Leonard Bernstein was born on August 25, 1918, in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He took piano lessons as a boy and attended the Garrison and Boston Latin Schools. At Harvard University, he studied with Walter Piston, Edward Burlingame-Hill, and A. Tillman Merritt, among others. Before graduating in 1939, he made an unofficial conducting debut with his own incidental music to "The Birds," and directed and performed in Marc Blitzstein's "The Cradle Will Rock." Then at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, he studied piano with Isabella Vengerova, conducting with Fritz Reiner, and orchestration with Randall Thompson.
In 1940, he studied at the ... 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
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
Broadway: Venus in Fur, Time Stands Still, A View from the Bridge, The Royal Family, The Color Purple, Doubt, Chicago, Dinner at Eight, Proof, Rabbit Hole, Last Night of Ballyhoo, A Delicate Balance, The Heiress, The Most Happy Fella, The Sisters Rosensweig, Burn This, Penn & Teller, Ain't Misbehavin', Talley's Folly, Crimes of the Heart, Morning's at Seven, among others.
Off-Broadway: Other Desert Cities, The Substance of Fire, A Life in the Theatre. Thirty-six seasons with MTC, Lincoln Center, Circle Rep, City Center Encores! Tony, Obie, DD, OCC awards; Theatre Hall of Fame.
Graduate of Brown and Yale School of ... read more
David Ives is probably best known for his evenings of one-act comedies called All in the Timing and Time Flies. All in the Timing won the Outer Critics Circle Playwriting Award, ran for two years Off-Broadway, and in the 1995-96 season was the most performed play in the country after Shakespeare productions. His full-length plays include The School For Lies (adapted from Moliere's The Misanthrope and a major hit at New York's Classic Stage Company last spring); The Heir Apparent (an adaptation of J-F Regnard's comedy that was an audience and critical hit at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, ... read more
More than 35 plays and musicals including Anything Goes; Venus in Fur; Nice Work if You Can Get It; Young Frankenstein; Curtains; Grey Gardens; The Pajama Game; The Producers; Contact; Kiss Me, Kate.
Many productions Off-Broadway and for resident and regional theatres in the U.S. Opera: The Met, NYCO, LAMCO, San Francisco, Houston Grand, Seattle. Abroad: Royal Opera, Scottish Opera, La Fenice, Maggio Festival Florence, L'Arena di Verona, Teatrolirico di Cagliari, Teatro Sao Carlos Lisbon.
He is the recipient of Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics, Drama-Logue and Hewes design awards. ... read more
Lehrer's recent credits New York include Carousel; Hello, Dolly!; Illyria; The Front Page; The Gabriels; Shuffle Along…; Fiddler on the Roof; Dames at Sea; The King and I (also London); Living on Love; Honeymoon in Vegas; Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance; Love Letters; A Raisin in the Sun; Betrayal; Lucky Guy; South Pacific (first Tony Award for Sound Design); Death of a Salesman; The Apple Family Plays: Scenes from Life in the Country; and over 60 City Center Encores! productions including Chicago.
Recordings include An American in Paris (Grammy Award nomination), Loudon Wainwright’s High Wide and Handsome (Grammy Award), and ... read more
William Ivey Long has over 70 Broadway design credits in addition to his work in television, film, opera and ballet. Mr. Long has won 6 Tony Awards, with 15 nominations. He was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in January 2006 and recently completed a 4-year elected term as Chairman of the American Theatre Wing. ... read more
Kathleen Marshall received 2011 Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Awards for choreography and Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics nominations for direction for Anything Goes.
Also on Broadway, Kathleen directed and choreographed The Pajama Game, Wonderful Town and Grease and choreographed Boeing-Boeing, Little Shop of Horrors, Seussical, Follies, Kiss Me, Kate, 1776 and Swinging on a Star.
Off-Broadway credits include Two Gentlemen of Verona (New York Shakespeare Festival), Saturday Night (Second Stage), Violet (Playwrights Horizons) and As Thousands Cheer (Drama Dept).
For City Center Encores!, she directed and choreographed Bells Are Ringing, Applause, Carnival, Hair and Babes in Arms, ... read more
