(1866), considered by some historians to be the first musical]] Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole. Since the early 20th century, musical theatre stage works have generally been called simply, "musicals".

Musicals are performed all around the world. They may be presented in large venues, such as big budget West End and Broadway theatre productions in London and New York City, or in smaller fringe theatre, Off-Broadway or regional productions, on tour, or by amateur groups in schools, theatres and other performance spaces. In addition to Britain and North America, there are vibrant musical theatre scenes in many countries in Europe, Latin America, Australasia and Asia.

Some famous musicals include Show Boat, Oklahoma!, West Side Story, The Fantasticks, Hair, A Chorus Line, Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, Rent, The Producers and Wicked.

Definitions

Book musicals

The 20th century "book musical" has been defined as a musical play where the songs and dances are fully integrated into a well-made story, with serious dramatic goals, that is able to evoke genuine emotions other than laughter. The three main components of a book musical are the music, the lyrics, and the book. The book of a musical refers to the story, character development, and dramatic structure, including the spoken dialogue. Book can also refer to the dialogue and lyrics together, which are sometimes referred to (as in opera) as the libretto (Italian for “little book”). The music and lyrics together form the score of the musical. The interpretation of the musical by the creative team of each production heavily influences the way in which the musical is presented. That team includes a director, a musical director, usually a choreographer and sometimes an orchestrator. A musical's production is also creatively characterized by technical aspects, such as set design, costumes, stage properties (props), lighting and sound, which generally change from the original production to succeeding productions. Some famous production elements, however, may be retained from the original production; for example, Bob Fosse's choreography in Chicago.

There is no fixed length for a musical. It can range from a short one-act entertainment to several acts and several hours in length (or even a multi-evening presentation); however, most musicals range from one and a half hours to three hours. Musicals are usually presented in two acts, with one intermission ten to twenty minutes in length. The first act is frequently longer than the second act. It generally introduces nearly all of the characters and most of the music, and often ends with the introduction of a dramatic conflict or plot complication. The second act may introduce a few new songs but usually contains reprises of important musical themes and resolves the conflict or complication. A book musical is usually built around four to six main theme tunes that are reprised later in the show, although it sometimes consists of a series of songs not directly musically related. Spoken dialogue is generally interspersed between musical numbers, although "sung dialogue" or recitative may be used, especially in so-called "sung-through" musicals such as Jesus Christ Superstar, Les Misérables, and Evita. Several shorter musicals on Broadway and in the West End have been presented in one act in recent decades.

(1893) was one of the first hit musicals.]] A book musical's moments of greatest dramatic intensity are often performed in song. Proverbially, "when the emotion becomes too strong for speech you sing; when it becomes too strong for song, you dance." In a book musical, a song is ideally crafted to suit the character (or characters) and their situation within the story; although there have been times in the history of the musical (e.g. from the 1890s to the 1920s) when this integration between music and story has been tenuous. As New York Times critic Ben Brantley described the ideal of song in theatre in reviewing the 2008 revival of Gypsy, "There is no separation at all between song and character, which is what happens in those uncommon moments when musicals reach upward to achieve their ideal reasons to be." Typically, many fewer words are sung in a five-minute song than are spoken in a five-minute block of dialogue. Therefore there is less time to develop drama in a musical than in a straight play of equivalent length, since a musical usually devotes more time to music than to dialogue. Within the compressed nature of the musical, the writers must develop the characters and the plot.

The material in a musical may be original, or it may be adapted from novels (Wicked and Man of La Mancha), plays (Hello, Dolly!), classic legends (Camelot), historical events (Evita) or films (The Producers and Hairspray). On the other hand, many successful musical theatre works have been adapted for musical films, such as The Sound of Music, West Side Story, My Fair Lady, and Chicago.

Distinctions and overlap with opera; other forms

Musical theatre is closely related to another theatrical performance art, opera. These forms are usually distinguished by weighing a number of factors. Musicals generally have a greater focus on spoken dialogue (though some musicals are entirely accompanied and sung through; and on the other hand, some operas, such as Die Zauberflöte, and most operettas, have some unaccompanied dialogue); on dancing (particularly by the principal performers as well as the chorus); on the use of various genres of popular music (or at least popular singing styles); and on the avoidance of certain operatic conventions. In particular, a musical is almost always performed in the language of its audience. Musicals produced in London or New York, for instance, are invariably sung in English, even if they were originally written in another language (Les Misérables, originally written in French, is a good example). While an opera singer is primarily a singer and only secondarily an actor (and rarely needs to dance), a musical theatre performer is often an actor first and then a singer and dancer. Someone who is equally accomplished at all three is referred to as a "triple threat". Composers of music for musicals often consider the vocal demands of roles with musical theatre performers in mind. Today, theatres staging musicals generally use amplification of the actors' singing voices in a way that would generally be disapproved of in an operatic context.

Some works (e.g. by George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim) have received both "musical theatre" and "operatic" productions. Similarly, some older operettas or light operas (such as The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan) have had modern productions or adaptations that treat them as musicals. For some works, production styles are almost as important as the work's musical or dramatic content in defining into which art form the piece falls. Sondheim said: "I really think that when something plays Broadway it's a musical, and when it plays in an opera house it's opera. That's it. It's the terrain, the countryside, the expectations of the audience that make it one thing or another." This article primarily concerns musical theatre works that are "non-operatic", but overlap remains between lighter operatic forms and the more musically complex or ambitious musicals. In practice, it is often difficult to distinguish among the various kinds of musical theatre, including "musical play", "musical comedy", "operetta" and "light opera".

India produces numerous musical films, referred to as "Bollywood" musicals, and in Japan a series of musicals based on popular Anime and Manga comics has developed. Other current musical forms include the revue. Another recent genre of musicals, called "jukebox musicals" (for instance, Mamma Mia!), weaves songs written by (or introduced by) a popular artist, group or genre into a story, sometimes based on the life or career of the person/group in question. Shorter "junior" versions of many musicals are available for schools and youth groups, and very short works created or adapted for performance by children are sometimes called minimusicals.

History

Antiquity to Middle Ages

Musical theatre in Europe dates back to the theatre of the ancient Greeks, who included music and dance in their stage comedies and tragedies in the 5th century BCE. The dramatists Aeschylus and Sophocles composed their own music to accompany their plays and choreographed the dances of the chorus. The 3rd-century BCE Roman comedies of Plautus included song and dance routines performed with orchestrations. The Romans introduced technical innovations. For example, to make the dance steps more audible in large open air theatres, Roman actors attached metal chips called "sabilla" to their stage footwear – the first tap shoes. By the Middle Ages, theatre in Europe consisted mostly of travelling minstrels and small performing troupes of performers singing and offering slapstick comedy.

Musical theatre in India also began in antiquity, with highly stylized ancient Sanskrit drama focused on spectacle, where the dramatic experience was created by combining Classical Indian music, Classical Indian dance and mime. Natya Shastra was a form of Sanskrit dance-drama. As Sanskrit theatre declined, around the 10th century, Indian folk theatre became popular. The theatre of the Parsi people "blended realism and fantasy, music and dance, narrative and spectacle, earthy dialogue and ingenuity of stage presentation, integrating them into a dramatic discourse of melodrama." These theatrical forms have had an influence on modern Indian cinema, including the Bollywood films. Plays, perhaps particularly the heavier histories and tragedies, were frequently broken up with a short musical play, perhaps derived from the Italian intermezzo, with music, jokes and dancing, or were followed by an afterpiece known as a jigg, often consisting of scandalous or libellous dialogue set to popular tunes (anticipating the Ballad Opera). Court masques developed during the Tudor period. Masques were elaborate performances involving music, dancing, singing and acting, often with expensive costumes and a complex stage design, sometimes by a renowned architect such as Inigo Jones, presented a deferential allegory flattering to a noble or royal patron. Ben Jonson wrote many masques, often collaborating with Jones. Shakespeare included masque-like sections in many of his plays.

The musical sections of masques developed into sung plays that are recognizable as English operas, the first usually being thought of as William Davenant's The Siege of Rhodes (1656), originally given in a private performance. In France, meanwhile, Molière turned several of his farcical comedies into musical entertainments with songs (music provided by Jean Baptiste Lully) and dance in the late 17th century. His Psyche was the model for an English opera by Thomas Shadwell, The Miser produced in 1672. Davenant produced The Tempest in 1667, which was the first Shakespeare plot set to music, and which was then adapted by Shadwell into an opera in 1674 (composed by Matthew Locke and others). Blow was followed by Henry Purcell and a brief period of English opera. After the death of Charles II in 1685, English opera began to fall out of fashion.

The first recorded long running play of any kind was The Beggar's Opera, which ran for 62 successive performances in 1728. It would take almost a century before the first play broke 100 performances, with Tom and Jerry, based on the book Life in London (1821), and the record soon reached 150 in the late 1820s.

Colonial America did not have a significant theatre presence until 1752, when London entrepreneur William Hallam sent a company of twelve actors to the colonies with his brother Lewis as their manager. They established a theatre in Williamsburg, Virginia and opened with The Merchant of Venice and The Anatomist. The company moved to New York in the summer of 1753, performing ballad-operas such as The Beggar’s Opera and ballad-farces like Damon and Phillida. Theatre in New York moved from downtown gradually to midtown from around 1850, seeking less expensive real estate prices, and did not arrive in the Times Square area until the 1920s and 1930s. Broadway's first "long-run" musical was a 50 performance hit called The Elves in 1857. New York runs continued to lag far behind those in London, but Laura Keene's "musical burletta" Seven Sisters (1860) shattered previous New York records with a run of 253 performances.

Development of musical comedy

The first theatre piece that conforms to the modern conception of a musical, adding dance and original music that helped to tell the story, is generally considered to be The Black Crook, which premiered in New York on September 12, 1866. The production was a staggering five-and-a-half hours long, but despite its length, it ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. The same year, The Black Domino/Between You, Me and the Post was the first show to call itself a "musical comedy." At that time, in England, musical theatre consisted of mostly of music hall, adaptations of risqué French operetta and musical burlesques, notably at the Gaiety Theatre beginning in 1868. In reaction to these a few family-friendly entertainments were created, such as the German Reed Entertainments.

Comedians Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart produced and starred in musicals on Broadway between 1878 (The Mulligan Guard Picnic) and 1885, with book and lyrics by Harrigan and music by his father-in-law David Braham. These musical comedies featured characters and situations taken from the everyday life of New York's lower classes and represented a significant step forward from burletta and burlesque, towards a more literate form. They starred high quality singers (Lillian Russell, Vivienne Segal, and Fay Templeton) instead of the ladies of questionable repute who had starred in earlier musical forms.

The length of runs in the theatre changed rapidly around the same time that the modern musical was born. As transportation improved, poverty in London and New York diminished, and street lighting made for safer travel at night, the number of potential patrons for the growing number of theatres increased enormously. Plays could run longer and still draw in the audiences, leading to better profits and improved production values. The first play to achieve 500 consecutive performances was the London (non-musical) comedy Our Boys, opening in 1875, which set an astonishing new record of 1,362 performances.

Meanwhile, musicals had spread to the London stage by the Gay Nineties. George Edwardes had left the management of Richard D'Oyly Carte's Savoy Theatre. He took over the Gaiety Theatre and, at first, he improved the quality of the old Gaiety Theatre burlesques. He perceived that audiences wanted a new alternative to the Savoy-style comic operas and their intellectual, political, absurdist satire. He experimented with a modern-dress, family-friendly musical theatre style, with breezy, popular songs, snappy, romantic banter, and stylish spectacle at the Gaiety, Daly's Theatre and other venues. These drew on the traditions of comic opera and also used elements of burlesque and of the Harrigan and Hart pieces. He replaced the bawdy women of burlesque with his "respectable" corps of dancing, singing Gaiety Girls to complete the musical and visual fun. The success of the first of these, In Town in 1892 and A Gaiety Girl in 1893, confirmed Edwardes on the path he was taking. These "musical comedies", as he called them, revolutionized the London stage and set the tone for the next three decades.

Edwardes' early Gaiety hits included a series of light, romantic "poor maiden loves aristocrat and wins him against all odds" shows, usually with the word "Girl" in the title, including The Shop Girl (1894) and A Runaway Girl (1898), with music by Ivan Caryll and Lionel Monckton. These shows were immediately widely copied at other London theatres (and soon in America), and the Edwardian musical comedy swept away the earlier musical forms of comic opera and operetta. At Daly's Theatre, Edwardes presented slightly more complex comedy hits. The Geisha (1896) by Sidney Jones with lyrics by Harry Greenbank and Adrian Ross and then Jones' San Toy (1899) each ran for more than two years and also found great international success.

The British musical comedy Florodora (1899) by Leslie Stuart and Paul Rubens made a splash on both sides of the Atlantic, as did A Chinese Honeymoon (1901), by British lyricist George Dance and American-born composer Howard Talbot, which ran for a record setting 1,074 performances in London and 376 in New York. The story concerns couples who honeymoon in China and inadvertently break the kissing laws (shades of The Mikado). The Belle of New York (1898) ran for 697 performances in London after a brief New York run, becoming the first American musical to run for over a year in London. After the turn of the 20th century, Seymour Hicks (who joined forces with American producer Charles Frohman) wrote popular shows with composer Charles Taylor and others, and Edwardes and Ross continued to churn out hits like The Toreador (1901), A Country Girl (1902), The Orchid (1903), The Girls of Gottenberg (1907) and Our Miss Gibbs (1909). Other Edwardian musical comedy hits included The Arcadians (1909) and The Quaker Girl (1910).

Operetta and World War I

Meanwhile, around 1850, the French composer Hervé was experimenting with a form of comic musical theatre that came to be called operette. Probably the best known composers of operette, or operetta in English, were Jacques Offenbach in the 1850s to 1870s and Johann Strauss II in the 1870s and 1880s (usually played in bad, bawdy translations in London and New York). In England in the 1870s and 1880s, W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan created a family-friendly alternative to French operetta, styled British comic opera. Although lightly-plotted topical British and American musicals of the 1890s and the first few years of the 20th century had virtually swept operetta and comic opera from the stage, operettas returned to London and Broadway in 1907 with The Merry Widow, and operettas and musicals became direct competitors for a time.

In the early years of the 20th century, English-language adaptations of 19th century continental operettas, as well as operettas by a new generation of European composers, such as Franz Lehár and Oscar Straus, among others, spread throughout the English-speaking world, and Victor Herbert, whose work included some intimate musical plays with modern settings as well as his string of famous operettas (The Fortune Teller (1898), Babes in Toyland (1903), Mlle. Modiste (1905), The Red Mill (1906) and Naughty Marietta (1910)) often with librettist Harry B. Smith. These operetta composers were joined by British and American composers and librettists of the 1910s, including the team of P. G. Wodehouse, Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern. Following in the footsteps of Gilbert and Sullivan, their "Princess Theatre shows" paved the way for Kern's later work by showing that a musical could combine light, popular entertainment with continuity between its story and songs:

in Chu Chin Chow]] The winner of this competition between operetta and musicals was the theatre-going public, who needed escapist entertainment during the dark times of World War I. While Americans discovered Victor Herbert (Irene, whose run of 670 performances was a Broadway record that held until 1938's Hellzapoppin) and the Princess Theatre musicals, the British public flocked to theatres for hits like Maid of the Mountains and especially Chu Chin Chow (whose run of 2,238 performances, more than twice as many as any previous musical, set a record that stood for nearly forty years until Salad Days) as well as popular revues like The Bing Boys Are Here. The legacy of the operetta composers served as an inspiration to the next generation of composers of operettas in the 1920s and 1930s, such as Rudolf Friml and Sigmund Romberg, while the Princess theatre musicals inspired George Gershwin, Irving Berlin and Noël Coward; and all these, in turn, influenced Rodgers, Sondheim, and those composing later in the century.

The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression

The motion picture mounted a challenge to the stage. At first, films were silent and presented only a limited challenge to theatre. But by the end of the 1920s, films like The Jazz Singer could be presented with synchronized sound, and critics wondered if the cinema would replace live theatre altogether. The musicals of the Roaring Twenties, borrowing from vaudeville, music hall and other light entertainments, tended to ignore plot in favor of emphasizing star actors and actresses, big dance routines, and popular songs. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, popular music was dominated by theatre writers. Many shows were revues with little plot. For instance, Florenz Ziegfeld produced annual spectacular song-and-dance revues on Broadway featuring extravagant sets and elaborate costumes, but there was little to tie the various numbers together. In London, the Aldwych Farces were similarly successful, and stars such as Ivor Novello were popular. These spectacles also raised production values, and mounting a musical generally became more expensive.

, 1920]] Typical of the decade were lighthearted productions like Sally; Lady Be Good; Sunny; No, No, Nanette; Oh, Kay!; and Funny Face. Their books may have been forgettable, but they produced enduring standards from George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Kern, Vincent Youmans, and Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, among others, and featured stars like Marilyn Miller and Fred Astaire. Audiences tapped their toes to these musicals on both sides of the Atlantic ocean while popular operettas (after taking a break since World War I) returned from continental Europe and also from composers like Noël Coward in London and Sigmund Romberg and Rudolf Friml in America. Clearly, cinema had not killed live theatre.

Leaving these comparatively frivolous entertainments behind, and taking the drama a giant step beyond Victor Herbert and merely sentimental operetta, Show Boat, which premiered on December 27, 1927 at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York, represented an even more complete integration of book and score than the Princess Theatre musicals, with dramatic themes, as told through the music, dialogue, setting and movement, woven together even more seamlessly. This was accomplished by combining the lyricism of Kern with the skillful craft of Oscar Hammerstein II, who adapted Edna Ferber's novel. One historian wrote, "Here we come to a completely new genre – the musical play as distinguished from musical comedy. Now ... the play was the thing, and everything else was subservient to that play. Now ... came complete integration of song, humor and production numbers into a single and inextricable artistic entity." However, Bordman argues, "Show Boat is certainly an operetta with its many arioso passages, its musical depth and seriousness, and its romantic story set, in typical operetta fashion, in the long ago and far away." Nevertheless, as the Great Depression set in during the post-Broadway national tour of Show Boat, the public turned back to light, brassy, escapist entertainment, and no follow-up was produced so seriously treating serious social themes until Oklahoma! in 1943. Only a few stage shows exceeded a run on Broadway or in London of 500 performances during the decade. Still, for those who could afford it, this was an exciting time in the development of musical theatre. Encouraged by the success of Show Boat, creative teams began following the "format" of that popular hit, integrating song and dance with smart books. Of Thee I Sing (1931), a political satire with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin and Morrie Ryskind, was the first musical to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize. The Band Wagon (1931), starred dancing partners Fred Astaire and his sister Adele. Porter's Anything Goes (1934) confirmed Ethel Merman's position as the First Lady of musical theatre – a title she maintained for many years. As Thousands Cheer (1933) was an Irving Berlin and Moss Hart success that marked Marilyn Miller's last show and the first Broadway show to star an African-American, Ethel Waters).

Gershwin's Porgy and Bess (1935) was a step closer to opera than Show Boat and the other musicals of the era, and in some respects it foreshadowed such "operatic" musicals as West Side Story and Sweeney Todd. The Cradle Will Rock (1937), with a book and score by Marc Blitzstein and directed by Orson Welles, was a highly political piece that, despite the controversy surrounding it, managed to run for 108 performances. Kurt Weill's Knickerbocker Holiday brought to the musical stage New York City's early history, using as its source writings by Washington Irving, while good-naturedly satirizing the good intentions of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

British writers such as Noël Coward and Ivor Novello continued to deliver old fashioned, sentimental musicals, such as The Dancing Years. Similarly, Rodgers & Hart returned from Hollywood to churn out a series of lighthearted Broadway hits, including On Your Toes (1936, with Ray Bolger, the first Broadway musical to make dramatic use of classical dance), Babes In Arms (1937), I'd Rather Be Right, a political satire with George M. Cohan as President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and The Boys From Syracuse (1938), and Cole Porter wrote a similar string of hits, including Anything Goes (1934) and DuBarry Was a Lady (1939). He later would go on to write scores for such classics as Can-Can (1953) and Silk Stockings (1955). But the longest running piece of musical theatre of the 1930s was Hellzapoppin (1938), a revue with audience participation, which played for 1,404 performances, setting a new Broadway record that was finally beaten by Oklahoma!

Despite the economic woes and the competition from film, the musical survived. In fact, the move towards political satire in Of Thee I Sing, I'd Rather Be Right and Knickerbocker Holiday, together with the musical sophistication of the Gershwin, Kern, Rodgers and Weill musicals and the fast-paced staging and naturalistic dialogue style created by director George Abbott showed that musical theatre was finally evolving beyond the gags and showgirls musicals of the Gay Nineties and Roaring Twenties and the sentimental romance of operetta.

The Golden Age (1940s to 1960s)

(left and right) and Irving Berlin (center)]]

1940s

The 1940s would begin with more hits from Porter, Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hart, Weill and Gershwin, some with runs over 500 performances as the economy rebounded, but artistic change was in the air.

Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! completed the revolution begun by Show Boat, by tightly integrating all the aspects of musical theatre, with a cohesive plot, songs that furthered the action of the story, and featured dream ballets and other dances that advanced the plot and developed the characters, rather than using dance as an excuse to parade scantily clad women across the stage. Rodgers and Hammerstein hired ballet choreographer Agnes de Mille, who used everyday motions to help the characters express their ideas. It defied musical conventions by raising its first act curtain not on a bevy of chorus girls, but rather on a woman churning butter, with an off-stage voice singing the opening lines of Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin' a capella. It drew rave reviews, set off a box-office frenzy and received a Pulitzer Prize. Brooks Atkinson wrote in The New York Times that the show's opening number changed the history of musical theater: “After a verse like that, sung to a buoyant melody, the banalities of the old musical stage became intolerable." It was the first "blockbuster" Broadway show, running a total of 2,212 performances, and was made into a hit film. It remains one of the most frequently produced of the team's projects. William A. Everett and Paul R. Laird wrote that this was a "show, that, like Show Boat, became a milestone, so that later historians writing about important moments in twentieth-century theatre would begin to identify eras according to their relationship to Oklahoma!''"

"After Oklahoma!, Rodgers and Hammerstein were the most important contributors to the musical-play form... The examples they set in creating vital plays, often rich with social thought, provided the necessary encouragement for other gifted writers to create musical plays of their own".

As in Oklahoma!, dance was an integral part of West Side Story (1957), which transported Romeo and Juliet to modern day New York City and converted the feuding Montague and Capulet families into opposing ethnic gangs, the Jets and the Sharks. The book was adapted by Arthur Laurents, with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by newcomer Stephen Sondheim. It was embraced by the critics but failed to be a popular choice for the "blue-haired matinee ladies," who preferred the small town River City, Iowa of Meredith Willson's The Music Man to the alleys of Manhattan's Upper West Side. Apparently Tony Award voters were of a similar mind, since they favored the former over the latter. West Side Story had a respectable run of 732 performances (1,040 in the West End), while The Music Man ran nearly twice as long, with 1,375 performances. However, the film of West Side Story was extremely successful.

Laurents and Sondheim teamed up again for (1959, 702 performances), with Jule Styne providing the music for a backstage story about the most driven stage mother of all-time, stripper Gypsy Rose Lee's mother Rose. The original production ran for 702 performances, and was given four subsequent revivals, with Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, Bernadette Peters and Patti LuPone later tackling the role made famous by Ethel Merman.

Automotive companies and other types of corporations began to hire Broadway talent to write corporate musicals, private shows which were only seen by their employees or customers. The 1950s ended with Rodgers and Hammerstein's last hit, The Sound of Music, which also became another hit for Mary Martin. It ran for 1,443 performances and shared the Tony Award for Best Musical. Together with its extremely successful 1965 film version, it has become one of the most popular musicals in history.

1960s

In 1960, The Fantasticks was first produced off-Broadway. This intimate allegorical show would quietly run for over 40 years at the Sullivan Street Theatre in Greenwich Village, becoming by far the longest-running musical in history. Its authors produced other innovative works in the 1960s, such as Celebration and I Do! I Do!, the first two-character Broadway musical. The 1960s would see a number of blockbusters, like Fiddler on the Roof (1964; 3,242 performances), Hello, Dolly! (1964; 2,844 performances), Funny Girl (1964; 1,348 performances), and Man of La Mancha (1965; 2,328 performances), and some more risqué pieces like Cabaret, before ending with the emergence of the rock musical. Two men had considerable impact on musical theatre history beginning in this decade, Stephen Sondheim and Jerry Herman.

(shown in 2008) has starred in several Sondheim shows]] The first project for which Sondheim wrote both music and lyrics was A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962, 964 performances), with a book based on the works of Plautus by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, and starring Zero Mostel. Sondheim moved the musical beyond its concentration on the romantic plots typical of earlier eras; his work tended to be darker, exploring the grittier sides of life both present and past. Some of his earlier works include Anyone Can Whistle (1964, which—at a mere nine performances, despite having star power in Lee Remick and Angela Lansbury—is an infamous flop), Company (1970), Follies (1971), and A Little Night Music (1973). He has found inspiration in the unlikeliest of sources—the opening of Japan to Western trade for Pacific Overtures, a legendary murderous barber seeking revenge in the Industrial Age of London for Sweeney Todd, the paintings of Georges Seurat for Sunday in the Park with George, fairy tales for Into the Woods, and a collection of presidential assassins in Assassins.

While some critics have argued that some of Sondheim’s musicals lack commercial appeal, others have praised their lyrical sophistication and musical complexity, as well as the interplay of lyrics and music in his shows. Some of Sondheim's notable innovations include a show presented in reverse (Merrily We Roll Along) and the above-mentioned Anyone Can Whistle, in which the first act ends with the cast informing the audience that they are mad.

Jerry Herman played a significant role in American musical theatre, beginning with his first Broadway production, Milk and Honey (1961, 563 performances), about the founding of the state of Israel, and continuing with the smash hits Hello, Dolly! (1964, 2,844 performances), Mame (1966, 1,508 performances), and La Cage aux Folles (1983, 1,761 performances). Even his less successful shows like Dear World (1969) and Mack & Mabel (1974) have had memorable scores (Mack & Mabel was later reworked into a London hit). Writing both words and music, many of Herman's show tunes have become popular standards, including "Hello, Dolly!", "We Need a Little Christmas", "I Am What I Am", "Mame", "The Best of Times", "Before the Parade Passes By", "Put On Your Sunday Clothes", "It Only Takes a Moment", "Bosom Buddies", and "I Won't Send Roses", recorded by such artists as Louis Armstrong, Eydie Gorme, Barbra Streisand, Petula Clark and Bernadette Peters. Herman's songbook has been the subject of two popular musical revues, Jerry's Girls (Broadway, 1985), and Showtune (off-Broadway, 2003).

The musical started to diverge from the relatively narrow confines of the 1950s. Rock music would be used in several Broadway musicals, beginning with Hair, which featured not only rock music but also nudity and controversial opinions about the Vietnam War, race relations and other social issues.

Social themes

After Show Boat and Porgy and Bess, and as the struggle in America and elsewhere for minorities' civil rights progressed, Hammerstein, Harold Arlen, Yip Harburg and others were emboldened to write more musicals and operas which aimed to normalize societal toleration of minorities and urged racial harmony. Early Golden Age works that focused on racial tolerance included Finian's Rainbow, South Pacific, and The King and I. Towards the end of the Golden Age, several shows tackled Jewish subjects and issues, such as Fiddler on the Roof, Milk and Honey, Blitz! and later Rags. The original concept that became West Side Story was set in the Lower East Side during Easter-Passover celebrations; the rival gangs were to be Jewish and Italian Catholic. The creative team later decided that the Polish (white) vs. Puerto Rican conflict was fresher.

Tolerance as an important theme in musicals has continued in recent decades. The final expression of West Side Story left a message of racial tolerance. By the end of the '60s, musicals became racially integrated, with black and white cast members even covering each others' roles, as they did in Hair. Casting in some musicals is an attempt to represent the community at the subject of the drama, as in Rent and In the Heights. Homosexuality has been explored in such musicals, beginning with Hair, and even more overtly in La Cage aux Folles and Falsettos. Parade is a sensitive exploration of both anti-Semitism and historical American racism.

More recent periods

1970s

After the success of Hair, rock musicals flourished in the 1970s, with Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell, The Rocky Horror Show and Two Gentlemen of Verona. Some of these rock musicals began with "concept albums" and then moved to film or stage, such as Tommy. Others had no dialogue or were otherwise reminiscent of opera, with dramatic, emotional themes; these sometimes started as concept albums and were referred to as rock operas. The musical also went in other directions. Shows like Raisin, Dreamgirls, Purlie, and The Wiz brought a significant African-American influence to Broadway. More varied musical genres and styles were incorporated into musicals both on and especially off-Broadway.

1975 brought one of the great contemporary musicals to the stage. A Chorus Line emerged from recorded group therapy-style sessions Michael Bennett conducted with Gypsies — those who sing and dance in support of the leading players —from the Broadway community. From hundreds of hours of tapes, James Kirkwood, Jr. and Nick Dante fashioned a book about an audition for a musical, incorporating into it many of the real-life stories of those who had sat in on the sessions — and some of whom eventually played variations of themselves or each other in the show. With music by Marvin Hamlisch and lyrics by Edward Kleban, A Chorus Line first opened at Joseph Papp's Public Theater in lower Manhattan. Advance word-of-mouth— that something extraordinary was about to explode — boosted box office sales, and after critics ran out of superlatives to describe what they witnessed on opening night, what initially had been planned as a limited engagement eventually moved to the Shubert Theatre uptown for a run that seemed to last forever. The show swept the Tony Awards and won the Pulitzer Prize, and its hit song, What I Did for Love, became an instant standard.

Clearly, Broadway audiences were eager to welcome musicals that strayed from the usual style and substance. John Kander and Fred Ebb explored the rise of Nazism in Germany in Cabaret and Prohibition-era Chicago, which relied on old vaudeville techniques to tell its tale of murder and the media. Pippin, by Stephen Schwartz, was set in the days of Charlemagne. Federico Fellini's autobiographical film 8½ became Maury Yeston's Nine. At the end of the decade, Evita gave a more serious political biography than audiences were used to at musicals, and Sweeney Todd was the precursor to the darker, big budget musicals of the 1980s like Les Misérables, Miss Saigon, and The Phantom of the Opera, that depended on dramatic stories, sweeping scores and spectacular effects. But during this same period, old-fashioned values were still embraced in such hits as Annie, 42nd Street, My One and Only, and popular revivals of No, No, Nanette and Irene.

1980s and 1990s

The 1980s and 1990s saw the influence of European "mega-musicals" or "pop operas," which typically featured a pop-influenced score and had large casts and sets and were identified as much by their notable effects—a falling chandelier (in Phantom), a helicopter landing on stage (in Miss Saigon)—as they were by anything else in the production. Many were based on novels or other works of literature. The most important writers of mega-musicals include the French team of Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, responsible for Les Misérables, which became the longest-running international musical hit in history. The team, in collaboration with Richard Maltby, Jr., continued to produce hits, including Miss Saigon (inspired by the Puccini opera Madame Butterfly).

The British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, saw similar mega-success with Evita, based on the life of Argentina's Eva Perón, and Cats, derived from the poems of T. S. Eliot, both of which musicals originally starred Elaine Paige. Other Lloyd Webber musical successes include Starlight Express, performed on roller skates; The Phantom of the Opera, derived from the Gaston Leroux novel, "Le Fantôme de l'Opéra"; and Sunset Boulevard (from the classic film of the same name). Several of these works ran (or are still running) for decades in both New York and London. The 90s also saw the influence of large corporations on the production of musicals. The most important has been The Walt Disney Company, which began adapting some of its animated movie musicals for the stage, such as Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. Disney also created original stage productions like Aida, with music by Elton John.

With the growing scale (and cost) of musicals, style was sometimes emphasized in favor of substance during the last two decades of the 20th century. At the same time, however, many writers broke from this pattern and began to create smaller scale, but critically acclaimed and financially successful musicals, such as Falsettoland, Passion, Little Shop of Horrors, , and Blood Brothers. The topics vary widely, and the music ranges from rock to pop, but they often are produced off-Broadway (or for smaller London theatres) and feature smaller casts and generally less expensive productions. Some of these have been noted as imaginative and innovative.

The cost of tickets to Broadway and West End musicals was escalating beyond the budget of many theatregoers, and the trend was for these musicals to be viewed by a smaller and smaller audience. Jonathan Larson's musical Rent (based on the opera La Bohème) was marketed to increase the popularity of musicals among a younger audience. It featured a young cast, and the score is heavily rock-influenced. The musical became a hit. Its young fans, many of them students, calling themselves RENTheads, lined up at the Nederlander Theatre hours early in hopes of winning the lottery for $20 front row tickets, and some have seen the show more than 50 times. Other writers who have attempted to bring a taste of modern rock music to the stage include Jason Robert Brown. Also, a majority of shows on Broadway have now followed Rent's lead by offering heavily discounted day-of-performance or standing-room tickets, although often the discounts are offered only to students.

2000s

;Recent trends In recent years, familiarity has been embraced by producers and investors anxious to guarantee that they recoup their considerable investments, if not show a healthy profit. Some took (usually modest-budget) chances on the new and unusual, such as Urinetown (2001), Avenue Q (2003), Caroline or Change (2004), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (2005), Spring Awakening (2006), In the Heights (2007) and Next to Normal (2009). But most took a safe route with revivals of familiar fare, such as Fiddler on the Roof, A Chorus Line, South Pacific, Gypsy, Hair, West Side Story and Grease, or with other proven material, such as films (The Producers, Spamalot, Hairspray, The Color Purple, Xanadu, Billy Elliot and Shrek) or well-known literature (The Scarlet Pimpernel and Wicked) hoping that the shows would have a built-in audience as a result. The reuse of film plots, especially those from Disney (such as Mary Poppins and The Little Mermaid), has been considered by some critics to be a redefinition of Broadway and West End musicals as, rather than a creative outlet, a tourist attraction. Typically, off-Broadway and regional theatres tend to produce smaller and therefore less expensive musicals, and development of new musicals has increasingly taken place outside of New York and London or in smaller venues. For example, Spring Awakening and Grey Gardens were developed off-Broadway before being launched on Broadway.

Several musicals returned to the spectacle format that was successful in the 1980s in such shows as Phantom of the Opera and Starlight Express, recalling extravaganzas that have been presented at times, throughout theatre history, since the ancient Romans staged mock sea battles. Examples are seen in the musical adaptations of Gone With the Wind (2008) and The Lord of the Rings (2007), the latter of which was billed as the biggest stage production in musical theatre history. The expensive productions lost money. Conversely, The Drowsy Chaperone, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Xanadu and others are part of a Broadway trend to present musicals uninterrupted by an intermission, with short running time of less than two hours. The latter two, together with works like Avenue Q, also represent a trend towards presenting smaller-scale, smaller-cast musicals that are able to show a good profit in a smaller house.

;Jukebox musicals Another trend has been to create a minimal plot to fit a collection of songs that have already been hits. Following the earlier success of Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story, these have included Movin' Out (2002, based on the tunes of Billy Joel), Jersey Boys (2006, The Four Seasons), Rock of Ages (2009, featuring classic rock of the 1980s) and many others. This style is often referred to as the "jukebox musical". Similar but more plot-driven musicals have been built around the canon of a particular pop group including Mamma Mia! (1999, based on the songs of ABBA), Our House (2002, based on the songs of Madness), and We Will Rock You (2002, based on the songs of Queen).

;Film and TV musicals After the 1996 film of Evita, the first successful live-action movie musical in nearly two decades, Baz Luhrmann continued the revival of the movie musical with Moulin Rouge! (2001). This was followed by a series of film musicals, including Chicago in 2002; Phantom of the Opera in 2004; Dreamgirls in 2006; Hairspray, Across the Universe, Enchanted and all in 2007; Mamma Mia! in 2008; and Nine in 2009. Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (2000) and The Cat in the Hat (2003), turned children's books into live-action movie musicals. After the immense success of Disney and other houses with animated film musicals beginning with The Little Mermaid in 1989 and running throughout the 1990s (including some more adult-themed films, like (1999)), fewer animated movie musicals were released in the first decade of the 21st century. In Asia, India continues to produce numerous "Bollywood" film musicals, and Japan produces "Anime" and "Manga" film musicals.

Made for TV musical movies were popular in the 1990s, such as (1993), Cinderella (1997) and Annie (1999). Several made for TV musicals in the first decade of the 21st century were adaptations of the stage version, such as South Pacific (2001), The Music Man (2003) and Once Upon A Mattress (2005), and a televised version of the stage musical Legally Blonde in 2007. Additionally, several musicals were filmed on stage and broadcast on Public Television, for example Contact in 2002 and Kiss Me Kate and Oklahoma! in 2003. The made-for-TV musical High School Musical, and its several sequels, enjoyed particular success and were adapted for stage musicals and other media.

Some television shows have set episodes as a musical. Examples include episodes of Ally McBeal, Xena, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, That's So Raven, Daria, Oz, Scrubs (one episode was written by the creators of Avenue Q), and the 100th episode of That '70s Show, called That '70s Musical. Others have included scenes where characters suddenly begin singing and dancing in a musical-theatre style during an episode, such as in several episodes of The Simpsons, 30 Rock, Hannah Montana, South Park and Family Guy. The television series Cop Rock extensively used the musical format, as do the series Flight of the Conchords and Glee.

There have also been musicals made for the internet, including Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, about a low-rent super-villain played by Neil Patrick Harris. It was written during the WGA writer's strike. Several reality TV shows have been used to help market musical revivals by holding a competition to cast leads. Examples of these are How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, , Any Dream Will Do and .

International musicals

The U.S. and Britain were the most active sources of book musicals from the 19th century through much of the 20th century (although Europe produced various forms of popular light opera and operetta, for example Spanish Zarzuela, during that period and even earlier). However, the light musical stage in other countries has become more active in recent decades.

Musicals from other English-speaking countries (notably Australia and Canada) often do well locally, and occasionally even reach Broadway or the West End (e.g., The Boy from Oz and The Drowsy Chaperone). South Africa has an active musical theatre scene, with revues like African Footprint and Umoja and book musicals, such as Kat and the Kings and Sarafina! touring internationally. Locally, musicals like Vere, Love and Green Onions, Over the Rainbow: the all-new all-gay... extravaganza and Bangbroek Mountain and In Briefs - a queer little Musical have been produced successfully.

Successful musicals from continental Europe include shows from (among other countries) Germany (Elixier and Ludwig II), Austria (Tanz der Vampire, Elisabeth, Mozart! and Rebecca), Czech Republic (Angelika), France (Notre Dame de Paris, Les Misérables, Angélique, Marquise des Anges and Romeo & Juliette) and Spain (Hoy No Me Puedo Levantar).

Japan has recently seen the growth of an indigenous form of musical theatre, both animated and live action, mostly based on Anime and Manga, such as Kiki's Delivery Service and Tenimyu. The popular Sailor Moon metaseries has had twenty-nine Sailor Moon musicals, spanning thirteen years. Beginning in 1914, a series of popular revues have been performed by the all-female Takarazuka Revue, which currently fields five performing troupes. Elsewhere in Asia, the Indian Bollywood musical, mostly in the form of motion pictures, is tremendously successful. Hong Kong's first modern musical, produced in both Mandarin and Cantonese, is Snow.Wolf.Lake.

Other countries with an especially active musicals scene include the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Russia, Turkey and China.

Relevance

The Broadway League announced that in the 2007–08 season, 12.27 million tickets were purchased for Broadway shows for a gross sale amount of almost a billion dollars. The League further reported that during the 2006-07 season, approximately 65% of Broadway tickets were purchased by tourists, and that foreign tourists were 16% of attendees. (These figures do not include off-Broadway and smaller venues.) The Society of London Theatre reported that 2007 set a record for attendance in London. Total attendees in the major commercial and grant-aided theatres in Central London were 13.6 million, and total ticket revenues were £469.7 million. Also, as noted above, the international musicals scene has been particularly active in recent years. However, Stephen Sondheim has been pessimistic:

The success of original material like Urinetown, Avenue Q, Spelling Bee and In the Heights, as well as creative re-imaginings of film properties, including Thoroughly Modern Millie, Hairspray, Billy Elliot and The Color Purple, and plays-turned-musicals, such as Spring Awakening, prompts Broadway historian John Kenrick to write: "Is the Musical dead? ...Absolutely not! Changing? Always! The musical has been changing ever since Offenbach did his first rewrite in the 1850s. And change is the clearest sign that the musical is still a living, growing genre. Will we ever return to the so-called 'golden age,' with musicals at the center of popular culture? Probably not. Public taste has undergone fundamental changes, and the commercial arts can only flow where the paying public allows."

See also

, a form of musical drama from India that involves dance, songs and dialogue]] ;Related forms

Cast recording

Chinese Opera

Classical Indian dance

Show tunes

Industrial musical

Yakshagana (Indian art form)

;General

List of musicals

*

List of musical theatre composers

List of the longest-running Broadway shows

Long-running musical theatre productions

List of Tony Award and Olivier Award winning musicals

List of choreographers

AFI's 100 Years of Musicals

Orchestral enhancement

Notes

References

Further reading

Bauch, Marc. The American Musical. Marburg, Germany: Tectum Verlag, 2003. ISBN 3-8288-8458-X (described here)

Bauch, Marc. Themes and Topics of the American Musical after World War II. Marburg, Germany: Tectum Verlag, 2001. ISBN 3-8288-1141-8 described here

Ganzl, Kurt. The Encyclopedia of Musical Theatre (3 Volumes). New York: Schirmer Books, 2001.

Stempel, Larry. Showtime: A History of the Broadway Musical Theater (W.W. Norton, 2010) 826 pages; comprehensive history since the mid-19th century.

Traubner, Richard. Operetta: A Theatrical History. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1983

Article on history of musical theatre, focusing on American musicals

History of the musical at History.com

External links

;General

Broadway.com - extensive theater site with news, photos and more

The Broadway Musical Home

Internet Broadway Database (ibdb.com)

Long running plays (over 400 performances) on Broadway, Off-Broadway, London, Toronto, Melbourne, Paris, Vienna, and Berlin

Playbill.com

Show Synopsis at guidetomusicaltheatre.com

Stacy's Musical Village - large musical theatre site

;News and information

Australia's leading musical theatre website (aussietheatre.com)

British musical theatre publication The Gaiety and related publications, available articles

Edwardian theatre site with numerous midi files and other information

Guide to musical theatre detailing synopsis, cast lists, song lists and rights holder

Musical Cast Album Database (castalbumdb.com)

StageAgent.com - Synopses & character descriptions for most major musicals

"TIME Magazine" collection of Broadway's evolution

;Ticket sources

Guide to Broadway

Theatre.com - extensive theatre site with London news, photos and more

;Producers and Unions

Actors' Equity Association

The Broadway League (formerly the League of American Theatres and Producers)

The Dramatists Guild of America

Category:Broadway Category:Off-Broadway Category:History of theatre Category:Theatrical genres

Name	John Barrowman
Birthname	John Scot Barrowman
Birth date	March 11, 1967
Birth place	Mount Vernon, Glasgow, Scotland
Occupation	Entertainer
Yearsactive	1989–present
Domesticpartner	Scott Gill (1993–present)

John Scot Barrowman (born 11 March 1967) is a Scottish-born American singer, actor, dancer, musical performer and media personality, best known on British television for his acting and presenting work for the BBC and for his role as Captain Jack Harkness in the science fiction series Doctor Who and Torchwood. Barrowman and his family emigrated to the United States when he was nine years old. Growing up in Illinois, his high school teachers encouraged his love for music and theatre and he studied performing arts at the United States International University in San Diego before visiting Britain and landing the role of Billy Crocker in Cole Porter's Anything Goes in London's West End.

As a television presenter and guest, Barrowman has appeared in a variety of light entertainment shows, including Live & Kicking and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical talent shows Any Dream Will Do, How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?, and I'd Do Anything. Barrowman was a contestant on the celebrity ice skating show Dancing on Ice and was a guest act for the Royal Variety Performance. In 1998, Barrowman was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical, and in 2006 he was voted Stonewall's "Entertainer of the Year".

In addition to appearing in several films and television series, Barrowman has featured on more than a dozen musical theatre recordings including cover tunes found on his 2007 album Another Side, and 2008's Music Music Music. Both albums reached the UK Top 40, as did his 2010 self-titled album, which reached number 11, his highest chart placing to date.

With his sister as co-author, Barrowman has published two memoirs and autobiographies, Anything Goes (2008) and I Am What I Am (2009).

Early life

John Scot Barrowman was born in 1967 in the Mount Vernon area of Glasgow; the youngest of three siblings. Barrowman lived in Glasgow for the first eight years of his life. His mother was a singer and worked as a clerk in a record shop, and his father was employed by the Caterpillar heavy machinery company in Uddingston. In 1976, his father's company relocated the family to Aurora, Illinois in the United States, where his father managed the Caterpillar tractor factory. Barrowman recalls his family as loving, but strict and mindful of etiquette, always polite and respectful towards others. Barrowman's high school music and English teachers changed the future course of his life, his music tutor instilling in him the love of performing, and his English teacher encouraging Barrowman to realize his true potential. His English teacher moved him into a Gifted Program and coached Barrowman for the school's speech team. With the support of his teacher, Barrowman competed with other schools in statewide speech competitions, where he sharpened his skills reading scenes from plays. As a freshman, Barrowman won parts in several musical productions and from 1983–1985 he performed in Hello, Dolly!, Oliver!, Camelot, Li'l Abner and Anything Goes. Looking back, he acknowledges that "without the support he received in high school, chances are that he would not now be appearing in royal command performances in the West End in front of the Royal Family or having Stephen Sondheim ask him to play opposite Carol Burnett." Barrowman spent his senior year shoveling coal for an Illinois power company. His father had arranged the job (and similar jobs for his brother and sister) to give Barrowman the experience of manual labor. Barrowman's father told him: "If you want to do manual labor for the rest of your life you'll know that when you do it; it's a choice. But if you don't like it, you'll understand the importance of educating yourself and – if you decide what you want to do – being good at your craft or your skill." Barrowman worked for the power company for the entire summer, but did not like the job. Eventually, he convinced the company to move him to work in the storeroom. Barrowman graduated from high school in 1985, and became a naturalized citizen of the United States After he graduated from high school, he moved to San Diego, California to study performing arts at the United States International University (USIU). As part of an exchange program, he returned to the United Kingdom, in 1989, to study Shakespeare for six months.

Acting career

Theatre

Barrowman's professional acting career began in London's West End in 1989, playing the role of Billy Crocker in Cole Porter's Anything Goes at the Prince Edward Theatre, alongside Elaine Paige as Reno Sweeney and Bernard Cribbins as Moonface Martin. He continued to appear in West End productions for the next decade, taking the title role of Domingo Hernandez in Matador at the Queen's Theatre in 1991; as Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre in 1992; as Claude in Hair at the Old Vic Theatre in 1993; as Chris in Miss Saigon at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1993; as Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard at the Adelphi Theatre from 1994–1995; and as Beast in Beauty and the Beast at the Dominion Theatre in 1999. a performance he repeated in Cameron Mackintosh's 1998 gala concert Hey, Mr Producer!. Barrowman played the role of Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard in the West End and, briefly, on Broadway. His only other Broadway credit is in the role of Barry in the Stephen Sondheim revue Putting It Together (1999–2000) at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre alongside Carol Burnett, George Hearn and Bronson Pinchot. In a review of Putting It Together, theater critic Tom Samiljan noted Barrowman's "fine baritone voice and suave looks". In 2002, Barrowman appeared as Bobby in Sondheim's Company in the Kennedy Center's Stephen Sondheim Celebration.

He returned to the role of Billy Crocker in Trevor Nunn's 2003 West End revival of Anything Goes, and appeared in West End non-musical dramas, such as his role as Wyndham Brandon in Rope at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester in 1993, and he starred as Lieutenant Jack Ross opposite Rob Lowe in the 2005 production of A Few Good Men. Barrowman starred in pantomime productions of Cinderella at the New Wimbledon Theatre (Christmas 2005–6) and in Jack and the Beanstalk at Cardiff's New Theatre (Christmas 2006–7). He played the title role in Aladdin at the Birmingham Hippodrome over Christmas 2007–8 and as a guest act for the Royal Variety Performance at the London Palladium in 2008. Barrowman played the lead in the Robin Hood pantomime at the Birmingham Hippodrome for the 2008–2009 season. He presented Andrew Lloyd Webber's 60th birthday party in London's Hyde Park on September 14, 2008. Guests included Idina Menzel, Denise Van Outen, Elaine Paige, Lee Mead and the stars of I'd Do Anything. On September 14, 2009 John Barrowman took over from Roger Allam as Zaza/Albin in the West End revival of La Cage aux Folles, at the Playhouse Theatre.

Television presenter

from a float at the 2007 London Gay Pride parade.]] Barrowman was one of the original hosts of Live & Kicking, a children's Saturday morning variety show on the BBC. During this time, he became known for his catchphrase, "it's a dirty rat!", which he used during phone-in game set in a haunted house. From 1993–1994, Barrowman reported on technology news as the host of the Electric Circus segment of the show. He appeared on the children's television game show, The Movie Game from 1994–1996. Barrowman was one of the regular presenters on Five channel's afternoon show 5's Company from 1997–1999. Between 10 and 14 April 2006, Barrowman presented ITV's morning talk show This Morning whilst Phillip Schofield took an Easter break. Barrowman read bedtime stories on the CBeebies channel between 1 May and 5 May 2006. That summer, Barrowman was on a Judges panel alongside Andrew Lloyd Webber, David Ian, and Zoe Tyler on BBC One's music talent show How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?. In the same year, Barrowman made two television appearances on New Year's Eve: He talked about spirituality and civil partnerships on BBC Television's Heaven & Earth, hosted by Gloria Hunniford, and he appeared as a guest on Graham Norton's one-off BBC Television programme, The Big Finish, And, on 11 and 18 February 2007, Barrowman guest-presented two editions of Elaine Paige on Sunday, a pre-recorded BBC Radio 2 weekly musical theatre and film music showcase.

In 2007, Barrowman was a judge on the BBC One TV series Any Dream Will Do, hosted by Graham Norton. The show searched for a new, unknown actor to play the role of Joseph in a West End revival of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, eventually choosing Lee Mead. Barrowman guested on the BBC Two comedy panel quiz show Never Mind the Buzzcocks (Series 19, Episode 5), challenging host Simon Amstell to a "gay-off". He also guested on Al Murray's Happy Hour, The Charlotte Church Show, and Friday Night with Jonathan Ross. On 27 July 2007, Barrowman guest hosted The Friday Night Project, on Channel 4, with Justin-Lee Collins and Alan Carr. In 2008 Barrowman presented a primetime BBC game show called The Kids Are All Right. On the show, four adults compete against seven "smart and sassy" children for cash in four rounds "testing their brainpower, knowledge and speed of response". On 16 February 2008, and 23 February 2008, Barrowman presented the National Lottery Draw. On the 1st of March 2008, Barrowman appeared on the panel of the Eurovision Song Contest selection show, Eurovision: Your Decision on BBC 1, alongside Carrie Grant and Sir Terry Wogan. On the 29 April, 30 April, and 1 May 2008 he presented This Morning. Barrowman began featuring as a judge on the Canadian version of How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? in June 2008. In 2008, Barrowman became the presenter for Animals at Work, a children's television show on CBBC that showcases "animals with extraordinary skills that make people's lives easier and safer"; Animals at Work began in 2009 with 26 episodes. He began hosting Tonight's the Night on BBC in April 2009.

In February 2010 Barrowman appeared as a guest host on UK shopping channel QVC

Prime time drama

Barrowman's television career began with several appearances in short-lived prime-time soap operas. Barrowman first starred as Peter Fairchild in Central Park West (1995) a show American film critic Ken Tucker calls "a tale of ritzy, ditsy New York City careerists—some struggling to make it, others plotting to retain their status and power." Television critic David Hiltbrand called Barrowman's character a "Prince Charming...a virtuous, hardworking assistant DA who keeps getting distracted by women who swoon in his path." Tucker noted Barrowman's character of Peter Fairchild to be "physically an eye-widening cross between John Kennedy Jr. and Hugh Grant". Titans lasted one season and was canceled after airing 11 episodes. Barrowman was also considered for the role of Will in the popular US series Will and Grace, but the producers felt he was "too straight" and the role eventually went to Eric McCormack instead. Commenting on the decision, Barrowman remarked, "The sad thing is it's run by gay men and women." He later expressed contempt for the idea that all gay men act the same way. Entertainment Weekly reported that Barrowman would appear in the 2010 season of Desperate Housewives, "for a minimum of five episodes, portraying Patrick Logan, the ex boyfriend at the center of the Angie Bolen (Drea de Matteo) mystery." On 23 February 2010 Barrowman announced on The One Show that his contract had been extended to a total of six episodes. It has also been announced that Barrowman is in talks with Ryan Murphy to appear in the FOX hit series Glee.

Film and reality television

Barrowman appeared as Ben Carpenter in the low-budget film (2002). His musical abilities are featured in several film roles: as Jack in the Cole Porter biopic De-Lovely (2004), singing a duet with Kevin Kline on the song Night and Day; and in the role of the lead tenor Stormtrooper in The Producers (2005), singing Springtime for Hitler. Barrowman co-presented and performed in the BBC One series The Sound of Musicals (2006).

Barrowman took part in the reality television series Dancing on Ice on ITV1 in January and February 2006. Resembling a real ice skating competition, ice dancers Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean trained celebrities to compete on the show. Barrowman's skating partner was World Junior Gold Medalist and three-time Russian champion Olga Sharutenko. Although a favourite to win, on 4 February, Barrowman and Sharutenko faced Stefan Booth and Kristina Cousins in the skate off and were eliminated by the judge's vote of 3 to 2.

Barrowman was one of five celebrity guests on the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special 2010 and achieved both the top score and also first place when the audience vote had been counted. His professional partner was Kristina Rihanoff and they danced the Quickstep.

Doctor Who and Torchwood

Barrowman is best known in the UK for his role in the BBC's science fiction drama Doctor Who. When the series was revived in 2005, Barrowman came on board as recurring guest character Captain Jack Harkness, a time traveller from the 51st century. His first appearance as Harkness was in the two-part story "The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances", going on to appear in the next three episodes, "Boom Town", "Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways". The character of Captain Jack Harkness became so popular, he was given his own show. Torchwood, a Doctor Who spin-off series featuring a team of alien hunters based in modern day Cardiff, premiered in 2006. Ken Tucker describes Barrowman's role on Torchwood as "dashing" and "celestially promiscuous", and "like Tom Cruise with suspenders, but minus the Scientology." On the show, Captain Jack Harkness "tracks down—and occasionally beds—ETs with the help of his quartet of bedazzled groupies—slash—Experts in Their Fields: One's a doctor, one's a cop, one's a scientist, and one... makes tea piping hot. It's like the Justice League of Extended-Pinkie Nerds." Barrowman continued to guest star in Doctor Who in 2007, appearing in "Utopia", "The Sound of Drums", and "Last of the Time Lords". Barrowman also participated in a Doctor Who special on the BBC's The Weakest Link. In 2008, Barrowman appeared in the two-part 2008 series finale, "The Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End" and reprised the role of Captain Jack Harkness in the "" special. In 2010, Barrowman returned to Doctor Who with a cameo in The End Of Time along with other previous stars. Barrowman was rumoured to be reprising the role of Captain Jack Harkness in Series 6 of Doctor Who, alongside Matt Smith. Series 3 of Torchwood was broadcast in July 2009 as a miniseries of five episodes called Children of Earth; Series 4 was scheduled to begin developing in January 2011 and is said to be airing in summer 2012. Both Doctor Who and Torchwood became popular in the United States on the BBC America network.

Personal life

Barrowman met his partner Scott Gill during a production of Rope at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 1993, after Gill came to see Barrowman in the play. The couple have houses in London and Cardiff. In late 2005, Barrowman said he had no plans to marry. However, a year later, Barrowman and Gill became civil partners on December 27, 2006. Barrowman and Gill do not want to call their relationship a marriage: "We're just going to sign the civil register. We're not going to have any ceremony because I'm not a supporter of the word marriage for a gay partnership." Barrowman explains: "Why would I want a 'marriage' from a belief system that hates me?" with the cast of Torchwood and executive producer Russell T Davies as guests.

Barrowman is bidialectal. He learned an American accent after school children picked on his Scottish accent when he moved to the U.S. His accent is often called Mid-Atlantic. On The Friday Night Project, Barrowman said that he still speaks in a Scottish accent when he is with his parents. His sister, English professor and journalist Carole Barrowman, helped write the book using her brother's dictations. In 2009, Barrowman published I Am What I Am, his second memoir detailing his recent television work and musings on fame. In the book, Barrowman reveals that when he was just beginning his acting career, management sent a gay producer to talk to him. The producer told Barrowman that he should try to pretend to be heterosexual in order to be successful. Barrowman was offended by the incident, and it made him more aware of the importance of his role as a gay public figure: "One of my explicit missions as an entertainer is to work to create a world where no one will ever make a statement like this producer did to me to anyone who’s gay." To this end, Barrowman is active in his community supporting the issues that matter to him most. He worked with Stonewall, a gay rights organization in the UK, on the "Education for All" campaign against homophobia in the schools. In April 2008, the group placed posters on 600 billboards that read, "Some people are gay. Get over it!" Barrowman contributed his support to the project asking people to join him and "Help exterminate homophobia. Be bold. Be brave. Be a buddy, not a bully." In the same month, Barrowman spoke at the Oxford Union about his career, the entertainment industry, and gay rights issues. The event was filmed for the BBC programme The Making Of Me, in an episode exploring the science of homosexuality.

Prior to the 2010 general election, Barrowman was one of 48 celebrities who signed a letter warning voters against Conservative Party policy towards the BBC.

On the 16th June 2010, Barrowman met with the current Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron as a representative of the LGBT Community

Awards and recognition

Barrowman was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 1998 for originating the role of Cal Chandler in The Fix. and placed third in Broadcast magazine's "Hottest Commodity" poll in November 2006. Barrowman appeared on the Out 100 list for 2008, an annual list of notable LGBT people compiled by Out magazine.

Filmography

Discography

DVD Releases

An Evening With John Barrowman - 2009

- 2010

References

Further reading

External links

John Barrowman at InBaseline

John Barrowman Spain, página para fans en español

Interview with Barrowman at AfterElton.com

John Barrowman's How Do You Solve A Problem Like A Maria? Profile

Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing.org

Category:American film actors Category:American musical theatre actors Category:American stage actors Category:American television actors Category:Actors from Illinois Category:American people of Scottish descent Category:Dancing on Ice participants Category:Gay actors Category:LGBT musicians from the United States Category:LGBT musicians from the United Kingdom Category:LGBT people from Scotland Category:LGBT television personalities Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:People from Glasgow Category:People from Joliet, Illinois Category:Reality television judges Category:Royal National Theatre Company members Category:Scottish immigrants to the United States Category:Scottish film actors Category:Scottish musical theatre actors Category:Scottish stage actors Category:Scottish television actors Category:Scottish television presenters Category:1967 births Category:Living people

Name	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Caption	Schwarzenegger in June 2010.
Order	38th
Office	Governor of California
Lieutenant	Cruz BustamanteJohn GaramendiAbel Maldonado
Term start	November 17, 2003
Term end	January 3, 2011
Predecessor	Gray Davis
Successor	Jerry Brown
Birth date	July 30, 1947
Birth place	Thal, Austria
Party	Republican Party
Spouse	Maria Shriver (1986–present)
Children	Katherine (b. 1989)Christina (b. 1991)Patrick (b. 1993)Christopher (b. 1997)
Residence	Brentwood
Alma mater	Santa Monica CollegeUniversity of Wisconsin, Superior
Profession	BodybuilderActor
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Signature	Arnold Schwarzenegger Signature.svg
Website	Personal Website
Branch	Austrian Armed Forces
Serviceyears	1965

Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (, ; born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian-American bodybuilder, actor, model, businessman and politician who served as the 38th Governor of California.

Schwarzenegger began weight training at 15. He was awarded the title of Mr. Universe at age 20 and went on to win the Mr. Olympia contest a total of seven times. Schwarzenegger has remained a prominent presence in the sport of bodybuilding and has written several books and numerous articles on the sport.

Schwarzenegger gained worldwide fame as a Hollywood action film icon, noted for his lead roles in such films as Conan the Barbarian, The Terminator and Commando. He was nicknamed the "Austrian Oak" and the "Styrian Oak" in his bodybuilding days, "Arnie" during his acting career and more recently the "Governator" (a portmanteau of "Governor" and "Terminator").

As a Republican, he was first elected on October 7, 2003, in a special recall election to replace then-Governor Gray Davis. Schwarzenegger was sworn in on November 17, 2003, to serve the remainder of Davis's term. Schwarzenegger was then re-elected on November 7, 2006, in California's 2006 gubernatorial election, to serve a full term as governor, defeating Democrat Phil Angelides, who was California State Treasurer at the time. Schwarzenegger was sworn in for his second term on January 5, 2007. Democrat Jerry Brown was elected to succeed him in 2010 and assumed the post in January 2011.

Early life

Schwarzenegger was born in Thal, Austria, a small village bordering the Styrian capital Graz, and was christened Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger. His parents were the local police chief Gustav Schwarzenegger (1907–1972) and Aurelia Jadrny (1922–1998). His father served in World War II with the German Army as a Hauptfeldwebel of the Feldgendarmerie and was discharged in 1943 after contracting malaria. They were married on October 20, 1945 – Gustav was 38, and Aurelia was a 23-year-old widow with a son named Meinhard. According to Schwarzenegger, both of his parents were very strict: "Back then in Austria it was a very different world, if we did something bad or we disobeyed our parents, the rod was not spared."

Gustav had a preference for Meinhard, the elder of the two sons. His favoritism was "strong and blatant," which stemmed from unfounded suspicion that Arnold was not his child. Schwarzenegger has said his father had "no patience for listening or understanding your problems... there was a wall; a real wall." In later life, Schwarzenegger commissioned the Simon Wiesenthal Center to research his father's wartime record, which came up with no evidence of atrocities despite Gustav's membership in the Nazi Party and SA. Schwarzenegger has responded to a question asking if he was 13 when he started weightlifting: "I actually started weight training when I was 15, but I'd been participating in sports, like soccer, for years, so I felt that although I was slim, I was well-developed, at least enough so that I could start going to the gym and start Olympic lifting." During a speech in 2001, he said, "My own plan formed when I was 14 years old. My father had wanted me to be a police officer like he was. My mother wanted me to go to trade school." Schwarzenegger took to visiting a gym in Graz, where he also frequented the local movie theaters to see bodybuilding idols such as Reg Park, Steve Reeves and Johnny Weissmuller on the big screen. "I was inspired by individuals like Reg Park and Steve Reeves." In 1961, Schwarzenegger met former Mr. Austria Kurt Marnul, who invited him to train at the gym in Graz.

In 1971, his brother Meinhard died in a car accident. Barbara Baker, his first serious girlfriend, has said he informed her of his father's death without emotion and that he never spoke of his brother. Over time, he has given at least three versions of why he was absent from his father's funeral.

Early adulthood

Schwarzenegger served in the Austrian army in 1965 to fulfill the one year of service required at the time of all 18-year-old Austrian males. Also in 1966, Schwarzenegger had the opportunity to meet childhood idol Reg Park, who became his friend and mentor. The training paid off and, in 1967, Schwarzenegger won the title for the first time, becoming the youngest ever Mr. Universe at the age of 20. realized his dream by moving to the United States in September 1968 at the age of 21, speaking little English. Schwarzenegger also became good friends with professional wrestler "Superstar" Billy Graham. In 1970, at age 23, he captured his first Mr. Olympia title in New York, and would go on to win the title a total of seven times. LA Weekly would later say in 2002 that Schwarzenegger is the most famous immigrant in America, who "overcame a thick Austrian accent and transcended the unlikely background of bodybuilding to become the biggest movie star in the world in the 1990s". Schwarzenegger talked about Barbara in his memoir in 1977: "Basically it came down to this: she was a well-balanced woman who wanted an ordinary, solid life, and I was not a well-balanced man, and hated the very idea of ordinary life." Baker published her memoir in 2006, entitled Arnold and Me: In the Shadow of the Austrian Oak. Although Baker, at times, painted an unflattering portrait of her former lover, Schwarzenegger actually contributed to the tell-all book with a foreword, and also met with Baker for three hours. |weight = 250 pounds (113 kg) |firstproshow = NABBA Mr. Universe |firstproshowyear = 1968 |bestwin = IFBB Mr. Olympia |bestwinyear = 1970–1975, 1980, Seven Times |predecessor = Sergio Oliva ('69), Frank Zane ('79) |successor = Franco Columbu ('76, '81) |yesorretiredyear = Retired 1980 }}

Schwarzenegger is considered among the most important figures in the history of bodybuilding, and his legacy is commemorated in the Arnold Classic annual bodybuilding competition. Schwarzenegger has remained a prominent face in the bodybuilding sport long after his retirement, in part because of his ownership of gyms and fitness magazines. He has presided over numerous contests and awards shows.

For many years, he wrote a monthly column for the bodybuilding magazines Muscle & Fitness and Flex. Shortly after being elected Governor, he was appointed executive editor of both magazines, in a largely symbolic capacity. The magazines agreed to donate $250,000 a year to the Governor's various physical fitness initiatives. The magazine MuscleMag International has a monthly two-page article on him, and refers to him as "The King".

One of the first competitions he won was the Junior Mr. Europe contest in 1965. He has called the drugs for "tissue building."

In 1999, Schwarzenegger sued Dr. Willi Heepe, a German doctor who publicly predicted his early death on the basis of a link between his steroid use and his later heart problems. As the doctor had never examined him personally, Schwarzenegger collected a US$10,000 libel judgment against him in a German court. In 1999, Schwarzenegger also sued and settled with The Globe, a U.S. tabloid which had made similar predictions about the bodybuilder's future health.

Acting career

Other names	Arnold StrongArnie
Years active	1970–2006, 2009–present (acting)
Occupation	Actor, Director, Producer}}

Schwarzenegger wanted to move from bodybuilding into acting, finally achieving it when he was chosen to play the role of Hercules in 1970's Hercules in New York. Credited under the name "Arnold Strong," his accent in the film was so thick that his lines were dubbed after production. Schwarzenegger auditioned for the title role of The Incredible Hulk, but did not win the role because of his height. Later, Lou Ferrigno got the part of Dr. David Banner's alter ego. Schwarzenegger appeared with Kirk Douglas and Ann-Margret in the 1979 comedy The Villain. In 1980 he starred in a biopic of the 1950s actress Jayne Mansfield as Mansfield's husband, Mickey Hargitay.

Schwarzenegger's breakthrough film was the sword-and-sorcery epic Conan the Barbarian in 1982, which was a box-office hit. In 1983, Schwarzenegger starred in the promotional video "Carnival in Rio".

In 1984, he made the first of three appearances as the titular character and what some would say was the signature role in his acting career in director James Cameron's science fiction thriller film The Terminator. Following The Terminator, Schwarzenegger made Red Sonja in 1985, which "sank without a trace."

His film appearances after becoming Governor of California include a 3-second cameo appearance in The Rundown (a.k.a., Welcome to the Jungle) with The Rock, and the 2004 remake of Around the World in 80 Days, where he appeared onscreen with action star Jackie Chan for the first time. In 2005 he appeared as himself in the film The Kid & I. Schwarzenegger voiced Baron von Steuben in Episode 24 ("Valley Forge") of Liberty's Kids.

Schwarzenegger had been rumored to be appearing in Terminator Salvation as the original T-800 model, alongside Roland Kickinger. Schwarzenegger denied his involvement, but it was later revealed that although he would appear briefly he would not be shooting new footage, and his image would be inserted into the movie from stock footage of the first Terminator movie.

Schwarzenegger's most recent appearance was in Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables, where he made a cameo appearance alongside Stallone and Bruce Willis.

Political career

meets with Schwarzenegger for the first time at the White House.]]

Early politics

Schwarzenegger has been a registered Republican for many years. As an actor, his political views were always well-known as they contrasted with those of many other prominent Hollywood stars, who are generally considered to be a liberal and Democratic-leaning community. At the 2004 Republican National Convention, Schwarzenegger gave a speech and explained why he was a Republican:

In 1985, Schwarzenegger appeared in Stop the Madness, an anti-drug music video sponsored by the Reagan administration. He first came to wide public notice as a Republican during the 1988 Presidential election, accompanying then-Vice President George H.W. Bush at a campaign rally.

Schwarzenegger's first political appointment was as chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, on which he served from 1990 to 1993.

Between 1993 and 1994, Schwarzenegger was a Red Cross ambassador (a mostly ceremonial role fulfilled by celebrities), recording several television/radio public service announcements to give blood. A small amount of interest was garnered by his wearing of a white t-shirt with the Red Cross on it, while posing with a flexed arm; the image made it into several celebrity magazines.

In an interview with Talk magazine in late 1999, Schwarzenegger was asked if he thought of running for office. He replied, "I think about it many times. The possibility is there, because I feel it inside." The Hollywood Reporter claimed shortly after that Schwarzenegger sought to end speculation that he might run for governor of California. meets with Schwarzenegger after his successful election to the California Governorship]]

On October 7, 2003, the recall election resulted in Governor Gray Davis being removed from office with 55.4% of the Yes vote in favor of a recall. Schwarzenegger was elected Governor of California under the second question on the ballot with 48.6% of the vote to choose a successor to Davis. Schwarzenegger defeated Democrat Cruz Bustamante, fellow Republican Tom McClintock, and others. His nearest rival, Bustamante, received 31% of the vote. In total, Schwarzenegger won the election by about 1.3 million votes. Under the regulations of the California Constitution, no runoff election was required. Schwarzenegger was the first foreign-born governor of California since Irish-born Governor John G. Downey in 1862.

As soon as Schwarzenegger was elected governor, Willie Brown said he would start a drive to recall the governor. Schwarzenegger was equally entrenched in what he considered to be his mandate in cleaning up gridlock. Building on a catchphrase from the sketch "Hans and Franz" from Saturday Night Live (which partly parodied his bodybuilding career), Schwarzenegger called the Democratic State politicians "girlie men".

Schwarzenegger's early victories included repealing an unpopular increase in the vehicle registration fee as well as preventing driver's licenses being given out to illegal immigrants, but later he began to feel the backlash when powerful state unions began to oppose his various initiatives. Key among his reckoning with political realities was a special election he called in November 2005, in which four ballot measures he sponsored were defeated. Schwarzenegger accepted personal responsibility for the defeats and vowed to continue to seek consensus for the people of California. He would later comment that "no one could win if the opposition raised 160 million dollars to defeat you".

Schwarzenegger then went against the advice of fellow Republican strategists and appointed a Democrat, Susan Kennedy, as his Chief of Staff. Schwarzenegger gradually moved towards a more politically moderate position, determined to build a winning legacy with only a short time to go until the next gubernatorial election.

Schwarzenegger ran for re-election against Democrat Phil Angelides, the California State Treasurer, in the 2006 elections, held on November 7, 2006. Despite a poor year nationally for the Republican party, Schwarzenegger won re-election with 56.0% of the vote compared with 38.9% for Angelides, a margin of well over one million votes. In recent years, many commentators have seen Schwarzenegger as moving away from the right and towards the center of the political spectrum. After hearing a speech by Schwarzenegger at the 2006 Martin Luther King, Jr. breakfast, San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom said that, "[H]e's becoming a Democrat [... H]e's running back, not even to the center. I would say center-left".

It was rumored that Schwarzenegger might run for the United States Senate in 2010, as his governorship would be term-limited by that time. This turned out to be false.

comments on wildfires and firefighting efforts in California, October 2007]] in Chaika]] Wendy Leigh, who wrote an unofficial biography on Schwarzenegger, claims he plotted his political rise from an early age using the movie business and bodybuilding as building blocks to escape a depressing home. He holds Austrian citizenship by birth and has held U.S. citizenship since becoming naturalized in 1983. Being Austrian and thus European, he was able to win the 2007 European Voice campaigner of the year award for taking action against climate change with the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 and plans to introduce an emissions trading scheme with other US states and possibly with the EU. Still, Schwarzenegger has always identified with his American citizenship, and has shown great affinity for the state of California beyond his foreign birth.

Because of his personal wealth from his acting career, Schwarzenegger does not accept his governor's salary of $175,000 per year.

Schwarzenegger's endorsement in the Republican primary of the 2008 U.S. Presidential election was highly sought; despite being good friends with candidates Rudy Giuliani and Senator John McCain, Schwarzenegger remained neutral throughout 2007 and early 2008. Giuliani dropped out of the Presidential race on January 30, 2008, largely because of a poor showing in Florida, and endorsed McCain. Later that night, Schwarzenegger was in the audience at a Republican debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. The following day, he endorsed McCain, joking, "It's Rudy's fault!" (in reference to his friendships with both candidates and that he could not make up his mind). Schwarzenegger's endorsement was thought to be a boost for Senator McCain's campaign; both spoke about their concerns for the environment and economy.

In its April 2010 report, Progressive ethics watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington named Schwarzenegger one of 11 "worst governors" in the United States because of various ethics issues throughout Schwarzenegger's term as governor.

Amendment of Three Strikes Law

Governor Schwarzenegger played a significant role in opposing Proposition 66, a proposed amendment of the Californian Three Strikes Law, in November 2004. This amendment would have required the third felony to be either violent or serious to mandate a 25-years-to-life sentence. In the last week before the ballot, Schwarzenegger launched an intensive campaign against Proposition 66. He stated that "it would release 26,000 dangerous criminals and rapists".

Electoral history

Environmental record

On September 27, 2006 Schwarzenegger signed a bill creating the nation's first cap on greenhouse gas emissions. The law set new regulations on the amount of emissions utilities, refineries and manufacturing plants are allowed to release into the atmosphere. Schwarzenegger also signed a second global warming bill that prohibits large utilities and corporations in California from making long-term contracts with suppliers who do not meet the state's greenhouse gas emission standards. The two bills are part of a plan to reduce California's emissions by 25 percent to 1990's levels by 2020. In 2005, Schwarzenegger issued an executive order calling to reduce greenhouse gases to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

Schwarzenegger signed another executive order on October 17, 2006 allowing California to work with the Northeast's Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. They plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by issuing a limited amount of carbon credits to each power plant in participating states. Any power plants that exceed emissions for the amount of carbon credits will have to purchase more credits to cover the difference. The plan is set to be in effect in 2009. In addition to using his political power to fight global warming, the governor has taken steps at his home to reduce his personal carbon footprint. Schwarzenegger has adapted one of his Hummers to run on hydrogen and another to run on biofuels. He has also installed solar panels to heat his home.

In respect of his contribution to the direction of the US motor industry, Schwarzenegger was invited to open the 2009 SAE World Congress in Detroit, on April 20, 2009.

Business career

Schwarzenegger has also had a highly successful business career. Schwarzenegger and Columbu used profits from their bricklaying venture to start a mail order business, selling bodybuilding and fitness-related equipment and instructional tapes. In 1992, Schwarzenegger and his wife opened a restaurant in Santa Monica called Schatzi On Main. Schatzi literally means "little treasure," colloquial for "honey" or "darling" in German. In 1998, he sold his restaurant. He invested in a shopping mall in Columbus, Ohio. He has talked about some of those who have helped him over the years in business: "I couldn't have learned about business without a parade of teachers guiding me... from Milton Friedman to Donald Trump... and now, Les Wexner and Warren Buffett. I even learned a thing or two from Planet Hollywood, such as when to get out! And I did!"

Planet Hollywood

Schwarzenegger was a founding celebrity investor in the Planet Hollywood chain of international theme restaurants (modeled after the Hard Rock Cafe) along with Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone and Demi Moore. Schwarzenegger severed his financial ties with the business in early 2000. Schwarzenegger said the company had not had the success he had hoped for, claiming he wanted to focus his attention on "new US global business ventures" and his movie career. Over the years, he invested his bodybuilding and movie earnings in an array of stocks, bonds, privately controlled companies and real estate holdings worldwide, so a more accurate estimation of his net worth is difficult to calculate, particularly in light of declining real estate values owing to economic recessions in the USA and Europe. In June 1997, Schwarzenegger spent $38 million of his own money on a private Gulfstream Jet. Schwarzenegger once said of his fortune, "Money doesn't make you happy. I now have $50 million, but I was just as happy when I had $48 million." Within the last five days before the election, news reports appeared in the Los Angeles Times recounting allegations of sexual misconduct from several individual women, six of whom eventually came forward with their personal stories.

Three of the women claimed he had grabbed their breasts, a fourth said he placed his hand under her skirt on her buttock. A fifth woman claimed Schwarzenegger tried to take off her bathing suit in a hotel elevator, and the last says he pulled her onto his lap and asked her about a particular sex act. Schwarzenegger is shown smoking a marijuana joint after winning Mr. Olympia in the 1975 documentary film Pumping Iron. In an interview with GQ magazine in October 2007, Schwarzenegger said, "[Marijuana] is not a drug. It's a leaf. My drug was pumping iron, trust me." His spokesperson later said the comment was meant to be a joke. A joint statement read: "The parties are content to put this matter behind them and are pleased that this legal dispute has now been settled." She claimed Walsh and Main libeled her in a Los Angeles Times article when they contended she encouraged his behavior. They have four children: Katherine Eunice Shriver Schwarzenegger (born December 13, 1989 in Los Angeles); Christina Maria Aurelia Schwarzenegger (born July 23, 1991 in Los Angeles); Patrick Arnold Schwarzenegger (born September 18, 1993 in Los Angeles); and Christopher Sargent Shriver Schwarzenegger (born September 27, 1997 in Los Angeles).

Schwarzenegger and his family currently live in their home in Brentwood. They used to own a home in the Pacific Palisades. The family owns vacation homes in Sun Valley, Idaho and Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.

On Sundays, the family attends Mass at St. Monica's Catholic Church.

Schwarzenegger has said he believes the secret of a good marriage is love and respect. However, in 1988 both the Daily Mail and Time Out magazine mentioned that Schwarzenegger appeared noticeably shorter. More recently, before running for Governor, Schwarzenegger's height was once again questioned in an article by the Chicago Reader. As Governor, Schwarzenegger engaged in a light-hearted exchange with Assemblyman Herb Wesson over their heights. At one point Wesson made an unsuccessful attempt to, in his own words, "[s]ettle this once and for all and find out how tall he is" by using a tailor's tape measure on the Governor. Schwarzenegger retaliated by placing a pillow stitched with the words "Need a lift?" on the five-foot-five inch (165 cm) Wesson's chair before a negotiating session in his office. Bob Mulholland also claimed Arnold was 5'10" and that he wore risers in his boots. The debate on Schwarzenegger's height has spawned a website solely dedicated to the issue, and his page remains one of the most active on CelebHeights.com, a website which discusses the heights of celebrities. It is now officially titled UPC-Arena.

The Sun Valley Resort has a short ski trail called Arnold's Run, named after Schwarzenegger (It was named after him in 2001). The trail is categorized as a black diamond, or most difficult, for its terrain.

He bought the first Hummer manufactured for civilian use in 1992, a model so large, 6,300 lbs and wide, that it is classified as a large truck and U.S. fuel economy regulations do not apply to it. During the Gubernatorial Recall campaign he announced that he would convert one of his Hummers to burn hydrogen. The conversion was reported to have cost about US$21,000. After the election, he signed an executive order to jump-start the building of hydrogen refueling plants called the California Hydrogen Highway Network, and gained a U.S. Department of Energy grant to help pay for its projected US$91,000,000 cost. California took delivery of the first H2H (Hydrogen Hummer) in October 2004.

People in Thal celebrated Schwarzenegger's 60th birthday by throwing a party. Officials proclaimed A Day for Arnold on July 30, 2007. Thal 145, the number of the house where Schwarzenegger was born, belonged to Schwarzenegger and no one will ever be assigned to that number.

On February 12, 2010, Schwarzenegger was the 18th runner on the 106th day of the Vancouver Olympic Torch relay. His leg was along the Stanley Park Seawall, and he exchanged a "torch kiss" with the next runner, Sebastian Coe.

Accidents and injuries

Schwarzenegger broke his right femur while skiing in Sun Valley, Idaho with his family on December 23, 2006. He tripped over his ski pole on Lower Warm Springs run on Bald Mountain, an 'easy' or green level run. He is an expert level skier. On December 26, 2006, he underwent a 90-minute operation in which cables and screws were used to wire the broken bone back together. He was released from the St. John's Health Center on December 30, 2006. Schwarzenegger did not delay his second oath of office on January 5, 2007, although he was still on crutches at the time.

Schwarzenegger has twice crashed motorcycles on public highways, injuring himself in the process. On January 8, 2006, while riding his Harley Davidson motorcycle in Los Angeles, with his son Patrick in the sidecar, another driver backed into the street he was riding on, causing him and his son to collide with the car at a low speed. While his son and the other driver were unharmed, the governor sustained a minor injury to his lip, forcing him to get 15 stitches. "No citations were issued", said Officer Jason Lee, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman. Schwarzenegger, who famously rode motorcycles in the Terminator movies, has never obtained an M-1 or M-2 endorsement on his California driver's license that would allow him to legally ride a motorcycle without a sidecar on the street. Previously, on December 9, 2001, he broke six ribs and was hospitalized for four days after a motorcycle crash in Los Angeles.

Schwarzenegger was born with a bicuspid aortic valve, an aortic valve with only two leaflets (a normal aortic valve has three leaflets). Schwarzenegger opted in 1997 for a replacement heart valve made of his own transplanted tissue; medical experts predicted he would require heart valve replacement surgery in the following two to eight years as his valve would progressively degrade. Schwarzenegger apparently opted against a mechanical valve, the only permanent solution available at the time of his surgery, because it would have sharply limited his physical activity and capacity to exercise.

He saved a drowning man's life in 2004 while on vacation in Hawaii by swimming out and bringing him back to shore.

Schwarzenegger's private jet made an emergency landing at Van Nuys Airport on June 19, 2009 after the pilot reported smoke coming from the cockpit, according to a statement released by the governor's press secretary. No one was harmed in the incident.

References

Bibliography

 –  –  –  –

Interviews

Interview in Oui magazine, August 1977 at thesmokinggun.com

Excerpts from Time Out (London) interview, 1977 at time.com

Schwarzenegger Interview on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos

Film

"Arnold Schwarzenegger – Hollywood Hero" DVD ~ Todd Baker

"Pumping Iron" (25th Anniversary Special Edition) DVD ~ George Butler

External links

Arnold Schwarzenegger official constituency site

Complete text, audio, video of Governor Schwarzenegger's 2004 Republican National Convention Address AmericanRhetoric.com

Complete text and audio of Governor Schwarzenegger's Speech to the United Nations on Global Climate Change AmericanRhetoric.com, September 24, 2007

Archive of Correspondence pertaining to Governor Schwarzenegger and same-sex marriage AB 43 Project

;Business

Arnold Schwarzenegger's Official Website

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Category:1947 births Category:Actors from California Category:American actor-politicians Category:American athlete-politicians Category:American bodybuilders Category:American entertainment industry businesspeople Category:American film actors Category:American film directors Category:American film producers Category:American health activists Category:American philanthropists Category:American Roman Catholic politicians Category:American video game actors Category:Arnold Schwarzenegger Category:Austrian bodybuilders Category:Austrian film actors Category:Austrian immigrants to the United States Category:Austrian soldiers Category:American people of Austrian descent Category:California Republicans Category:Disability rights activists Category:Governors of California Category:Kennedy family Category:Laureus World Sports Awards winners Category:Living people Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:People from Graz Category:University of Wisconsin–Superior alumni Category:Professional bodybuilders Category:Shriver family Category:Sportspeople from California Category:University of California regents Category:Writers from California

Name	Sheridan Smith
Occupation	Actress, Singer
Years active	1999–present
Birth date	June 25, 1981
Birth place	Epworth, Lincolnshire, England

Sheridan Smith (born 25 June 1981) is an English actress and singer who is best known for her contributions to British sitcoms Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, Gavin & Stacey and Benidorm. She has also become a recognised face within West End theatre who has appeared in musicals Little Shop of Horrors and Legally Blonde.

Early life and career

Smith was born in Epworth, Lincolnshire and from an early age studied dance with the Joyce Mason School of Dancing in Scunthorpe She also trained in movement and dance with Kay Traviss. (who currently still teaches as part of Kay Traviss youth group and annually produces and directs a youth dance performance at The Plowright Theatre in Scunthorpe) . She attended South Axholme Community College where she studied performing arts. She was a member of the National Youth Music Theatre from 1995–2001, performing a number of lead roles in productions such as Bugsy Malone and Into the Woods.

Television

From 1999 to 2000, Smith played Emma, the girlfriend of Antony (Ralf Little) in The Royle Family, but has not appeared in later episodes; she has also played Janet in the long running series Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, the girlfriend, then wife, then widow of Johnny (also portrayed by Ralf Little) since the first series in 2001.

In 2004, she made a one-episode appearance in Mile High as Suzy, an airport cleaner who was so desperate to become cabin crew, she impersonated a flight attendant. She also featured in The Comic Strip's 2005 episode "Sex Actually" as Angie.

Smith played Cleo Martin in Love Soup and also appeared as Michelle, a hypocritical nutritionist, in the sitcom Grownups. The first series aired on BBC Three on 7 May 2006, followed by a second series that started on 5 August 2007 and the third series began filming in October 2008. She has also appeared on The Lenny Henry Show as M.E. Westmocott, a role spoofing the various medical examiners on . In the 2009 Two Pints of Lager Comic Relief special, which crossed over with Grownups, Smith played her characters from both series.

Smith has also starred in a number of other shows including the BBC's Eyes Down alongside Paul O'Grady in which she played the part of Sandy, and smaller parts in shows such as The Bill and Fat Friends. She featured in the second and third series of another BBC Three sitcom, Gavin & Stacey, co-written by James Corden, as his character Smithy's sister Rudi (also known as Smithy).

Smith guest-starred in the Christmas 2008 episode of Lark Rise to Candleford and appeared on New Year's Day 2009 in "The Grinning Man", a special episode of Jonathan Creek, alongside Alan Davies. She also appeared in The Judas Tree, an Easter special aired on 4 April 2010, playing the same character.

She is a regular in Benidorm series three from October 2009.

During 2010 Smith acted as a mentor to the contestants of the BBC show Over the Rainbow. She appeared as a guest on the BBC show The One Show on August 3, 2010.

Sky Arts' Chekhov Comedy Shorts also featured Smith in 2010 when she starred in The Proposal, as Natasha (re-uniting her with Gavin and Stacey actor Mathew Horne). The programme was first shown on November 28, 2010.

Radio

Smith played companion Lucie Miller alongside Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor in a radio series of Doctor Who, produced by Big Finish and transmitted on BBC 7 from New Year's Eve 2006; the plays returned in a second series released on CD and scheduled for BBC7 broadcast. A third series of adventures for Lucie and the Doctor is coming in March 2009, as weekly half-hour downloads followed by a Christmas Special. She also appeared as Ruby Ruggles in the 2008 radio serial The Way We Live Right Now, and took over the role of Tamsin Trelawny in series 2 of Elephants To Catch Eels on BBC Radio4.

Theatre

Smith's theatre credits include the musical Into The Woods at London's Donmar Warehouse, and Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park.

She also played Audrey in the stage production of Little Shop of Horrors at The Menier Chocolate Factory, London, from November 2006 which then moved to The Duke Of York's Theatre in March 2007, and due to a very successful run moved again at the end of June 2007 to The New Ambassadors Theatre, its run ended in September 2007. Smith received a nomination for the 2008 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical, for her performance in the show.

Smith appeared as Vanessa in Tinderbox: a Revenge Comedy by Lucy Kirkwood at the Bush Theatre, Shepherd's Bush, in April 2008.

Smith originated the role of Elle Woods in the musical version of Legally Blonde in its transfer from Broadway to London's West End in December 2009. Ex-Blue boyband member Duncan James played opposite Smith until June 2010, when he was replaced by Richard Fleeshman. Other cast members Sheridan has performed alongside include Aoife Mulholland as Brooke, Denise Van Outen as Paulette, Peter Davison as Professor Callahan. Her performance was well received, the Daily Telegraph describing her as }} Smith was originally supposed to leave Legally Blonde on October 23, 2010, but she extended her run to January 8, 2011, when Susan McFadden took over the role.

As well as her role in Legally Blonde, Smith also performed the title role in the workshop productions of a new musical adaptation of Bridget Jones' Diary. She has stated that the musical will not reach the stage until 2012, with Smith taking the title role in what would be the original London cast.

For her role in Legally Blonde Smith was nominated for the Natasha Richardson Award for Best Actress.

Personal life

Smith was in a relationship with James Corden, which ended in June 2009.

On March 6, 2010, in an interview with the Mail on Sunday, Smith revealed that she and Scottish actor Ross McCall had begun dating after a 10 year friendship.

On April 22, 2010, on ITV's 'Loose Women', Smith confirmed she is currently single and looking for a man.

Filmography

Sheridan will make an appearance in the forthcoming movie Hysteria, which is due to be released in Autumn 2011. Her role will see her taking part in a three-and-a-half-minute orgasm scene.

References

External links

Category:English television actors Category:English soap opera actors Category:English stage actors Category:English radio actors Category:English musical theatre actors Category:Shakespearean actors Category:People from Epworth Category:1981 births Category:Living people

Leonard Bernstein (, ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim. He was probably best known to the public as the longtime music director of the New York Philharmonic, for conducting concerts by many of the world's leading orchestras, and for writing the music for West Side Story, Candide, Wonderful Town, and On the Town. Bernstein was the first classical music conductor to make numerous television appearances between 1954 and 1989. He had a formidable piano technique and as a composer also wrote symphonies and other concert music. Most of his most famous compositions were based on literature. According to The New York Times, he was "one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history." He was not related to film composer Elmer Bernstein. His family spent their summers at their vacation home in Sharon, Massachusetts. His grandmother insisted that his first name be Louis, but his parents always called him Leonard, because they liked the name more. He had his name changed to Leonard officially when he was fifteen, shortly after his grandmother's death.

His father, Sam Bernstein, was a businessman and owner of a bookstore in downtown Lawrence; it is standing today on the corners of Amesbury and Essex Streets. Sam initially opposed young Leonard's interest in music. Despite this, the elder Bernstein frequently took him to orchestra concerts. At a very young age, Bernstein listened to a piano performance and was immediately captivated; he subsequently began learning the piano. As a child, Bernstein attended the Garrison Grammar School and Boston Latin School.

After graduation from Boston Latin School in 1935, Bernstein attended Harvard University, where he studied music with Walter Piston, the author of many harmony and counterpoint textbooks, and was briefly associated with the Harvard Glee Club. One of his friends at Harvard was philosopher Donald Davidson, with whom he played piano four hands. Bernstein wrote and conducted the musical score for the production Davidson mounted of Aristophanes' play The Birds in the original Greek. Bernstein reused some of this music in the ballet Fancy Free.

After completing his studies at Harvard, he enrolled at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he received the only "A" grade Fritz Reiner ever awarded in his class on conducting. During his time at Curtis, Bernstein also studied piano with Isabelle Vengerova, orchestration with Randall Thompson, counterpoint with Richard Stöhr, and score reading with Renée Longy Miquelle.

Early career

During his young adult years in New York City, Bernstein enjoyed an exuberant social life that included relationships with both men and women. After a long internal struggle and a turbulent on-and-off engagement, he married Chilean actress Felicia Cohn Montealegre on September 10, 1951, reportedly in order to increase his chances of obtaining the chief conducting position with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Dimitri Mitropoulos, conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra and New York Philharmonic and Bernstein's mentor, advised him that marrying would help counter the gossip about him and appease the conservative BSO board.

Leonard and Felicia had three children, Jamie, Alexander, and Nina. During his married life, Bernstein tried to be as discreet as possible with his extramarital liaisons. But as he grew older, and as the Gay Liberation movement made great strides, Bernstein became more emboldened, eventually leaving Felicia to live with his lover, Tom Cothran. Some time after, Bernstein learned that his wife was diagnosed with lung cancer. Bernstein moved back in with his wife and cared for her until she died on June 16, 1978.

Bernstein's sexuality has been a matter of speculation and debate. Arthur Laurents (Bernstein's collaborator in West Side Story) said that Bernstein was "a gay man who got married. He wasn't conflicted about it at all. He was just gay." Shirley Rhoades Perle, another friend of Bernstein's, said that she thought "he required men sexually and women emotionally." It has been suggested that Bernstein was actually bisexual, an assertion supported by comments that Bernstein himself made about not preferring any particular cuisine, musical genre, or form of sex.

1940–1950

In 1940, Bernstein began his study at the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer institute, Tanglewood, under the orchestra's conductor, Serge Koussevitzky. Bernstein later became Koussevitzky's conducting assistant. He would later dedicate his Symphony No. 2 to Koussevitzky.

On November 14, 1943, having recently been appointed assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, he made his conducting debut on last-minute notification—and without any rehearsal—after Bruno Walter came down with the flu. The next day, The New York Times editorial remarked, "It's a good American success story. The warm, friendly triumph of it filled Carnegie Hall and spread far over the air waves." He became instantly famous because the concert was nationally broadcast. The soloist for that concert was Joseph Schuster, solo cellist of the New York Philharmonic, who played Richard Strauss's Don Quixote. Because Bernstein had never conducted the work before, Bruno Walter coached him on it prior to the concert. It is possible to hear this concert thanks to a transcription recording made from the CBS radio broadcast that has since been issued on CD.

After World War II, Bernstein's career on the international stage began to flourish. In 1946, he conducted opera for the first time, with the American première of Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes, which had been a Koussevitzky commission. That same year, Arturo Toscanini invited Bernstein to guest conduct two concerts with the NBC Symphony Orchestra, one of which featured Bernstein as soloist in Ravel's Piano Concerto in G. In 1949, he conducted the world première of the Turangalîla-Symphonie by Olivier Messiaen, in Boston, and when Koussevitzky died two years later, Bernstein became head of the orchestral and conducting departments at Tanglewood, holding this position for many years.

1951–1959

In 1951, Bernstein conducted the New York Philharmonic in the world première of the Symphony No. 2 of Charles Ives. The composer, old and frail, was unable to attend the concert, but listened to the broadcast on the radio with his wife, Harmony. Both of them marveled at the enthusiastic reception of this symphony, which had actually been written between 1897 and 1901, but had never been performed. Throughout his career, Bernstein did much to promote the music of this American composer. Ives died in 1954. Bernstein was also a visiting music professor in the early 1950s and was the founder/head of the Creative Arts Festivals at Brandeis University from 1952 onward. The festival was named after him in 2005, becoming the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts.

Bernstein was named the principal conductor of the New York Philharmonic in 1957, replacing Dimitri Mitropoulos, and began his tenure in that position in 1958, a post he held until 1969, although he continued to conduct and make recordings with that orchestra for the rest of his life. He became a well-known figure in the United States through his series of fifty-three televised Young People's Concerts for CBS, which grew out of his Omnibus programs that CBS aired in the early 1950s. His first Young People's Concert was televised a few weeks after his tenure as principal conductor of the New York Philharmonic began. He became as famous for his educational work in those concerts as for his conducting. The Bernstein Young People's Concerts were the first, and still are the most successful, series of music appreciation programs ever done on television, and were highly acclaimed by critics. Some of Bernstein's music lectures were released on records, with several of these albums winning Grammy awards.

The Young People's Concerts series remains the longest-running single group of classical music programs shown on commercial television. They ran from 1958 to 1973, and none of the programs were repeated on television during the series' original run (there would usually be four programs per year). More than thirty years later, twenty-five of them were rebroadcast on the now-defunct cable channel Trio and were released on DVD by Kultur Video.

In 1947, Bernstein conducted in Tel Aviv for the first time, beginning a life-long association with Israel. In 1957, he conducted the inaugural concert of the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv; he subsequently made many recordings there. In 1967, he conducted a concert on Mt. Scopus to commemorate the reunification of Jerusalem. During the 1970s, Bernstein recorded most of his own symphonic music with the Israel Philharmonic.

The beginning of Bernstein's collaboration with the choreographer Jerome Robbins and the writer Arthur Laurents dates from 1949; later they were joined by Stephen Sondheim. After years of intermittent work West Side Story received its Broadway premiere in 1957; a musical that was to prove Bernstein's most enduring work.

In 1959, he took the New York Philharmonic on a tour of Europe and the Soviet Union, portions of which were filmed by CBS. A highlight of the tour was Bernstein's performance of Dmitri Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony, in the presence of the composer, who came on stage at the end to congratulate Bernstein and the musicians. In October, when Bernstein and the orchestra returned to New York, they recorded the symphony for Columbia. He made two recordings of Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony, one with the New York Philharmonic in the 1960s and another one in 1988 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the only recording he ever made with them (along with Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1, also recorded live in concerts at Orchestra Hall in Chicago at that time).

1960–1969

In 1960, Bernstein began the first complete cycle of recordings in stereo of all nine completed symphonies by Gustav Mahler, with the blessing of the composer's widow, Alma. The success of these recordings, along with Bernstein's concert performances, revived interest in Mahler, who had briefly been music director of the New York Philharmonic late in his life. That same year, Bernstein conducted an LP of his own score for the 1944 musical On The Town, in stereo, the first such recording of the score ever made, for Columbia Masterworks Records. Unlike his later recordings of his own musicals, this was originally issued as a single LP rather than a 2-record set. It was later issued on CD. The recording featured several members of the original Broadway cast, including Betty Comden and Adolph Green.

In one storied incident, in April 1962, Bernstein appeared on stage before a performance of the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor. The soloist was the pianist Glenn Gould. During rehearsals, Gould had argued for tempi much broader than normal, which did not reflect Bernstein's concept of the music. Bernstein gave a brief address to the audience stating,

Don't be frightened; Mr. Gould is here (audience laughter). He will appear in a moment. I'm not—um—as you know in the habit of speaking on any concert except the Thursday-night previews, but a curious situation has arisen, which merits, I think, a word or two. You are about to hear a rather, shall we say, unorthodox performance of the Brahms D Minor Concerto, a performance distinctly different from any I've ever heard, or even dreamt of for that matter, in its remarkably broad tempi and its frequent departures from Brahms' dynamic indications. I cannot say I am in total agreement with Mr. Gould's conception, and this raises the interesting question: "What am I doing conducting it?" (mild laughter from the audience). I'm conducting it because Mr. Gould is so valid and serious an artist that I must take seriously anything he conceives in good faith, and his conception is interesting enough that I feel you should hear it, too.

But the age old question still remains: "In a concerto, who is the boss (audience laughter)—the soloist or the conductor?" (Audience laughter grows louder). The answer is, of course, sometimes the one and sometimes the other, depending on the people involved. But almost always, the two manage to get together by persuasion or charm or even threats (audience laughs) to achieve a unified performance. I have only once before in my life had to submit to a soloist's wholly new and incompatible concept and that was the last time I accompanied Mr. Gould (audience laughs loudly). But, but this time, the discrepancies between our views are so great that I feel I must make this small disclaimer. Then why, to repeat the question, am I conducting it? Why do I not make a minor scandal—get a substitute soloist, or let an assistant conduct it?

Because I am fascinated, glad to have the chance for a new look at this much-played work; because, what's more, there are moments in Mr. Gould's performance that emerge with astonishing freshness and conviction. Thirdly, because we can all learn something from this extraordinary artist who is a thinking performer, and finally because there is in music what Dimitri Mitropoulos used to call "the sportive element" (mild audience laughter) —that factor of curiosity, adventure, experiment—and I can assure you that it has been an adventure this week (audience laughter) collaborating with Mr. Gould on this Brahms concerto, and it's in this spirit of adventure that we now present it to you.

This speech was subsequently interpreted by Harold C. Schonberg, music critic for The New York Times, as abdication of personal responsibility and an attack on Gould, whose performance Schonberg went on to criticize heavily. Bernstein always denied that this had been his intent and has stated that he made these remarks with Gould's blessing. Throughout his life, he professed admiration and personal friendship for Gould.

While New York Philharmonic director, Bernstein was responsible for introducing the symphonies of the Danish composer Carl Nielsen to American audiences, leading to a revival of interest in this composer whose reputation had previously been mostly regional. Bernstein recorded three of Nielsen's symphonies (Nos. 2, 4, and 5) with the Philharmonic, and he recorded the composer's 3rd Symphony with a Danish orchestra after a critically acclaimed public performance in Denmark.

In 1966, he made his debut at the Vienna State Opera conducting Luchino Visconti's production of Verdi's Falstaff, with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as Falstaff. In 1970, he returned to the State Opera for Otto Schenk's production of Beethoven's Fidelio. Sixteen years later, at the State Opera, Bernstein conducted his sequel to Trouble in Tahiti, A Quiet Place. Bernstein's final farewell to the State Opera happened accidentally in 1989: following a performance of Modest Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina, he unexpectedly entered the stage and embraced conductor Claudio Abbado in front of a cheering audience.

1970–1979

Beginning in 1970, Bernstein conducted the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, re-recording many pieces previously undertaken with the New York Philharmonic, including the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, and Schumann. Some of the Mahler symphony recordings from Bernstein's second cycle for Deutsche Grammophone were also made with the Vienna Philharmonic.

Later that year, Bernstein wrote and narrated a ninety-minute program filmed on location in and around Vienna, featuring the Vienna Philharmonic with such artists as Plácido Domingo, who in his first television appearance performed as the tenor soloist in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The program, first telecast in 1970 on Austrian and British television, and then on CBS on Christmas Eve 1971, was intended as a celebration of Beethoven's 200th birthday. The show made extensive use of the rehearsals and finished performance of the Otto Schenk production of Fidelio. Originally entitled Beethoven's Birthday: A Celebration in Vienna, the show, which won an Emmy, was telecast only once on U.S. commercial television, and it remained in CBS's vaults until it resurfaced on A&E; shortly after Bernstein's death, under the new title Bernstein on Beethoven: A Celebration in Vienna. It was immediately issued on VHS under that title, and in 2005 it was issued on DVD.

Bernstein's political life received substantial press coverage at the beginning of the decade due to a gathering hosted at his 13-room Upper East Side Manhattan apartment in January 1970. Bernstein and his wife held the event seeking to raise awareness and money for the defense of several members of the Black Panther Party against a variety of charges. The New York Times initially covered the gathering as a lifestyle item, but later posted an editorial harshly unfavorable to Bernstein following generally negative reaction to the widely publicized story. This reaction culminated in June 1970 with the appearance of "Radical Chic: That Party at Lenny's", an essay by satirist Tom Wolfe featured on the cover of New York. The magazine article included prose and photographs that contrasted the Bernsteins' comfortable lifestyle in one of the world's most expensive neighborhoods with the anti-establishment politics of the Black Panthers and lead to the popularization of "radical chic" as a critical term. Both Bernstein and his wife Felicia responded to the criticism, arguing that they were motivated not by a shallow desire to express fashionable sympathy but by their concern for civil liberties.

The world premiere of Bernstein's MASS: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers occurred on September 8, 1971. Commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy for the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. it was partly intended as an anti-war statement. Hastily written in places, the work represented a fusion not only of different religious traditions (its texts juxtapose the Latin liturgy with Hebrew prayer and plenty of contemporary English lyrics) but also of different musical styles. Originally a target of criticism from the Catholic Church on the one hand and contemporary music critics who objected to its Broadway/populist elements on the other, the MASS has however since been embraced by the church. It was performed at Vatican City in 2000.

In 1972, he recorded a performance of Bizet's Carmen, with Marilyn Horne in the title role and James McCracken as Don Jose, after leading several stage performances of the opera. The recording was one of the first in stereo to use the original spoken dialogue between the sung portions of the opera, rather than the musical recitatives that were composed by Ernest Guiraud after Bizet's death.

Bernstein was invited in 1973 to the Charles Eliot Norton Chair as Professor of Poetry at his alma mater, Harvard University, to deliver a series of six lectures on music. Borrowing the title from a Charles Ives work, he called the series "The Unanswered Question"; it is a set of interdisciplinary lectures in which he borrows terminology from contemporary linguistics to analyze and compare musical construction to language. Three years later, in 1976, the series of videotaped lectures was telecast on PBS. The lectures survive in both book and DVD form. Noam Chomsky wrote in 2007 on the Znet forums about the linguistic aspects of the lecture: "I spent some time with Bernstein during the preparation and performance of the lectures. My feeling was that he was onto something, but I couldn't really judge how significant it was."

In 1978, the Otto Schenk Fidelio, with Bernstein still conducting, but featuring a different cast, was filmed by Unitel. Like the program Bernstein on Beethoven, it was shown on A&E; after his death and subsequently issued on VHS. Although the video has long been out of print, it was released on DVD by Deutsche Grammophon in late 2006.

In May 1978, the Israel Philharmonic played two U.S. concerts under his direction to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Orchestra under that name. On consecutive nights, the Orchestra performed Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Bernstein's Chichester Psalms at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and at Carnegie Hall in NYC.

In 1979, Bernstein conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for the first and only time, in two charity concerts. The performance, of Mahler's Ninth Symphony, was broadcast on radio and was posthumously released on CD.

1980–1990

Bernstein received the Kennedy Center Honors award in 1980.

On PBS in the 1980s, he was the conductor and commentator for a special series on Beethoven's music, which featured the Vienna Philharmonic playing all nine Beethoven symphonies, several of his overtures, one of the string quartets arranged for the full string section of the Vienna Philharmonic, and the Missa Solemnis. Actor Maximilian Schell was also featured on the program, reading from Beethoven's letters. This series has since been released on DVD.

In 1982, he and Ernest Fleischmann founded the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, where he served as Artistic Director through 1984.

Leonard Bernstein was a regular guest conductor of The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. In the 1980s, he recorded, among other pieces, Mahler's First, Second, Fourth, and Ninth Symphonies with them.

In 1985, he conducted a complete recording of his score for West Side Story for the first and only time. The recording, much criticized for featuring what critics felt were miscast opera singers such as Kiri Te Kanawa, José Carreras, and Tatiana Troyanos in the leading roles, was nevertheless a national bestseller.

In 1989, Bernstein again conducted and recorded another complete performance of one of his musicals, again featuring opera singers rather than Broadway stars. This time it was Candide, and because the show was always intended to be an operetta, the recording made from it was much more warmly received. The performance was released posthumously on CD (in 1991). It starred Jerry Hadley, June Anderson, Adolph Green, and Christa Ludwig in the leading roles. The Candide recording, unlike the West Side Story one, included previously discarded numbers from the show.

A TV documentary of the West Side Story recording sessions was made in 1985, and the Candide recording was made live, in concert. This concert was eventually telecast posthumously.

On Christmas Day, December 25, 1989, Bernstein conducted Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in East Berlin's Schauspielhaus (Playhouse) as part of a celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The concert was broadcast live in more than twenty countries to an estimated audience of 100 million people. For the occasion, Bernstein reworded Friedrich Schiller's text of the Ode to Joy, substituting the word Freiheit (freedom) for Freude (joy). Bernstein, in the introduction to the program, said that they had "taken the liberty" of doing this because of a "most likely phony" story, apparently believed in some quarters, that Schiller wrote an "Ode to Freedom" that is now presumed lost. Bernstein's comment was, "I'm sure that Beethoven would have given us his blessing."

Bernstein conducted his final performance at Tanglewood on August 19, 1990, with the Boston Symphony playing Benjamin Britten's "Four Sea Interludes" from Peter Grimes, and Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. He suffered a coughing fit in the middle of the Beethoven performance which almost caused the concert to break down. The concert was later issued on CD by Deutsche Grammophon.

He died of pneumonia and a pleural tumor just five days after retiring. A longtime heavy smoker, he had battled emphysema from his mid-50s. On the day of his funeral procession through the streets of Manhattan, construction workers removed their hats and waved, yelling "Goodbye, Lenny." Bernstein is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.

Influence

Bernstein was highly regarded as a conductor among many musicians, including the members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, evidenced by his honorary membership; the London Symphony Orchestra, of which he was President; and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, with which he appeared regularly as guest conductor. He was considered especially accomplished with the works of Gustav Mahler; with his own compositions; and with American composers Aaron Copland, Charles Ives, William Schuman, and George Gershwin. His recordings of Rhapsody in Blue (full-orchestra version) and An American in Paris with the Philharmonic, released in 1959, are considered definitive by many, although for reasons unknown Bernstein always cut the Rhapsody slightly. Unfortunately, he never conducted a performance of Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F, nor did he ever conduct Porgy and Bess. However, he did discuss Porgy in his article, Why Don't You Run Upstairs and Write a Nice Gershwin Tune?, originally published in The New York Times and later reprinted in his 1959 book The Joy of Music.

Bernstein influenced many conductors who are performing now, such as Marin Alsop, Alexander Frey, John Mauceri, Seiji Ozawa, Carl St.Clair, and Michael Tilson Thomas. Ozawa made his first network television debut as the guest conductor on one of the Young People's Concerts.

Recordings

Bernstein recorded extensively from the 1950s until just a few months before his death. Aside from a few early recordings in the mid-1940s for RCA Victor, Bernstein recorded primarily for Columbia Masterworks Records, especially when he was music director of the New York Philharmonic. Many of these performances have been digitally remastered and reissued by Sony as part of the "Royal Edition" and "Bernstein Century" series. His later recordings (1976 onwards) were mostly made for Deutsche Grammophon, though he would occasionally return to the Columbia Masterworks label. Notable exceptions include recordings of Gustav Mahler's Song of the Earth and Mozart's 15th piano concerto and "Linz" symphony with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra for Decca Records (1966); Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique (1976) for EMI; and Wagner's Tristan und Isolde (1981) for Philips Records, a label joint with Deutsche Grammophon as PolyGram at that time.

In August 2008, Sony BMG Masterworks released a 10-disc set of Bernstein's recordings of his own works as a composer, The Original Jacket Collection: Bernstein Conducts Bernstein, which heralds the Bernstein Festival and the Bernstein Mass Project. Carnegie Hall and the New York Philharmonic's three-month program of events, entitled Bernstein: The Best of All Possible Worlds, pays tribute to each aspect of Bernstein's legacy with 50 concerts and education events. 2008 also marked the 65th anniversary of Bernstein's historic Carnegie Hall debut.

Works

Ballet

Fancy Free, 1944

Facsimile- Choreographic Essay for Orchestra, 1946

Dybbuk (ballet), 1974

Opera

Trouble in Tahiti, 1952

Candide, 1956 (new libretto in 1973, operetta revised in 1989)

A Quiet Place, 1983

Musicals

On The Town, 1944

Wonderful Town, 1953

West Side Story, 1957

The Race to Urga (incomplete), 1969

"By Bernstein" (a Revue), 1975

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, 1976

The Madwoman of Central Park West, (contributed to) 1979

Incidental Music & Other Theatre

Peter Pan, 1950

The Lark, 1955

''The Firstborn, 1958

Mass (theatre piece for singers, players and dancers), 1971

Film Scores

On the Town, 1949

On the Waterfront, 1954

West Side Story, 1961

Orchestral

Symphony No. 1, Jeremiah, 1942

Fancy Free and Three Dance Variations from "Fancy Free,", concert premiere 1946

Three Dance Episodes from "On the Town," concert premiere 1947

Symphony No. 2, The Age of Anxiety, (after W. H. Auden) for Piano and Orchestra, 1949 (revised in 1965)

Serenade for Solo Violin, Strings, Harp and Percussion (after Plato's "Symposium"), 1954

Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs for Solo Clarinet and Jazz Ensemble, 1949

Symphonic Suite from "On the Waterfront", 1955

Symphonic Dances from "West Side Story", 1961

Symphony No. 3, Kaddish, for Orchestra, Mixed Chorus, Boys' Choir, Speaker and Soprano Solo, 1963 (revised in 1977)

Dybbuk, Suites No. 1 and 2 for Orchestra, concert premieres 1975

, 1977

Three Meditations from "Mass" for Violoncello and Orchestra, 1977

''Slava! A Political Overture for Orchestra, 1977

Divertimento for Orchestra, 1980

Halil, nocturne for Solo Flute, Piccolo, Alto Flute, Percussion, Harp and Strings, 1981

Concerto for Orchestra, 1989 (Originally Jubilee Games from 1986, revised in 1989)

Overture to Candide

Choral

Hashkiveinu for Cantor (tenor), Mixed Chorus and Organ, 1945

Missa Brevis for Mixed Chorus and Countertenor Solo, with Percussion, 1988

Chichester Psalms for Boy Soprano (or Countertenor), Mixed Chorus, and Orchestra, 1965 (Reduced version for Organ, Harp and Percussion)

Chamber music

Piano Trio, 1937, Boosey & Hawkes

Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, 1939

Brass Music, 1959

Dance Suite, 1988

Vocal music

I Hate Music: A cycle of Five Kids Songs for Soprano and Piano, 1943

Big Stuff, sung by Billie Holiday

La Bonne Cuisine: Four Recipes for Voice and Piano, 1948

Silhouette (Galilee), 1951

Two Love Songs, 1960

So Pretty, 1968

Piccola Serenata, 1988

Arias and Barcarolles for Mezzo-Soprano, Baritone and Piano four-hands, 1988

Piano Music

Music for Two Pianos, 1937

Piano Sonata, 1938

7 Anniversaries, 1944

4 Anniversaries, 1948

5 Anniversaries, 1952

Bridal Suite, 1960

Moby Diptych, 1981 (republished as Anniversaries nos. 1 and 2 in Thirteen Anniversaries)

Touches, 1981

13 Anniversaries, 1988

Other music

Other occasional works, written as gifts and other forms of memorial and tribute

"The Skin of Our Teeth": An aborted work from which Bernstein took material to use in his "Chichester Psalms"

"Simhu Na" (arrangement of traditional song)

"Waltz for Mippy III" for Tuba and Piano

"Elegy for Mippy II" for Trombone alone

"Elegy for Mippy I" for Horn and Piano

"Rondo for Lifey" for Trumpet and Piano

"Fanfare for Bima" for Brass Quartet: a piece composed in 1947 as a birthday tribute to Koussevitzky (Tanglewood) using the tune Koussevitzky whistled to call his cocker spaniel

Bibliography

Bernstein, Leonard. [1976] The Unanswered Question: Six Talks at Harvard, Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-92001-5.

Videography

The Unanswered Question: Six Talks at Harvard. West Long Branch, New Jersey: Kultur Video. VHS ISBN 1561275700. DVD ISBN 0769715702. (videotape of the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures given at Harvard in 1973.)

Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic. West Long Branch, New Jersey: Kultur Video. DVD ISBN 0769715036.

Bernstein on Beethoven: A Celebration in Vienna/Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1. West Long Branch, Kultur Video. DVD

Leonard Bernstein: Omnibus - The Historic TV Broadcasts ,2010, E1 Ent.

Bernstein: Reflections (1978), Euroarts.

Awards

Knight Grand Cross OMRI, 1989

Ditson Conductor's Award, 1958

Sonning Award (1965; Denmark)

George Peabody Medal - Johns Hopkins University

Grammy Award for Best Album for Children

Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance

Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance

Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording

Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Performance

Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance

Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition

Grammy Award for Best Classical Album

Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award

Tony Award for Best Musical

Special Tony Award

Further reading

()

References

External links

Leonard Bernstein official site

Discography

The Leonard Bernstein Collection at the Library of Congress Music Division

Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks

Bernstein's Boston, a Harvard University research project

Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts

Gay Great - Leonard Bernstein

Radical Chic, a book by Tom Wolfe describing a gathering at Bernstein's apartment of New York's social elite and the Black Panther Party.

Leonard Bernstein: A Total Embrace of Music, written by Peter Gutmann, music journalist.

Arias and Barcarolles, The Leonard Bernstein Pages

Leonard Bernstein's maximum card from Israel

Obituary, New York Times, October 15, 1990

Leonard Bernstein: American Original (HarperCollins, 2008) Chapters by Alan Rich, Paul Boyer, Carol J. Oja, Tim Page, Burton Bernstein, Jonathan Rosenberg, Joseph Horowitz, Bill McGlaughlin, James M. Keller, John Adams

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Category:Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:Ukrainian Jews Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Ballet composers Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Brandeis University faculty Category:Curtis Institute of Music alumni Category:American expatriates in Austria Category:People from Sharon, Massachusetts Category:Jewish American classical composers

This article is about the British artist, Duncan James, who is not to be confused with an Australian artist of the same name who is notable for a single titled 'Speed of Life'.

Name	Duncan James
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Duncan Matthew James Inglis
Born	April 07, 1978
Origin	Salisbury, Wiltshire, England
Instruments	Singing, Piano, Guitar
Genre	Pop rock, R&B;
Occupation	Singer, songwriter
Years active	2001–present
Label	Innocent 2001 - present
Associated acts	Blue, Antony Costa, Lee Ryan, Simon Webbe
Url

Duncan Matthew James Inglis (born 7 April 1978) is an English singer, of the popular UK boy band Blue. He is also an actor and television presenter.

Early life

James grew up an only child in Devon and was raised primarily by his mother and grandparents after his father abandoned his mother before he was born. He was educated at Dumpton School (where his grandfather worked as a music teacher), the Milldown School in Blandford Forum and Corfe Hills School in Corfe Mullen and Sidmouth College. At 15, he played Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream. He also played Dr Watson in Sherlock Holmes for Sidmouth Youth Theatre. James also worked for Haven Holidays as a Havenmate on the Isle Of Wight and at West Bay in Dorset.

Music career

Blue

In early 2000, James, along with Antony Costa, convinced Lee Ryan and Simon Webbe to form the group Blue. Blue's R&B;-influenced pop allowed the group to achieve commercial success in the United Kingdom and many other countries, including Portugal, Belgium, Italy, France, Australia and New Zealand. From May 2001, when the group released its first single, "All Rise", until 2004, when the band released its final chart-qualifying single, "Curtain Falls", Blue had achieved 11 Top 10 singles in the UK, three of which went to Number 1.

Solo career

In October 2004, James collaborated with Keedie to release the single "I Believe My Heart", which entered the UK singles chart at Number 2. He returned to the solo music scene in May 2006 with his single "Sooner or Later", releasing the video in early May and planning to release the single commercially on 5 June 2006. The video reached Number 2 on The Box and Number 5 on The Hits. However, the single was no commercial success and entered the UK charts at Number 35, before slipping down to Number 72 in its second week. "Can't Stop a River" was James's next single. Released on 21 August 2006, the track could only reach Number 59 in the UK, and Number 97 in Ireland. In continental Europe, where "Can't Stop a River" was released the day prior to the UK, it similarly proved unpopular, dropping out of the singles charts in many countries such as France, Turkey, Germany, and Belgium. James' album also fell short, selling less than 1,000 copies in the UK in its first week (and failing to reach the Top 50). The album sold a total of 412,350 copies around the world. Although his debut album didn't do as well as hoped (with the exception of Italy, where the album reached Number 2 on the chart and has been certified platinum for shipments of 80,000 copies), on 2 February 2007, music channel B4 premiered the video for "Amazed", his new single which was scheduled to be released 12 March 2007. However, there was once again a lack of interest. The release was cancelled and James was dropped from his recording contract. He has since announced he has quit least his solo career.

Theatre

In 2007, James appeared in the West End production of Chicago. He completed another 10 weeks in Chicago from 10 December 2007 until 9 February 2008. James has been cast as one of the leads in the musical version of Legally Blonde as it transferred from Broadway to London's West End in December 2009. He plays opposite Sheridan Smith as Elle, and Aoife Mulholland as Brooke. In December 2009, James appeared as 'Warner Huntington III' in the West End production of ''.

Television

James has worked occasionally as a television presenter, having presented the 95.8 Capital FM's Party in the Park for the Prince's Trust (2003 and 2004), and ITV2's coverage of the TV series Soapstar Superstar, along with Jayne Middlemiss. Other presenting work includes Pop City Live, Variety Club Showbusiness Awards 2004, T4 Movie Special: Spider-Man 2, Record of the Year: Downloaded and GMTV's Entertainment Today. He also took part on ITV1's Dancing on Ice in 2007, in which he made it to the grand final alongside rugby player Kyran Bracken and actress Clare Buckfield. He came third in the contest, although was unable to perform his Bolero performance. In 2007, James appeared in the pilot episode of Channel 4's Plus One, playing himself. A full series was broadcast in 2009, in which he played a broad caricature of himself called "Duncan From Blue". James made an appearance on a new show for Sky One called 'Guinness World Records Smashed' performing with Festival4Stars contestants. It aired in November 2008. In 2008, James became an Ambassador of Festival4Stars talent competition after he judge a national final. In 2010, James presented the quiz show 'Scream if You Know the Answer!' where the contestants have to answer questions whilst on rollercoasters. In July 2010, he appeared as a judge on Don't Stop Believing, a talent show for choirs. James has his own radio show on 95.8 Capital FM, every Sunday from 7-10pm.

Personal life

James currently lives in Hatfield, Hertfordshire.James has a daughter named Tianie-Finn with former girlfriend Claire Granger. She became pregnant after a brief rekindle of their romance and gave birth to their daughter in early 2005. James stated in an interview that while he has ruled out the possibility of getting back together with the mother of his child, he's going to give her all the help he can to raise their daughter and has remained on good terms with her. James was raised a "strict Catholic", and is still Catholic. He came out as bisexual in an interview with the News of the World on 12 July 2009. According to an interview he gave to Gabby Logan on BBC Radio 5 Live on the morning of 28 July 2007, he is a great-grandson of Herbert Chapman, the manager of the Arsenal football team of the 1930s.

Discography

Studio albums

{| class=wikitable style=text-align:center; ! rowspan=2| Year ! rowspan=2| Album details ! colspan=5| Peak chart positions |- style="font-size:smaller;" ! width=30| UK ! width=30| FRA ! width=30| IRE ! width=30| BEL ! width=30| ITA |- | 2006 | align=left| Future Past

Released: June 12, 2006

Label: Innocent Records

Format: CD, LP

| 55 | 68 | 55 | 25 | 2 |}

Singles

References

Bibliography

[ AllMusic's description of Blue]

"Life of Ryan", "The Guardian", 3 July 2005, retrieved 17 May 2006

"Duncan James slams ex-bandmates, "ContactMusic", 1 May 2006, retrieved 17 May 2006

Everyhit.com Lists chart ranks for UK singles

"James vows to be a good dad", "ContactMusic", 1 December 2004, retrieved 17 May 2006

"When does the fun start?" by Zoe Williams, "The Guardian", 4 October 2003, retrieved 17 May 2006

External links

Official website

Category:1978 births Category:Living people Category:2000s singers Category:21st-century actors Category:Bisexual actors Category:Bisexual musicians Category:Blue (boy band) members Category:Dancing on Ice participants Category:English male singers Category:English Roman Catholics Category:English television actors Category:English television personalities Category:LGBT Christians Category:LGBT musicians from the United Kingdom Category:LGBT people from England Category:LGBT television personalities Category:Participants in British reality television series Category:People from Salisbury