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The Black Mikado
''The Black Mikado'' is a musical comedy, based on Gilbert and Sullivan's ''The Mikado'', adapted by Janos Bajtala, George Larnyoh and Eddie Quansah from W. S. Gilbert's original 1885 libretto and Arthur Sullivan's score. The show premiered on 24 April 1975 at the Cambridge Theatre in London, where it ran for 472 performances before going on a national tour. A 1976 production was mounted in Soweto, South Africa, where it played at the Diepkloof Hall. After this, the musical was not revived. Production details The plot of ''The Black Mikado'' does not stray far from the Gilbert and Sullivan original, except that in the musical the action is set on a Caribbean island rather than in Japan. Sullivan's original score is rearranged into a mixture of rock, reggae, blues and calypso. The West End production was directed by Braham Murray with a nearly all black cast, the exception being veteran actor Michael Denison's Pooh-Bah, who was white and dressed in a white tropical suit and p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (13 May 1842 – 22 November 1900) was an English composer. He is best known for 14 comic opera, operatic Gilbert and Sullivan, collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including ''H.M.S. Pinafore'', ''The Pirates of Penzance'' and ''The Mikado''. His works include 24 operas, 11 major orchestral works, ten choral works and oratorios, two ballets, incidental music to several plays, and numerous church pieces, songs, and piano and chamber pieces. His hymns and songs include "Onward, Christian Soldiers" and "The Lost Chord". The son of a military bandmaster, Sullivan composed his first anthem at the age of eight and was later a soloist in the boys' choir of the Chapel Royal. In 1856, at 14, he was awarded the first Mendelssohn Scholarship by the Royal Academy of Music, which allowed him to study at the academy and then at the Felix Mendelssohn College of Music and Theatre, Leipzig Conservatoire in Germany. His graduation piece, inc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Bush Jones
John Bush Jones (August 3, 1940 – December 31, 2019) was an American author, theatre director and critic, educator and scholar. He taught theatre for more than two decades at Brandeis University and wrote widely about musical theatre, publishing several books. Early life and education Jones was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1940. He described himself as a child of the World War II home front, having just turned five, eleven days before the Surrender of Japan. His experience influenced his writing career, and is reflected in his books. He received an undergraduate degree in Speech (Theatre), with Distinction, from Northwestern University in 1962. He earned his Ph.D. from Northwestern in 1970. Jones married Sandra Pirie Carson, whose family commissioned architect Louis Sullivan to design the Carson's, Carson Pirie Scott & Co. store in downtown Chicago. They were married for 10 years before divorcing and had one son, Aaron Carson. Career Jones reviewed drama for the ''Kansas City ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1975 Musicals
It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are found guilty of the Watergate cover-up. * January 2 ** The Federal Rules of Evidence are approved by the United States Congress. ** Bangladesh revolutionary leader Siraj Sikder is killed by police while in custody. ** A bomb blast at Samastipur, Bihar, India, fatally wounds Lalit Narayan Mishra, Minister of Railways. * January 5 – Tasman Bridge disaster: The Tasman Bridge in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, is struck by the bulk ore carrier , killing 12 people. * January 7 – OPEC agrees to raise crude oil prices by 10%. * January 10–February 9 – The flight of ''Soyuz 17'' with the crew of Georgy Grechko and Aleksei Gubarev aboard the ''Salyut 4'' space station. * January 15 – Alvor Agreement: Portugal an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adaptations Of Works By Gilbert And Sullivan
In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the population during that process. Thirdly, it is a phenotypic trait or adaptive trait, with a functional role in each individual organism, that is maintained and has evolved through natural selection. Historically, adaptation has been described from the time of the ancient Greek philosophers such as Empedocles and Aristotle. In 18th and 19th century natural theology, adaptation was taken as evidence for the existence of a deity. Charles Darwin proposed instead that it was explained by natural selection. Adaptation is related to biological fitness, which governs the rate of evolution as measured by change in allele frequencies. Often, two or more species co-adapt and co-evolve as they develop adaptations that interlock with those of the other ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Hot Mikado (1939 Production)
''The Hot Mikado'' was a musical theatre adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan's 1885 comic opera ''The Mikado'' with an African-American cast. It was first produced by Mike Todd on Broadway in 1939. It starred Bill "Bojangles" Robinson in the title role, with musical arrangements by Charles L. Cooke and direction by Hassard Short. Background Mike Todd produced ''The Hot Mikado'' after the Federal Theatre Project turned down his offer to manage the WPA production of ''The Swing Mikado'' (another all-black adaptation of ''The Mikado'').Morddenp. 240/ref>Weinberg-Harter, George"''Hot Mikado'' at Starlight Theatre", ''San Diego Arts'', June 25, 2006 Todd's adaptation was jazzier than ''The Swing Mikado'' and had a "full-voiced, star-studded cast to back up its sass." It follows both the story line of ''The Mikado'' and the spectacle of the original and was noted for its wild costuming. "Rosa Brown's outfit, a winged dress with train and a gigantic hat, weighed thirty-five pounds." The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Swing Mikado
''The Swing Mikado'' is a musical theatre adaptation, in two acts, of Gilbert and Sullivan's 1885 comic opera, ''The Mikado'', with music arranged by Gentry Warden. It featured a setting transposed from Japan to a tropical island. The show was first staged by an all-black company in Chicago, Illinois, in 1938. Later that year, it transferred to Broadway. Other changes from the original work included the re-scoring of five of the musical numbers in "swing" style, the insertion of popular dance sequences including The Truck and the Cakewalk, and the rewriting of some of the dialogue in an attempt at black dialect. Other than that, the original dialogue and score of 1885 were used.Dennis, Lucas"Reinforcing or Debunking Racial Stereotypes? A Tale of Two Mikados" Graduate Student Symposium, Tufts University, April 5, 2003 Background and productions ''The Swing Mikado'' was a production of the Chicago division of the WPA's Federal Theatre Project. The production was conceived, staged ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Derek Griffiths
Derek Griffiths (born 15 July 1946) is a British actor, singer, and voice artist who appeared in numerous British children's television series in the 1960s to present and has more recently played parts in television drama. Career Griffiths was known in his early years for his '' Play School'' appearances alongside the likes of Chloe Ashcroft, Johnny Ball and Brian Cant. A talented multi-instrumentalist, he voiced over and sang the theme tune to ''Heads and Tails'', a series of short animal films for children produced by BBC Television, and also sang and played the theme tune to the cartoon '' Bod''. Another children's TV role was in Granada Television's early 1980s series ''Film Fun'', in which he played the entire staff of a cinema (the manager, the commissionaire (with the catchphrase "Get on with it!"), the projectionist, the usherette and also himself) while also showing cartoons such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner. He appeared on ''Crown Cour ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norman Beaton
Norman Lugard Beaton (31 October 1934 – 13 December 1994) was a Guyanese actor long resident in the United Kingdom. He became best known for his role as Desmond Ambrose in the Channel Four television comedy series ''Desmond's''. The writer Stephen Bourne has called him "the most influential and highly regarded black British actor of his time". Early life Beaton was born in Georgetown, British Guiana (now Guyana). He attended Queen's College, and went on to a teacher training college, where he received high marks, and served as the deputy headmaster at Cane Grove Anglican School in Demerara. Beaton taught and played with the calypso band The Four Bees before leaving Guyana for London in 1960. There, he attended London University, and taught briefly in Liverpool as the first black teacher in the Liverpool Education Authority before giving up on teaching to take on the acting profession. Early career Beaton developed a parallel career as a calypso singer, scoring a numb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Floella Benjamin
Floella Karen Yunies Benjamin, Baroness Benjamin, (born 23 September 1949GRO Register of Marriages: SEP 1980 14 0207 LAMBETH – Keith D. Taylor=Floella K.Y. Benjamin) is a Trinidadian-British actress, singer, presenter, author, businesswoman, and politician. She is known as presenter of children's programmes such as '' Play School'', ''Play Away'', ''Jamboree'' and ''Fast Forward''. On 28 June 2010, Lady Benjamin was introduced to the House of Lords as a life peer nominated by the Liberal Democrats. Early life Benjamin was born on 23 September 1949 in Pointe-à-Pierre, Trinidad and Tobago, one of six siblings, with three brothers and two sisters.Floella Benjamin profile Historical Geographies; 3 September 2011; accessed 21 March 2014. When her father, "a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patti Boulaye
Patricia Ngozi Komlosy Order of the British Empire, OBE (née Ebigwei; born 3 May 1954), known professionally as Patti Boulaye, is a British Nigerian, British-Nigerian singer, actress and artist who rose to prominence after winning ''New Faces'' in 1978 and was among the leading black British entertainers in the 1970s and 1980s. In her native Nigeria she is best remembered for starring in Lux (soap), Lux commercials and ''Bisi, Daughter of the River'', as well as her own series, ''The Patti Boulaye Show''. Her stage name is said to have been inspired by the actress Evelyn Laye, Evelyn "Boo" Laye. Early life Boulaye was born after her mother went into labour in a taxicab, taxi that was passing through two towns in Mid-Western Region, Nigeria, Mid-Western Nigeria and was raised in a strict Catholic household with nine children, including airline pilot Tony Ebigwei, who was killed in the Nigerian Airways plane crash of 1978. She is of Efik people, Efik and Igbo people, Igbo origi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evening Glove
Ladies' evening gloves or opera gloves are a type of formal glove that reaches beyond the elbow. Ladies' gloves for formal and semi-formal wear come in three lengths for women: wrist, elbow, and opera or full-length (over the elbow, usually reaching to the biceps but sometimes to the full length of the arm). The most expensive full-length gloves are custom-made of kidskin. Many other types of leather, most usually soft varieties of cowhide, are used in making full-length gloves; patent leather and suede are especially popular as alternatives to kidskin, and are often more affordable than kidskin. Satin and stretch satin materials are extremely popular, and there are mass-produced varieties as well. More unusual glove materials include leathers made from salmon, python, and stingray. History Western world While the etymology of the term ''opera glove'' is unknown, gloves of above-the-elbow length have been worn since at least the late 18th century, and gloves reaching to or j ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pith Helmet
The pith helmet, also known as the safari helmet, salacot, sola topee, sun helmet, topee, and topi) is a lightweight cloth-covered helmet made of sholapith. The pith helmet originates from the Spanish Empire, Spanish military adaptation of the native ''salakot'' headgear of the Philippines. It was often worn by European travellers and explorers, in the varying climates found in Southeast Asia, Africa, and the tropics, but was also used in many other contexts. It was routinely issued to European military personnel serving overseas in hot climates from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Definition Typically, a pith helmet derives from either the sola plant, ''Aeschynomene aspera'', an Indian swamp plant, or from ''Aeschynomene paludosa''. In the narrow definition, a pith helmet is technically a type of sun helmet made out of pith material. However, the pith helmet may more broadly refer to the particular style of helmet. In this case, a pith helmet can be made out o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
