By Ligia Fernandez
To access past Entertainers columns, click on the Entertainers archive
link to the left.
May 2009
|
Source:
pbs.org
|
Sophie Tucker
(1884 - 1966)
|
|
"From birth to age eighteen, a girl needs good parents.
From eighteen to thirty-five she needs good looks. From thirty-five to
fifty-five, she needs a good personality. From fifty-five on, she needs good
cash." -- Sophie Tucker This legendary
vaudevillian, comedienne and nightclub entertainer has born Sophia Kalish in
Russia and her family later emigrated to Connecticut where she raised.
She began her career in vaudeville and burlesque during
the early part of the 20th Century. Never considered a great beauty and
always the "fat girl" among the reedy showgirls, she nonetheless capitalized
on her unconventional looks with humor, featuring songs in her act with
titles like "I Don't Want To Be Thin" and "Oh How A Fat Girl Can Love."
She introduced her most well-know recording and signature song, "Some of
These Days" in 1911. Another popular tune, written for her in 1925,
was "My Yiddishe Momme."
She appeared briefly with the Ziegfeld Follies and had
small parts in movies (including playing Judy Garland's mother in THE BIG
BROADCAST OF 1938), but it was as a nightclub entertainer where she achieved
her greatest successes. Her evening of somewhat risque songs and stories,
leading her to be dubbed 'The Last of the Red Hot Mamas," was a huge hit on
the nightclub circuit and kept her in the public eye for the rest of her
life.
Many of today's female entertainers, mostly notably Bette
Midler and Roseanne, have credited Tucker as a major influence. Midler
even incorporated a very bawdy character named "Soph" in her early stage
shows. |
|
Source:
johnbarrowman.com |
John Barrowman
(1967 - ) |
|
Handsome West End leading man John Barrowman has starred in
some of the UK's most successful musical blockbusters.
Starting with his 1989 West End debut as Billy Crocker in
ANYTHING GOES opposite Elaine Paige, his considerable musical theatre
credits include MISS SAIGON (Chris), THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (Raoul),
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (Beast), HAIR (Claude), SUNSET BLVD. (Joe Gillis) and
EVITA (Che).
On Broadway, he appeared in the Sondheim revue PUTTING IT
TOGETHER with Carol Burnett. He also played Bobby in a very successful
production of COMPANY at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.
His movie appearances include Lead Tenor in the musical
THE PRODUCERS and Jack in the Cole Porter biopic DE-LOVELY.
American audiences can currently see him on BBC America as
one of the celebrity judges on the competition series ANY DREAM WILL DO (the
search for a leading man for a new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's first
musical JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR) and as the star of the DOCTOR
WHO spin-off series TORCHWOOD. |
|
Next update to this page: Sunday, June 7, 2009 |
|
|
|
|
