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Performance (Marti Webb Album)
''Performance'' is a 1989 studio album by Marti Webb (born 13 December 1944, Hampstead, North West London) with the Philharmonia Orchestra. Although originally released in 1989 on LP it has subsequently been released in 1993, 1994 and 1996 on CD. The album was produced by Chris Walker for First Night Records and released by Telstar Records in the UK and by WEA records in Eire.Original album sleeve notes The album features songs from musical theatre. A number of tracks were from then new shows, and various others from productions that had recently been playing the West End. Webb's recording of "Memory" coincided with her return to play Grizabella in ''Cats'', for the UK's first tour of the show. "In One of My Weaker Moments" was released by Telstar as a single, with "Tell Me on a Sunday" as the B side. The song featured in a then new musical, ''Budgie'', for which the lyrics were written by Webb's manager and collaborator Don Black. Anita Dobson, who starred in the stage version ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marti Webb
Marti Webb (born 13 December 1943) is an English actress and singer, who appeared on stage in ''Evita (musical), Evita'', before starring in Andrew Lloyd Webber's one-woman show ''Tell Me on a Sunday'' in 1980. This included her biggest hit single, "Take That Look Off Your Face", a UK top three hit, with the parent album also reaching the top three. Early life and education Marti Webb was born in Hampstead to Cecil (a clockmaker) and Selina Elizabeth Webb, and raised in Cricklewood. Her parents took her to variety shows and pantomimes as a child. Her father played the violin and her mother sang and played the piano. She attended dance lessons from the age of 3 and first performed in public at the age of 7, at the Scala Theatre, London, initially hoping to be a ballerina. After a school teacher suggested to her parents that her natural talent for singing and dancing should be nurtured, she was educated at the Aida Foster stage school from the age of 12, where she eventually bec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Hart (lyricist)
Charles Hart is an English lyricist, librettist and songwriter best known for his work on ''The Phantom of the Opera'' as well as a number of other musicals and operas for both stage and television. Life and Works Hart was born in London in 1961, the son of George Wilson Hart, an antiquarian book dealer, and Juliet Lavinia Hart (née Byam Shaw), actress. His maternal grand-parents, Glen Byam Shaw and Angela Baddeley, were actively working in theatre and music throughout his childhood. Hart began writing lyrics as a child, some of which were "dark and contemplative – precociously murderous and quite, quite feisty".Morley, Sheridan, Interview with Charles Hart, ''The Times'', 8 October 1986 He went to school in Maidenhead over the same period when his grandmother was starring in a London stage production of Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music''. Hart went on to study music at Robinson College, Cambridge, followed by postgraduate studies at the Guildhall School of Music and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trevor Nunn
Sir Trevor Robert Nunn (born 14 January 1940) is a British theatre director. He has been the Artistic Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and, currently, the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. He has directed dramas for the stage, like ''Macbeth'', as well as opera and musicals, such as '' Cats'' (1981) and ''Les Misérables'' (1985). Nunn has been nominated for the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical, the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play, the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director, and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical, winning Tonys for ''Cats'', ''Les Misérables'', and ''Nicholas Nickleby'' and the Olivier Awards for productions of ''Summerfolk'', ''The Merchant of Venice'', ''Troilus and Cressida'', and ''Nicholas Nickleby''. In 2008 ''The Telegraph'' named him among the most influential people in British culture. He has also directed works for film and television. Early years Nunn was born in Ipswich, E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cats (musical)
''Cats'' is a sung-through musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based upon the 1939 poetry collection ''Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats'' by T. S. Eliot. It tells the story of a tribe of cats called the Jellicles and the night they make the "Jellicle choice" by deciding which cat will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new life. As of 2022, ''Cats'' remains the fourth-longest-running Broadway show and the seventh-longest-running West End show. Lloyd Webber began setting Eliot's poems to music in 1977, and the compositions were first presented as a song cycle in 1980. Producer Cameron Mackintosh then recruited director Trevor Nunn and choreographer Gillian Lynne to turn the songs into a complete musical. ''Cats'' opened to positive reviews at the New London Theatre in the West End in 1981 and then to mixed reviews at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway in 1982. It won numerous awards including Best Musical at both the Laurence Olivier and Tony Awards ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Memory (Cats Song)
"Memory" is a show tune composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Trevor Nunn based on poems by T. S. Eliot. It was written for the 1981 musical ''Cats'', where it is sung primarily by the character Grizabella as a melancholic remembrance of her glamorous past and as a plea for acceptance. "Memory" is the climax of the musical and by far its best-known song, having achieved mainstream success outside of the musical. According to musicologist Jessica Sternfeld, writing in 2006, it is "by some estimations the most successful song ever from a musical." Elaine Paige originated the role of Grizabella in the West End production of ''Cats'' and was thus the first to perform the song publicly on stage. "Memory" was named the Best Song Musically and Lyrically at the 1982 Ivor Novello Awards. In 2020, Jessie Thompson of the ''Evening Standard'' wrote, "Paige’s version set the standard and enabled Memory to become one of the most recognisable musical theatre songs of all time." ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Starlight Express
''Starlight Express'' is a 1984 British musical, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Richard Stilgoe. It tells the story of a young but obsolete steam engine, Rusty, who races in a championship against modern engines in the hope of impressing a first-class observation car, Pearl. Famously, the actors perform on roller skates. ''Starlight Express'' is the ninth-longest-running West End show and the most successful musical in Germany, where it has been performed in a purpose-built theatre since 1988, holding the Guinness World Record for most visitors to a musical in a single theatre. Background ''Starlight Express'' has its roots in three abandoned projects: an animated TV series based on Thomas the Tank Engine, a novelty pop single, and an animated film based on Cinderella. In 1974, Lloyd Webber approached author Reverend W. Awdry about adapting Awdry's Thomas the Tank Engine stories as an animated TV series. Following the meeting, Lloyd Webber started composin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Only You (Pearl And Rusty)
"Only You" is the love duet from Andrew Lloyd Webber's ''Starlight Express''. It is performed by the protagonist, Rusty, a young steam locomotive and his true love, the observation car, Pearl. Overview "Only You" is the second version of the show-stopping love song at the key moment in ''Starlight Express''. In the Original London production, Pearl sang a solo "Only He", a passionate power ballad originally performed by Stephanie Lawrence. At the end of this solo Rusty came to find Pearl, and together they sang a very short reprise of the song, "Only You". "Only He" proved to be a highly demanding song, coming shortly after the performers have raced at up to 30 mph on roller skates, and it was found this song in this context was too demanding for most performers to sing. "Only You" is essentially Pearl's solo "Only He", as opposed to the reprise version in the original, re-arranged as a duet between Pearl and Rusty, with the most demanding octave leap passages remove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Black (lyricist)
Donald Blackstone (born 21 June 1938) known by pen name Don Black is an English lyricist. His works have included numerous musicals, movie, television themes and hit songs. He has provided lyrics for John Barry, Charles Strouse, Matt Monro, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Quincy Jones, Hoyt Curtin, Lulu, Jule Styne, Henry Mancini, Meat Loaf, Michael Jackson, Elmer Bernstein, Michel Legrand, Hayley Westenra, A. R. Rahman, Marvin Hamlisch and Debbie Wiseman. AllMusic stated that "Black is perhaps best-known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, and for the James Bond theme songs he co-wrote with composer John Barry: ' Thunderball', ' Diamonds Are Forever' and ' The Man with the Golden Gun'." Early life He was born Donald Blackstone in London, the youngest of five children of Russian Jewish immigrants from Ukraine, Morris and Betsy (née Kersh) Blackstone. His father worked as a garment presser and his mother in a clothes shop and during his childhood the family lived in a cou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aspects Of Love
''Aspects of Love'' is a musical with music and book by Andrew Lloyd Webber, and lyrics by Don Black and Charles Hart. It is based on the 1955 novella of the same name by David Garnett. The piece focuses on the romantic entanglements of actress Rose Vibert, her admiring fan Alex Dillingham, his underage cousin Jenny, his uncle George, and George's mistress, sculptor Giulietta Trapani, over a period of 17 years. The "aspects" of the title refers to the many forms that love takes in the show: love between couples, both as romantic infatuation and as married people; children and their parents; and hints of same-sex attraction (Giulietta and Rose). Lloyd Webber was introduced to ''Aspects of Love'' in 1979, when he and Tim Rice were approached to write a few songs for a proposed film version. When nothing came of it, he suggested to Trevor Nunn that they collaborate on a stage adaptation. In 1983, they presented a cabaret of numbers they had written, but it was not until five yea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anything But Lonely
"Anything But Lonely" is a 1989 single by Sarah Brightman. The song is from the musical ''Aspects of Love''. The music was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948), is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 21 musicals, ... and the lyrics by Don Black and Charles Hart. The single peaked at #79 in the UK charts. Track listing 7 inch vinyl # "Anything But Lonely" # "Half a Moment" 12 inch vinyl & CD single # "Anything But Lonely # "Half a Moment" # "What Makes Me Love Him?" # "English Girls" 1989 singles Songs from musicals Songs with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber Songs with lyrics by Don Black (lyricist) Sarah Brightman songs 1989 songs Polydor Records singles Songs with lyrics by Charles Hart (lyricist) {{1980s-single-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim (; March 22, 1930November 26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. One of the most important figures in twentieth-century musical theater, Sondheim is credited for having "reinvented the American musical" with shows that tackle "unexpected themes that range far beyond the enre'straditional subjects" with "music and lyrics of unprecedented complexity and sophistication." His shows address "darker, more harrowing elements of the human experience," with songs often tinged with "ambivalence" about various aspects of life. He was known for his frequent collaborations with Hal Prince and James Lapine on the Broadway stage. Sondheim's interest in musical theater began at a young age, and he was mentored by Oscar Hammerstein II. He began his career by writing the lyrics for ''West Side Story'' (1957) and ''Gypsy'' (1959). He transitioned to writing both music and lyrics for the theater, with his best-known works including '' A Funny Thing Happened on the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Follies
''Follies'' is a Musical theater, musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman. The plot takes place in a crumbling Broadway theater, now scheduled for demolition, previously home to a musical revue (based on the ''Ziegfeld Follies''). The evening follows a reunion of the Weismann Girls who performed during the interwar period. Several of the former showgirls perform their old numbers, often accompanied by the ghosts of their younger selves. The score offers a pastiche of 1920s and 1930s musical styles, evoking a nostalgic tone. The original Broadway production, directed by Harold Prince and Michael Bennett (theater), Michael Bennett, with choreography by Bennett, opened April 4, 1971. The musical was nominated for 11 Tony Awards and won seven. The original production, among the most costly on Broadway, ran for over 500 performances but ultimately lost its entire investment. The musical has had a number of major revivals, and several of its song ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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