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Virginia Vestoff
Virginia Vestoff (December 9, 1939 – May 2, 1982) was an American actress of film, television and Broadway. Early life Vestoff was born into a family of vaudeville performers in New York City. Both her Russian immigrant father and mother, who was the great niece of American composer Stephen Foster, died and left Virginia an orphan at the age of nine. She coped with the loss by acting, and took third prize on ''The Ted Mack Amateur Hour'', which launched a professional career with the Children's Chorus of the New York City Opera. While living with relatives, Virginia attended the New York High School for the Performing Arts. At 15, she decided to move out and manage life on her own by attending Washington Irving High School and moonlighting as a salesgirl at a department store. However, Virginia quit school early to tour with a dance company. The failure to graduate remained a personal regret to Virginia throughout her life, which she countered with a thirst to self-educate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Camelot (musical)
''Camelot'' is a 1960 musical by Alan Jay Lerner (book and lyrics) and Frederick Loewe (music). It is based on the King Arthur legend as adapted from T. H. White's 1958 novel ''The Once and Future King''. The original production, directed by Moss Hart with orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett and Philip J. Lang, ran on Broadway for 873 performances, winning four Tony Awards. It starred Richard Burton as Arthur, Julie Andrews as Guinevere, and Robert Goulet as Lancelot. It spawned several revivals, foreign productions, and the 1967 Warner Bros. film ''Camelot''. The musical has become associated with the Kennedy Administration, which is sometimes called the "Camelot Era," due to an interview with Jackie Kennedy in which she compared her husband's presidency to King Arthur's reign, specifically mentioning his fondness for the musical and particularly the closing lyrics which end the song "Camelot" and also form the ending of the musical itself. Background In 1959, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dark Shadows
''Dark Shadows'' is an American gothic soap opera that aired weekdays on the ABC television network, from June 27, 1966, to April 2, 1971. The show depicted the lives, loves, trials, and tribulations of the wealthy Collins family of Collinsport, Maine, where a number of supernatural occurrences take place. The series became popular when vampire Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) was introduced ten months into its run. It would also feature ghosts, werewolves, zombies, man-made monsters, witches, warlocks, time travel, and a parallel universe. A small company of actors each played many roles; as actors came and went, some characters were played by more than one actor. The show was distinguished by its melodramatic performances, atmospheric interiors, memorable storylines, numerous dramatic plot twists, adventurous music score, broad cosmos of characters, and heroic adventures. Unusual among the soap operas of its time, which were aimed primarily at adults, ''Dark Shadows'' develo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elizabeth Hubbard
Elizabeth Hubbard is an American actress perhaps best known for her role as Dr. Althea Davis on ''The Doctors (1963 TV series), The Doctors'' (1964–69, 1970–77, 1981–82), and as powerful businesswoman Lucinda Walsh on ''As the World Turns'' (1984-2010). She also played roles on ''The Edge of Night'', ''One Life to Live'', and ''Guiding Light''. Personal life Hubbard was born in New York, New York, to Elizabeth Wright Hubbard and Benjamin Alldritt Hubbard. Her mother, a physician, was a pioneer in homeopathy and one of the first women to earn a medical degree from Columbia University. She had two brothers, Theodore and Merle, an opera talent manager. She attended Radcliffe College, and graduated summa cum laude. She pursued her theatrical education at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London, where she was the first American to receive the school's silver medal. She was married to furrier David Bennett from 1970 to 1972; they had one child, a son, Jeremy Bennett ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Doctors (1963 TV Series)
''The Doctors'' is an American daytime soap opera television series which aired on NBC from April 1, 1963, to December 31, 1982. There were 5,155 episodes produced, with the 5,000th episode airing in May 1982. The series was set in Hope Memorial Hospital in a fictional New England town called Madison. From anthology to serial On , ''The Doctors'' debuted as an anthology series rather than a conventional soap opera, a very ambitious concept for that time. Stories were originally self-contained within one episode and featured various medical emergencies. On , because of the obvious burdens and expense of casting for separate stories each day and due to ratings being lower than expected, stories were expanded to weekly arcs with a new plot introduced every Monday and concluding that week on Friday. This, however, was only marginally more successful than the daily anthology format had been. Beginning on , ''The Doctors'' ceased its experimental anthology format and became a tradit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baker Street (musical)
''Baker Street'' is a 1965 musical with a book by Jerome Coopersmith and music and lyrics by Marian Grudeff and Raymond Jessel. Background Loosely based on the 1891 Sherlock Holmes story " A Scandal in Bohemia" by Arthur Conan Doyle with elements of "The Final Problem" and " The Empty House" as well, it is set in and around London in 1897, the year in which England celebrated the Diamond Jubilee of the reign of Queen Victoria (an event marked by an elaborate royal procession depicted by Bil Baird's marionettes). The musical veers from Conan Doyle's work in that Irene Adler becomes an associate of Holmes rather than his opponent, thus allowing an element of romance between the two. Because of problems the show went through during out of town tryouts, Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock, the successful composing team of '' Fiddler on the Roof'' were brought in to contribute additional songs including "Cold Clear World" and "I Shall Miss You." They also wrote "I'm In London Again" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Via Galactica
''Via Galactica'' is a rock musical with a book by Christopher Gore and Judith Ross, lyrics by Gore, and music by Galt MacDermot. It marked the Broadway debut of actor Mark Baker. Originally entitled ''Up!'', it offers a futuristic story of social outcasts living on an asteroid in the year 2972. Among them is Gabriel Finn, a space sanitation man who collects trash in a clamshell-shaped garbage ship called the Helen of Troy. The storyline was so incomprehensible that at the last moment producers decided to insert a plot synopsis in the ''Playbill'', but audiences were still baffled by what they were witnessing unfold on stage. Pyrotechnic displays and other special effects did little to enhance the project. After fifteen previews, the Broadway production, directed by Peter Hall, produced by George W. George and choreographed by George Faison, opened on November 28, 1972, the first production at the brand-new Uris Theatre where, unable to withstand a universal assault by the cri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Irma La Douce (musical)
''Irma la douce'' (, "Irma the Sweet") is a 1956 French musical with music by Marguerite Monnot and lyrics and book by Alexandre Breffort. The musical premiered in Paris in 1956, and was subsequently produced in the West End in 1958 and on Broadway, by David Merrick, in 1960. The English lyrics and book (1958) are by Julian More, David Heneker, and Monty Norman. Productions The musical premiered in Paris at the Théâtre Gramont in Paris on November 12, 1956, where it ran for four years. It was produced in the West End at the Lyric Theatre, opening on July 17, 1958, running for 1,512 performances, for three years."Sweet Irma in a Wicked World" ''Life Magazine'', November 14, 1960. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1776 (film)
''1776'' is a 1972 American musical drama film directed by Peter H. Hunt. The screenplay by Peter Stone was based on his book for the 1969 Broadway musical of the same name. Set in Philadelphia in the summer of 1776, it is a fictionalized account of the events leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The song score was composed by Sherman Edwards. The film stars William Daniels, Howard Da Silva, Donald Madden, John Cullum, Ken Howard and Blythe Danner. Portions of the dialogue and some of the song lyrics were taken directly from the letters and memoirs of the actual participants of the Second Continental Congress. Plot While General George Washington conducts the struggle against the British Empire on the battlefield, the Continental Congress in Philadelphia piddles away its time over trivial matters and cannot begin debating the question of American independence. The leader of the independence faction is the abrasive John Adams of Massachusetts, whose ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1776 (musical)
''1776'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards and a book by Peter Stone. The show is based on the events leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, telling a story of the efforts of John Adams to persuade his colleagues to vote for American independence and to sign the document. The show premiered on Broadway in 1969, earning warm reviews, and ran for 1,217 performances. The production won three Tony Awards, including Best Musical. In 1972, it was made into a film adaptation. It was revived on Broadway in 1997, and again in 2022 with a cast made up of people who identify as female, trans, and non-binary. History In 1925, Rodgers and Hart wrote a musical about the American Revolution called ''Dearest Enemy''.Green, Stanley. ''Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre'', pp. 373–74. Jefferson, N.C.: Da Capo Press, 1980. In 1950, a musical about the Revolution was presented on Broadway, titled ''Arms and the Girl'', with music by Morton Gou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams ( ''née'' Smith; November 22, [ O.S. November 11] 1744 – October 28, 1818) was the wife and closest advisor of John Adams, as well as the mother of John Quincy Adams. She was a founder of the United States, and was the first second lady of the United States and second first lady of the United States, although such titles were not used at the time. She and Barbara Bush are the only two women to have been married to U.S. presidents and to have been the mothers of other U.S. presidents. Adams's life is one of the most documented of the first ladies: she is remembered for the many letters she wrote to her husband john adams while he stayed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during the Continental Congresses. John frequently sought the advice of Abigail on many matters, and their letters are filled with intellectual discussions on government and politics. Her letters also serve as eyewitness accounts of the American Revolutionary War home front. Surv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
From A To Z
''From A to Z'' is a musical revue with a book by Woody Allen, Herbert Farjeon, and Nina Warner Hook and songs by Jerry Herman, Fred Ebb, Mary Rodgers, Everett Sloane, Jay Thompson, Dickson Hughes, Jack Holmes, Paul Klein, Norman Martin, William Dyer, and Charles Zwar. Background Hermione Gingold was asked to appear in a revue on Broadway by millionaires (and producers) Carroll Masterson and Harris Masterson and she asked her friend, Christopher Hewett to direct. Hewitt in turn recruited some of the cast and crew from Tamiment (an entertainment camp run in the summer), including the young Jonathan Tunick, then a Juilliard student, as co-orchestrator with Jay Brower.Suskin, Steven." 'From A to Z' " ''The Sound of Broadway Music: A Book of Orchestrators and Orchestrations'' (2009)(books.google.com), Oxford University Press, , p.393 Production The revue had its out-of-town tryout at the Shubert Theatre, New Haven, Connecticut starting on March 26. ''From A to Z'' opened on Broadway ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
