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Stephanie Lawrence
Stephanie Lawrence (16 December 1949 – 4 November 2000) was a British musical theatre actress. Background Stephanie Lawrence was born in 1949 in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. She was the daughter of a Welsh singer, to whom she credited her voice, and a classically trained dancer. She moved to Hayling Island at the age of four. From an early age she was close friends with another famous Islander, Peter Chilvers, who, in 1958, invented the windsurfer. Career Theatre Having trained at the Arts Educational School, Tring, Hertfordshire (now Tring Park School for the Performing Arts), she made her debut in ''The Nutcracker'' at the Royal Festival Hall in London in 1962. She became a member of the corps de ballet at the Royal Festival Ballet at the age of 12 with the intention of becoming a ballerina, however, her plans were disrupted when she was forced to miss a year after contracting pneumonia aged 15. Her West End debut came in April 1971, playing the part ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Newcastle Upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is also the most populous city of North East England. Newcastle developed around a Roman settlement called Pons Aelius and the settlement later took the name of a castle built in 1080 by William the Conqueror's eldest son, Robert Curthose. Historically, the city’s economy was dependent on its port and in particular, its status as one of the world's largest ship building and repair centres. Today, the city's economy is diverse with major economic output in science, finance, retail, education, tourism, and nightlife. Newcastle is one of the UK Core Cities, as well as part of the Eurocities network. Famous landmarks in Newcastle include the Tyne Bridge; the Swing Bridge; Newcastle Castle; St Thomas’ Church; Grainger Town including G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as well as an emblem of the era's sexual revolution. She was a top-billed actress for a decade, and her films grossed $200 million (equivalent to $ billion in ) by the time of her death in 1962. Long after her death, Monroe remains a major icon of pop culture. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked her sixth on their list of the greatest female screen legends from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Multiple film critics and media outlets have cited Monroe as one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Monroe spent most of her childhood in a total of 12 foster homes and an orphanage; she married at age sixteen. She was working in a factory during World War II when she met a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blood Brothers (musical)
''Blood Brothers'' is a musical with book, lyrics, and music by Willy Russell. The story is a contemporary nature versus nurture plot, revolving around fraternal twins Mickey and Eddie, who were separated at birth, one subsequently being raised in a wealthy family, the other in a poor family. The different environments take the twins to opposite ends of the social spectrum, one becoming a councillor, and the other unemployed and in prison. They both fall in love with the same girl, causing a rift in their friendship and leading to the tragic death of both brothers. Russell says that his work was based on a one-act play that he read as a child "about two babies switched at birth ... it became the seed for Blood Brothers." Originally developed as a school play, ''Blood Brothers'' debuted in Liverpool before Russell transferred it to the West End for a short run in 1983. The musical won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical and went on to a year-long national tour before r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Willy Russell
William Russell (born 23 August 1946) is an English dramatist, lyricist and composer. His best known works are ''Educating Rita'', ''Shirley Valentine'', '' Blood Brothers'' and ''Our Day Out''. Early life Russell was born in Whiston, Lancashire (which is now Merseyside). On leaving school, aged 15, he became a ladies' hairdresser, eventually running his own salon, until the age of 20 when he decided to go back to college. This led to him qualifying as a teacher. During these years, Russell also worked as a semi-professional singer, writing and performing his own songs in folk clubs. At college, he began writing drama and, in 1972, took a programme of two one-act plays to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where they were seen by writer John McGrath, who recommended Russell to the Liverpool Everyman, which commissioned the adaptation, ''When The Reds…'', Russell's first professional work for theatre. Career Russell's first play was ''Keep Your Eyes Down'' (1971), written while ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lionel Blair
Lionel Blair (born Henry Lionel Ogus; 12 December 1928 – 4 November 2021) was a Canadian-born British actor, choreographer, tap dancer, and television presenter. From the late 1960s until the early 1980s, he made regular appearances as a dancer and entertainer on British television. He also presented the quiz programme ''Name That Tune'', and was a team captain on the televised charades gameshow ''Give Us a Clue''. Early life Henry Lionel Ogus was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He was born to Jewish parents, Myer Ogus and Debora "Della" Greenbaum. His father, a barber, emigrated from Russia to Canada to start a new life, and his wife joined him shortly afterwards. Blair came to Britain when he was two years old, and the family settled at Stamford Hill in north London, where his father continued to work as a barber. Although his parents were Jewish they were not orthodox; they would eat chicken on a Friday night, but also ate bacon. Due to the anti-semitism of the time, h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cinderella
"Cinderella",; french: link=no, Cendrillon; german: link=no, Aschenputtel) or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988. The protagonist is a young woman living in forsaken circumstances that are suddenly changed to remarkable fortune, with her ascension to the throne via marriage. The story of Rhodopis, recounted by the Greek geographer Strabo sometime between around 7 BC and AD 23, about a Greek slave girl who marries the king of Egypt, is usually considered to be the earliest known variant of the Cinderella story.Roger Lancelyn Green: ''Tales of Ancient Egypt'', Penguin UK, 2011, , chapter "The Land of Egypt" The first literary European version of the story was published in Italy by Giambattista Basile in his ''Pentamerone'' in 1634; the version that is now most widely known in the English-speaking world was published in French by Charles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, Stratford-upon-Avon, and on tour across the UK and internationally. The company's home is in Stratford-upon-Avon, where it has redeveloped its Royal Shakespeare and Swan theatres as part of a £112.8-million "Transformation" project. The theatres re-opened in November 2010, having closed in 2007. The new buildings attracted 18,000 visitors within the first week and received a positive media response both upon opening, and following the first full Shakespeare performances. Performances in Stratford-upon-Avon continued throughout the Transformation project at the temporary Courtyard Theatre. As well as the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, the RSC produces new work from living artists and develops creative links with theatre-make ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nichola McAuliffe
Nichola McAuliffe (born 1955) is an English television and stage actress and writer, best known for her role as Sheila Sabatini in the ITV hospital sitcom '' Surgical Spirit'' (1989–1995). She has also starred in several stage musicals and won the 1988 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role in ''Kiss Me, Kate''. Acting career McAuliffe was born in 1955 in Cobham, Surrey, England, and trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. In 1984 she won the Clarence Derwent Award for her role as Queen Victoria in the West End production of ''Poppy (1982 musical), Poppy'' at the Adelphi Theatre. Between 1989 and 1995, she starred as obstreperous surgeon Sheila Sabatini in the ITV (TV network), ITV sitcom ''Surgical Spirit'', her most high-profile acting role to date. She also appeared in the long-running soap opera ''Coronation Street'' between 2001 and 2002. Other TV roles were in "The Sound of Drums", a ''Doctor Who'' episode screened on 23 June 2007, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Cassidy
David Bruce Cassidy (April 12, 1950 – November 21, 2017) was an American actor, singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He was best known for his role as Keith Partridge, the son of Shirley Partridge (played by his stepmother, Shirley Jones), in the 1970s musical-sitcom ''The Partridge Family''. This role catapulted Cassidy to teen idol status as a superstar pop singer of the 1970s. Early life Cassidy was born at Flower Fifth Avenue Hospital in New York City, the son of singer and actor Jack Cassidy and actress Evelyn Ward. His father was of half Irish and half German ancestry, and his mother was descended mostly from Colonial Americans, along with having some Irish and Swiss roots. His mother's ancestors were among the founders of Newark, New Jersey. As his parents were frequently touring on the road, he spent his early years being raised by his maternal grandparents in a middle-class neighborhood in West Orange, New Jersey. In 1956, he found out from neighbors' children that hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Time (musical)
''Time'' is a musical with a book and lyrics by Dave Clark and David Soames, music by Jeff Daniels, and additional songs by Hans Poulsen and David Pomeranz. Plot Derived from the 1970s musical ''The Time Lord'' by Soames and Daniels, it focuses on contemporary rock musician Chris Wilder, who has been transported with his backup singers and band from a concert to the High Court of the Universe in the Andromeda Galaxy. In light of mankind's strides in space exploration, the Time Lord Melchisedic (loosely based on the title character in the BBC science fiction series ''Doctor Who'') has decided the time has come to examine Earth's people to determine what role they will play in the quest for universal peace, and Wilder and his band are called upon to defend their planet. Productions The heavily amplified multi-media event relied heavily on special effects, including a huge projected floating head named Akash (billed by the show's producers as a hologram) that served as a narrator ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dave Clark (musician)
David Clark (born 15 December 1939) is an English musician, songwriter, record producer and entrepreneur. Clark was the leader, drummer and manager of the 1960s beat group the Dave Clark Five, the first British Invasion band to follow the Beatles to the United States in 1964. In 2008 Clark and his band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Career Clark was born in Tottenham, then lived in Middlesex. He left school without qualifications at the age of 15 and claims to have become a film stuntman, performing in over 40 films (although IMDB only gives him four pre-fame film credits). In the late 1950s he bought a set of drums, taught himself how to play them, and formed a skiffle band to raise funds so that his football team could travel to the Netherlands. The skiffle band grew into the Dave Clark Five, with Clark their leader, co-songwriter, manager and producer. The Dave Clark Five grew in popularity in the UK. They unseated the Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your ... [...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] |
