where it is accompanied by Orchestra Victoria. In 2004, the company gave 226 performances in its subscription seasons in Sydney and Melbourne, attended by more than 294,000 people. It is funded by government grants, corporate sponsorship, private philanthropy, and ticket sales. The proportion of its revenue from ticket sales is considerably higher than that of most companies, approximately 75 per cent. The company is perhaps best known internationally for its association with Dame Joan Sutherland, for Baz Luhrmann's production of Puccini's ''La bohème'' in the early 1990s and more recently, for, apart from performances inside the opera house, large scale outdoor performances on Sydney Harbour. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Production Company
The Production Company was an Australian not-for-profit theatre company that staged a series of usually three musicals at the Arts Centre Melbourne each year, until its closure in 2020. It was launched in 1999 by Jeanne Pratt AC with the goal of providing "professional opportunities for local artists and to entertain Melbourne audiences with the best shows from Broadway and beyond". The Production Company specialised in revivals of popular and lesser known musicals with short (two week) rehearsal periods and short runs. It also produced the Australian professional premieres of ''Thoroughly Modern Millie'', '' Dirty Rotten Scoundrels'', ''Grey Gardens'', '' Nice Work If You Can Get It'', ''Curtains'' and '' A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder''. Its productions typically featured well-known Australian musical theatre performers such as Caroline O'Connor (''Gypsy,'' ''Funny Girl''), Michael Falzon (''Chess''), Marina Prior (''Guys and Dolls'', ''Kiss Me, Kate''), Todd McKen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oklahoma!
''Oklahoma!'' is the first musical theater, musical written by the duo of Rodgers and Hammerstein. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, ''Green Grow the Lilacs (play), Green Grow the Lilacs''. Set in farm country outside the town of Claremore, Oklahoma, Claremore, Indian Territory, in 1906, it tells the story of farm girl Laurey Williams and her courtship by two rival suitors, cowboy Curly McLain and the sinister and frightening farmhand Jud Fry. A secondary romance concerns cowboy Will Parker and his flirtatious fiancée, Ado Annie. The original Broadway theatre, Broadway production opened on March 31, 1943. It was a box office hit and ran for an unprecedented 2,212 performances, later enjoying award-winning revivals, national tours, foreign productions and an Academy Awards, Oscar-winning 1955 Oklahoma! (1955 film), film adaptation. It has long been a popular choice for school and community productions. Rodgers and Hammerstein won a Pulitzer Prize Special Citatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
42nd Street (musical)
''42nd Street'' is a 1980 stage musical with a book by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble, lyrics by Al Dubin and Johnny Mercer and music by Harry Warren. The 1980 Broadway production won the Tony Awards for Best Musical and Best Choreography and it became a long-running hit. The show was also produced in London in 1984 (winning the Olivier Award for Best Musical) and its 2001 Broadway revival won the Tony Award for Best Revival. Based on the 1932 novel by Bradford Ropes and the subsequent 1933 Hollywood film adaptation, the backstage musical show that follows the rehearsal process of a broadway show being put on during the height of the great depression. The show is a jukebox musical of sorts, in that, in addition to songs from the 1933 film ''42nd Street'', it includes songs that Dubin and Warren wrote for many other films at around the same time, including ''Gold Diggers of 1933'', ''Roman Scandals'', ''Dames'', ''Gold Diggers of 1935'', ''Go into Your Dance,'' ''Gold Digge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nine (musical)
''Nine'' is a musical whose original conception and music and lyrics are by Maury Yeston, with a book by Arthur Kopit. It is based on Federico Fellini's semi-autobiographical 1963 film ''8½''. The show tells the story of film director Guido Contini, who is dreading his imminent 40th birthday and facing a midlife crisis, which is blocking his creative impulses and entangling him in a web of romantic difficulties in early-1960s Venice. Conceived and written and composed by Yeston as a class project in the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop in 1973, it was later adapted with a book by Mario Fratti, and then with another a book by Arthur Kopit. The original Broadway production opened in 1982 and ran for 729 performances, starring Raul Julia. The musical won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and has enjoyed a number of revivals. Background Yeston began to work on the musical in 1973. As a teenager, he had seen the Fellini film and was intrigued by its themes. "I look ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street
''Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street'' (often referred to simply as ''Sweeney Todd'') is a musical play with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by Hugh Wheeler. It is based on the 1973 play of the same name by Christopher Bond. The character of Sweeney Todd first appeared in a Victorian penny dreadful titled '' The String of Pearls'' (1846-7). ''Sweeney Todd'' opened on Broadway in 1979 and in the West End in 1980. It won the Tony Award for Best Musical and Olivier Award for Best New Musical. It has been revived in many productions as well as inspiring a film adaptation. The original logo for the musical is a modified version of an advertising image from the 19th century, with the sign replaced by a straight razor. There is also a woman wearing a blood-stained dress and holding a rolling pin next to the man. Background The character Sweeney Todd originated in serialized Victorian popular fiction, known as penny dreadfuls. A story called '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guys And Dolls
''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 Is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chicago (musical)
''Chicago'' is a 1975 American musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. Set in Chicago in the jazz age, the musical is based on a 1926 play of the same title by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins, about actual criminals and the crimes on which she reported. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal". The original Broadway production opened in 1975 at the 46th Street Theatre and ran for 936 performances, until 1977. Bob Fosse directed and choreographed the original production, and his style is strongly identified with the show. It debuted in the West End in 1979, where it ran for 600 performances. ''Chicago'' was revived on Broadway in 1996, and a year later in the West End. The 1996 Broadway production holds the record as the longest-running musical revival and the longest-running American musical in Broadway history. It is the second longest-running show ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
