Irving Berlin's incredible songbook remains deeply engrained in the current musical landscape of the US, UK and beyond. Contemporary pop artists who have given their own stamp to his work include Lady Gaga, Bob Dylan, Gregory Porter, Rufus Wainwright, Billie Martin, Herb Alpert, Leonard Cohen, Paul McCartney, Michael Buble, Lily Frost, Sarah McLachlan and most recently Gwen Stefani on her 2017 Christmas album. His music continues to be widely featured in films, commercials and television shows. Lady Gaga sang "God Bless America" at 2017's Super Bowl Halftime Show, whilst Seth MacFarlane covered "Let's Face the Music and Dance" for animated ... read more
Betty Comden, born in Brooklyn in 1917, was an American lyricist, screenwriter, and actress. She is best known for her work with Adolph Green, with whom she collaborated on numerous musicals and films.
Comden and Green met in 1938 while both were studying at New York University, and began writing together shortly thereafter. Their first Broadway credit was for On the Town, a musical about three sailors on a 24-hour leave in New York City. The show premiered in 1944 and was a huge success, cementing Comden and Green's place in the world of musical theater.
Comden and Green went on to ... read more
Noel was an English playwright, composer, actor, producer and director. His plays include The Vortex (1924), Hay Fever (1925), Private Lives (1930), Blithe Spirit (1941), Present Laughter (1943) and This Happy Breed (1943). He produced, wrote, starred in and co-directed (with David Lean) the Academy Award-winning film In Which We Serve (1942) as well as writing the screenplay for one of the most beloved British films of all time, Brief Encounter (1945). He wrote many songs now considered classics, including "Mad About the Boy", "Mad Dogs and Englishmen", "I’ll See You Again" and "20th Century Blues" and in 1955 performed ... read more
George Gershwin was born in Brooklyn on September 26, 1898, and began his musical training when he was 13. At 16 he quit high school to work as a "song plugger" for a music publisher, and soon he was writing songs himself. "Swanee," as introduced by Al Jolson, brought George his first real fame and led to his writing a succession of 22 musical comedies, most with his older brother, Ira. The Gershwins' shows include Lady Be Good, Oh, Kay!, Strike Up the Band, Girl Crazy, and the Pulitzer Prize winning Of Thee I Sing. From his early career George ... read more
Ira Gershwin, the first songwriter to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize, was born in New York City on December 6, 1896. In 1917 The Evening Sun published his first song ("You May Throw All The Rice You Desire But Please Friends, Throw No Shoes"). Four years later Ira enjoyed his first major stage success, Two Little Girls in Blue, written with another Broadway newcomer, Vincent Youmans. In 1924 Ira and his brother, George, created the smash hit Lady Be Good and went on to continue their remarkable collaboration through a dozen major stage scores, producing such standards as "Fascinating Rhythm," ... read more
Adolph Green was an American lyricist and playwright who was born on December 2, 1914, in the Bronx, New York. He was the son of Hungarian Jewish immigrants. Green's father was a successful businessman, and his mother was a homemaker. Green attended New York University, where he studied English and drama.
Green began his career in show business as a performer in the late 1930s. He appeared in several Broadway productions, including "The New Yorkers" and "Two for the Show." However, it was his work as a lyricist that would make him famous.
Green's first major success as a lyricist came in ... read more
Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American lyricist, librettist, theatrical producer, and (usually uncredited) director in musical theater for nearly 40 years. He won eight Tony Awards and two Academy Awards for Best Original Song. Many of his songs are standard repertoire for vocalists and jazz musicians. He co-wrote 850 songs.
He is best known for his collaborations with composer Richard Rodgers, as the duo Rodgers and Hammerstein, whose musicals include Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music. Described by Stephen Sondheim as an "experimental playwright", Hammerstein helped bring the American musical to new ... read more
Richard Rodgers was an American composer of 43 Broadway musicals, leaving a legacy as one of the most significant composers of 20th century American music. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II. His compositions have had a significant impact on popular music.
Rodgers was the first person to win an EGOT. In addition, he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize, making him one of only two people to receive all five awards ... read more
Stephen Sondheim is widely acknowledged as the most innovative, most influential, and most important composer and lyricist in modern Broadway history. He is the winner of an Academy Award, numerous Tony Award, multiple Grammy Awards and a Pulitzer Prize. Some of his other accolades include a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Kennedy Center Honors (1993), the National Medal of Arts (1996), the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Gold Medal for Music (2006) and a special Tony Awards for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre (2008).
Stephen Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics for Road Show (2008), Passion (1994), Assassins (1991), Into ... read more
Elaine Stritch was an American actress and singer, known for her work on Broadway. She made her professional stage debut in 1944 and appeared in numerous stage plays, musicals, feature films and television series. She was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1995.
Stritch made her Broadway debut in the 1946 comedy Loco and went on to receive four Tony Award nominations: for the William Inge play Bus Stop (1956); the Noël Coward musical Sail Away (1962); the Stephen Sondheim musical Company (1971), which included her performance of the song "The Ladies Who Lunch"; and for the revival ... read more
With the scores of such Broadway classics as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Peter Pan, Bells Are Ringing, Gypsy, and Funny Girl to his credit, composer Jule Styne ranks as one of the undisputed architects of the American musical theater.
Born in London's East End on December 31, 1905, Styne's family moved to the United States in 1912. Young Julius showed such a talent for the piano that he had performed with the Chicago, St. Louis, and Detroit Symphonies by age 10.
He developed his feel for popular music working with the jazz bands of 1920s Chicago, and as vocal coach to such ... read more
Jonathan Tunick is an American orchestrator, musical director, and composer. Tunick’s stage career began with Take Five (1957). He went on to collaborate memorably with Stephen Sondheim, orchestrating shows such as Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Into the Woods, Passion, and Putting It Together. Additional notable Broadway credits include Promises, Promises; A Chorus Line; Nick & Nora; A Funny Thing...; Elaine Stritch at Liberty; Nine; A Gentleman’s Guide...; and 110 in the Shade. In 1997, he won his first Tony Award, for his work on the musical Titanic. This accomplishment gave ... read more
Ms. Eisenhauer and collaborator Jules Fisherhave collectively been awarded Broadway’s Tony Award for Best Lighting Design of a Musical seven times, including Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins (2004, Revival), Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk (1996), Jelly’s Last Jam (1992), The Will Rogers Follies (1991), Grand Hotel (1990), Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ (1978), and Pippin (1973), and once for Best Lighting Design of a Play for Ulysses in Nighttown (1974).
For motion pictures, Fisher and Eisenhauer designed theatrical lighting for Rob Marshall's Chicago, Mel Brooks' The Producers, Richard Linklater's School of Rock and Bill Condon's Dreamgirls, and Disney's live-action remake of ... read more
In a celebrated career spanning almost 40 years, Jules Fisher has lit over 200 Broadway and off-Broadway shows, as well as film, ballet, opera, television, and rock-and-roll concert tours. He has received 18 Tony nominations and won 8 Tony awards for Lighting Design, a record in this category. His most recent project, "Assassins", (2004 Tony award) also won him the Drama Desk and Outer Critic's Circle awards. His previous Tony awards were for "Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk," 1996; "Jelly's Last Jam," 1992; "The Will Rogers Follies," 1991; "Grand Hotel," 1990; "Dancin'," 1978; "Ulysses in Nighttown," 1973; ... read more
Vineyard, La Jolla Playhouse and Yale Rep productions of Indecent. Broadway: The Gin Game; The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess; The People in the Picture; Caroline, or Change (also Royal National Theater, London); Elaine Stritch: At Liberty (also National Tour, Old Vic London); Topdog/Underdog (Royal Court); Bells Are Ringing; Parade (directed by Hal Prince; Tony and Drama Desk nominations); Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk (also National Tour, Japan) and The Tempest. Recent: Grounded directed by Julie Taymor, The Library directed by Steven Soderbergh (The Public); La Mouette (Cour d'Honneur, Palais des Papes, Avignon Festival); Abigail's Party (Oslo National ... read more
More than 30 Broadway shows since 2000 including Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (Tony nomination), The Merchant of Venice, Lombardi, Fences (Tony nomination), The Addams Family, Ragtime, Hair (Tony nomination), In the Heights (Tony nomination), [title of show], Legally Blonde, A Chorus Line (2006), The Drowsy Chaperone, The Light in the Piazza, Monty Python's Spamalot, Avenue Q, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and La Bohème.
Acme is Tom Clark, Mark Menard, Nevin Steinbergand Sten Severson. ... read more
Having designed costumes for Broadway, regional theaters, film, and television for over three decades, PAUL TAZEWELL is one of the industry’s most revered designers. From his Academy Award®-nominated work in West Side Story to creating costumes for the Tony Award®-winning Broadway production of Hamilton, his creations have captivated audiences across the globe.
Paul recently received a Tony Award® nomination for Best Costume Design for a Musical for his work in the Broadway production of Suffs as well as a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Costume Design of a Musical. He is also a 2024 NAACP Theatre Award nominee for Best ... read more
THE PUBLIC is theater of, by, and for all people. Artist-driven, radically inclusive, and fundamentally democratic, The Public continues the work of its visionary founder Joe Papp as a civic institution engaging, both on-stage and off, with some of the most important ideas and social issues of today. Conceived over 60 years ago as one of the nation's first nonprofit theaters, The Public has long operated on the principles that theater is an essential cultural force and that art and culture belong to everyone. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Executive Director Patrick Willingham, The Public's wide ... read more
