The Magic Show
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The Magic Show
''The Magic Show'' is a one-act musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Bob Randall. It starred magician Doug Henning. Produced by Edgar Lansbury, Joseph Beruh, and Ivan Reitman, it opened on May 28, 1974 at the Cort Theatre in Manhattan, and ran for 1,920 performances, closing on December 31, 1978. Henning was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical and director Grover Dale was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical. It originally began life as ''Spellbound'', produced by Ivan Reitman with a book by David Cronenberg and music by Howard Shore. That version premiered at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto in 1973, starring Henning and Jennifer Dale. When Reitman took it to New York, the book and score were entirely replaced, but Henning's illusions and magic tricks remained unchanged. ''The Magic Show'' was a rare Broadway musical with a star who could neither sing nor dance. As composer-lyricist Stephen ...
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David Edward Byrd
David Edward Byrd (born April 4, 1941) is an American graphic artist, designer, illustrator and painter. Many of his design are considered to have helped define the look of rock and roll music starting in the 1960s. He is most well known for his poster designs, including his rock posters for the Fillmore East as well as his Broadway theatre posters. Early life David Byrd was born April 4, 1941, in what is now Cleveland, Tennessee and was raised in Miami Beach, Florida. Education He graduated from Miami Beach High School in 1959, attended the Boston Museum School for a year and then Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he received a BFA in Painting and Design in 1964 and an MFA in Painting and Printmaking in 1966. From 1970 to 1979, Byrd taught at the Pratt Institute and the School of Visual Arts. After receiving his BFA, Byrd moved to Pittsburgh to work at WQED-TV, where he did design for the nascent ''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood'' show. He was sub ...
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Peter Filichia
Peter Filichia (born 1946) is the former New York-based theater critic for ''The Star-Ledger'' newspaper in Newark, New Jersey and New Jersey's television station News 12, as well as for ''The Asbury Park Press'' . In addition, Filichia has two weekly columns at Masterworks Broadway and Kritzerland, and also writes regular entries for the Music Theatre International Marquee blog. He wrote a regular column, "Peter Filichia's Diary," for the website TheaterMania.com from November 2001 until October 2011, and previously for the website BroadwayOnLine. He is the author of the books ''Let's Put on a Musical!: How to Choose the Right Show for Your School, Community or Professional Theater'', ''Broadway Musicals: the Biggest Hit and the Biggest Flop of the Season, 1959 to 2009'', ''Broadway MVPs 1960-2010: The Most Valuable Players of the Past 50 Seasons,'' ''Strippers, Showgirls and Sharks: A Very Opinionated History of the Broadway Musicals that Did Not Win the Tony Award'', and ''The ...
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Norman Campbell (director)
Norman Kenneth Campbell, (February 4, 1924 – April 12, 2004) was a Canadian composer, television producer, and television director best known for co-writing ''Anne of Green Gables - The Musical''. Born in Los Angeles, he joined CBC Vancouver as a radio producer in 1948. In 1952, he went to Toronto to produce the early CBC Television broadcasts. He produced and directed hundreds of television programs between the 1950s and 1990s, including a drama ''Ballerina'' (1966). He directed episodes of ''All in the Family'', ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' and '' One Day at a Time''. In 1978, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada "in recognition of the distinction he has brought to Canadian theatre through the operas, ballets, plays and musical comedies he has produced on stage and television for well over a quarter-century". Campbell directed six episodes of CBC Television/ HBO's family program, ''Fraggle Rock'' during the 1980s. In 1998, he was awarded the Order of Ontario for his ...
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Ethan Mordden
Ethan Mordden (born 1947) is an American author and musical theater researcher. Biography Mordden was born and raised in Pennsylvania, Venice, Italy, and on Long Island, New York. He is a graduate of Friends Academy and the University of Pennsylvania. He first sought a career in show business, working as music director on off-Broadway and in regional theatre, and enrolling in the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop run by Lehman Engel. As both composer and lyricist, Mordden wrote musicals based on William Shakespeare's ''Measure For Measure'' and on Max Beerbohm's ''Zuleika Dobson'', but he ultimately ended up earning his living as a writer of English prose. In the 1970s, he was assistant editor to Dorothy Woolfolk on DC Comics such as ''The Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love''. Works His stories, novels, essays, and non-fiction books cover a wide range of topics including the American musical theater, opera, film, and, especially in his fiction, the emergence and developmen ...
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Walter Kerr
Walter Francis Kerr (July 8, 1913 – October 9, 1996) was an American writer and Broadway theatre critic. He also was the writer, lyricist, and/or director of several Broadway plays and musicals as well as the author of several books, generally on the subject of theater and cinema. Biography Kerr was born in Evanston, Illinois, and earned both a B.A. and M.A. from Northwestern University., after graduation from St. George H.S. also in Evanston. He was a regular film critic for the St. George High School newspaper while a student there, and was also a critic for the Evanston News Index. He was the editor of the high school newspaper and yearbook. He taught speech and drama at The Catholic University of America. After writing criticism for ''Commonweal'' he became a theater critic for the ''New York Herald Tribune'' in 1951. When that paper folded, he then began writing theater reviews for ''The New York Times'' in 1966, writing for the next seventeen years. He married Jean ...
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Clive Barnes
Clive Alexander Barnes (13 May 1927 – 19 November 2008) was an English writer and critic. From 1965 to 1977, he was the dance and theater critic for ''The New York Times'', and, from 1978 until his death, ''The New York Post.'' Barnes had significant influence in reviewing new Broadway productions and evaluating the international dancers who often perform in New York City. Life and career Born in Lambeth, London, Barnes was educated at Emanuel School in Battersea and St Catherine's College, Oxford. He was the dance and drama critic at the ''New York Post'' from 1978 until 2008, and senior consulting editor at ''Dance Magazine'', where he wrote a monthly column called "Attitudes." He also contributed regularly to the British journal ''Dance Now;'' he edited and wrote for British newspapers such as ''The Times,'' ''The Daily Express'', and the weekly magazine ''Spectator''. Barnes authored and contributed to numerous books related to theater and the performing arts, particularl ...
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The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid digital subscribers. It also is a producer of popular podcasts such as '' The Daily''. Founded in 1851 by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones, it was initially published by Raymond, Jones & Company. The ''Times'' has won 132 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any newspaper, and has long been regarded as a national " newspaper of record". For print it is ranked 18th in the world by circulation and 3rd in the U.S. The paper is owned by the New York Times Company, which is publicly traded. It has been governed by the Sulzberger family since 1896, through a dual-class share structure after its shares became publicly traded. A. G. Sulzberger, the paper's publisher and the company's chairman, is the fifth generation of the family to head the pa ...
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Paul Shaffer
Paul Allen Wood Shaffer (born November 28, 1949) is a Canadian singer, composer, actor, author, comedian, and multi-instrumentalist who served as David Letterman's musical director, band leader, and sidekick on the entire run of both '' Late Night with David Letterman'' (1982–1993) and '' Late Show with David Letterman'' (1993–2015). Early years Shaffer was born in 1949 in Toronto, and raised in Fort William (now part of Thunder Bay), Ontario, Canada, the son of Shirley and Bernard Shaffer. His father, a lawyer, was a jazz aficionado while his mother loved show tunes. When Shaffer was 12, his parents took him on a trip to Las Vegas where they took in Nat King Cole and other shows; this was an experience Shaffer described later as "life changing" and led to his decision to become a performer. As a child, Shaffer took piano lessons, and in his teenage years played the organ in a band called Fabulous Fugitives with his schoolmates in Thunder Bay. Later, he performed with the ...
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David Ogden Stiers
David Allen Ogden Stiers ( ; October 31, 1942 – March 3, 2018) was an American actor and conductor. He appeared in numerous productions on Broadway, and originated the role of Feldman in ''The Magic Show'', in which he appeared for four years between 1974 and 1978. In 1977, he was cast as Major Charles Emerson Winchester III, M.D., on the television series ''M*A*S*H'', a role he portrayed until the series' conclusion in 1983, and which earned him two Emmy Award nominations. He appeared prominently in the 1980s in the role of District Attorney Michael Reston in several ''Perry Mason'' television films, and voiced a number of Disney characters during the 1990s and 2000s, most notably Cogsworth in 1991's ''Beauty and the Beast'', Governor Ratcliffe and Wiggins in 1995's ''Pocahontas'', Kamaji in 2001's ''Spirited Away'', and Dr. Jumba Jookiba in the ''Lilo & Stitch'' franchise. He appeared in television again on the supernatural drama series '' The Dead Zone'' as Reverend ...
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Dale Soules
Dale Soules (born ) is an American actress known for starring in '' The Messenger'' and portraying Frieda Berlin in ''Orange Is the New Black'' from 2014 to 2019. Early life Soules was born on and grew up in the Greenwood Lake section of West Milford, New Jersey. She attended West Milford High School. While in high school, Soules became interested in acting and began acting in Summer stock theater, singing in church choirs and started studying acting at HB Studio. Career Soules moved to New York in the mid 60s after high school to pursue an acting career, and initially worked behind the scenes in theater in a variety of positions. Her big break came in 1968 when she landed her first Broadway role, the part of Jeanie in the original Broadway production of ''Hair''. She continued to appear in a number of theater productions including four years in the play ''The Magic Show'', ''Hands on a Hard Body'', ''Grey Gardens'', and ''The Crucible ''The Crucible'' is a 1953 ...
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Loni Ackerman
Loni Ackerman (born April 10, 1949) is an American Broadway musical theatre performer and cabaret singer. Career Born in New York City, she made her Broadway debut in ''George M!'' in 1968, then, in the hit Off-Broadway production of ''Dames at Sea. ''Ackerman's additional Broadway credits include another major success, ''The Magic Show'' with Doug Henning, the short-lived ''So Long, 174th Street'', and the title role in the Los Angeles production of ''Evita''. She was in the original cast of '' Starting Here, Starting Now''. She appeared in the off Broadway productions of ''Diamonds'' and ''The Petrified Prince''. Her last Broadway credit was Grizabella in Andrew Lloyd Webber's ''Cats'', in which she sang the famous song "Memory". She then became inactive to raise her two sons. In August 2011, she starred at Gateway Playhouse in Bellport, Long Island, as Norma Desmond in the musical '' Sunset Blvd.'' In 2012, Ackerman debuted her cabaret show ''Next To Ab-normal'' in NYC. In ...
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Anita Morris
Anita Rose Morris (March 14, 1943 – March 2, 1994) was an American actress, singer and dancer. She began her career performing in Broadway musicals, including '' Jesus Christ Superstar'', ''Seesaw'' and ''Nine'', for which she received a Tony Award nomination. During her career, Morris had starring roles in a number of films, include ''The Hotel New Hampshire'' (1984), '' Absolute Beginners'' (1986), ''Ruthless People'' (1986), ''Aria'' (1987), '' 18 Again!'' (1988), '' Bloodhounds of Broadway'' (1989) and ''A Sinful Life'' (1989). She had leading roles in two short-lived television series in 1980s: the NBC prime time soap opera ''Berrenger's'' (1985), and the Fox sitcom '' Down and Out in Beverly Hills'' (1987). Career Morris' most prominent film role was as Carol Dodsworth, the mistress to Danny DeVito, in ''Ruthless People''; her most prominent stage role was her sensual performance as Carla in the musical ''Nine'' opposite Raul Julia. While nominated for a Best Featured Actr ...
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