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45 unusual facts about Broadway theatre


Athalia Ponsell Lindsley

Athalia Ponsell Lindsley (July 25, 1917 – January 23, 1974) was a former American model, Broadway dancer, political activist and television personality on the show Winner Take All.

Bojoura

Bojoura scored her first hit in 1967 with the Kooymans ballad "Everybody's Day," and in 1969 charted once more in Europe with her version of the song "Frank Mills" from the Broadway musical Hair.

Broadway Theatre, Catford

Since 2001's production of Ben Elton's Popcorn the studio has hosted numerous productions including Cabaret, Trainspotting, A Clockwork Orange and their critically acclaimed take on Frank McGuinness's Someone Who'll Watch Over Me.

Carolyn George

She started her professional dance career in 1952 in Broadway musicals and joined New York City Ballet (NYCB) on its European tour that year in George Balanchine's Swan Lake.

Daniel Nagrin

In addition to work as a modern dancer, Nagrin also performed on Broadway in Plain and Fancy, Up in Central Park, and Annie Get Your Gun, among other musicals.

Dick Kleiner

Kleiner wrote about Broadway for fifteen years, then switched to covering Hollywood in 1964.

Ed Grimley

Ed Grimley made a brief onstage appearance, triangle in hand, in the 2006 Broadway show Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me.

Edward Buzzell

He appeared on Broadway, and was hired to star in the 1929 film version of George M. Cohan's Little Johnny Jones with Alice Day.

Ford Cougar 406

In 1963, the Cougar was used in Frederick Brisson's film version of his Broadway comedy hit "Under the Yum Yum Tree".

Giorgio Santelli

Santelli tirelessly and generously promoted fencing in all aspects, including stage choreography on Broadway (in productions of Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Peter Pan and many others) and providing free instruction to high school fencers.

Gordon Clapp

On Broadway, he most recently appeared in the revival of David Mamet's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Glengarry Glen Ross, where he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play.

Graciela Rivera

In 1945, she was given the role of Adele in the musical "Rosalinda", a Broadway version of Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus.

Harley Venton

While still appearing on Guiding Light he was also a standby for the roles of Lloyd Barnett and Doc Porter in the original Broadway production of Crimes Of The Heart.

Harold Orlob

Harold Orlob (3 June 1883 – 25 June 1982) was a native of Logan, Utah who became a major composer and lyricist for Broadway theatre productions.

Harry Reser

Reser remained active in music for the rest of his life, leading TV studio orchestras and playing with Broadway theatre orchestras.

Helen Lawson

Lawson is described as having been a very successful Broadway star for many years (Lawson is said to be based on the real-life Broadway actress Ethel Merman).

Holly Cruikshank

She is known for her role as Brenda in the Billy Joel/Twyla Tharp musical Movin' Out, and has also danced lead roles in two other Tony-award winning Broadway musicals: Fosse and Contact.

Hugo Winterhalter

At Kapp he recorded a handful of albums including The Best of '64 and its follow-up, The Big Hits of 1965, before leaving the label to work on Broadway.

Imogen Carpenter

Imogen Carpenter, born Mary Imogene Carpenter on February 2, 1912 in Hot Springs, Arkansas, died March 24, 1993 in Los Angeles California, was a musician, composer, music lecturer, and Broadway actress.

Ismael Cruz Córdova

Ismael Enrique Cruz Cordova (born April 7, 1987, Puerto Rico), known by his stage name Ismael Cruz Córdova is a Broadway, television, stage and film actor who gained national attention playing Mando on Sesame Street.

Jennifer Nettles

In an interview on Fox News with Martha MacCullum, Nettles expressed interest in appearing in a Broadway play, stating in particular that she would like to play the role of Elphaba in Wicked.

John Murray Anderson

He worked almost every genre of show business, including vaudeville, Broadway, and film.

June Cohen

In several periods, she saw "literally every show on Broadway".

Lauren Lucas

Lucas also contributed to the Broadway adaptation of the film Urban Cowboy, and one of her cuts for the play was nominated for a Tony award.

Mari Yaguchi

From May 25, 2007 to June 6, 2007, Yaguchi performed in Damn Yankees, a popular 1955 Broadway musical, at the Tokyo Aoyama Theater.

Masterworks Broadway

Masterworks Broadway is a record label created by the consolidation of Sony Music Entertainment's Broadway theatre music divisions, Columbia Broadway Masterworks and RCA Victor Records' Broadway series.

Max Stafford-Clark

He returned to work and directed the production of The Overwhelming on Broadway in October 2007, as well as continuing to direct for Out of Joint.

N'Versity

She later became a lead singer of a rock band as well as playing the role of young Nala in the Broadway edition of The Lion King.

Nobiz Like Shobiz

The horse was given the name Nobiz Like Shobiz by his show business owner Elizabeth J. Valando whose late husband Tommy Valando was a Broadway theatre producer and owner of an important music publishing business.

Northwest Vocal Project

They perform a wide variety of styles within a cappella music, including traditional barbershop, jazz, Broadway, and light classical.

Paree, Paree

Four of the songs in this short were first used in Porter's 1929 Broadway musical Fifty Million Frenchmen, then in the 1931 film adaptation of the same name, which was filmed in Technicolor.

Paul Dietzel

During the first game of the 1968 season, Dietzel heard the school's band play the Broadway show tune "Step to the Rear" and decided that it should be the school's new fight song, and proceeded to write a new set of lyrics to the tune.

Remy Zaken

Remy Zaken, born May 9, 1989 in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American stage and television actress, best known as one of the youngest cast members in the Original Broadway production of Spring Awakening at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, playing the role of Thea.

Robert Shaw Chorale

During its existence the Robert Shaw Chorale became arguably the best-known and most widely-respected professional choral organization in the United States, with repertoire ranging from J.S. Bach to folk music and Broadway theatre tunes.

Sam Wooding

On 14 February 1934, Wooding and his orchestra were featured at The Apollo theater in Harlem in a Clarence Robinson production titled Chocolate Soldiers, starring the Broadway star Adelaide Hall.

Samuel E. Wright

Wright was nominated for a Tony Award in 1984 for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his performance in The Tap Dance Kid, and again in 1998 for Best Featured Actor in a Musical as the original lead actor for Mufasa in The Lion King, the Broadway version of Disney's animated classic of the same name.

Siobhán Donaghy

In August 2007 she flew to New York to watch RENT on Broadway to get inspiration for her interpretation of her part.

Tamanend

In 1794, Ann Julia Hatton's tremendously popular "Tammany: The Indian Chief" premiered on Broadway.

Terazije Theatre

Theatre on Terazije (Serbian: Позориште на Теразијама / Pozorište na Terazijama) is a Broadway-style theatre in the Terazije area of Belgrade, Serbia.

Terry Riordan

Riordan was also in the 2007 Broadway revival, The Ritz.

The Trapp Family

The Trapp Family was the inspiration for the even more fictionalized Broadway musical The Sound of Music and its highly successful 1965 film version.

Tony Meredith

Meredith has been behind the scenes as appearing in films, TV shows and Broadway, including feature film performances in Dance with Me, The Thomas Crown Affair, Let It Be Me and The Last Days of Disco.

United Airlines Flight 624

Among the passengers were Broadway theatre impresario Earl Carroll and his girlfriend, actress Beryl Wallace; Henry L. Jackson, men's fashion editor of Collier's Weekly magazine and co-founder of Esquire Magazine; and Venita Varden Oakie, the former wife of actor Jack Oakie.

WBQH

In addition, on Sunday afternoons at 1:00 p.m., Matinee at One played a complete Broadway show soundtrack with an explanation of the plot.

William C. Conner

In a 1981 decision later reversed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in a case brought by Harpo Marx's widow Susan Fleming, Conner ruled that the producers of A Day in Hollywood / A Night in the Ukraine had improperly used the Marx Brothers characters in their Broadway theatre production and that the publicity rights of the comedians, even after their deaths, overrode the First Amendment claims of the show's creators.


A Grand Night for Singing

After 41 previews, the Broadway production, directed by Walter Bobbie (who wrote the minimal book linking the tunes) and choreographed by Pamela Sousa, with vocal arrangements by Fred Wells and orchestrations by Michael Gibson and Jonathan Tunick, opened on November 17, 1993 at the Criterion Center Stage Right, where it ran for 52 performances.

Alan Furlan

Born Aleardo Furlan in Farla, in the North Friuli region of Italy, Furlan acted in films in Europe and the United States, on Broadway and in commercials.

Corey Reynolds

Corey Reynolds (born July 3, 1974) is an American musical theatre, television, and film actor known for originating the role of Seaweed in the Broadway adaptation of Hairspray, and for the TNT crime show The Closer.

Cristin Milioti

Cristin Milioti (born August 16, 1985) is an American actress known for her work in Broadway theatre productions such as That Face, Stunning and the Tony-winning Once.

David Rapkin

Rapkin has designed sound on Broadway for Steaming by Nell Dunn, On Golden Pond by Ernest Thompson, The Curse Of An Aching Heart by William Alfred, The Wake Of Jamie Foster by Beth Henley and Off-Broadway for Playwrights Horizons and The Phoenix Theater.

Dorothy McGuire

Eventually, she reached Broadway, first appearing as an understudy to Martha Scott in Our Town, and subsequently starring in the domestic comedy, Claudia.

Dorothy Otnow Lewis

In 2004 Lewis alleged that British playwright Bryony Lavery's hit Broadway play Frozen, particularly the character of 'Agnetha', a psychiatrist sent to evaluate a serial killer, was based on thematic similarities with her book Guilty by Reason of Insanity and verbatim extracts from a New Yorker article about her by Malcolm Gladwell.

Douglass Watson

He was also an acclaimed actor on the New York stage, acting in several Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, including the 1952 Broadway revival of Desire Under the Elms by Eugene O'Neill.

Florence Mills

Mills became well-known as a result of her role in the successful Broadway musical Shuffle Along (1921) at Daly's 63rd Street Theatre (barely on Broadway), one of the events credited with beginning the Harlem Renaissance, as well acclaimed reviews in London, Paris, Ostend, Liverpool, and other European venues.

Franklin J. Schaffner

Schaffner earned two more Emmy awards for his work on the 1955 TV adaptation of the Broadway play, The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, shown on the anthology series Ford Star Jubilee.

Franz Allers

He is best known for his work on Broadway, and especially for conducting the original Broadway productions of My Fair Lady and Camelot, for each of which he won the Tony Award for Best Conductor and Musical Director, in 1957 and 1961.

Gavin Lee

Gavin Lee (born 15 October 1971) is an English actor who starred as Bert on Broadway in the musical Mary Poppins.

Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts

In 2005 the Academy was selected by the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization to be the first high school in the United States to perform the long-running Broadway Musical Cats.

How Now, Dow Jones

The original Broadway production opened at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on December 7, 1967 and closed on June 15, 1968 after 220 performances and 19 previews.

It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues

It subsequently opened in New York at the New Victory Theater in March 1999 for a limited run, and then transferred to Broadway.

John Heilpern

He has also worked as Peter Hall’s assistant director on Tamburlaine at the National Theatre of Great Britain in 1976, and when he went to live in New York in 1980, he subsequently worked on Broadway as a librettist for Michael Bennett (of A Chorus Line).

Julissa

She began acting and producing in theatre, and is now one of Mexico's leading theatre producers and importing Broadway shows such as Jesus Christ Superstar, Grease, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Pippin and many others.

Louis Aldrich

On September 11, 1888, he produced The Kaffir Diamond (based on She by Rider Haggard) at the new Broadway Theatre in New York, and two years later starred in The Editor.

Lovely to Look At

Lovely to Look At, an adaptation of the Broadway musical Roberta, is a 1952 MGM musical film directed by Mervyn LeRoy.

Mark Bramble

He began his theatrical career working as an apprentice in David Merrick's office in 1971, and for whom he worked on many Broadway productions.

Mary Testa

She returned to Broadway in July, 2007 in the musical-theater remake of the 1980 film Xanadu for which she received a Drama Desk Award nomination.

Monster Mini Golf

Patrick was the founder of a sound/lighting/theatrical production company that provided sound and lighting for numerous Broadway theater productions and large concert tours.

Moroni Olsen

After having worked on Broadway he made his film debut in a 1935 adaptation of The Three Musketeers.

North Carolina School of the Arts Summer Performance Festival

In addition to playing in orchestras and on stages worldwide, recent alumni have won the Metropolitan Opera's National Finalist award, performed on Broadway, played in the Grammy orchestra, acted in films and TV series and joined professional dance companies like Limon, Pilobolus, and American Ballet Theatre.

Orlando Theatre Project

Most of the Orlando Theatre Project's productions are contemporary plays which have been previously been produced on Broadway, Off-Broadway, in the United Kingdom or in regional theatres in the United States.

Peter Feller

Peter Feller is a Tony Award winning American theatrical set builder who worked primarily on Broadway.

Presidio Brass

The group's repertoire is made up of classical and commercial music transcriptions, including selections from composers Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber and George Gershwin to popular songs from jazz legend Dave Brubeck, the rock band Queen and the Broadway smash hit, West Side Story.

Ricardo Barretto

He also produced and directed a Neil Simon Broadway comedy with major TV talent, and was part of the team that developed the first sitcom project in Brazil, directed by Debbie Allen.

Soul of Shaolin

Soul of Shaolin was a theatrical event presented on Broadway by Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment to coincide with the celebration of the Lunar New Year in January 2009.

Summer Shaw

Summer considered asking him to stay,before a heart-to-heart with Sarah,who asked her "what if you landed a part in a Broadway show?" "I'd ask him to come with me" "For him to drop everything to follow your dreams, when you wouldn't let him follow his?"

Susan H. Schulman

In 1998, Schulman had just mounted a well-received Broadway revival of The Sound of Music when she was contacted by Andrew Lloyd Webber, who asked her to adapt a scaled-down production of Sunset Boulevard for a US tour starring Petula Clark.

The 49th Cousin

The work premiered on Broadway at the Ambassador Theatre on October 26, 1960 and closed after 102 performances on January 21, 1961.

The French, They Are a Funny Race

He did some work on Broadway, wrote the screenplay for an adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's The Millionairess which Katharine Hepburn, who had performed in the play in New York, wanted to get produced, and then came to France where, because he was fluent in French, he was able to write and direct the screenplay for this adaptation of Pierre Daninos popular novel.

The Last Warning

It was adapted from the 1922 Broadway melodrama mystery The Last Warning written by Thomas F. Fallon based on the story The House of Fear by Wadsworth Camp, the father of the writer Madeleine L'Engle.

Theodor Mommsen

Fellow Nobel Laureate (1925) Bernard Shaw cited Mommsen's interpretation of the last First Consul of the Republic, Julius Caesar, as one of the inspirations for his 1898 (1905 on Broadway) play, Caesar and Cleopatra.

To Love You More

Lea Michele performed the song in season 4 finale of the hit TV series Glee as her character Rachel Berry had her final callback for the Broadway revival of Funny Girl.

Tommy Rall

On Broadway he danced to considerable acclaim as "Johnny" in Marc Blitzstein and Joseph Stein's 1959 musical Juno (based on Sean O'Casey's play Juno and the Paycock).

Toronto Centre for the Arts

Prior to Jersey Boys, the facility was the home of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Sunset Boulevard and a 1993 production of Show Boat that transferred to Broadway.

Victoria Mallory

She came to fame when appearing on Broadway in the 1970s with parts in three Stephen Sondheim musicals: she had a small role in Follies as Young Heidi, a starring one in A Little Night Music as Anne Egerman (1973–1974), and starred as Maria in the first revival of West Side Story at Lincoln Center.

William Pierson

Pierson, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York originally played the role of Marko in the original Broadway production of Stalag 17, and was tapped by director Billy Wilder for the role in the 1953 motion picture production.

WLS-FM

WENR-FM then began simulcasting WLS, and later adopted its own separate programming formats (which included classical and Broadway theatre show tunes) for part of the day.