1.
Paula Kelly (actress)
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Paula Kelly is a dancer and actress in films, television and theatre. Kelly made her Broadway debut as Mrs. Veloz in the 1964 musical Something More, sharing the stage with Barbara Cook. Her other Broadway credits include The Dozens, Paul Sills Story Theatre, Ovids Metamorphoses, and Duke Ellingtons Sophisticated Ladies with Gregory Hines and Phyllis Hyman. Born in Jacksonville, Florida, the daughter of a musician, Kelly was raised in New York Citys Harlem where she attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art. She continued her studies at the Juilliard School of Music majoring in dance under Martha Hill, graduating with an M. S. degree, she performed as a soloist with major modern dance companies such as Martha Graham, Donald McKayle, and Alvin Ailey. Kelly performed a solo at the Academy Awards for the nominated song Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. She appeared on the London stage in Sweet Charity opposite dancer and actress Juliet Prowse as Helene, Kelly had a recurring role as Liz Williams on the first season of the sitcom Night Court, for which she received an Emmy nomination. She was nominated for a second Emmy for her role in The Women of Brewster Place, Paula Kelly at the Internet Movie Database Paula Kelly at the Internet Broadway Database
2.
Chita Rivera
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Chita Rivera is an American actress, dancer, and singer best known for her roles in musical theatre. She is the first Hispanic woman and the first Latino American to receive a Kennedy Center Honors award and she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. Her father was Puerto Rican, and her mother was of Scottish, Rivera was seven years old when her mother was widowed and went to work at The Pentagon. In 1944, Riveras mother enrolled her in the Jones-Haywood School of Ballet, Riveras audition was successful, and she was accepted into the school and given a scholarship. In 1951, Rivera accompanied a friend to the audition for the company of Call Me Madam. She followed this by landing roles in other Broadway productions such as Guys and Dolls, in 1957, she was cast in the role which was destined to make her a Broadway star, the firebrand Anita in West Side Story. Rivera starred in a tour of Can-Can and played the role of Nickie in the film adaptation of Sweet Charity with Shirley MacLaine. On December 1,1957, Rivera married dancer Tony Mordente and her performance was so important for the success of the show that the London production of West Side Story was postponed until she gave birth to the couples daughter Lisa. In 1960, Rivera created the role of Rose in the Broadway smash Bye Bye Birdie and she won raves for her performance, but was passed over for the film version where the role was played by Janet Leigh. In 1963, Rivera was cast opposite Alfred Drake in Zenda, the Broadway-bound musical closed on the road. In 1975 she appeared as Velma Kelly in the original cast of the musical Chicago, in 1984 she starred in the musical The Rink with Liza Minnelli and won her first Tony Award for her role as Anna. In 1986, while performing in the Jerry Herman musical, Jerrys Girls, injuries sustained included the breaking of her left leg in twelve places, requiring eighteen screws and two braces to mend. After rehabilitation, Rivera continued to perform on stage, miraculously revitalized, in 1988, she endeavored in a restaurant venture in partnership with the novelist, Daniel Simone. The eatery, located on 42nd Street between 9th and 10th Avenue, was named Chitas after her and it soon became a significant attraction for the after-theater crowds and remained open until 1994. In addition to her instructors, Rivera credited Leonard Bernstein and Gwen Verdon, with whom she starred in Chicago. She appeared as Fastrada in a version of the musical Pippin in 1981. In 1993, she received a Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Aurora in the musical Kiss of the Spider Woman, written by Kander, Rivera starred in the Goodman Theatre production of the musical The Visit as Claire Zachanassian in 2001. In 2008 she appeared in a production of the musical at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia
3.
Sweet Charity (film)
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It stars Shirley MacLaine and features John McMartin, Sammy Davis, Jr. Ricardo Montalban, Chita Rivera, Paula Kelly and Stubby Kaye. However, where Fellinis black-and-white film concerns the romantic ups-and-downs of an ever-hopeful prostitute, the film is notable for its costumes by Edith Head and its dance sequences, notably Rich Mans Frug. Charity Hope Valentine works as a dancer along with her friends, Nickie. She longs for love, but has bad luck with men and she has another humiliating encounter with Vittorio Vitale, a movie star. After failing to find a new job through an employment agency and they strike up a relationship, but Charity does not reveal what she does for a living. When she finally does tell Oscar, he seems to accept it. The optimistic Charity faces her future, alone for the time being, living hopefully ever after, an alternate ending found on the Laserdisc and DVD versions picks up after Oscar leaves Charity. Oscar starts to go crazy in his apartment and, feeling suffocated and he sees Charity on their bridge in Central Park and thinks she is going to jump. Racing to rescue her, he trips and falls in the water, Charity jumps in after him, but cant swim so Oscar rescues her. Oscar realizes Charity is the breath of fresh air in his life, proposes again. Fosse thought the ending was too corny, but filmed it in apprehension that the studio would demand a happy ending, in the end, though, they agreed with Fosse and kept the original ending from the stage version. The film cost $20 million to make, but made only $8 million at the box office, according to Variety the film earned rentals of $4,025,000 in the US and Canada. The film received three Academy Award nominations, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, and Best Music and it received one Golden Globe nomination for Shirley MacLaine as Best Motion Picture Actress - Musical/Comedy. It was also screened at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival, but outside of the main competition
4.
Cy Coleman
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Cy Coleman was an American composer, songwriter, and jazz pianist. Coleman was born Seymour Kaufman on June 14,1929, in New York City to Eastern European Jewish parents and his mother, Ida was an apartment landlady and his father was a brickmason. He was a prodigy who gave piano recitals at Steinway Hall, Town Hall. Before beginning his fabled Broadway career, he led the Cy Coleman Trio, despite the early classical and jazz success, Coleman decided to build a career in popular music. His first collaborator was Joseph Allen McCarthy, but his most successful early partnership, the pair wrote many pop hits, including Witchcraft and The Best Is Yet to Come. One of his instrumentals, Playboys Theme, became the music of the regular TV shows and specials presented by Playboy. Colemans career as a Broadway composer began when he and Leigh collaborated on Wildcat, the score included the hit tune Hey, Look Me Over. When Ball became ill, she left the show, and it closed, next for the two was Little Me, with a book by Neil Simon based on the novel of the same name by Patrick Dennis. The show introduced Real Live Girl and Ive Got Your Number, in 1964, Coleman met Dorothy Fields at a party, and when he asked if she would like to collaborate with him, she is reported to have answered, Thank God somebody asked. The show was a success and Coleman found working with Fields much easier than with Leigh. The partnership was to work on two more shows – an aborted project about Eleanor Roosevelt, and Seesaw which reached Broadway in 1973 after a troubled out-of-town tour, despite mixed reviews, the show enjoyed a healthy run. The partnership was cut short by Fields death in 1974, Coleman remained prolific in the late 1970s. Also in 1970 he produced the single Lying Here, later in the decade, he collaborated on Welcome to the Club with A. E. Hotchner, and City of Angels with David Zippel. In the latter, inspired by the detective film noir of the 1930s and 1940s, he returned to his jazz roots. Colemans film scores include Father Goose, The Art of Love, Garbo Talks, Power, Coleman was on the ASCAP Board of Directors for many years and also served as their Vice Chairman Writer. One final musical with a Coleman score played in Los Angeles at the Mark Taper Forum Dec. 2003-Jan,2004 under the title Like Jazz, as a Broadway tryout. Investor Transamerica Capital went forward with plans to mount a Broadway production renamed In the Pocket, dirk Decloedt and Maurice Hines were announced as director and choreographer with an anticipated opening in Spring 2006 but it never opened. Coleman studied at the The High School of Music & Art, Coleman died of cardiac arrest on November 18,2004 at New York Hospital,11,59 pm at the age of 75
5.
Dorothy Fields
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Dorothy Fields was an American librettist and lyricist. She wrote over 400 songs for Broadway musicals and films, along with Ann Ronell, Dana Suesse, Bernice Petkere, and Kay Swift, she was one of the first successful Tin Pan Alley and Hollywood female songwriters. Fields was born in Allenhurst, New Jersey, and grew up in New York City, Fields went to and graduated in 1923 from the Benjamin Franklin School for Girls in New York City. At school, she was outstanding in the subjects of English, drama and her poems were even published in the school’s literary magazine. Her family, was involved in show business. Her father, Lew Fields, was a Jewish immigrant from Poland and they were known as the Weber and Fields vaudeville act. When the duo separated in 1904, Lew Fields went on to further his career in another direction, from 1904 till 1916, he produced about 40 Broadway shows, and was even nicknamed “The King of Musical Comedy” because of his achievements. She had two brothers, Joseph and Herbert, who also became successful on Broadway, Joseph as a writer and producer. Despite her natural familial connections to the theatre via her father, he disapproved of her choice to pursue acting and this began when he refused to let her take a job with a stock company in Yonkers. Hence Dorothy began working as a teacher and a laboratory assistant, in 1926, Fields met the popular song composer J. Fred Coots, who proposed that the two begin writing songs together. Nothing actually came out of interaction and introduction, however Coots introduced Fields to another composer and song-plugger. Fieldss career as a professional songwriter took off in 1928 when Jimmy McHugh, Fields and McHugh teamed up until 1935. Songs from this period include I Cant Give You Anything But Love, Exactly Like You, during the later 1920s, she and McHugh wrote specialty numbers for the various Cotton Club revues, many of which were recorded by Duke Ellington. In the mid 1930s, Fields started to write lyrics for films and collaborated with other composers, with Kern, she worked on the movie version of Roberta, and also on their greatest success, Swing Time. The song The Way You Look Tonight earned the Fields/Kern team an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1936 and she wrote the lyrics for the 1936 movie The King Steps Out by directed by Josef von Sternberg based on the early years of Empress Elisabeth of Austria. Fields returned to New York and worked again on Broadway shows, in the 1940s, she teamed up with her brother Herbert Fields, with whom she wrote the books for three Cole Porter shows, Lets Face It. Something for the Boys, and Mexican Hayride, in 1946, Fields approached Oscar Hammerstein II with her idea for a new musical based on the life of famous female sharpshooter Annie Oakley. Hammerstein liked the idea and agreed to produce the show, Kern and Fields were signed on to write the songs in the show
6.
Musical theatre
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Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through the words, music, movement, since the early 20th century, musical theatre stage works have generally been called, simply, musicals. These were followed by the numerous Edwardian musical comedies and the theatre works of American creators like George M. Cohan. Musicals are performed around the world and they may be presented in large venues, such as big-budget Broadway or West End productions in New York City or London. Alternatively, musicals may be staged in smaller fringe theatre, Off-Broadway or regional theatre productions, musicals are often presented by amateur and school groups in churches, schools and other performance spaces. In addition to the United States and Britain, there are vibrant musical theatre scenes in continental Europe, Asia, Australasia, Canada, the three main components of a book musical are its music, lyrics and book. The interpretation of a musical is the responsibility of its team, which includes a director. A musicals production is also characterized by technical aspects, such as set design, costumes, stage properties, lighting. The creative team, designs and interpretations generally change from the production to succeeding productions. Some production elements, however, may be retained from the production, for example. There is no fixed length for a musical, while it can range from a short one-act entertainment to several acts and several hours in length, most musicals range from one and a half to three hours. Musicals are usually presented in two acts, with one intermission, and the first act is frequently longer than the second. A book musical is usually built four to six main theme tunes that are reprised later in the show. Several shorter musicals on Broadway and in the West End have been presented in one act in recent decades, moments of greatest dramatic intensity in a book musical are often performed in song. Proverbially, when the emotion becomes too strong for speech, you sing, typically, many fewer words are sung in a five-minute song than are spoken in a five-minute block of dialogue. Therefore, there is time to develop drama in a musical than in a straight play of equivalent length. Within the compressed nature of a musical, the writers must develop the characters, the material presented in a musical may be original, or it may be adapted from novels, plays, classic legends, historical events or films. On the other hand, many musical theatre works have been adapted for musical films, such as West Side Story, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, Oliver
7.
Sweet Charity
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Sweet Charity is a musical with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields and book by Neil Simon. It was directed and choreographed for Broadway by Bob Fosse starring his wife and it is based on Federico Fellinis screenplay for Nights of Cabiria. The musical premiered on Broadway in 1966, where it was nominated for 9 Tony Awards, the musical was adapted for the screen in 1969 with Shirley MacLaine as Charity and John McMartin recreating his Broadway role as Oscar Lindquist. Bob Fosse directed and choreographed this film, the young woman Charity Hope Valentine is a taxi dancer at a dance hall called the Fandango Ballroom in New York City. With a shoulder bag and a heart tattooed on her left shoulder, while Charlie silently preens himself, Charity speaks the pick-up lines she imagines him saying, and tells him how handsome he is. Charlie then steals her handbag and pushes her into the lake before running off, passers-by discuss the apparent drowning but do nothing, until a young Spaniard finally rescues her. In the Hostess Room of the Fandango Ballroom, Charity tries to convince herself and the other skeptical taxi dancers that Charlie tried to save her. Nickie, a dancer, tells Charity that her problem is you run your heart like a hotel — youve always got people checking in. The manager, Herman, arrives to them it is time for work. The hostess dancers proposition the audience in the front room of the Fandango Ballroom, Helene and Nickie try to comfort Charity about Charlies absence. On the street, after work, Charity gives to every beggar who approaches her until she realizes she has no money, just then, film star Vittorio Vidal rushes out of the smart Pompeii Club, in pursuit of his beautiful mistress, Ursula. Ursula refuses to go back inside with Vittorio, who takes the only-too-willing Charity instead. Inside the Pompeii Club, the dancers are dancing the latest craze, to everyones astonishment, the famous Vittorio is accompanied by the unknown Charity. She tries to him away from the subject of Ursula. Not having eaten since breakfast, Charity faints, there is general agreement amongst the dancers that she needs to be laid down. And Charity recovers enough to prompt Vittorio with your apartment, lying down on Vittorios bed, Charity claims she is no longer hungry. She admits she is a dance hall hostess, putting it down to the finger of fate. Vittorio is struck by her humor and honesty, starstruck, Charity asks for a signed photograph to prove to the girls she was really in his apartment
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