By Ligia Fernandez
To access past Entertainers columns, click on the Entertainers archive
link to the left.
November 2008
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Source:
museumplanet.com
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Marilyn Miller
(1898 - 1936)
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Early 20th Century Broadway musical theatre empresario
Florenz Ziegfield was known for his lavish revues "glorifying the American
Girl." One of his greatest female stars was the diminutive blonde
beauty Marilyn Miller. A discovery of theatre
producers Lee and JJ Shubert, Miller made her Broadway musical debut in the
Shubert -produced revue THE PASSING SHOW OF 1914. She went on to
appear in 1915 and 1917 editions of THE PASSING SHOW, THE SHOW OF WONDERS
and the musical FANCY FREE for the Shuberts.
She then signed with Ziegfeld to appear in THE ZIEGFELD OF
FOLLIES of 1918 before achieving stardom playing the lead in the hit 1920
musical SALLY (where she introduced the classic "Look For The Silver
Lining").
Once the highest-paid female musical star on Broadway, she
starred in three other musicals -- Harbach & Hammerstein's hit SUNNY,
Gershwin & Romberg's ROSALIE and Youmans, Grey & Adamson's SMILES. With the
advent of sound movies, she was able to reprise two of her best roles, SALLY
and SUNNY, for the silver screen.
Her final Broadway appearance was in 1933 Irving Berlin
revue AS THOUSANDS CHEER. |
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Source:
playbill.com |
Brian D'Arcy James
(1968 - ) |
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Brian D'Arcy James is a name that few people outside of the
Broadway community know. That's all about to change with the Dec. 14, 2008
opening of SHREK THE MUSICAL where James will be transforming nightly into
Disney's loveable green ogre opposite Tony-winner Sutton Foster (THOROUGHLY
MODERN MILLIE) as Princess Fiona. He received a Tony
nomination for playing sleazy press agent Sydney in the musical version of
SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS with John Lithgow. He has also appeared in the
Broadway companies of TITANIC, DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS, and THE APPLE TREE
as well as a host of off-Broadway and regional productions including City
Center Encores' PARDON MY ENGLISH, THE WILD PARTY, FLOYD COLLINS and IRVING
BERLIN'S WHITE CHRISTMAS.
In 2004 he released his first solo Christmas CD, FROM
CHRISTMAS EVE TO CHRISTMAS MORN. In addition to the original cast
recordings of TITANIC and SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS, he can also be heard on
the compilation and studio cast recordings of THE WILD PARTY, BROWNSTONE,
THE MAURY YESTON SONGBOOK, THE STEPHEN SCHWARTZ ALBUM, VIOLET, FAR FROM THE
MADDING CROWD and ELEGIES FOR PUNKS, ANGELS AND RAGING QUEENS. |
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Next update to this page: Sunday, December 7, 2008 |
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