Paradise Square (musical)
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Paradise Square (musical)
''Paradise Square'' is a stage musical, with music by Jason Howland, lyrics by Masi Asare and Nathan Tysen, and a book by Christina Anderson, Larry Kirwan and Craig Lucas. Set in New York City during the Civil War and the New York City draft riots, the musical follows conflict between Irish Americans and Black Americans. The production is directed by Moisés Kaufman and choreographed by Bill T. Jones, with intimacy direction by Gaby Labotka. The musical opened on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on April 3, 2022. The show received mixed reviews from critics, and earned 10 nominations at the 75th Tony Awards, including Best Musical, with Joaquina Kalukango winning Best Actress. Production history The musical is based on ''Hard Times,'' conceived by Kirwan, which was originally presented Off Off Broadway in 2012 at Nancy Manocherian's the cell theatre, under the direction of Kira Simring. The musical premiered at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Berkeley, California on ...
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Jason Howland
Jason Howland is a musical theatre composer, playwright, conductor, music director, and producer. In 2015, he won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for his work producing the cast recording of '' Beautiful: The Carole King Musical''. He also wrote the music for the Broadway musical ''Little Women''. Biography Howland was born June 16, 1971, in Concord, Massachusetts, and grew up in Williamstown, Massachusetts (''Little Women'' is set in New England). As a teenager, he attended Berkshire Ensemble for the Theatre Arts (a camp for aspiring musical-theatre composers and librettists). While at Williams College, he was called to be an intern on the 1992 Vivian Matalon workshop of ''Jekyll & Hyde'' and worked his way up, becoming friendly with both composer Frank Wildhorn and arranger James Raitt, and eventually became the music director and conductor of the 1997 Broadway production. In 2002, Howland wrote a play with Larry Pellegrini called ''Blessing in Disguise'' whic ...
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New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the List of United States cities by population density, most densely populated major city in the United States, and is more than twice as populous as second-place Los Angeles. New York City lies at the southern tip of New York (state), New York State, and constitutes the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban area, urban landmass. With over 20.1 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, New York is one of the world's most populous Megacity, megacities, and over 58 million people live within of the city. New York City is a global city, global Culture of New ...
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Ring, Ring De Banjo
''Ring, Ring de Banjo'' is a minstrel song written in 1851. The song's words and music are from Stephen Foster. The song, written to mimic the dialect of Black people in the Southern United States, is about a newly-freed slave who wishes to come back to his master's plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The .... As his old master is dying, the singer plays the banjo on his old master's deathbed until he dies. It is one of "minstrelsy's most explicit evocations of the potentially violent relationship in slavery between master and slave" and inspired a number of imitators, including the abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe. References {{Stephen Foster American folk songs Songs about musical instruments Blackface minstrel songs Songs written by Stephen Foster ...
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Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair
"Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" is a parlor song by Stephen Foster (1826–1864). It was published by Firth, Pond & Co. of New York in 1854. Foster wrote the song with his estranged wife Jane McDowell in mind. The lyrics allude to a permanent separation. "Jeanie" was a notorious beneficiary of the ASCAP boycott of 1941, a dispute caused by ASCAP increasing its licensing fees. During this period, radio broadcasters played only public-domain music or songs licensed by ASCAP rival BMI. According to a 1941 article in ''Time'' magazine, "So often had BMI's Jeannie icWith the Light Brown Hair been played that she was widely reported to have turned grey." Lyrics Other versions Bing Crosby recorded the song on March 22, 1940, for Decca Records with John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra. Violinist Jascha Heifetz transcribed the song for the violin and it became a signature piece for him for years. The transcription has been performed by many subsequent violinists. In popular ...
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We Are Coming, Father Abra'am
"We Are Coming, Father Abra'am", is a poem written by James S. Gibbons, set to music by eight different composers, including Stephen Foster. William Cullen Bryant published one version (with music by Luther Orlando Emerson (1820–1915). Bryant's newspaper originally published the poem and, because it was originally published anonymously, many assumed it was his, and it was widely republished, so Bryant issued a statement denying his authorship. The poem and music came in response to a call by Abraham Lincoln on July 1, 1862 for volunteers to fight for the U.S. in the American Civil War. It was published in the New York Evening Post soon after, on July 16, 1862. Lyrics Song of the Conscripts A parody of the song, titled ''Song of the Conscripts'', expressed resentment against the 1863 Enrollment Act and particularly its provision for escaping conscription by paying a $300 commutation fee, which only the rich could afford. One verse ran: These lyrics were printed in the ...
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Hard Times Come Again No More
"Hard Times Come Again No More" (sometimes, "Hard Times") is an American parlor song written by Stephen Foster. It was published in New York by Firth, Pond & Co. in 1854 as Foster's Melodies No. 28. Well-known and popular in its day, both in America and Europe, the song asks the fortunate to consider the plight of the less fortunate and includes one of Foster's favorite images: "a pale drooping maiden". The first audio recording was a wax cylinder by the Edison Manufacturing Company (Edison Gold Moulded 9120) in 1905. It has been recorded and performed numerous times since. The song is Roud Folk Song Index #2659. Released seven years before the American Civil War, it gained great popularity during that conflict as an expression of suffering and hardship, to the point that a satirical version about soldiers' food became widely circulated as well, " Hard Tack Come Again No More". Lyrics Recordings "Hard Times Come Again No More" has been included in the following: * Jennif ...
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Angelina Baker
"Angelina Baker", sometimes sung as "Angeline the Baker" (Roud 18341) is a song written by Stephen Foster for the Christy Minstrels, and published in 1850. The original laments the loss of a woman slave, sent away by her owner. The lyrics have been subjected to the folk process, and some versions have become examples of the "Ugly Girl" or "Dinah" song. Music historian Ken Emerson noted that controversy over free and slave states, as well as Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, were hotly debated topics at the time of the song's composition. According to Emerson, Foster's lyrics obliquely acknowledge these controversies. Uncertain of the reception his blackface songs would receive, he temporarily abandoned the genre. Fiddle tune An instrumental version, as collected by John A. Lomax under the title "Angelina the Baker" is a popular fiddle or banjo tune, and differs from the Stephen Foster melody. It is part of the old time fiddle canon, but is also played by bluegrass musicians. This ...
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Gentle Annie (song)
"Gentle Annie" is a popular American song written by Stephen Foster in 1856. Tradition says that it was written in honor of Annie Jenkins, the daughter of a grocer in Federal Street, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, named Morgan Jenkins. However, Foster's biographer and niece, Evelyn Foster Morneweck, disputes this and states that it is probably written in honor of his cousin, Annie Evans, who died shortly before it was composed. Some sources say it is Foster's farewell to his maternal grandmother, Annie Pratt McGinnis Hart. His paternal grandmother was Ann Barclay. Australian version An alternative version from Australia is also known as ''Gentle Annie''. This was published in ''Australian Tradition'', Vol. 1, no. e, in 1964. It was recorded by Martyn Wyndham-Read. The tune is the same as the Stephen Foster version, but the lyrics are different. The Australian lyrics were written by Lame Jack Cousens of Springhurst, Victoria. Sources state that its subject is Annie Waits. Adaptat ...
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Oh! Susanna
"Oh! Susanna" is a minstrel song by Stephen Foster (1826–1864), first published in 1848. It is among the most popular American songs ever written. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time. Background In 1846, Stephen Foster moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, and became a bookkeeper with his brother's steamship company. While in Cincinnati, Foster wrote "Oh! Susanna", possibly for his men's social club. The song was first performed by a local quintet at a concert in Andrews' Eagle Ice Cream Saloon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 11, 1847. It was first published by W. C. Peters & Co. in Cincinnati in 1848. Blackface minstrel troupes performed the work, and, as was common at the time, many registered the song for copyright under their own names. As a result, it was copyrighted and published at least twenty-one times from February 25, 1848, through February 14, 1851. Foster earned just $100 ($ in 2016 dollars) for the so ...
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Ah! May The Red Rose Live Alway
Ah! May the Red Rose Live Alway is a song written and composed by Stephen Foster in 1850. This song is written in the style of a parlor ballad – a genre of popular song at the time intended to be performed at a slow tempo and to communicate a sentimental quality. Description Stephen Foster's "Ah! May the Red Rose Live Alway!" is different from Foster's minstrel songs of the same period. This song is an example of a parlor ballad. This ballad may have roots in the Anglo-Scots-Irish song tradition. Foster's "Ah! May the Red Rose Live Alway!" is similar to Irish musician Thomas Moore's "The Last Rose of Summer". The song begins with a piano introduction. The first vocal line of "Ah! May the Red Rose Live Alway!" begins on a high note that is held with a fermata. Music historians have postulated that this may give the setting an image of stalling the passage of time. Foster has placed additional fermatas throughout the song, possibly with similar effects in mind. Also of interest ...
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Camptown Races
"Gwine to Run All Night, or De Camptown Races" (popularly known simply as "Camptown Races") is a minstrel song by Stephen Foster (1826–1864). () It was published in February 1850 by F. D. Benteen of Baltimore, Maryland, and Benteen published a different version with guitar accompaniment in 1852 under the title "The Celebrated Ethiopian Song/Camptown Races". The song quickly entered the realm of popular Americana. Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829–1869) quotes the melody in his virtuoso piano work Grotesque Fantasie, the Banjo, op. 15 published in 1855. In 1909, composer Charles Ives incorporated the tune and other vernacular American melodies into his orchestral Symphony No. 2. First stanza Reception Richard Jackson was curator of the Americana Collection at New York Public Library; he writes: Foster quite specifically tailored the song for use on the minstrel stage. He composed it as a piece for solo voice with group interjections and refrain ... his dialect ve ...
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Five Points, Manhattan
Five Points (or The Five Points) was a 19th-century neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The neighborhood, partly built on low lying land that had filled in the freshwater lake known as the Collect Pond, was generally defined as being bound by Centre Street to the west, the Bowery to the east, Canal Street to the north, and Park Row to the south. The Five Points gained international notoriety as a densely populated, disease-ridden, crime-infested slum that existed for over 70 years. Through the twentieth century, the former Five Points area was gradually redeveloped, with streets changed or closed. The area is now occupied by the Civic Center to the west and south, which includes major federal, state, and city facilities. To the east and north, the former Five Points neighborhood is now part of Manhattan's Chinatown. Name Two crossing streets and a third that ends at their intersection form five corners, or "points". About 1809, Anthony Street was extended east ...
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