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33 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.

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.

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 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.

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.

Franklyn MacCormack

In contrast to the primary sports-and-talk formats of WBBM and WGN, MacCormack read romantic and sentimental poetry and played classical, big band and Broadway music.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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".

Kenneth Thorpe Rowe

According to an article in Michigan Today, Rowe helped Arthur Miller in making his first steps in Broadway by connecting him with people Rowe knew personally in the theater world.

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.

MS Liberty of the Seas

Features include 3D Movies, Passenger service kiosks, DreamWorks experience, Cupcake Cupboard, Royal Babies, Tot's Nursery, An over-sized outdoor video screen in the main pool area, and the addition of Broadway show "Saturday Night Fever: The Musical", Royal Babies and Tot's Nursery are part of a program by Royal Caribbean to improve service to guests traveling with small children.

Munkustrap

Michael Gruber, an alumnus of the Broadway production, was chosen to play Munkustrap in the 1998 Cats movie.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Rose McClendon

Rose McClendon born Rose Virginia Scott McClendon, (August 27, 1884 – July 12, 1936) was a leading African-American Broadway actress of the 1920s.

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 M. Rubin

He managed concessions for several major movie theater chains and Broadway theatres, as well as several sports stadiums, Central Park, and the Empire State Building.

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.

Terry Riordan

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

The Passions of Girls Aloud

Walsh then went to New York City to practice with a Broadway vocal coach, as well as a coach who helps her act through facial expressions and body language.

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.

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.

Zombie Broadway

It tells the story of a zombie outbreak in New York City that can only be quelled by the song and dance of the Broadway stage.


Angela Bettis

In addition to her work in film, Bettis also starred in two Broadway productions: The Father in 1996 with Frank Langella, and as Abigail Williams in a 1996 production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible alongside Liam Neeson and Laura Linney.

Arnold Moss

He played Prospero in Margaret Webster's 1945 production of Shakespeare's The Tempest for a combined total of 124 performances, the longest run of the play in Broadway history.

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.

Christopher, Jr.

It was featured on Broadway in October 7, 1895 at the Empire Theater, and starred Maude Adams.

Daily O'Collegian

Tom Heggen - Literary writer; his book Mister Roberts would go on to be a hit on Broadway, in addition to being adapted into a movie starring Henry Fonda

Dick Kleiner

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

Donald O'Connor

O'Connor appeared in the short-lived Bring Back Birdie on Broadway in 1981, and continued to make film and television appearances into the 1990s, including the Robin Williams film Toys as the president of a toy-making company.

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.

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.

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.

Here's Love

The Broadway production, directed by Stuart Ostrow and choreographed by Michael Kidd, opened on October 3, 1963 at the Shubert Theatre, and closed on July 25, 1964 after 334 performances and 2 previews.

Herman Shumlin

Herman Shumlin (December 6, 1898, Atwood, Colorado – June 4, 1979, New York City) was a prolific Broadway theatrical director and theatrical producer beginning in 1927 with the play Celebrity and continuing through 1974 with a short run of As You Like It, notably with an all male cast.

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.

Ira Gershwin

With George he wrote more than a dozen Broadway shows, featuring songs such as "I Got Rhythm", "Embraceable You", "The Man I Love" and "Someone to Watch Over Me".

John C. Rice

John C. Rice (ca. 1858, Sullivan County, New York – June 5, 1915, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an American born Broadway stage actor who is credited with performing the first onscreen kiss with May Irwin in 1896 for the Thomas Edison film company film The Kiss.

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).

Marcus Klaw

Despite being near universally despised by most in the industry for their ruthless tactics, Klaw and Erlanger produced dozens of Broadway plays and financed many others including the early editions of the Ziegfeld Follies.

Meg Giry

Elisa Heinsohn (opening cast), Catherine Ulissey, Tener Brown, Geralyn Del Corso, Jennifer Dawn Stillings, Joelle Gates, Heather McFadden, and Kara Klein in Broadway production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical.

Mick Gallagher

He has also written music for films such as Extremes (1971) and After Midnight (1990), also the Broadway play Serious Money (1988).

Moroni Olsen

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

Part of Your World

Originally recorded by American actress and singer Jodi Benson in her film role as Ariel, "Part of Your World" is a Broadway-style ballad in which the film's heroine, a mermaid, expresses her desire to become human.

Ray Fulmer

Fulmer first began on Broadway with a role in Auntie Mame, co-starring with a number of different actresses in the lead role, including Rosalind Russell, Greer Garson, Beatrice Lillie and Eve Arden.

Smokey Joe's Cafe: Direct from Broadway

Smokey Joe's Cafe: Direct from Broadway is a 2000 film of the Broadway production of the musical revue Smokey Joe's Cafe as captured live in performance on Broadway featuring the show's final Broadway cast.

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.

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 Fighting Gamecocks Lead the Way

USC band director James Pritchard obtained a band arrangement of the Elmer Bernstein-penned song "Step to the Rear" from the Broadway musical How Now, Dow Jones in 1968 and the marching band played the song at the first game of the 1968 season.

The Honeymoon Machine

The Honeymoon Machine is a 1961 film directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Steve McQueen, Brigid Bazlen, Jim Hutton, Paula Prentiss, Jack Mullaney, and Dean Jagger, based on the 1959 Broadway play The Golden Fleecing by Lorenzo Semple Jr..

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.

The Mary Tyler Moore Hour

Moore announced plans to return in a new sitcom in the fall of 1980, but instead turned to Broadway, where she starred in a revival of Whose Life Is It Anyway? (winning a special 1980 Tony Award for her performance of a role originally played by Tom Conti), and then went back to Hollywood, where she played the emotionally crippled mother in the acclaimed film Ordinary People, directed by Robert Redford.

The Water Coolers

The actors in the revolving cast have appeared on and off Broadway, in television and radio commercials, in such TV shows as Law & Order, Rescue Me, General Hospital, All My Children, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien and in major comedy clubs and concert halls across the country.

Tibor Kozma

He began his career there working as a conductor and vocal coach for Broadway productions, notably conducting Porgy and Bess and Eva Le Gallienne's production of Alice and Wonderland.

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.

Two on the Aisle

The project marked Comden and Green's return to Broadway following their successful reign at MGM (where they penned the classic Singin' in the Rain and The Band Wagon, among others) and their first teaming with composer Styne.

Uptown... It's Hot!

It's Hot! was a 1986 Broadway play created, directed, choreographed by and starring Maurice Hines.

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.

Zvi Kolitz

He later moved to the United States and was co-producer of Rolf Hochhuth's The Deputy, one of the first plays to challenge the Vatican's silence during the Holocaust, which ran on Broadway, amid considerable controversy, for nine months in 1964.