|
Plaza Suite
''Plaza Suite'' is a comedy play by Neil Simon. Plot The play is composed of three acts, each involving different characters but all set in Suite 719 of New York City's Plaza Hotel. The first act, ''Visitor From Mamaroneck'', introduces the audience to not-so-blissfully wedded couple Sam and Karen Nash, who are revisiting their honeymoon suite in an attempt by Karen to bring the love back into their marriage. Her plan backfires and the two become embroiled in a heated argument about whether or not Sam is having an affair with his secretary. The act ends with Sam leaving (allegedly to attend to urgent business) and Karen sadly reflecting on how much things have changed since they were young. The second act, ''Visitor from Hollywood'', involves a meeting between movie producer Jesse Kiplinger and his old flame, suburban housewife Muriel Tate. Muriel—aware of his reputation as a smooth-talking ladies' man—has come for nothing more than a chat between old friends, promising he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neil Simon
Marvin Neil Simon (July 4, 1927 – August 26, 2018) was an American playwright, screenwriter and author. He wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, mostly film adaptations of his plays. He has received more combined Academy Award, Oscar and Tony Award nominations than any other writer. Simon grew up in New York City during the Great Depression. His parents' financial difficulties affected their marriage, giving him a mostly unhappy and unstable childhood. He often took refuge in movie theaters, where he enjoyed watching early comedians like Charlie Chaplin. After graduating from high school and serving a few years in the United States Army Air Forces, Army Air Force Reserve, he began writing comedy scripts for radio programs and popular early television shows. Among the latter were Sid Caesar's ''Your Show of Shows'' (where in 1950 he worked alongside other young writers including Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, Larry Gelbart and Sel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Balaban
Robert Elmer Balaban (born August 16, 1945) is an American actor, author, comedian, director and producer. He was one of the producers nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture for ''Gosford Park'' (2001), in which he also appeared. Balaban is most known for his appearances in the Christopher Guest comedies ''Waiting for Guffman'' (1996), '' Best in Show'' (2000), ''A Mighty Wind'' (2003), and '' For Your Consideration'' (2006) and in the Wes Anderson films ''Moonrise Kingdom'' (2012), ''The Grand Budapest Hotel'' (2014), ''Isle of Dogs'' (2018) and ''The French Dispatch'' (2021). Balaban's other film roles include the drama ''Midnight Cowboy'' (1969); the science fiction films ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' (1977), ''Altered States'' (1980), ''2010'' (1984), the comedy ''Deconstructing Harry'' (1997), and the historical drama '' Capote'' (2005). Balaban has directed three feature films, in addition to numerous television episodes and films. He is also an author of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Award For Best Play
The Tony Award for Best Play (formally, the Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre) is an annual award given to the best new (non- musical) play on Broadway, as determined by Tony Award voters. There was no award in the Tonys' first year. '' Mister Roberts'' received the first Tony Award as Best Play. The award goes to the authors and the producers of the play. Plays that have appeared in previous Broadway productions are instead eligible for Best Revival of a Play. Award winners Legend: 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Award records Multiple awards and nominations Superlatives British writer Tom Stoppard has won this award four times, more than any other playwright. Only seven other writers (Arthur Miller, Terrence McNally, Tony Kushner, Edward Albee, Neil Simon, Yasmina Reza and Peter Shaffer) have won the award more than once, each winning twice. With ten nominations, Neil Simon has been nominated for the award more than ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Award For Best Direction Of A Play
The Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play has been given since 1960. Before 1960 there was only one award for both play direction and musical direction, then in 1960 the award was split into two categories: ''Dramatic'' and ''Musical''. In 1976 the Dramatic category was renamed to Play. For pre-1960 direction awards please reference Tony Award for Best Director. Winners and nominees 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Award records Multiple wins ; 6 Wins * Mike Nichols ; 3 Wins * Jerry Zaks ; 2 Wins * Peter Brook * Stephen Daldry * John Dexter * Marianne Elliott * Gerald Gutierrez * Peter Hall * Sam Mendes * Jack O'Brien * Gene Saks Multiple nominations ; 10 Nominations * Mike Nichols ; 8 Nominations * Peter Hall * Daniel J. Sullivan ; 6 Nominations * George C. Wolfe ; 5 Nominations * Joe Mantello * Marshall W. Mason * Lloyd Richards * Alan Schneider * Bartlett Sher * Matthew Warchus ; 4 Nominations * Michael Blakemore * David Leveaux * Grego ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Suite In Three Keys
''Suite in Three Keys'' is a trilogy of plays by Noël Coward. It comprises two short plays – '' Shadows of the Evening'' and '' Come Into the Garden, Maud'' – designed to be given as a double bill, and a stand-alone full-length play, ''A Song at Twilight''. They are all set in the same suite in a luxury Swiss hotel and have a single character common to all three: the Italian waiter. The other characters are British, American and German hotel guests or visitors. The trilogy was first presented in London in 1966, starring Coward, Lilli Palmer and Irene Worth. Background and first performances ''Suite in Three Keys'' was planned by Coward as his theatrical swan song: "I would like to act once more before I fold my bedraggled wings."Coward, introduction, unnumbered page. He wrote the three plays in the expectation that Margaret Leighton would be his co-star, but she vacillated for so long about accepting the roles that he cast Lilli Palmer instead. In each of the plays there a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time'' magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise"."Noel Coward at 70" ''Time'', 26 December 1969, p. 46 Coward attended a dance academy in London as a child, making his professional stage début at the age of eleven. As a teenager he was introduced into the high society in which most of his plays would be set. Coward achieved enduring success as a playwright, publishing more than 50 plays from his teens onwards. Many of his works, such as '' |
A Candid Look At Broadway
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version can be written in two forms: the double-storey a and single-storey ɑ. The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type. In English grammar, " a", and its variant " an", are indefinite articles. History The earliest certain ancestor of "A" is aleph (also written 'aleph), the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet, which consisted entirely of consonants (for that reason, it is also called an abjad to distinguish it fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Goldman
William Goldman (August 12, 1931 – November 16, 2018) was an American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. He first came to prominence in the 1950s as a novelist before turning to screenwriting. He won Academy Awards for his screenplays ''Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'' (1969) and ''All the President's Men'' (1976). His other well-known works include his thriller novel '' Marathon Man'' (1974) and his cult classic comedy/fantasy novel ''The Princess Bride'' (1973), both of which he also adapted for film versions. Early life Goldman was born into a Jewish family in Chicago in 1931 and grew up in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Illinois, the second son of Marion (née Weil) and Maurice Clarence Goldman. Goldman's father initially was a successful businessman, working in Chicago and in a partnership, but he suffered from alcoholism, which cost him his business. He "came home to live and he was in his pajamas for the last five years of his life," according to Goldman ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peggy Cass
Mary Margaret "Peggy" Cass (May 21, 1924 – March 8, 1999) was an American actress, comedian, game show panelist, and announcer. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture for her performance in the 1958 film ''Auntie Mame''. Early life A native of Boston, Massachusetts, Cass attended Cambridge Latin School and became interested in acting as a member of the drama club. However, throughout her entire time at the school, she never had a speaking part in any of the club's productions. After graduating, she spent most of the 1940s in search of an acting career. She received acting training at HB Studio in New York City and eventually landed Jan Sterling's role in a traveling production of '' Born Yesterday''. Stage and film Cass made her Broadway debut in 1949 with the play ''Touch and Go''. Remembered today primarily as a regular panelist on the long-running '' To Tell the Truth'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barbara Baxley
Barbara Angie Rose Baxley (January 1, 1923 – June 7, 1990) was an American actress and singer. Early life Barbara Baxley was born on January 1, 1923, in Porterville, California, the daughter of Emma (née Tyler) and Bert Baxley and sister to Helen Baxley. She acted for six years in productions of schools and Little Theaters before she had her first professional role. Career A life member of the Actors Studio, Baxley also studied acting under the tutelage of Sanford Meisner at the prestigious Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater in New York City. Her first film was '' East of Eden'', where she portrayed Adam Trask's obnoxious nurse at the end of the film. In 1961, she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress (Dramatic) for her performance in the Broadway production of Tennessee Williams's comedy ''Period of Adjustment''. She appeared in Chekhov's '' The Three Sisters'' and Neil Simon's ''Plaza Suite'' as well as the 1960s Broadway musical ''She Loves Me'', whi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicol Williamson
Thomas Nicol Williamson (14 September 1936 – 16 December 2011) was a Scottish actor, once described by playwright John Osborne as "the greatest actor since Marlon Brando". He was also described by Samuel Beckett as "touched by genius" and viewed by many critics as "the Hamlet of his generation" during the late 1960s. Early life Thomas Nicol Williamson was born on 14 September 1936 (he would later claim 1938 in ''Who's Who'') in Hamilton, Lanarkshire, the son of Hugh Williamson, operator of an aluminium manufacturing plant and former hairdresser's assistant, and Mary Brown Hill, née Storrie. When he was 18 months old, his family moved to Birmingham, England. Williamson was sent back to Hamilton to live with his grandparents during World War II due to Birmingham's susceptibility to bombing, but returned when the war ended, and was educated at the Central Grammar School for Boys, Birmingham. He left school at 16 to begin work in his father's factory and later attended the Birmi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Porter
Donald Cecil Porter (September 24, 1912 – February 11, 1997) was an American stage, film and television actor. On television, he played Peter Sands, the boss of Ann Sothern's character on ''Private Secretary'', and Russell Lawrence, the widowed father of 15-year-old Frances "Gidget" Lawrence (Sally Field) in the 1965 ABC sitcom ''Gidget''. Life and career Porter was born in Miami, Oklahoma, and as a youth also lived in Nebraska and Oregon. He joined the Oklahoma National Guard at the age of 14, claiming to be 18, and was commissioned a lieutenant. He served as a combat photographer during World War II and also appeared in training films. Porter's first roles as an actor began when he was 17, playing dramatic parts on the radio. In 1936 he appeared on stage in Portland in Maxwell Anderson's '' Elizabeth the Queen''. He went on to appear in more than 200 plays. His Broadway credits include ''The Front Page'' (1968), ''Plaza Suite'' (1967), and ''Any Wednesday'' (1963). He a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
