Review for In-Class Portion of Musical Theatre Final Exam, 2013

10 Short Answers 30% (3 points each)

For the sit-down portion of the final exam on December 12, you will provide brief (3-5
sentences MAX) answers giving basic information (performer, composer, lyricist,
director, producer, choreographer, etc., date spans, important shows/contributions).
Fifteen (15) of the names below will appear on the exam. You will identify ten (10).
Kander and Ebb - a highly successful songwriting team consisting of composer John
Kander (born March 18, 1927) and lyricist Fred Ebb (April 8, 1928 September 11,
2004). Known primarily for their stage musicals, Kander and Ebb also scored several
movies including their most famous song, the theme song from Martin Scorsese's New
York, New York. Recorded by many artists, "New York, New York" became a signature
song for Frank Sinatra. The team also became associated with two actresses, Liza
Minnelli and Chita Rivera, for whom they wrote a considerable amount of material for
the stage, concerts and television. Known for Cabaret, Chicago, Fosse, Curtains. Worked
with Bob Fosse a lot.
Bob Fosse (June 23, 1927 September 23, 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 (beating Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather). His third wife, Broadway
legend Gwen Verdon, helped to define and perfect his unique and distinct style simply
referred to today as "Fosse." INNOVATIVE choreographer, isolations, etc.
Casey Nicholaw (born 1962) is an American theatre director, choreographer and
performer. He has been nominated for Tony Awards for directing and choreographing
The Drowsy Chaperone (2006), for choreographing Monty Python's Spamalot (2005), and
choreographing The Book of Mormon (2011), as well as winning for his co-direction the
latter with Trey Parker. He also was nominated for the Drama Desk Awards for
Outstanding Direction and Choreography for The Drowsy Chaperone (2006), and for
Outstanding Choreography for Spamalot (2005).[1]
DIRECTOR AND CHOREOGRAPHER
SPAMALOT, BOOK OF MORMON, COMEDIC STUFF
CONTEMPORARY

Ashman and Menken American lyricist and composing team, wrote lyrics and music
for a bunch of Disney stuff including The Little Mermaid. Also did Smile. Height of
career was in the 70s and 80s.
LYRICIST AND COMPOSER, SMILE, LITTLE SHOP, DISNEY
Marvin Hamlisch (June 2, 1944 August 6, 2012) was an American composer and
conductor. He is one of only eleven EGOTs winners of an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and

Tony. He is one of ten people to win three or more Oscars in one night and the only nondirector/screenwriter to do so. He is one of only two people to have won those four prizes
and a Pulitzer Prize (Richard Rodgers is the other). Hamlisch also won two Golden
Globes. Did score for A CHORUS LINE which one a Pulitzer Prize for drama as well as
a ton of Tonys and stuff.
SONGWRITER, EGOT, CHORUS LINE
James Lapine (born January 10, 1949) is an American stage director and librettist. He
has won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical three times, for Into the Woods,
Falsettos, and Passion. He has frequently collaborated with Stephen Sondheim and
William Finn. Worked with Flinn to do Spelling Bee.
LIBRETTIST, BOOK OF A MUSICAL INTO THE WORDS,
COLLABORATED WITH SONDHEIM
Agnes de Mille (September 18, 1905 October 7, 1993) dancer and choreographer,
known for doing the dream ballet sequence in Oklahoma, first dance to really add to the
story, then became super successful off of that
Susan Stroman (born October 17, 1954) is an American theatre director,
choreographer, film director, and performer. She is a five-time Tony Award winner, four
for Best Choreography and one as Best Director of a Musical for The Producers.
Discovered by Hal Prince and collaborated with him, revival of Show Boat, etc.
PRODUCERS, COLLABORATION WITH HAL PRINCE, CHOREOGRAPHY
AND DIRECTION
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 October 14, 1990) was an American composer,
conductor, author, music lecturer, and pianist. He was among the first conductors born
and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim. According to
The New York Times, he was "one of the most prodigiously talented and successful
musicians in American history."[2]
His fame derived from his long tenure as the music director of the New York
Philharmonic, from his conducting of concerts with most of the world's leading
orchestras, and from his music for West Side Story, as well as Candide, Wonderful Town,
On the Town and his own Mass.
COMPOSER, CONSIDERED ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL
MUSICIANS IN AMERICAN HISTORY, MUSIC FOR WEST SIDE STORY AND ON
THE TOWN
Lerner and Loewe were the team of lyricist and librettist Alan Jay Lerner and
composer Frederick Loewe, known primarily for the music and lyrics of some of
Broadway's most successful musical shows, including My Fair Lady, Camelot, and
Brigadoon. Legend has it that they met by accident, bumping into each other on the way
to the restroom.

MY FAIR LADY, CAMELOT, BRIGADOON, met by accident

Jonathan Larson (February 4, 1960 January 25, 1996) was an American composer
and playwright noted for exploring the serious social issues of multiculturalism,
addiction, and homophobia in his work. Typical examples of his use of these themes are
found in his works, Rent and tick, tick... BOOM!. He received three posthumous Tony
Awards and a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the rock musical Rent.
RENT, AIDS, MULTICULTURALISM, ADDICTION, HOMOPHOBIA. DIED.
Audra McDonald (born July 3, 1970) 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 maintains an active concert and recording career, performing
song cycles and operas as well as performing in concert throughout the U.S. She has won
five Tony Awards, sharing the record for most Tonys won by an actor with Julie Harris
and Angela Lansbury. She also starred in the ABC television drama Private Practice as
Dr. Naomi Bennett.
CRAZY TALENTED. MOST TONYS WON BY AN ACTOR
Parker and Stone creators of Book of Mormon and South Park. Different kind of
musical theatre that is meant to be very racy and inappropriate.
SOUTH PARK AND BOOK OF MORMON
Michael Bennett (April 8, 1943 July 2, 1987) was an American musical theater
director, writer, choreographer, and dancer. He won seven Tony Awards for his
choreography and direction of Broadway shows and was nominated for an additional
eleven. Bennett choreographed Promises, Promises, Follies and Company. In 1976, he
won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical and the Tony Award for Best
Choreography for the Pulitzer Prizewinning musical A Chorus Line. Bennett, under the
aegis of producer Joseph Papp, created A Chorus Line based on a workshop process
which he pioneered. He also directed and co-choreographed Dreamgirls with Michael
Peters. Unlike his more famous contemporary Bob Fosse, Bennett was not known for a
particular choreographic style. Instead, Bennett's choreography was motivated by the
form of the musical involved, or the distinct characters interpreted
CHOREOGRAPHER, WAS MOTIVATED BY THE MUSIC, CHORUS LINE
Andrew Lloyd-Webber a British composer and impresario of musical theatre.[7]
Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on
Broadway. He has also gained a number of honours, including a knighthood in 1992,[8]
followed by a peerage from Queen Elizabeth II for services to Music, 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.[9]
[10]
Several of his songs have been widely recorded and were hits outside of their parent
musicals, notably "The Music of the Night" from The Phantom of the Opera, "I Don't
Know How to Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar, "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina"
and "You Must Love Me" from Evita, "Any Dream Will Do" from Joseph and the

Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and "Memory" from Cats. His company, the Really
Useful Group, is one of the largest theatre operators in London. Producers in several parts
of the UK have staged productions, including national tours, of the Lloyd Webber
musicals under licence from the Really Useful Group. Lloyd Webber is also the president
of the Arts Educational Schools London, a prestigious performing arts school located in
Chiswick, West London. PHANTOM, cats, all around really long-running musicals
Frank Loesser June 29, 1910 July 28, 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 also wrote numerous songs for films and Tin Pan Alley, many of which have
become standards, and was nominated for five Academy Awards for best song, winning
once, for "Baby, It's Cold Outside". GUYS AND DOLLS which Fosse said was the
greatest American musical.
SONGWRITER
Stephen Sondheim an American composer and lyricist known for his immense
contributions to musical theatre for over 50 years. He is the winner of an Academy
Award, eight Tony Awards (more than any other composer) including the Special Tony
Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre,[1] eight Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize
and the Laurence Olivier Award. Described by Frank Rich of the New York Times as "now
the greatest and perhaps best-known artist in the American musical theater",[2] his most
famous works include (as composer and lyricist) A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to
the Forum, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park
with George and Into the Woods. He also wrote the lyrics for West Side Story and Gypsy.
Mentored by Hammerstein II, collaborated with James Lapine and Hal Prince on a bunch
of stuff. Basically the best lyricist ever.
Hal Prince (born January 30, 1928) is an American theatrical producer and director
associated with many of the best-known Broadway musical productions of the past halfcentury. He has garnered twenty-one Tony Awards, more than any other individual,
including eight for directing, eight for producing the year's Best Musical, two as Best
Producer of a Musical, and three special awards. PAJAMA GAME, then CABARET.
Then started collaboration with Sondheim in the 70s and just beasted from there on.
PRODUCER AND DIRECTOR, CABARET, SONDHEIM IN THE 70S
Ahrens and Flaherty Lynn (lyrics) and Stephen (music). RAGTIME. Super historical
so thats cool. Also did music for Anastasia
Gower Champion an American actor, theatre director, choreographer, and dancer.
BYE BYE BIRDIE AND HELLO, DOLLY. Tonys and stuff.
DIRECTOR
John Doyle a Tony Award winning Scottish stage director for musicals and plays, as
well as operas. He has served as artistic director at several regional theatres in the United

Kingdom, where he has staged more than 200 professional productions during his career
spanning 30 years. WON FOR SWEENEY TODD
DIRECTOR SCOTTISH SWEENEY TODD
Comden and Green was one-half of the musical-comedy duo Comden and Green, who
provided lyrics, libretti, and screenplays to some of the most beloved and successful
Hollywood musicals and Broadway shows of the mid-20th century. Her writing
partnership with Adolph Green lasted for six decades, during which time they
collaborated with other leading entertainment figures such as the famed "Freed Unit" at
MGM, Jule Styne and Leonard Bernstein, and wrote the cult musical comedy film Singin'
in the Rain. Also bells are ringing.
LYRICS AND LIBRETTI, SINGIN IN THE RAIN, WORKED WITH JULE
STYNE
Jerome Robbins was an American theater producer, director, and choreographer
known primarily for Broadway Theater and Ballet/Dance, but who also occasionally
directed films and directed/produced for television. His work ranged from classical ballet
to contemporary musical theater. Among the numerous stage productions he worked on
were On the Town, Peter Pan, High Button Shoes, The King And I, The Pajama Game,
Bells Are Ringing, West Side Story, Gypsy: A Musical Fable, and Fiddler on the Roof.
Robbins was a five time Tony Award winner and a recipient of the Kennedy Center
Honors. He received two Academy Awards, including the 1961 Academy Award for Best
Director with Robert Wise for West Side Story.
Director and CHOREOGRAPHER, CLASSICAL BALLET TO MUSICAL
THEATRE, WEST SIDE STORY
Jule Styne was a American songwriter especially famous for a series of Broadway
musicals, which include several very well known and frequently revived shows. GYPSY,
GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES, songwriter hall of fame.
SONGWRITER GYPSY,
Cameron Mackintosh a British theatrical producer notable for his association with
many commercially successful musicals. At the height of his success in 1990, he was
described as being "the most successful, influential and powerful theatrical producer in
the world" by the New York Times.[1] He is the producer of shows such as Les
Misrables, The Phantom of the Opera, Mary Poppins, Oliver!, Miss Saigon and Cats.
PRODUCER, PHANTOM, COMMERCIALLY SUCCESSFUL MUSICALS
Mackintosh was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1996 for services to musical theatre.
DEALT W/A. WEBB
Trevor Nunn is an English theatre, film and television director. Nunn has been the
Artistic Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and,
currently, the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. He has directed musicals and dramas for the

stage, as well as opera. His well-known musicals are Cats (1981) and Les Misrables
(1985). Won tonys and stuff.
LES MIS AND CATS DIRECTOR
Jason Robert Brown an American musical theater composer, lyricist, and playwright.
Brown's music sensibility fuses pop-rock stylings with theatrical lyrics. [1] An
accomplished pianist, Brown has often served as music director, conductor, orchestrator,
and pianist for his own productions. Songs are known to be extremely rhythmically
challenging, in fact, they even tell you not to sing him in an audition. 13, PARADE,
SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD
Adam Guettel is an American composer-lyricist of musical theater and opera. He is
best known for the musical The Light in the Piazza, for which he won two Tony Awards,
for Best Score and Best Orchestrations. Started in Seattle.
SONGWRITER LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA.
William Finn is an American composer and lyricist of musicals. His musical Falsettos
received the 1992 Tony Awards for Best Music and Lyrics and for Best Book.
FALSETTOS. SPELLING BEE, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
COMPOSER
Stephen Schwartz is an American musical theatre lyricist and composer. In a career
spanning over four decades, Schwartz has written such hit musicals as Godspell (1971),
Pippin (1972) and Wicked (2003). WICKED which contributed a different type of
musical theatre taking something that people would be familiar with and changing it.
Mel Brooks is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian,
actor and producer. He is best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic
parodies. THE PRODUCERS. EGOT winner. Wrote producers and young Frankenstein.
Michael John LaChiusa an American musical theatre and opera composer, lyricist,
and librettist. He is best known for musically esoteric shows such as Hello Again, Marie
Christine, The Wild Party, and See What I Wanna See.[1][2] He was nominated for four
Tony Awards in 2000 for his score and book for both Marie Christine and The Wild Party
and received another nomination for his libretto for Chronicle of a Death Foretold.
WILD PARTY thats not Lippas. known for his obscurity
Julie Taymor director. Staged the lion king. Most recently doing midsummer. Big
spectacle shows. Was doing SPIDER MAN, LION KING
Charles Strouse composer of ANNIE and BYE BYE BIRDIE, also did Rags from his
Jewish background
Jerry Herman an American composer and lyricist, known for his work in Broadway
musical theater. 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. HELLO, DOLLY, MACK AND
MABEL
Bock and Harnick composer and lyricist best known for Fiddler on the Roof.
FIDDLER, SHE LOVES ME? 60s
David Merrick was a prolific Tony Award-winning American theatrical producer.
Worked with Gower Champion on 42nd St, OLIVER
Bernadette Peters an American actress, singer and children's book author. Over the
course of a career that has spanned five decades, she has starred in musical theatre, films
and television, as well as performing in solo concerts and recordings. She is one of the
most critically acclaimed Broadway performers, having received nominations for seven
Tony Awards, winning two (plus an honorary award), and nine Drama Desk Awards,
winning three. Four of the Broadway cast albums on which she has starred have won
Grammy Awards.
Regarded by many as the foremost interpreter of the works of Stephen Sondheim,[1]
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. SONDHEIM.
Arthur Laurents was an American playwright, stage director and screenwriter.[2]
After writing scripts for radio shows after college and then training films for the U.S.
Army during World War II, Laurents turned to writing for Broadway, producing a body
of work that includes West Side Story (1957), Gypsy (1959), Hallelujah, Baby! (1967),
and La Cage Aux Folles (1983), and directing some of his own shows and other
Broadway productions. WROTE WEST SIDE AND GYPSY
Lin-Manuel Miranda is an American composer, rapper, lyricist, and actor. He wrote
the Broadway musical In the Heights. It opened on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers
Theatre in 2008, and Miranda starred in it as Usnavi; he also won the Tony Award as
composer and lyricist for it. IN THE HEIGHTS
George Furth playwright- collabed with Sondheim for Company and Merrily we Roll
Along
Gwen Verdon Fosses wife. an actress and dancer who won four Tony awards for her
musical comedy performances and served as uncredited choreographers assistant and
specialty dance coach for both theater and film. With flaming red hair and an endearing
quaver in her voice, Verdon was a critically acclaimed performer on Broadway in the
1950s and 1960s. Having originated many roles in musicals she is also strongly identified
with her second husband, directorchoreographer Bob Fosse, remembered as the dancer

collaboratormuse for whom he choreographed much of his work and as the guardian of
his legacy after his death.
Donna McKechnie original CHORUS LINE Cassie member. Personal relationship
with Michael Bennett.
Carol Channing an American singer, actress, and comedienne. 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 role of bombshell Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Diamonds
are a girls best friend GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES
Julie Andrews 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. Best known for sound of music and my fair lady. Film and television as
well.
Angela Lansbury a British American[1] actress and singer in theatre, television and
films. Her career has spanned seven decades and earned an unsurpassed number of
performance Tony Awards (tied with Julie Harris and Audra McDonald), with five wins.
MAME, SWEENEY
Joel Grey an American stage and screen actor, singer, and dancer, known for his role as
the Master of Ceremonies in both the stage and film versions of the Kander & Ebb
musical Cabaret. He has won the Academy Award, Tony Award and Golden Globe
Award. He also originated the role of George M. Cohan in the musical George M! in
1973 and the Wizard in the musical Wicked. Grey also starred in the Broadway revivals
of Anything Goes as Moonface Martin, and Chicago as Amos Hart. EMCEE IN
CABARET and has been in likeeverything
Tommy Tune NINE, BYE BYE BIRDIE, director/producer/actor/choreographer. Has
won 9 tonys.
Boris Aronson was an American scenic designer for Broadway and Yiddish theatre. He
won the Tony Award for Scenic Design six times in his career. Won tonys for CABARET,
did set design for FIDDLER. Company, follies
Set design
Zero Mostel 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. Height of career in the 60s
Moss Hart (October 24, 1904 December 20, 1961) was an American playwright and
theatre director. Worked on the revue by Irving Berlin AS THOUSANDS CHEER.
Merrily we roll along which Sondheim eventually based the musical off of?