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The Comedy Of Errors (musical)
''The Comedy of Errors'' is a musical with a book and lyrics by Trevor Nunn and music by Guy Woolfenden. It is based on the William Shakespeare play, ''The Comedy of Errors'', which had previously been adapted for the musical stage as ''The Boys from Syracuse'' by Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart and George Abbott in 1938. The London production won the Olivier Award for Best New Musical in 1977. Background While enjoying a holiday in Ephesus, Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse are mistaken for their long-lost twin brothers Dromio and Antipholus of Ephesus by Adriana, who is married to the latter. Certain her husband's wandering eye has noticed the many temptations awaiting him in town, she is determined to win back his undivided attention. Comic complications arise when she pursues the wrong Antipholus and tries to woo him home. The theatre critic Irving Wardle said of the score, "It does not give you much to hum on the way out, but it supplies a springboard into dramatic song an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guy Woolfenden
Guy Anthony Woolfenden (12 July 1937 – 15 April 2016) was an English composer and conductor. Biography Woolfenden was born in Ipswich and educated at Westminster Abbey Choir School, London, and Whitgift School, Croydon. He studied music at Christ's College in Cambridge and went on to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1961 and was Head of Music from 1963 to 1998. He was Artistic Director of the Cambridge Festival from 1986 to 1991. In 1995 he was a founder director of the English Music Festival which became the Stratford on Avon Music Festival. He was the Chairman of the Denne Gilkes Memorial Fund, a charity which supports young musicians and actors. He was the founder of the publishing company, Ariel Music. Woolfenden married Jane Aldrick in 1962 and they had three sons. Conducting and arranging Woolfenden conducted three productions with the Scottish Opera, as well as the first British prod ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gillian Lynne
Dame Gillian Barbara Lynne (née Pyrke; 20 February 1926 – 1 July 2018) was an English ballerina, dancer, choreographer, actress, and theatre-television director, noted for her theatre choreography associated with two of the longest-running shows in Broadway history, ''Cats'' and ''The Phantom of the Opera''. At age 87, she was made a DBE (Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2014 New Year Honours List. The New London Theatre, where the original West End production of ''Cats'' played, was officially renamed the Gillian Lynne Theatre in 2018. This made Lynne the first non-royal woman to have a West End theatre named after her. Early life and education Gillian Barbara Pyrke was born in Bromley, Kent, and was a precocious dance talent from an early age, teaming with her childhood friend Beryl Grey while still at school, and dancing to blot out the tragedy of the violent death of her mother on 8 July 1939 in Coventry (as a result of a car crash along wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ITV (TV Network)
ITV is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network. It was launched in 1955 as Independent Television to provide competition to BBC Television (established in 1936). ITV is the oldest commercial network in the UK. Since the passing of the Broadcasting Act 1990, it has been legally known as Channel 3 to distinguish it from the other analogue channels at the time, BBC1, BBC2 and Channel 4. ITV was for four decades a network of separate companies which provided regional television services and also shared programmes between each other to be shown on the entire network. Each franchise was originally owned by a different company. After several mergers, the fifteen regional franchises are now held by two companies: ITV plc, which runs the ITV1 channel, and STV Group, which runs the STV channel. The ITV network is a separate entity from ITV plc, the company that resulted from the merger of Granada plc and Carlton Communications in 2004. ITV plc holds the Channel 3 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aldwych Theatre
The Aldwych Theatre is a West End theatre, located in Aldwych in the City of Westminster, central London. It was listed Grade II on 20 July 1971. Its seating capacity is 1,200 on three levels. History Origins The theatre was constructed in the newly built Aldwych as a pair with the Waldorf Theatre, now known as the Novello Theatre. Both buildings were designed in the Edwardian Baroque style by W. G. R. Sprague. The Aldwych Theatre was funded by Seymour Hicks in association with the American impresario Charles Frohman, and built by Walter Wallis of Balham. The theatre opened on 23 December 1905 with a production of ''Blue Bell'', a new version of Hicks's popular pantomime ''Bluebell in Fairyland''. In 1906, Hicks's ''The Beauty of Bath'', followed in 1907 by '' The Gay Gordons'', played at the theatre. In February 1913, the theatre was used by Serge Diaghilev and Vaslav Nijinsky for the first rehearsals of ''Le Sacre du Printemps'' before its première in Paris during May. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Woodvine
John Woodvine (born 21 July 1929) is an English actor who has appeared in more than 70 theatre productions, as well as a similar number of television and film roles. Early life Woodvine was born in Tyne Dock, South Shields, Tyne & Wear, England, the son of Rose (née Kelly) and John Woodvine. He was educated at Lord Williams's School, Thame, Oxfordshire and trained for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating in 1953. Career Woodvine worked with the Old Vic company in the 1950s. In 1957, along with Russell Napier, John Carlisle and Edgar Lustgarten, Woodvine appeared in an installment of the ''Scotland Yard'' film series ("The Silent Weapon", 1961). Woodvine also had a long career with the Royal Shakespeare Company, having appeared in 1976 opposite Ian McKellen and Judi Dench as Banquo in the acclaimed Trevor Nunn production of ''Macbeth'', which was later recorded for television. He also appeared in the RSC's 1980 landmark production of ''The Life and Adve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Griffith Jones (actor)
Griffith Jones (born Harold Jones; 19 November 1909 – 30 January 2007) was an English film, stage and television actor. Early life Born in Notting Hill, London, on 19 November 1909, Jones was the 5th child of William Thomas Jones and Harriet Eleanor J. Doughty (1878–1973), a Welsh-speaking dairy owner. In 1930, he was studying law at University College London when Kenneth Barnes, the Principal of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, noticed him in a student performance and offered him a career as an actor. His first professional engagement was in ''Carpet Slippers'' at the Embassy Theatre, Swiss Cottage, in 1930, while still at RADA. He won the annual RADA Gold Medal in 1932. Career His first West End production was ''Vile Bodies'' at the Vaudeville and ''Richard of Bordeaux'' (in which he appeared with John Gielgud) at the New Theatre. The following year he appeared with Laurence Olivier in ''The Rats of Norway''. In 1932 he made his film debut, in ''The Faithful H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Griffiths
Richard Thomas Griffiths (31 July 1947 – 28 March 2013) was an English actor of film, television, and stage. For his performance in the stage play ''The History Boys'', Griffiths won a Tony Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award. For the 2006 film adaptation, Griffiths was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. He played Vernon Dursley in the ''Harry Potter'' films (2001-2010) and Great Uncle Matthew Brown "Gum" in the BBC film ''Ballet Shoes'' (2007). He also portrayed Uncle Monty in ''Withnail and I'' (1987), and Henry Crabbe in ''Pie in the Sky'' (1994–1997). Earlier in his career, he had supporting roles in such critically acclaimed films as ''Chariots of Fire'' (1981), ''The French Lieutenant's Woman'' (1981), ''Gandhi'' (1982), and '' The Naked Gun : The Smell of Fear'' (1991). In his later career he appeared in '' Sleepy Hollow'' (1999), ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' (2005), '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francesca Annis
Francesca Annis (born 14 May 1945) is an English actress. She is known for television roles in '' Reckless'' (1998), ''Wives and Daughters'' (1999), ''Deceit'' (2000), and '' Cranford'' (2007). A six-time BAFTA TV Award nominee, she won the 1979 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for the ITV serial '' Lillie''. Her film appearances include ''Krull'' (1983), ''Dune'' (1984), '' The Debt Collector'' (1999), and '' The Libertine'' (2004). Early life and education Annis was born in Kensington, London in 1945, to an English father, Lester William Anthony Annis (1914–2001) and a Brazilian-French mother, Mariquita (Mara) Purcell (1913–2009). Both were sometime actors and Mara a sometime singer. Mara was from a wealthy Brazilian family. The Annises moved to Brazil when Francesca was one year old, and spent six years there, returning to England when she was seven. In recollecting the years in Brazil, she described her parents as running "a nightclub on Copacabana beach", and her mothe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Judi Dench
Dame Judith Olivia Dench (born 9 December 1934) is an English actress. Regarded as one of Britain's best actresses, she is noted for her versatile work in various films and television programmes encompassing several genres, as well as for her numerous roles on the stage. Dench has garnered various accolades throughout a career spanning over six decades, including an Academy Award, a Tony Award, two Golden Globe Awards, four British Academy Television Awards, six British Academy Film Awards and seven Olivier Awards. Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years, she performed in several of Shakespeare's plays, in such roles as Ophelia in ''Hamlet'', Juliet in '' Romeo and Juliet'' and Lady Macbeth in '' Macbeth''. Although most of Dench's work during this period was in theatre, she also branched into film work and won a BAFTA Award as Most Promising Newcomer. In 1968, she drew excellent reviews for her leading role of Sal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Williams (actor)
Michael Leonard Williams (9 July 1935 – 11 January 2001) was a British actor who played both classical and comedy roles. He was best known for co-starring in the sitcom '' A Fine Romance'' with his wife Dame Judi Dench, and for voicing Dr. Watson in the long running Sherlock Holmes adaptations for BBC Radio. Early life and career Williams was born in Liverpool, Lancashire. Personal life Williams married Judi Dench on 5 February 1971, the same year that they co-starred in a stage production of John Webster's ''The Duchess of Malfi''. They had one daughter, Tara Cressida Williams (b. 1972), known as Finty Williams, who is also an actress. Williams was also godfather to the actor Rory Kinnear. He was the President of the Roman Catholic Actors' Guild. Shortly before his death from lung cancer at the age of 65, Williams was appointed a Knight of St Gregory (KSG) by Pope John Paul II for his contribution to Catholic life in Britain. The honour was officially bestowed upo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nickolas Grace
Nickolas Andrew Halliwell Grace (born 21 November 1947) is an English actor known for his roles on television, including Anthony Blanche in the acclaimed ITV adaptation of ''Brideshead Revisited'', and the Sheriff of Nottingham in the 1980s series ''Robin of Sherwood''. Grace also played Dorien Green's husband Marcus Green in the 1990s British comedy series '' Birds of a Feather''. Early life and career Grace was educated at the King's School, Chester and Forest School, Walthamstow. He trained as an actor at the Central School of Speech and Drama, where he still teaches. He made his theatrical debut in weekly rep in Frinton-on-Sea, Essex in 1969, and appeared in Trevor Peacock's ''Erb'' later that year, which transferred to the Strand Theatre in spring 1970, his first appearance in the West End. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1972, and in 1973 played Aumerle there in the Ian Richardson/Richard Pasco ''Richard II'', which transferred to Broadway. Grace then play ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roger Rees
Roger Rees (5 May 1944 – 10 July 2015) was a Welsh actor and director, widely known for his stage work. He won an Olivier Award and a Tony Award for his performance as the lead in ''The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby''. He also received Obie Awards for his role in ''The End of the Day'' and as co-director of ''Peter and the Starcatcher''. Rees was posthumously inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in November 2015. He was widely known to American television audiences for playing the characters Robin Colcord in ''Cheers'' and Lord John Marbury in ''The West Wing''. Americans also know him as the Sheriff of Rottingham in Mel Brooks' '' Robin Hood: Men in Tights''. Early life Rees was born in Aberystwyth, Cardiganshire, Wales, the son of Doris Louise (née Smith), a shop clerk, and William John Rees, a police officer. He and his parents moved to Balham, London, where he grew up. He studied art at the Camberwell College of Arts and the Slade School of Fine Ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
