Richard Rodgers
Richard Rodgers (1902- 1979) was
an American composer of music for
more than 900 songs for 43
Broadway musicals. He is best
known for his collaboration with
Hammerstein which is responsible
for such shows as Oklahoma, South
Pacific, The Sound of Music, The
King and I, Flower Drum Song and
State Fair. He is one of two people
to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar,
Tony and Pulitzer Prize. He died on
December 30, 1979.
Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Hammerstein II (18951960) was an American librettist,
theatrical producer, and theatre
director of musicals for almost 40
years. Hammerstein won 8 Tony
Awards and two Academy Awards
for Best Original Song. He cowrote 850 songs. His most
famous collaborator was Richard
Rodgers. His work strongly
influenced Stephen Sondheim.
He died of stomach cancer on
August 23, 1960.
Friday Review
In three to four sentences answer the following
question:
Who was the most interesting person you
learned about this week? Why?
Hal Prince
Hal Prince (1928- present) is an
American theatrical producer and
director associated with many of the
best-known Broadway musical
productions of the past half-century.
He has garnered twenty-one Tony
Awards, more than any other
individual. He co-produced The
Pajama Game with George Abbott,
which won the 1955 Tony Award for
Best Musical. He directed Andrew
Lloyd Webber’s Evita and Phantom of
the Opera. He has collaborated
extensively with Stephen Sondheim.
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim (1930- present) is an
American musical theatre composer and
lyricist. He is the winner of an Academy
Award eight Tony Awards, eight Grammy
Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence
Olivier Award. His most famous works
include Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the
Park with George and Into the Woods. He
also wrote the lyrics for West Side Story
and Gypsy. He was mentored by Oscar
Hammerstein II, who had a profound
influence on Sondheim’s life and work.
Marsha Norman
Marsha Norman (1947- present) is
an American playwright,
screenwriter, and novelist. She
received the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for
Drama for her play 'night, Mother.
She wrote the book and lyrics for
such Broadway musicals as The
Secret Garden, for which she won a
Tony Award and the Drama Desk
Award for Outstanding Book of a
Musical, as well as the libretto for
the musical The Color Purple. She
was honored at the 2011 William
Inge Festival for Distinguished
Achievement in the American
Theatre.
Jason Robert Brown
Jason Robert Brown (1970-present)
is an American musical theater
composer, lyricist, and playwright.
Songs for a New World, directed by
Daisy Prince, daughter of
director/producer Hal Prince,
marked the first major New York
production of Brown's songs. He
wrote the songs for Parade directed
by Hal Prince, The Last Five Years,
and 13. He is currently working on an
adaptation of the movie, Honeymoon
in Vegas. He is also working on an
adaptation of The Bridges of
Madison County with Marsha
Norman.
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) was
an Irish avant-garde novelist,
playwright, theatre director, and
poet. His work offers a bleak,
tragicomic outlook on human
nature, often coupled with black
comedy and gallows humour. He
is also sometimes considered one
of the first postmodernists. He is
one of the key writers in the
"Theatre of the Absurd." His first
play, Waiting for Godot,
premiered in 1953 where it
shocked some audiences because
of its stark minimalism. He died
on December 22, 1989.
Eugene Ionesco
Eugene Ionesco (1909-1994) was
a Romanian and French
playwright and dramatist, and
one of the foremost playwrights
of the “Theatre of the Absurd.”
Beyond ridiculing the most banal
situations, Ionesco's plays depict
in a tangible way the solitude and
insignificance of human
existence. Works include The Bald
Soprano, The Lesson, The Chairs
and The Rhinoceros. Eugène
Ionesco died at age 84 on 28
March 1994 and is buried in the
Cimetière du Montparnasse in
Paris.
Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller (1915-2005) was an
American playwright and essayist.
He was a prominent figure in
American theatre, writing dramas
that include plays such as All My
Sons, Death of a Salesman, The
Crucible and A View from the
Bridge. Miller died of heart
failure after a battle against
cancer, pneumonia and
congestive heart disease on the
evening of February 10, 2005 (the
56th anniversary of the Broadway
debut of Death of a Salesman).
Bernadette Peters
Bernadette Peters (1948present) is an American actress,
singer and children's book author.
She is one of the most critically
acclaimed Broadway performers.
Regarded by many as the
foremost interpreter of the works
of Stephen Sondheim, Peters is
particularly noted for her roles on
the Broadway stage, including in
the musicals Mack and Mabel,
Sunday in the Park with George,
Song and Dance, Into the Woods,
Annie Get Your Gun and Gypsy.
Patti LuPone
Patti LuPone (1949- present) is an
American singer and actress,
known for her Tony Awardwinning performance as Eva
Perón in Evita, Mama Rose in
Gypsy: A Musical Fable and for
her Olivier Award-winning
performance as Fantine in Les
Misérables. She began her career
as a founding member of John
Houseman's The Acting Company
playing a variety of leading roles,
both on and off-Broadway and on
tour throughout the United
States.
Edward Albee
Edward Albee (1928-present)
is an American playwright. His
early works reflect a mastery
and Americanization of the
Theatre of the Absurd that
found its peak in works by
European playwrights such as
Samuel Beckett, Eugène
Ionesco, and Jean Genet.
Albee has received three
Pulitzer Prizes, a Special Tony
Award for Lifetime
Achievement and Kennedy
Center Honors.
Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)
was a major Russian
playwright and master of the
modern short story. Chekhov
described the Russian life of
his time using a deceptively
simple technique devoid of
obtrusive literary devices, and
he is regarded as the
outstanding representative of
the late 19th-century Russian
realist school. He died July 19,
1904 of tuberculosis.
Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie (1890-1976) was
a British crime writer of novels,
short stories, and plays. Her plays
include The Mousetrap, which set
a world record for the longest
continuous run at one theatre,
and Witness for the Prosecution,
which, like many of her works,
was adapted into a successful
film. Other notable film
adaptations include Murder on
the Orient Express and Death on
the Nile. Her works were also
adapted for television. She died
on January 12, 1976 from natural
causes.
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht (1898- 1956)
was German poet, playwright,
and theatrical reformer whose
epic theatre departed from the
conventions of theatrical
illusion and developed the
drama as a social and
ideological forum for leftist
causes. His works signified the
“Epic Theatre” which believes
that the theatre is only a
theatre and not the world
itself. Brecht died on 14 August
1956 of a heart attack.
Peter Brook
Peter Brook (1925- present) is
an English theatre and film
director and innovator whose
daring productions of other
dramatists’ works contributed
significantly to the
development of the 20th
century’s avant-garde stage.
Attaining at an early age the
status of one of the foremost
British directors. Brook was
influenced by the work of
Antonin Artaud and his ideas
for his Theatre of Cruelty.
James Lapine
James Lapine (1949- present)
is an American stage director
and librettist. He is a frequent
collaborator with Stephen
Sondheim. Together, they
created Sunday in the Park
with George, Passion and Into
the Woods. He also directed
William Finn’s The 25th Annual
Putnam County Spelling Bee
and the 2012 revival of Annie.
He has won the Tony Award
for Best Book of a Musical
three times, for Into the
Woods, Falsettos, and Passion.
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier (1907-1989) was
a British actor, director, and
producer. He is considered to be
the greatest English-speaking
actor of the 20th century. His
three Shakespeare films as actordirector, Henry V, Hamlet, and
Richard III, are among the
pinnacles of the bard at the
cinema. Olivier was one of the
founders, and the inaugural
director, of the National Theatre
Company. Olivier died from renal
failure on July 11, 1989.
Constantin Stanislavski
Constantin Stanislavski (18631938) was a Russian actor and
theatre director. His system of
acting has developed an
international reach. Stanislavski
treated theatre-making as a
serious endeavour, requiring
dedication, discipline and
integrity. His development of a
theorized praxis – in which
practice is used as a mode of
inquiry and theory as a catalyst
for creative development –
identifies him as one of the great
modern theatre practitioners. He
died on August 7, 1938.
Julie Taymor
Julie Taymor (1952- present) is
an American director of
theatre, opera and film. She is
widely known for directing the
stage musical, The Lion King,
for which she became the first
woman to win the Tony Award
for directing a musical, in
addition to a Tony Award for
Original Costume Design. She
was also the director for
Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark.
Mary Zimmerman
Mary Zimmerman (1960present) is an American theatre
director and playwright. She is an
ensemble member of the
Lookingglass Theatre Company,
the Manilow Resident Director at
the Goodman Theatre in Chicago,
Illinois, and also serves as the
Jaharis Family Foundation
Professor of Performance Studies
at Northwestern University. She
received the 2002 Tony Award for
Best Direction for her adaptation
of Ovid's Metamorphoses.
Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes (1902-1967) was
an American poet, social activist,
novelist, playwright, and columnist.
Hughes was a notable member of
The Harlem Renaissance, a
movement towards a higherstandard of living for AfricanAmericans. Hughes opened The
Harlem Suitcase Theatre in 1938.
Prior to opening Harlem Suitcase,
Hughes had already made his name
known through the opening of his
Broadway play Mulatto. On May 22,
1967, Hughes died from
complications after abdominal
surgery.
Antonin Artaud
Antonin Artaud (1896-1948) was
a French playwright, poet, actor,
theatre director and theoretician
of the Surrealist movement who
attempted to replace the
“bourgeois” classical theatre with
his “theatre of cruelty,” a
primitive ceremonial experience
intended to liberate the human
subconscious and reveal man to
himself. His vision, however, was
a major influence on the Absurd
theatre of Jean Genet, Eugène
Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, and
others. He died on March 4,
1948.
Noel Coward
Noel Coward (1899-1973) was
an English playwright,
composer, director, actor and
singer. Coward achieved
enduring success as a
playwright, publishing more
than 50 plays from his teens
onwards. Many of his works,
such as Hay Fever, Private
Lives, Design for Living,
Present Laughter and Blithe
Spirit, have remained in the
regular theatre repertoire. He
died on March 26 1973 of
heart failure.
Lillian Hellman
Lillian Hellman (1905- 1984)
was an American author of
plays, screenplays, and
memoirs whose dramas
forcefully attacked injustice,
exploitation, and selfishness.
Her works include: The
Children’s Hour, The Little
Foxes and Another Part of the
Forest. In her writing, she
created a realistic intensity
matched by few of her
playwriting contemporaries.
Hellman died on June 30, 1984
from a heart attack.
Moss Hart
Moss Hart (1904-1961) was an
American playwright and
theatre director. He began by
writing books for musicals for
Irving Berlin and Cole Porter;
he also collaborated with
George S. Kaufman 1941, a
collaboration that produced
such popular comedies as You
Can’t Take It with You and The
Man Who Came to Dinner. He
also directed the long-running
My Fair Lady. Moss Hart died
of a heart attack on December
20, 1961.
Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) was a
poet, novelist, and dramatist who
was the most important of the
French Romantic writers. Hugo's
novels as well as his plays have
been a great source of inspiration
for musicians, stirring them to
create not only opera and ballet
but musical theatre such as
Notre-Dame de Paris (The
Hunchback of Notre-Dame) and
the ever-popular Les Misérables,
London West End's longest
running musical. He died from
pneumonia on 22 May 1885.
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) was
a Norwegian playwright,
theatre director, and poet. He
is often referred to as "the
father of realism" and is one of
the founders of Modernism in
the theatre. He is the most
frequently performed
dramatist in the world after
Shakespeare, and A Doll's
House became the world's
most performed play by the
early 20th century. He died on
May 23, 1906.
George S. Kaufman
George S. Kaufman (18891961) was an American
playwright, theatre director
and producer, humorist, and
drama critic. In addition to
comedies and political satire,
he wrote several musicals,
notably for the Marx Brothers.
He won the Pulitzer Prize for
Drama for You Can't Take It
With You and Of Thee I Sing.
He also won the Tony Award as
a Director, for the musical Guys
and Dolls. Kaufman died on
June 2, 1961.
Ira Levin
Ira Levin (1929-2007) was an
American author, dramatist and
songwriter. Levin's best-known
play is Deathtrap, which holds the
record as the longest-running
comedy-thriller on Broadway.
Other works include: No Time for
Sergeants, Interlock, Critic's
Choice, General Seegar , Dr.
Cook's Garden, Veronica's Room
and Break a Leg. His musical
Drat! The Cat! (1965) featured
the song "He Touched Me,"
popularized by Barbra Streisand.
Levin died of a heart attack on
November 12, 2007.
Jerome Lawrence
Jerome Lawrence (1915-2004)
was an American playwright and
author. He collaborated
extensively with Robert E. Lee
and together they wrote 39 plays.
In 1955, they wrote Inherit the
Wind, which remains among the
most-produced plays in the
American theatre. They also
collaborated on the plays Auntie
Mame, The Incomparable Max,
and First Monday in October, and
their wildly successful play, The
Night Thoreau Spent in Jail. He
died on February 29, 2004 from
complications due to a stroke.
David Mamet
David Mamet (1947- present) is
an American playwright, essayist,
screenwriter, and film director
noted for his often desperate
working-class characters and for
his distinctive, colloquial, and
frequently profane dialogue.
Mamet is a founding member of
the Atlantic Theater Company. He
was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in
1984 and a Tony nomination for
Glengarry Glen Ross. Other
works include: Speed the Plow,
Oleanna, American Buffalo,
Boston Marriage and November.
Moliere
Moliere (1622-1673) was a
French actor and playwright,
the greatest of all writers of
French comedy. Among
Molière's best-known works
are The Misanthrope, The
School for Wives, Tartuffe or
the Imposter, The Miser, The
Imaginary Invalid, and The
Bourgeois Gentleman. Molière
is considered the creator of
modern French comedy. He
died on February 17, 1673
from pulmonary tuberculosis.
Eugene O’Neill
Eugene O’Neill (1888-1953) was
an Irish American playwright. His
plays were among the first to
introduce into American drama
techniques of realism. His plays
were among the first to include
speeches in American vernacular
and involve characters on the
fringes of society, where they
struggle to maintain their hopes
and aspirations, but ultimately
slide into disillusionment and
despair. He died on November
27, 1953.
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter (1930-2008) was
a Nobel Prize-winning English
playwright, screenwriter,
director and actor. Dialogue is
of central importance in
Pinter’s plays and is perhaps
the key to his originality. His
characters’ colloquial speech
consists of disjointed and
oddly ambivalent conversation
that is punctuated by resonant
silences. He died on December
24, 2008 from liver cancer.
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
was an Irish playwright. He played an
important role in revolutionizing
British drama: making theatre a
forum for considering moral, political
and economic issues, possibly his
most lasting and important
contribution to dramatic art. In this,
he considered himself indebted to
Henrik Ibsen, who pioneered drama
designed to heighten awareness of
some important social issue. He died
on November 2, 1950 of renal
failure.
Neil Simon
Neil Simon (1927- present) is an
American playwright,
screenwriter, television writer,
and librettist who is one of the
most popular playwrights in the
history of the American theatre.
He has won Tony Awards for The
Odd Couple, Biloxi Blues and a
special Tony Award for his overall
contribution to the American
theater. He was awarded the New
York Drama Critics Circle Award,
for Brighton Beach Memoirs. He
also won the Pulitzer Prize and a
Tony Award for Lost in Yonkers.
Tom Stoppard
Tom Stoppard (1937- present)
is a Czech-born British
playwright whose work is
marked by verbal brilliance,
ingenious action, and
structural dexterity. Themes of
human rights, censorship and
political freedom pervade his
work along with exploration of
linguistics and philosophy.
Stoppard has been a key
playwright of the National
Theatre and is one of the most
internationally performed
dramatists of his generation.
August Wilson
August Wilson (1945-2005) was
an American playwright whose
work included a series of ten
plays, The Pittsburgh Cycle, for
which he received two Pulitzer
Prizes for Drama. Each is set in a
different decade, depicting the
comic and tragic aspects of the
African-American experience in
the twentieth century. In 1968,
Wilson co-founded the Black
Horizon Theater in the Hill District
of Pittsburgh He died on October
5, 2005 from liver cancer.
Jason Alexander
Jason Alexander (1959present) is an American actor,
director, producer, writer,
singer, and comedian. He is the
Artistic Director of "Reprise!
Broadway's Best in Los
Angeles," where he has
directed several musicals. He
won a Tony Award for his
performance in Jerome
Robbins' Broadway. He has
also appeared in The
Producers and A Christmas
Carol.
Jean-Louis Barrault
Jean- Louis Barrault (19101994) was a French actor,
director, and producer whose
work with both avant-garde
and classic plays helped revive
French theatre after World
War II. He was director of the
Théâtre de France. He was also
director of the Théâtre des
Nations and founder-director
of the Théâtre d’Orsay. He died
of a heart attack on January
22, 1994.
Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks (1926- present) is
American film director,
producer, screenwriter, and
actor whose motion pictures
elevated outrageousness and
vulgarity to high comic art.
Brooks is a member of the
short list of entertainers with
the distinction of having won
an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar
and a Tony award. He has
adapted two of his films into
successful Broadway musicals:
The Producers and Young
Frankenstein.
Matthew Broderick
Matthew Broderick (1962- present)
is an American film, stage and voice
actor who, famously portrayed Leo
Bloom in the Hollywood and
Broadway productions of The
Producers. He has won two Tony
Awards, one for his featured role in
Brighton Beach Memoirs and one for
his leading role in How to Succeed in
Business Without Really Trying. He
was also nominated for the Tony
Award, Best Actor in a Musical, for
The Producers. To date, Matthew
Broderick is the youngest winner of
the Tony Award for Best Featured
Actor in a Play.
George M. Cohan
George M. Cohan (1878-1942)
was American actor, popular
songwriter, playwright, and
producer especially of musical
comedies, who became
famous as the “Yankee Doodle
Dandy.” Although Cohan is
mostly remembered for his
songs, he became an early
pioneer in the development of
the "book musical", bridging
the gaps in his libretti between
drama and music, operetta
and extravaganza. He died on
November 5, 1942.
Ian McKellan
Ian McKellen (1939- present)
is considered one of the
greatest British actors of all
time. He is the recipient of six
Laurence Olivier Awards, a
Tony Award, a Golden Globe
Award, two Academy Award
nominations, four BAFTA
nominations and five Emmy
Award nominations. He is
well-known for portraying
Gandalf in The Lord of the
Rings trilogy.
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber (1948present) is a British composer and
impresario of musical theatre.
Some of his best works include:
Joseph and the Amazing
Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus
Christ Superstar, Evita, Cats, The
Phantom of the Opera and Sunset
Boulevard. He has won seven
Tony Awards, three Grammy
Awards, an Academy Award,
fourteen Ivor Novello Awards,
seven Olivier Awards, a Golden
Globe Award, and the Kennedy
Center Honors in 2006.
Sanford Meisner
Sanford Meisner (1905-1997) was an
American actor and acting teacher
who developed a form of Method
acting that is known as the Meisner
technique. The goal of the Meisner
technique has often been described
as getting actors to "live truthfully
under imaginary circumstances."
Throughout his career, Meisner
worked with, and taught, students
who became well known, such as
Sandra Bullock, Dylan McDermott,
Robert Duvall, Gregory Peck, Bob
Fosse, Diane Keaton, Grace Kelly, and
Sydney Pollack
Bette Midler
Bette Midler (1945- present) is an
American singer-songwriter. In a
career spanning almost half a
century, Midler has been nominated
for two Academy Awards, and won
three Grammy Awards, four Golden
Globes, three Emmy Awards, and a
special Tony Award. From 1966 to
1969, she played the role of Tzeitel
in Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway.
In 2013, Midler performed on
Broadway for the first time in more
than 30 years in, I'll Eat You Last: A
Chat With Sue Mengers, a play
about the Hollywood
superagent, Sue Mengers.
Al Jolson
Al Jolson (1886-1950) was
popular U.S. singer and blackface
comedian of the musical stage
and motion pictures, from before
World War I to 1940. His unique
singing style and personal
magnetism established an
immediate rapport with
audiences. In 1918, Jolson's
acting career would be pushed
even further after he starred in
the hit musical Sinbad. By 1920,
Jolson had become the biggest
star on Broadway. Jolson
collapsed and died of a massive
heart attack on October 23, 1950.
Wendy Wasserstein
Wendy Wasserstein (1950-2006)
was an American playwright. She
received the Tony Award for Best
Play and the Pulitzer Prize for
Drama in 1989 for her play The
Heidi Chronicles. Her plays, which
explore topics ranging from
feminism to family to ethnicity to
pop culture, include The Sisters
Rosensweig, Isn't It Romantic, An
American Daughter, Old Money,
and Third. She died unexpectedly
on January 30, 2006 from
lymphoma.
Athol Fugard
Athol Fugard (1932- present) is
a South African playwright,
novelist, actor, and director
who writes in English. He is
best known for his political
plays opposing the South
African system
of apartheid and for the
2005 Academy Award-winning
film of his novel, Tsotsi,
directed by Gavin Hood.
Notable works include “Master
Harold”… and the Boys and
Blood Knot.
Peter Sellars
Peter Sellars (1957-present) is an
American theatre director, noted for
his unique contemporary stagings of
classical and
contemporary operas and plays. In
1984, he was named director and
manager of the American National
Theater in Washington, D.C. at the
age of 26, a post he held until 1986.
In 2005 Sellars was awarded The
Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, one of
the richest prizes in the arts, given
annually to "a man or woman who
has made an outstanding
contribution to the beauty of the
world and to mankind's enjoyment
and understanding of life."
Sam Shephard
Sam Shephard (1943- present)
is an American playwright,
actor, and television and film
director. He is the author of
several books of short stories,
essays, and memoirs, and
received the Pulitzer Prize for
Drama in 1979 for his
play Buried Child. In 1975, he
was named playwright-inresidence at the Magic
Theatre, where many of his
notable works received their
premier productions
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills
Wilde (1854 –1900) was an Irish
writer and poet. After writing in
different forms throughout the
1880s, he became one of
London's most popular
playwrights in the early 1890s.
He is most known for The
Importance of Being Earnest, now
considered Wilde's masterpiece,
was rapidly written in Wilde's
artistic maturity in late 1894.
Wilde died of
cerebral meningitis on November
30, 1900.
Thornton Wilder
Thornton Wilder (1897- 1975) was
an American playwright and novelist.
He won three Pulitzer Prizes—for the
novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and
for the two plays Our Town and The
Skin of Our Teeth—and a
U.S. National Book Award for the
novel The Eighth Day. In
1955, Tyrone Guthrie encouraged
Wilder to rework The Merchant of
Yonkers into The Matchmaker. It later
became the basis for the hit 1964
musical Hello, Dolly!, with a book
by Michael Stewart and score
by Jerry Herman. Wilder died on
December 7, 1975
Cole Porter
Cole Porter (1891 –1964) was an
American composer and
songwriter. After a slow start, he
began to achieve success in the
1920s, and by the 1930s he was
one of the major songwriters for
the Broadway musical stage. His
most successful musical, Kiss Me,
Kate won the 1948 Tony Award
for Best Musical and for which he
also won best composer and
lyricist. Porter died of kidney
failure on October 15, 1964,
in Santa Monica, California, at the
age of 73.
Richard Burbage
Richard Burbage (1567–1619)
was an English actor and theatre
owner. He was the younger
brother of Cuthbert Burbage.
They were both actors in drama.
Most famously he was the star
of William Shakespeare's theatre
company, the Lord Chamberlain's
Men which became the King's
Men on the ascension of James
I in 1603. Burbage's power and
scope as an actor is revealed in
the sheer size of the roles he
played. He continued acting until
his death in 1619.
August Strindberg
August Strindberg (1849-1912)
was a Swedish playwright,
novelist, poet, essayist and
painter. In his plays The Father,
Miss Julie, and Creditors, he
created naturalistic dramas
that – building on the
established accomplishments
of Henrik
Ibsen's prose problem
plays while rejecting their use
of the structure of the wellmade play. He died on 14 May
1912 at the age of 63.
Luigi Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936) was
an Italian dramatist, novelist,
poet and short story writer. He
was awarded the 1934 Nobel
Prize in Literature for his "bold
and brilliant renovation of the
drama and the stage.” He wrote a
large number of dramas which
were published, between 1918
and 1935, under the collective
title of Naked Masks. These
works dealt with themes of
problems of identity. He died on
December 10, 1936.
Wole Soyinka
Wole Soyinka (1934- present) is
a Nigerian writer, notable
especially as a playwright and
poet; he was awarded the
1986 Nobel Prize in Literature,
the first person in Africa to be
given that honor. During the six
years spent in England, he was a
dramaturgist at the Royal Court
Theatre in London 1958-1959.
Soyinka has published about 20
works: drama, novels and poetry.
He writes in English and his
literary language is marked by
great scope and richness of
words.
Alan Jay Lerner
Alan Jay Lerner (1918- 1986) was
an American lyricist and librettist.
In collaboration with Frederick
Loewe, he created some of the
world's most popular and
enduring works of musical
theatre for both the stage and on
film including: the hit Broadway
musicals Brigadoon (1947), Paint
Your Wagon (1951), My Fair
Lady (1956), and Camelot (1960)
and the film Gigi (1958). He won
three Tony Awards and
three Academy Awards, among
other honors. He died on June
14, 1986 from lung cancer.
Frederick Loewe
Frederick Loewe (1901-1988) was
an Austrian-American composer.
He collaborated with lyricist Alan
Jay Lerner on the longrunning Broadway musicals My
Fair Lady and Camelot, with book
and lyrics by Lerner, both of
which were made into films.
Personal differences between
Loewe and Lerner surfaced
during the writing of Camelot,
and they suspended their
collaboration for more than a
decade. He died in California on
February 14, 1988.
Agnes de Mille
Agnes George de Mille (1905 –1993)
was an American dancer and
choreographer. She is most notable
for her choreography for Rodgers
and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! De
Mille revolutionized musical theatre
by creating choreography which not
only conveyed the emotional
dimensions of the characters but
enhanced the plot. Her
choreography, as a reflection of her
awareness of acting, reflected the
angst and turmoil of the characters
instead of simply focusing on a
dancer's physical technique. She
died of a stroke on October 7, 1993.
Alvin Ailey
Alvin Ailey (1931- 1989) was an
African-American choreographer
and activist who founded
the Alvin Ailey American Dance
Theater in New York City. Ailey is
credited with
popularizing modern dance and
revolutionizing African-American
participation in 20th century
concert dance. Ailey made use of
any combination of dance
techniques that best suited the
theatrical moment. He died on
December 1, 1989 of AIDS.
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire (1899- 1987) was an
American film and Broadway
stage dancer, choreographer,
singer, musician and actor. His
stage and subsequent film and
television careers spanned a total
of 76 years, during which he
made 31 musical films, several
award winning television specials,
and issued numerous recordings.
The American Film Institute
named him the fifth Greatest
Male Star of All Time. He died on
June 22, 1987 from pneumonia.
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
was an American composer,
conductor, author, music lecturer,
and pianist. According to The New
York Times, he was "one of the
most prodigiously talented and
successful musicians in American
history." Many of his works are
regularly performed around the
world, although none has
matched the tremendous popular
and commercial success of West
Side Story. He died of a heart
attack on October 14, 1990.
Gene Kelly
Gene Kelly (1912-1996) was an
American dancer, actor, singer,
film director, producer, and
choreographer. Kelly was known
for his energetic and athletic
dancing style, his good looks and
the likeable characters that he
played on screen. Although he is
known today for his
performances in An American in
Paris (1951) and Singin' in the
Rain (1952), he was a dominant
force in Hollywood musical films
from the mid-1940s the late
1950s. He died on February 2,
1996.
George Abbott
George Abbott (1887-1995) was
an American theater producer
and director, playwright,
screenwriter, and film director
and producer whose career
spanned more than nine decades.
Abbott acquired a reputation as
an astute "show doctor". He
frequently was called upon to
supervise changes when a show
was having difficulties in tryouts
or previews prior to its Broadway
opening. He died of a stroke
January 31, 1995, in Miami
Beach, Florida, at age 107.
Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan (1909-2003) was a GreekAmerican director, producer, writer
and actor, described by The New York
Times as "one of the most honored
and influential directors in Broadway
and Hollywood history." After
studying acting at Yale, he acted
professionally for eight years, later
joining the Group Theater in 1932,
and co-founded the Actors Studio in
1947. He helped to
introduce Method acting to the
American stage and cinema. Elia
Kazan died from natural causes in his
Manhattan apartment on September
28, 2003.
Mary Martin
Mary Martin (1913-1990) was an
American actress, singer and
Broadway star. A muse of Rodgers
and Hammerstein, she originated
many leading roles over her
career including Nellie Forbush
in South Pacific and Maria von
Trapp in The Sound of Music. She
was named a Kennedy Center
Honoree in 1989. She also
performed in such shows as
Annie Get Your Gun, Hello, Dolly!
and Peter Pan. She died
from colorectal cancer at her
home on November 3, 1990.
Bob Fosse
Bob Fosse (1927-1987) was an
American actor, dancer, musical
theatre choreographer,
director, screenwriter, film
editor and film director. He won
an unprecedented eight Tony
Awards for choreography, as well
as one for direction. He was
nominated for an Academy
Award four times, winning for his
direction of Cabaret. Other
notable credits include: The
Pajama Game, Damn Yankees,
Pippin and Chicago. He died of a
heart attack on September 23,
1987.
Julie Andrews
Julie Andrews (1935- present) is
an English film and stage actress,
singer, author, theatre director, and
dancer. In 2000, she was made
a Dame for services to the
performing arts by Queen Elizabeth
II. Andrews made her feature film
debut in Mary Poppins, for which she
won the Academy Award for Best
Actress. She received her second
Academy Award nomination for The
Sound of Music. She originated the
role of Eliza Dolittle in My Fair Lady.
In 2001, Andrews appeared in The
Princess Diaries, her first Disney film
since Mary Poppins.
Fred Ebb
Fred Ebb (1928-2004) was an
American musical theatre lyricist
who had many successful
collaborations with
composer John Kander. On his
first theatrical writing job, he cowrote the lyrics for the musical
revue Baker's Dozen in 1951. He
also worked with composer Paul
Klein from the early 1950s
onward, contributing songs to the
cabaret revue Isn't America
Fun and the Broadway
revue From A to Z. He died on
September 11, 2004 from a heart
attack.
John Kander
John Kander (1927-present) is
the American composer of a
number of musicals as part of the
songwriting team of Kander and
Ebb. Kander began his Broadway
career as substitute rehearsal
pianist for West Side Story.
Kander and Ebb are responsible
for music and lyrics for many
shows including: Cabaret,
Chicago and Kiss of the Spider
Woman. The Landing is his
newest musical and his first
without Fred Ebb in many years.
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin (1888-1989) was an
American composer and lyricist
widely considered one of the
greatest songwriters in American
history with hits like "Alexander's
Ragtime Band," "What’ll I Do"
and "White Christmas." Berlin's
film and Broadway musical work
included Puttin’ on the
Ritz, Easter Parade and Annie Get
Your Gun. He died in New York
City on September 22, 1989, at
age 101 of natural causes.
Julie Harris
Julie Harris (1925- 2013) was an
American stage, screen, and
television actress. She won
five Tony Awards, three Emmy
Awards and a Grammy Award,
and was nominated for
an Academy Award. In 1994, she
was awarded the National Medal
of Arts. She is a member of
the American Theatre Hall of
Fame and received the 2002
Special Lifetime Achievement
Tony Award. She died on August
24, 2013 from congestive heart
failure.
Angela Lansbury
Angela Lansbury (1925- present)
is a British American actress and
singer in theatre, television and
films. Her career has spanned
seven decades and earned an
unsurpassed number of
performance Tony Awards, with
five wins. Notable roles include:
Rose in Gypsy, Getrude in Hamlet,
Anna in The King and I, Mrs.
Lovett in Sweeney Todd, Mame
Dennis in Mame, Leona Mullen in
Deuce, Madame Arcati in Blithe
Spirit, and Madame Armfeldt in A
Little Night Music.
Audra McDonald
Audra McDonald (1970- present)
is an American actress and singer.
She has appeared on the stage in
both musicals and dramas, such
as Ragtime, A Raisin in the Sun,
and Porgy and Bess. She has won
five Tony Awards, sharing the
record for most Tonys won by an
actor with Julie Harris and Angela
Lansbury. Tony Award winning
performances include:
Carousel, Master Class, Ragtime,
A Raisin in the Sun, and The
Gershwins' Porgy and Bess.
Harvey Fierstein
Harvey Fierstein (1954present) is an American actor
and playwright. He has
written the books for musicals
such as: La Cage Aux Folles, A
Catered Affair, Newsies and
Kinky Boots. He is best known
for A Torch Song Trilogy, which
he wrote and starred in OffBroadway and on Broadway
winning him two Tony Awards
for Best Play and Best Actor in
a Play.
Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes (1900–1993) was an
American actress whose career
spanned almost 80 years. She
eventually garnered the
nickname "First Lady of the
American Theatre" and was one
of eleven people who have won
an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar
and a Tony Award. Hayes also
received the Presidential Medal
of Freedom, America's highest
civilian honor, from President
Ronald Reagan in 1986. She died
on March 17, 1993 from
congestive heart failure.
Rita Moreno
Rita Moreno (1931- present) is
a Puerto Rican singer, dancer and
actress. She is the
only Hispanic and one of the few
performers to have won all four
major annual American
entertainment awards, which
include an Oscar, an Emmy, a
Grammy and a Tony. She starred
as Anita in the 1961 film version
of West Side Story. Moreno's
Broadway credits include The Last
of the Red Hot
Lovers, Gantry, The Ritz, and the
female version of The Odd
Couple.
John Gielgud
John Gielgud (1904–2000) was
an English actor, director, and
producer. He first won stardom
during a successful two
seasons at the Old Vic
Theatre from 1929 to 1931
where his performances
as Richard II and Hamlet were
particularly acclaimed, the
latter being the first Old Vic
production to be transferred to
the West End for a run. He
died on May 21, 2000 of a
respiratory infection.
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993)
was a British actress. In a career
that spanned more than forty
years, she performed on screen,
on television and on stage. 1951
saw her Broadway debut
in Gigi with Hepburn starring in
the title role. She would later
return to Broadway in 1954 to
play the title role in Ondine which
would earn Hepburn her only
competitive Tony Award of her
career. She died on January 20,
1993 of appendiceal cancer.
Marvin Hamlisch
Marvin Hamlisch (1944- 2012)
was an American composer and
conductor. He is one of only
eleven winners of
an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar,
and Tony. He is one of only two
people to have won those four
prizes and a Pulitzer Prize.
Hamlisch also won two Golden
Globes. He composed the score
for the 1975 Broadway musical A
Chorus Line, for which he won
both a Tony Award and a Pulitzer
Prize; and They're Playing Our
Song. Hamlisch died on August 6,
2012 due to respiratory arrest.
Jonathan Tunick
Jonathan Tunick (1938- present)
is an American orchestral, musical
director and composer. He is one
of eleven people to have won all
four major show business awards:
the Tony Awards, Academy
Awards, Emmy
Awards and Grammy Awards. He
is best known for his work
with Stephen Sondheim, starting
in 1970 with Company and
continuing to the present day.
Other credits include: Follies, A
Little Night Music, A Chorus Line,
Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods
and Titanic.
Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols (1931- present) is a
German-born American
television, stage and film director,
writer, producer and comedian.
Nichols is one of a small group of
people who have won an Emmy,
Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award.
Broadway credits include:
Barefoot in the Park, Luv, The Odd
Couple, The Apple Tree, The Little
Foxes, Plaza Suite, The Prisoner of
Second Avenue, Uncle Vanya,
Streamers, Comedians, and
Annie.
Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg (1955- present) is
an American comedian, actress,
singer-songwriter, political activist,
author and talk show host. She is
one of the few entertainers who
have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar,
and Tony Award. She won a Tony
Award as a producer of the
Broadway musical Thoroughly
Modern Millie. Stage performance
credits include: Sister Act, Funny Girl,
Xanadu, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
and A Funny Thing Happened on the
Way to the Forum.
Scott Rudin
Scott Rudin (1958- present) is an
American film producer and a
theatrical producer. In 2012, Rudin
became one of the few people who
have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar
and Tony Award, and the first
producer to do so. Credits include:
Passion, Indiscretions, Hamlet, A
Funny Thing Happened on the Way to
the Forum, The Goat or Who Is
Sylvia?, Seven Guitars, The Ride
Down Mt. Morgan, Copenhagen,
Deuce Who's Afraid of Virginia
Woolf?, The History
Boys, Beckett/Albee, Closer, The Blue
Room, Doubt and Fences.
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey (1954- present) is
an American media
proprietor, talk show host,
actress, producer,
and philanthropist. She produced
the play From the Mississippi
Delta and the hit musical The
Color Purple, which was
nominated for 10 Tony Awards.
In 1985, Winfrey co-starred
in Steven Spielberg's The Color
Purple as distraught
housewife, Sofia. She has been
called “the world’s most powerful
woman” and “one of the most
influential people.”
Frank Loesser
Frank Loesser (1910-1969) was
an American songwriter who
wrote the lyrics and music to
the Broadway hits Guys and
Dolls and How To Succeed In
Business Without Really Trying,
among others. He won
separate Tony Awards for the
music and lyrics in both shows,
as well as sharing the Pulitzer
Prize for Drama for the latter.
He died of lung cancer on July
28, 1969.
Jerry Herman
Jerry Herman (1931- present)
is an American composer and
lyricist. He composed the
scores for the hit Broadway
musicals Hello, Dolly!, Mame,
and La Cage aux Folles. He has
been nominated for the Tony
Award five times, and won
twice, for Hello, Dolly! and La
Cage aux Folles. In 2009,
Herman received the Tony
Award for Lifetime
Achievement in the Theatre.
He is a recipient of the
2010 Kennedy Center Honors.
David Hyde Pierce
David Hyde Pierce (1959present) is an American actor
and comedian. He made his
Broadway debut in 1982 in
Beyond Theraphy. Other
Credits include: The Heidi
Chronicles, Children and Art,
Spamalot, Accent on Youth, La
Bête, Vonya and Sonia and
Masha and Spike and The
Landing. He won a Tony
Award for his performance in
Kander and Ebb’s Curtains.
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand (1942present) is an American singersongwriter, author, actress,
writer, film producer, and
director. She is one of the few
entertainers who have won an
Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, and
Tony Award. In addition, she
has also won an American Film
Institute Award, a Kennedy
Center Honors award and a
Peabody Award.
Jerome Kern
Jerome Kern (1885-1945) was an
American composer of musical
theatre and popular music. He
created dozen of Broadway
musicals and Hollywood films in a
career that lasted for more than
four decades. His most notable
work was Show Boat. While most
Kern musicals have largely been
forgotten, except for their
songs, Show Boat remains wellremembered and frequently
seen. He died on November 5,
1945 of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Carol Channing
Carol Channing (1921- present) is
an American singer, actress,
and comedian. She is the
recipient of three Tony
Awards (including one for lifetime
achievement), a Golden
Globe and an Oscar nomination.
Channing is best remembered for
originating on Broadway the
musical-comedy roles of
widowed matchmaker Dolly Levi
in Hello, Dolly! and bombshell
Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer
Blondes.
John Houseman
John Houseman (1902- 1988)
was a Romanian-born British–
American actor and film
producer who became known
for his highly publicized
collaboration with
director Orson Welles from
their days in the Federal
Theatre Project and it’s most
controversial work, The Cradle
Will Rock. He died on October
31, 1988 of spinal cancer.
Arthur Laurents
Arthur Laurents (1917- 2011)
was an American playwright,
stage director and
screenwriter. His work on
Broadway, includes West Side
Story, Gypsy, Hallelujah, Baby!,
and La Cage Aux Folles. He
also directed some of his own
shows and other Broadway
productions. He died on May
5, 2011 of complications from
pneumonia.
Clifford Odets
Clifford Odets (1906 – 1963) was
an American playwright, screenw
riter, and director. Odets has
been looked on by many as an
icon of the American theatre.
Beginning with “Waiting for
Lefty,” Odets quickly became the
most famous young playwright in
America. In the next four years he
wrote five more plays, including
“Awake and Sing!,” “Golden Boy”
and “Rocket to the Moon.” He
died on August 14, 1963 of
stomach cancer.
Nathan Lane
Nathan Lane (1956- present) is
a two-time Tony Awardwinning American actor of
stage, screen, and television.
In 1992, he starred in the hit
revival of Guys and Dolls,
receiving his first Tony
nomination, as well as Drama
Desk and Outer Critics Circle
Awards. Lane won his second
Tony Award for his portrayal of
Max Bialystock in The
Producers, as well as Drama
Desk and Outer Critics Circle
Awards.
Ethel Merman
Ethel Merman (1908– 1984)
was an American actress
and singer. Known primarily
for her belting voice and
roles in musical theatre, she
has been called "the
undisputed First Lady of the
musical comedy stage."
Merman was known for her
powerful, belting mezzosoprano voice, precise
enunciation and pitch. She
died on February 15, 1984
Henry Irving
Sir Henry Irving (1838– 1905)
was an English stage actor in
the Victorian era, known as an
actor-manager because he
took complete responsibility
for season after season at the
Lyceum Theatre, establishing
himself and his company as
representative of English
classical theatre. He was the
first actor to be awarded a
knighthood. He died following
a stroke on October 13, 1905.
David Garrick
David Garrick (1717- 1779) was an
English actor, playwright, theatre
manager and producer who
influenced nearly all aspects of
theatrical practice throughout the
18th century. He made his debut as
a professional actor at Ipswich in
1741. As an actor, Garrick promoted
realistic acting that departed from
the bombastic style that was
entrenched when Garrick first came
to prominence. In 1747, took over
Drury Lane and led the declining
theatre to success and accolades. He
died on January 20, 1779
Zero Mostel
Samuel Joel "Zero" Mostel
(1915– 1977) was an American
actor and comedian of stage
and screen, best known for his
portrayal of comic characters
such as Tevye on stage in
Fiddler on the Roof, Pseudolus
on stage and on screen in A
Funny Thing Happened on the
Way to the Forum, and Max
Bialystock in the original film
version of The Producers. He
died on September 8, 1977.
Hugh Jackman
Hugh Jackman (1968- present)
is an Australian actor and
producer who is involved in
film, musical theatre, and
television. In 1998, when
played the leading role of Curly
in the Royal National Theatre's
acclaimed stage production of
Oklahoma!, in London's West
End. In 2012, he starred as
Jean Valjean in the film Les
Misérables, an adaptation of
the musical.
Neil Patrick Harris
Neil Patrick Harris (1973present) is an American
actor, producer, and
director. Harris was named
as one of Time magazine's
100 most influential people
in 2010, and was awarded a
star on the Hollywood Walk
of Fame in September 2011.
Harris has also hosted the
Tony Awards on Broadway in
2009, 2011, 2012, and 2013.
Kristen Chenoweth
Kristen Chenoweth (1968present) is an American
singer and actress, with
credits in musical theatre,
film and television. In 1999,
she won a Tony Award for
her performance as Sally
Brown in You're a Good
Man, Charlie Brown on
Broadway, and in 2003, she
received wide notice for
originating the role of Glinda
in the musical Wicked.
Jon Cryer
Jon Cryer (1965- present) is an
American actor, screenwriter,
film director, and film
producer. Cryer's first
professional acting effort was
as David in the Broadway play
Torch Song Trilogy. Cryer was
later an understudy and
replacement for Broderick in
Neil Simon's Brighton Beach
Memoirs in 1989. In 2011, he
appeared as David in the New
York Philharmonic Concert’s
performance of Stephen
Sondheim’s Company.
Edmund Kean
Edmund Kean (1787- 1833)
was an English actor, regarded
in his time as the greatest ever.
Kean quickly proved himself a
master at portraying
Shakespeare's classic villains,
such as Iago, Macbeth, and
Richard III. Kean's
performance as Shylock in The
Merchant of Venice was
sensational and it prodded a
London theatre world
seemingly ready for change.
He died on May 15, 1833.
Jerzy Grotowski
Jerzy Grotowski (1933- 1999) was
a Polish theatre director and
innovator of experimental
theatre, the "theatre laboratory"
and "poor theatre" concepts.
Grotowski’s methods and
pronouncements—which can be
found in his highly influential
work Towards a Poor Theatre
(1968)—influenced such U.S.
experimental theatre movements
as The Living Theatre, the Open
Theatre, and the Performance
Group. He died on January 14,
1999.
Oliver Smith
Oliver Smith (1918-1994) was
an American scenic designer.
Smith designed dozens
of Broadway musicals, films,
and operas. Throughout his
career, Smith was nominated
for twenty-five Tony Awards,
often multiple times in the
same year, and won ten. He
was nominated for
the Academy Award for Best
Art Direction for his work
on Guys and Dolls. He died of
emphysema on January 23,
1994.