1.
Sweet Charity
–
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
2.
Bob Fosse
–
Robert Louis Bob Fosse was an American dancer, musical theatre choreographer, director, screenwriter, film director and actor. He won eight Tony Awards for choreography, more than anyone else and he was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning for his direction of Cabaret. Fosse was born in Chicago, Illinois on June 23,1927, to a Norwegian American father, Cyril K. Fosse, and Irish-born mother, Sara Alice Fosse, the second youngest of six. He teamed up with Charles Grass, another dancer. They toured theaters throughout the Chicago area, after being recruited, Fosse was placed in the variety show Tough Situation, which toured military and naval bases in the Pacific. Fosse moved to New York City with the ambition of being the new Fred Astaire and his appearance with his first wife and dance partner Mary Ann Niles in Call Me Mister brought him to the attention of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Fosse was signed to a MGM contract in 1953 and his early screen appearances included Give A Girl A Break, The Affairs of Dobie Gillis and Kiss Me Kate, all released in 1953. A short sequence that he choreographed in the latter brought him to the attention of Broadway producers, although Fosses acting career in film was cut short by typecasting, he was reluctant to move from Hollywood to theater. Nevertheless, he made the move, and in 1954, he choreographed his first musical, The Pajama Game and it was while working on the latter show that he first met the rising star whom he was to marry in 1960, Gwen Verdon. Verdon won her first Tony Award for Best Actress in Damn Yankees, in 1957 Fosse choreographed New Girl in Town, also directed by Abbott, and Verdon won her second Leading Actress Tony. That year he also choreographed the film version of Pajama Game starring Doris Day, in 1960, Fosse was, for the first time, both director and choreographer of a musical called simply Redhead. With Redhead, Verdon won her third Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, Verdon starred in Sweet Charity in 1966, with Fosse again the choreographer-director, and she starred in Chicago in 1975, with Fosse as director and choreographer. Fosse performed a song and dance number in Stanley Donens 1974 film version of The Little Prince, according to AllMusic, Bob Fosse stops the show with a slithery dance routine. In 1977, Fosse had a role in the romantic comedy Thieves. Notable distinctions of Fosses style included the use of turned-in knees, the famous Fosse Amoeba, sideways shuffling, rolled shoulders, with Astaire as an influence, he used props such as bowler hats, canes and chairs. His trademark use of hats was influenced by his own self-consciousness, according to Martin Gottfried in his biography of Fosse, His baldness was the reason that he wore hats, and was doubtless why he put hats on his dancers. He used gloves in his performances because he did not like his hands, some of his most popular numbers include Steam Heat and Big Spender. The Rich Mans Frug scene in Sweet Charity is another example of his signature style and his first, Sweet Charity, starring Shirley MacLaine, is an adaptation of the Broadway musical he had directed and choreographed
3.
Neil Simon
–
Marvin Neil Simon is an American playwright, screenwriter and author. He has written more than thirty plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays and he has received more combined Oscar and Tony nominations than any other writer. Simon grew up in New York during the Great Depression, with his parents financial hardships affecting their marriage, giving him a mostly unhappy and he often took refuge in movie theaters where he enjoyed watching the early comedians like Charlie Chaplin. After a few years in the Army Air Force Reserve, and after graduating high school, he began writing comedy scripts for radio. Among them were Sid Caesars Your Show of Shows from 1950 and he began writing his own plays beginning with Come Blow Your Horn, which took him three years to complete and ran for 678 performances on Broadway. It was followed by two successful plays, Barefoot in the Park and The Odd Couple, for which he won a Tony Award. It made him a celebrity and the hottest new playwright on Broadway. During the 1960s to 1980s, he wrote original screenplays and stage plays, with some films actually based on his plays. His style ranged from comedy to farce to more serious dramatic comedy. Overall, he has garnered seventeen Tony nominations and won three and his comedies centred on subjects such as marital conflict, infidelity, sibling rivalry, adolescence, and fear of aging. Simons facility with dialogue gives his stories a rare blend of realism, humor, Neil Simon was born on July 4,1927 in The Bronx, New York, to Jewish parents. His father, Irving Simon, was a garment salesman, and his mother, Simon had one older brother by eight years, Danny Simon. Simons childhood was difficult and mostly due to his parents tempestuous marriage. He would sometimes block out their arguments by putting a pillow over his ears at night and his father often abandoned the family for months at a time, causing them further financial and emotional hardship. As a result, Simon and his brother Danny were sometimes forced to live with different relatives, or else their parents took in boarders for some income. During an interview with writer Lawrence Grobel, Simon stated, To this day I never really knew what the reason for all the fights, shed hate him and be very angry, but he would come back and she would take him back. It made me strong as an independent person, to escape difficulties at home he often took refuge in movie theaters, where he especially enjoyed comedies with silent stars like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Laurel and Hardy. Simon recalls, I was constantly being dragged out of movies for laughing too loud, I think part of what made me a comedy writer is the blocking out of some of the really ugly, painful things in my childhood and covering it up with a humorous attitude
4.
Nights of Cabiria
–
Nights of Cabiria is a 1957 Italian drama film directed by Federico Fellini and starring Giulietta Masina, François Périer, and Amedeo Nazzari. Based on a story by Fellini, the film is about a prostitute in Rome who searches for love in vain. The film won the 1957 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and this was the second straight year Italy and Fellini won this Academy Award, having won for 1956s La Strada, which also starred Giulietta Masina. A happy, laughing Cabiria is standing on a bank with her current boyfriend and live-in lover. Suddenly he pushes her into the river and steals her purse which is full of money. She cannot swim and nearly drowns, but is rescued by a group of young boys, in spite of just saving her life, she treats them with disdain and starts looking for Giorgio. Cabiria returns to her home, but Giorgio has disappeared. She is bitter, and when her best friend and neighbor, Wanda tries to help her get him, Cabiria shoos her away. She continues to ply her trade as a prostitute, one night, she is outside a fancy nightclub and witnesses a fight between famous movie star, Alberto Lazzari and his girlfriend, as she dumps him. The differences in appearance between the glamorous girlfriend, in a coat, and the disheveled and short Cabiria are stark. The jilted Lazzari takes the starstruck Cabiria to another club and then to his house, as the two are finally becoming closer after a rather standoffish few hours, Lazzaris girlfriend returns and Cabiria is shuffled off to the bathroom, unable to consummate with the movie star. Later, a procession passes the hangout area for the town prostitutes. As her associates mock the Church, Cabiria is drawn to the procession, just as she is about to join the procession, another john comes and she gets in his truck instead. As she heads home later that night, she sees a man giving food to the people living in caves near her house. She has never seen this man before, but she is impressed by his charity toward others, when she goes to church with her friends, she prays for a chance to better her life. Cabiria goes to a show, and the magician drags her up on stage. As the audience laughs, she acts out her desires to be married, furious at having been taken advantage of for the audiences amusement, she leaves in a huff. Outside the theater, a man named Oscar is waiting outside to talk to her and he was in the audience, and he says he agrees with her that it was not right for everyone to laugh, but believes that fate has brought them together
5.
Federico Fellini
–
Federico Fellini was an Italian film director and screenwriter. Known for his style that blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. His films have ranked, in such as Cahiers du cinéma and Sight & Sound. Sight & Sound lists his 1963 film 8½ as the 10th greatest film of all time, in 1993, he was awarded an honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement at the 65th Annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles. Fellini was born on 20 January 1920, to parents in Rimini. His father, Urbano Fellini, born to a family of Romagnol peasants and small landholders from Gambettola and his mother, Ida Barbiani, came from a bourgeiois Catholic family of Roman merchants. Despite her familys vehement disapproval, she had eloped with Urbano in 1917 to live at his parents home in Gambettola, a civil marriage followed in 1918 with the religious ceremony held at Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome a year later. The couple settled in Rimini where Urbano became a traveling salesman, Fellini had two siblings, Riccardo, a documentary director for RAI Television, and Maria Maddalena. In 1924, Fellini started primary school in a run by the nuns of San Vincenzo in Rimini. In 1926, he discovered the world of Grand Guignol, the circus with Pierino the Clown, Guido Brignone’s Maciste all’Inferno, the first film he saw, would mark him in ways linked to Dante and the cinema throughout his entire career. Enrolled at the Ginnasio Giulio Cesare in 1929, he made friends with Luigi ‘Titta’ Benzi, in Mussolini’s Italy, Fellini and Riccardo became members of the Avanguardista, the compulsory Fascist youth group for males. He visited Rome with his parents for the first time in 1933, the sea creature found on the beach at the end of La Dolce Vita has its basis in a giant fish marooned on a Rimini beach during a storm in 1934. To say that my films are autobiographical is an overly facile liquidation and it seems to me that I have invented almost everything, childhood, character, nostalgias, dreams, memories, for the pleasure of being able to recount them. In 1937, Fellini opened Febo, a shop in Rimini. with the painter Demos Bonini. His first humorous article appeared in the Postcards to Our Readers section of Milan’s Domenica del Corriere, deciding on a career as a caricaturist and gag writer, Fellini travelled to Florence in 1938, where he published his first cartoon in the weekly 420. According to a biographer, Fellini found school exasperating and, in one year, had 67 absences, failing his military culture exam, he graduated from high school in July 1938 after doubling the exam. In September 1939, he enrolled in law school at the University of Rome to please his parents, biographer Hollis Alpert reports that there is no record of his ever having attended a class. Installed in a family pensione, he met lifelong friend
6.
Shirley MacLaine
–
Shirley MacLaine is an American film, television and theater actress, singer, dancer, activist and author. She is known for her New Age beliefs, and has an interest in spirituality and she has written a series of autobiographical works that describe these beliefs, document her world travels, and describe her Hollywood career. She has also won five competitive Golden Globe Awards and received the Golden Globe Cecil B, deMille Award at the 1998 ceremony. Named after Shirley Temple, Shirley MacLean Beaty was born in Richmond, MacLaines younger brother is the actor, writer and director Warren Beatty, he changed the spelling of his surname when he became an actor. Their parents raised them as Baptists and her uncle was A. A. MacLeod, a Communist member of the Ontario legislature in the 1940s. MacLaine played baseball in a team, holding the record for most home runs which earned her the nickname Powerhouse. During the 1950s, the family resided in the Dominion Hills section of Arlington. As a toddler she had weak ankles and would fall over with the slightest misstep and this was the beginning of her interest in performing. Strongly motivated by ballet, she never missed a class, in classical romantic pieces like Romeo and Juliet and The Sleeping Beauty, she always played the boys roles due to being the tallest in the group and the absence of males in the class. Ultimately she decided against making a career of professional ballet because she had grown too tall and was unable to acquire perfect technique and she explained that she didnt have the ideal body type, lacking the requisite beautifully constructed feet of high arches, high insteps and a flexible ankle. Also slowly realizing ballets propensity to be too all-consuming, and ultimately limiting, she moved on to forms of dancing, acting. She attended Washington-Lee High School, where she was on the cheerleading squad, the summer before her senior year, she went to New York City to try acting on Broadway, and had some success. After she graduated, she returned and within a year became an understudy to actress Carol Haney in The Pajama Game, Haney broke her ankle, a few months after, with Haney still injured, film producer Hal B. Wallis saw MacLaines performance, and signed her to work for Paramount Pictures and she later sued Wallis over a contractual dispute, a suit that has been credited with ending the old-style studio star system of actor management. MacLaine made her debut in Alfred Hitchcocks The Trouble with Harry. This was quickly followed by her role in the Martin and Lewis film Artists, soon afterwards, she had a role in Around the World in 80 Days. This was followed by Hot Spell and a role in Some Came Running, for the latter film she gained her first Academy Award nomination. Her second Oscar nomination came two years later for The Apartment, starring with Jack Lemmon, the film won five Oscars, including Best Director for Billy Wilder
7.
Cy Coleman
–
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
8.
Dorothy Fields
–
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
.jpg)
_trailer_2.jpg)
