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Olympic Theatre, Melbourne
The Comedy Theatre is a 1003-seat theatre in Melbourne's East End Theatre District. It was built in 1928, and was designed in the Spanish style, with a Florentine-style exterior and wrought-iron balconies. It is located at 240 Exhibition Street, and diagonally opposite Her Majesty's Theatre. It typically hosts commercial seasons of plays and smaller-scale musicals, as well as comedy and other entertainment events. History The site at the corner of Lonsdale and Stephen streets was from June 1842 to October 1854 an entertainment venue, " Rowe's American Circus", where G. B. W. Lewis gained his foothold in Australia. In December 1854 it was licensed as the "Royal Victoria Theatre", then demolished, to be replaced by a prefabricated iron building imported from Manchester, England for George Coppin George Selth Coppin (8 April 1819 – 14 March 1906) was a comic actor, a theatrical entrepreneur, a politician and a philanthropist, active in Australia.Sally O'Neill,Coppin, Geor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Exhibition Street, Melbourne
Exhibition Street is a major street in the central business district of Melbourne, Australia. The street is named after the International Exhibition held at the Royal Exhibition Building in 1880, and was previously known as Stephen Street from 1837. The street runs roughly north-south and was laid out as part of the original Hoddle Grid. Geography Situated in the east of the Melbourne city centre, Exhibition Street is a major thoroughfare for city traffic. At its southern end, Exhibition Street becomes Batman Avenue after its intersection with Flinders Street and the Batman Avenue Bridge. Batman Avenue links the central business district to the Monash Freeway, and the section immediately south of Flinders Street is also known as the Exhibition Street Extension. At its northern end it becomes Rathdowne Street, which runs along the western edge of the Carlton Gardens, Royal Exhibition Building and Melbourne Museum. History Founding as Stephen Street Stephen Street, as E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Summer Of The Seventeenth Doll
''Summer of the Seventeenth Doll'' is an Australian play written by Ray Lawler and first performed at the Union Theatre in Melbourne on 28 November 1955. The play is considered to be the most significant in Australian theatre history, and a "turning point", openly and authentically portraying distinctly Australian life and characters. It was one of the first truly naturalistic "Australian" theatre productions. It was originally published by Angus & Robertson, before moving to Fontana Press and then Currency Press Plot The play is set in Australia, in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton and it details the events of the summer of 1953, in the lives of six central characters. The structure of the play is such that the nature of these characters and their situation and history is not revealed immediately, but rather gradually established as the story unfolds. By the end, the story and all its facets have been indirectly explained. The summer that the story spans marks the 17th yea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Boy Friend (musical)
''The Boy Friend'' (sometimes misrepresented ''The Boyfriend'') is a musical by Sandy Wilson. Its original 1954 London production ran for 2,078 performances, briefly making it the third-longest running musical in West End or Broadway history (after ''Chu Chin Chow'' and ''Oklahoma!'') until they were all surpassed by ''Salad Days''. ''The Boy Friend'' marked Julie Andrews' American stage debut. Set in the carefree world of the French Riviera in the Roaring Twenties, ''The Boy Friend'' is a comic pastiche of 1920s shows, in particular early Rodgers and Hart musicals such as ''The Girl Friend''. Its relatively small cast and low cost of production makes it a continuing popular choice for amateur and student groups. Sandy Wilson wrote a sequel to ''The Boy Friend''. Set ten years later, and, appropriately, a pastiche of 1930s musicals, in particular those of Cole Porter, it was titled ''Divorce Me, Darling!'' and ran for 91 performances at London's old Globe Theatre in 1965. It ... [...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] |
There's A Girl In My Soup (play)
''There's a Girl in My Soup'' is a stage comedy written by Terence Frisby. Set in the 1960s, it tells the story of a smooth-talking TV chef, Robert Danvers, who falls for a much younger woman, Marion. She leaves her hippy boyfriend, Jimmy, to live with Danvers, but eventually returns to Jimmy, leaving Danvers bereft. It opened on 30 May 1966 at the Golders Green Hippodrome and transferred soon after to the Globe Theatre. ''There's a Girl in My Soup'' ran for six and half years until 1973 to become the longest-running comedy in the history of the West End. The play ran at the Globe Theatre for three and a half years, from March 1966 until 6 August 1969, when it transferred to the Comedy Theatre, opening there on 18 August 1969 and closing in 1973 after 2,547 performances. It was unprecedented for a comedy to run for such a long time. This record was later broken by ''No Sex Please, We're British'' and then '' Run for Your Wife''. Productions The show was directed by Bob Chet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Half A Sixpence
''Half a Sixpence'' is a 1963 musical comedy based on the 1905 novel ''Kipps'' by H. G. Wells, with music and lyrics by David Heneker and a book by Beverley Cross. It was written as a vehicle for British pop star Tommy Steele. Background The show is based on H.G. Wells's 1905 novel '' Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul''. Steele played Arthur Kipps, an orphan who unexpectedly inherits a fortune, and climbs the social ladder before losing everything and realizing that you just can't buy happiness. David Heneker (who had also worked on ''Irma La Douce'' and ''Charlie Girl'') wrote both music and lyrics. Steele's importance to the show was made evident by his appearance in twelve of the musical's fifteen songs. Much of this musical was tailored as a star vehicle for Steele's particular talents. This was especially evident in the musical number "Money to Burn": when Arthur Kipps realises that he is about to become wealthy, he decides that the first thing he will buy is a banjo. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Odd Couple (play)
''The Odd Couple'' is a Play (theatre), play by Neil Simon. Following its premiere on Broadway theatre, Broadway in 1965, the characters were revived in a successful The Odd Couple (film), 1968 film and The Odd Couple (1970 TV series), 1970s television series, as well as several other derivative works and spin-offs. The plot concerns two mismatched roommates: the neat, uptight Felix Ungar and the slovenly, easygoing Oscar Madison. Simon adapted the play in 1985 to feature a pair of female roommates (Florence Ungar and Olive Madison) in ''The Female Odd Couple''. An updated version of the 1965 show appeared in 2002 with the title ''Oscar and Felix: A New Look at the Odd Couple''. History Sources vary as to the origins of the play. In ''The Washington Post''s obituary of Simon's brother Danny Simon, Danny, a television writer, Adam Bernstein wrote that the idea for the play came from his divorce. "Mr. Simon had moved in with a newly single theatrical agent named Roy Gerber in Hol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Boys From Syracuse
''The Boys from Syracuse'' is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Lorenz Hart, based on William Shakespeare's play ''The Comedy of Errors'', as adapted by librettist George Abbott. The score includes swing and other contemporary rhythms of the 1930s. The show was the first musical based on a Shakespeare play. ''The Comedy of Errors'' was itself loosely based on a Roman play, ''The Menaechmi, or the Twin Brothers'', by Plautus. The show premiered on Broadway in 1938 and Off-Broadway in 1963, with later productions including a West End run in 1963 and in a Broadway revival in 2002. A film adaptation was released in 1940. Well-known songs from the score include " Falling in Love with Love", " This Can't Be Love" and " Sing for Your Supper". Production history Abbott directed and George Balanchine choreographed the original production, which opened on Broadway at the Alvin Theater on November 23, 1938, after tryouts in New Haven, Connecticut and Boston. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barry Humphries
John Barry Humphries (born 17 February 1934) is an Australian comedian, actor, author and satirist. He is best known for writing and playing his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson. He is also a film producer and script writer, a star of London's West End musical theatre, a writer, and a landscape painter. For his delivery of dadaist and absurdist humour to millions, biographer Anne Pender described Humphries in 2010 as not only "the most significant theatrical figure of our time … utthe most significant comedian to emerge since Charlie Chaplin". Humphries' characters have brought him international renown, and he also appeared in numerous stage productions, films, and television shows. Originally conceived as a dowdy Moonee Ponds housewife who caricatured Australian suburban complacency and insularity, Dame Edna Everage has evolved over four decades to become a satire of stardom – a gaudily dressed, acid-tongued, egomaniacal, intern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary, Mary (play)
''Mary, Mary'' is a play by Jean Kerr. After two previews, the Broadway theatre, Broadway production opened on March 8, 1961, at the original Fulton Theatre, Helen Hayes Theatre, where it ran for nearly three years and nine months before transferring to the Morosco Theatre, Morosco, where it closed on December 12, 1964, after 1572 performances, making it the longest-running non-musical Broadway play of the 1960s. Production Directed by Joseph Anthony, the original cast starred Barbara Bel Geddes as Mary, Barry Nelson (actor), Barry Nelson as Bob, Michael Rennie as Dirk, John Cromwell as Oscar, and Betsy Von Furstenberg as Tiffany. Bel Geddes was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. Later in the run, Nancy Olson and Inger Stevens were among those who assumed the role of Mary, while Bob was portrayed by George Grizzard, Murray Hamilton, and Tom Poston. Hiram Sherman replaced Cromwell as Oscar, Edward Mulhare and Michael Wilding (actor), Michael Wilding appeare ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
L'Idiote
''L'Idiote'' (''The Idiot'') is a comic mystery play by Marcel Achard. It was first performed in France under that name at the Théâtre Antoine in Paris in 1960-1962. An English version was staged on Broadway in 1961–62 with the title ''A Shot in the Dark'', adapted by Harry Kurnitz and directed by Harold Clurman. The cast included Julie Harris, Walter Matthau, and William Shatner as an incompetent Examining Magistrate. Matthau's performance earned him a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. When adapted to film in 1964, it was extensively rewritten in order to replace the Examining Magistrate with the inept police Inspector Clouseau, played by Peter Sellers, who had earlier originated the character in ''The Pink Panther''.Blake Edwards DVD director's commentary, ''The Pink Panther'' (1964), MGM Movie Legends DVD release 2007 Plot The plot concerns a free-spirited, guileless and amoral young woman, Josefa (Julie Harris in the original Broadway production), who works ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Sentimental Bloke (musical)
''The Sentimental Bloke'' is a 1961 Australian musical by Albert Arlen, Nancy Brown and Lloyd Thomson based on ''Songs of a Sentimental Bloke'' by C.J. Dennis. It is one of the most successful Australian musicals of the 20th century. The musical has also been adapted for television and ballet. Development Albert Arlen and Nancy Brown had worked on the musical since 1950. Initially they sought the involvement of George Johnston, who showed little interest. Later, the actor Lloyd Thomson was brought on board as writer. Arlen and Brown went to England in 1955 to promote the show. This was unsuccessful so they returned to Australia, borrowed some money, and self-produced the musical in an amateur production at Canberra's Albert Hall in March 1961. The cast included Edwin Ride and Brown. The show had a one-week run in Canberra, which was so popular that extra seating in the aisles had to be arranged. J. C. Williamson's directors Sir Frank Tait and John McCallum attended the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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