Michael Bennett (April 8, 1943 – July 2, 1987) was an American musical theater director, writer, choreographer, and dancer. He won seven Tony Awards for his choreography and direction of Broadway shows and was nominated for an additional eleven.

Bennett choreographed Promises, Promises, Follies and Company. In 1976, he won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical and the Tony Award for Best Choreography for the Pulitzer Prize–winning phenomenon A Chorus Line. Bennett, under the aegis of producer Joseph Papp, created A Chorus Line based on a precedent-setting workshop process which he pioneered. He also directed and co-choreographed Dreamgirls with Michael Peters.

Early life and career[link]

Bennett was born Michael Bennett DiFiglia in Buffalo, New York, the son of Helen (Ternoff), a secretary, and Salvatore Joseph DiFiglia, a factory worker.^[1] His father was Roman Catholic and his mother was Jewish.^[2] He studied dance and choreography in his teens and staged a number of shows in his local high school before dropping out to accept the role of Baby John in the US and European tours of West Side Story.

Bennett's career as a Broadway dancer began in the 1961 Betty Comden–Adolph Green–Jule Styne musical Subways Are For Sleeping, after which he appeared in Meredith Willson's Here's Love and the short-lived Bajour.^[3] In the mid-1960s he was a featured dancer on the NBC pop music series Hullabaloo, where he met fellow dancer Donna McKechnie.^[4]

Bennett made his choreographic debut with A Joyful Noise (1966), which lasted only twelve performances, and in 1967 followed it with another failure, Henry, Sweet Henry (based on the Peter Sellers film The World of Henry Orient).^[3] Success finally arrived in 1968, when he choreographed the hit musical Promises, Promises on Broadway. With a contemporary pop score by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, a wisecracking book by Neil Simon and Bennett's well-received production numbers, including "Turkey Lurkey Time", the show ran for 1,281 performances.^[5] Over the next few years, he earned praise for his work on the straight play Twigs with Sada Thompson and the musical Coco with Katharine Hepburn.^[3] These were followed by two Stephen Sondheim productions, Company and Follies co-directed with Hal Prince.^[3]

In 1973, Bennett was asked by producers Joseph Kipness and Larry Kasha to take over the ailing Cy Coleman–Dorothy Fields musical Seesaw. In replacing the director Ed Sherin and choreographer Grover Dale, he asked for absolute control over the production as director and choreographer and received credit as "having written, directed, and choreographed" the show.^[6]

[edit] A Chorus Line and the 1980s

Bennett's next project was A Chorus Line. The musical was formed out of hundreds of hours of taped sessions with Broadway dancers. Bennett was invited to the sessions originally as an observer but soon took charge.^[7] He co-choreographed and directed the production, which debuted in May 1975 off-Broadway. It won nine Tony Awards and the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. He later claimed that the worldwide success of A Chorus Line became a hindrance, as the many international companies of that musical demanded his full-time attention.^[8] Bennett would later become a creative consultant for the 1985 film version of the musical but left due to creative differences. He always sought creative control over his projects, but Hollywood producers were unwilling to give him the influence he demanded.^[9]

Although the film version was but a pale imitation of the original, there are some filmed records which testify to the show's initial power. Television talk-show host Phil Donahue devoted an entire program to the original cast, during which they reminisce and recreate some of the musical numbers. The 2008 feature-length documentary "Every Little Step" chronicles the casting process of A Chorus Line's 2006 revival, with re-created choreography by Bennett's long-time associate Baayork Lee, and, in the course of the film, the saga of the original production is re-told as well, through the use of old film clips and revealing interviews from the original collaborators, including Lee, Bob Avian (who was the show's original co-choreographer with Bennett and the director of the revival), composer Marvin Hamlisch and the original's leading lady, Donna McKechnie.

Bennett's next musical was an admired project about late-life romance called Ballroom. Although financially unsuccessful, it garnered 7 Tony Award nominations, and Michael won one for Best Choreography. He admitted that any project that followed A Chorus Line was bound to be an anti-climax.^[10] Bennett had another hit in 1981 with Dreamgirls, a backstage epic about a girl-group like The Supremes and the expropriation of black music by a white recording industry. In the early 1980s, Bennett worked on various projects, one of which was titled The Children's Crusade based on a legendary story Children's Crusade, but none of them reached the stage.^[11]

He always collaborated with his assistant Bob Avian, who was a lifelong friend.^[12]

In 1985, Bennett abandoned the nearly-completed musical Scandal, by writer Treva Silverman and songwriter Jimmy Webb, which had been developing for nearly five years through a series of workshop productions.^[13] The show was sexually daring, and apparently Bennett's best work, but the conservative climate and the growing AIDS panic made it unlikely commercial material.^[14] He was then signed to direct the West End production of Chess but had to withdraw in January 1986 due to his failing health, leaving Trevor Nunn to complete the production using Bennett's already commissioned sets.^[15][16]

Analysis[link]

Unlike his more famous contemporary Bob Fosse, Bennett was not known for a particular choreographic style. Instead, Bennett's choreography was motivated by the form of the musical involved, or the distinct characters interpreted.^[17]

In Act 2 of Company, Bennett defied the usual choreographic expectations by deliberately taking the polish off the standard Broadway production number. The company stumbled through the steps of a hat and cane routine ("Side By Side") and thus revealed to the audience the physical limitations of the characters' singing and dancing. Bennett made the audience aware that this group had been flung together to perform, and that they were in over their heads. He intended the number to be not about the routine, but rather the characters behind it.^[18]

The song "One" from A Chorus Line functions in a different way. The various phases of construction/rehearsal of the number are shown, and because the show is about professional dancers, the last performance of the song-and-dance routine has all the gloss and polish expected of Broadway production values. Bennett's choreography also reveals the cost of the number to the people behind it.^[19]

Bennett was influenced by the work of Jerome Robbins. "What Michael Bennett perceived early in Robbins' work was totality, all the sums of a given piece adding to a unified whole".^[20] In Dreamgirls, Bennett's musical staging was described as a "mesmerizing sense of movement":

The most thrilling breakthrough of the extraordinary show is that whereas in A Chorus Line Michael Bennett choreographed the cast, in Dreamgirls he has choreographed the set.... Bennett's use of [the plexiglass towers that dominated the set] was revolutionary. The towers moved to create constantly changing perspectives and space, like an automated ballet.... They energized the action, driving it forcefully along. It's why there were no set-piece dance routines in the show: Dance and movement were organic to the entire action. But Bennett had made the mechanical set his dancers."^[21]

Personal life[link]

In his younger days, Bennett had a relationship with Larry Fuller, a dancer, choreographer and director.^[22]

He had a long professional and personal relationship with the virtuoso dancer Donna McKechnie, who danced his work in both Promises, Promises and Company and finally won the 1976 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in the role he had created for her in A Chorus Line. They got married on December 4, 1976, but after only a few months they separated and eventually divorced in 1979.^[23]

In the late 1970s he began an affair with Sabine Cassel, the then-wife of French actor Jean-Pierre Cassel.^[24] She left her family in Paris to live with Bennett in Manhattan, but the relationship soured.^[25]

Bennett's addictions to alcohol and drugs, notably cocaine and quaaludes, severely affected his ability to work and affected many of his professional and personal relationships. His paranoia grew as his dependency did. Worried by his celebrity and his father's Italian background, he began to suspect he might fall victim to a Mafia hit.^[26]

Bennett's last lover was Gene Pruitt. In 1986 both Pruitt and friend Bob Herr lived with Bennett for the last eight months of his life in Tucson, Arizona, where he received care at the Arizona Medical Center. Bennett died from AIDS-related lymphoma at the age of forty-four.^[27] He left a portion of his estate to fund research to fight the epidemic.^[28][29] Bennett's memorial service took place at the Shubert Theatre in New York (the home at that time of A Chorus Line) on September 29, 1987.^[30]

Awards and nominations[link]

Other media[link]

A Class Act—A Musical About Musicals (2001). Bennett and lyricist Ed Kleban are portrayed in this partly ficionalized life story of Kleban, using some of Kleban's unpublished songs. A Chorus Line's number "One" is included in this musical.

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Hadleigh, Boze (2007). Broadway Babylon. Back Stage Books. ISBN 0-8230-8830-8.
• Kantor, Michael (2004). "Choreographer, Directors & Producers: Michael Bennett". Broadway: The American Musical. Public Broadcasting Service. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/stars/bennett_m.html. Retrieved 2008-05-21. 
• Kelly, Kevin (1990). One Singular Sensation: The Michael Bennett Story. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-26125-X. 
• Long, Robert Emmet (2001). Broadway, the Golden Years: Jerome Robbins and the Great Choreographer-directors: 1940 to the Present. Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 0-8264-1462-1.
• Mandelbaum, Ken (1990). A Chorus Line and the Musicals of Michael Bennett. St. Martins Press. ISBN 0-312-03061-4.
• McKechnie, Donna (2006). Time Steps: My Musical Comedy Life. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-5520-8.
• Shea, Tom (2004). Broadway's Most Wanted:The Top 10 Book of Dynamic Divas, Surefire Showstoppers, and Box Office Busts. Brassey's. ISBN 1-57488-596-0.
• Webb, Jimmy (1999). Tunesmith:Inside the Art of Songwriting. Hyperion. ISBN 0-7868-8488-6.
• Zadan, Craig (1987). Sondheim & Co.. Pavilion Books. ISBN 1-85145-190-0.

Further reading[link]

• Chapin, Ted (2005). Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical Follies. Applause Books. ISBN 1-55783-653-1.
• Flinn, Denny Martin (1989). What They Did for Love: The Untold Story Behind the Making of "A Chorus Line". Bantam, ISBN 0-553-34593-1.
• Hamlisch, Marvin (1992). The Way I Was (1st edition). Scribner's. ISBN 0-684-19327-2.
• Stevens, Gary (2000). The Longest Line: Broadway's Most Singular Sensation: A Chorus Line. Applause Books. ISBN 1-55783-221-8.
• Viagas, Robert (1990). On the Line: The Creation of A Chorus Line (2nd edition). Limelight Editions. ISBN 0-87910-336-1.

External links[link]

• Michael Bennett at the Internet Broadway Database
• Michael Bennett at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Michael Bennett at the Internet Movie Database

This article relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Please add citations from reliable sources. (August 2007)

David Tibet
David Tibet performing with Current 93 in 2007.
Background information
Birth name	David Michael Bunting
Born	(1960-03-05) 5 March 1960 (age 52)
Origin	England
Genres	Apocalyptic folk, neofolk
Labels	Durtro, Jnana, Coptic Cat
Associated acts	Current 93, Psychic TV, Death in June
Website	www.copticcat.com www.jnanarecords.com

David Tibet (born David Michael Bunting, 5 March 1960 in Batu Gajah, Malaysia) is a British poet and artist who founded the music group Current 93, of which he is the only full-time member. He had earlier collaborated with Psychic TV and 23 Skidoo. He was given the name "Tibet" by Genesis P-Orridge, and in January 2005 he announced that he would revert to the name David Michael, although he continues to use the well-known "Tibet" in his public career to date.

Career[link]

Tibet left Psychic TV in 1983 and founded Current 93 the same year. He has worked with Steven Stapleton of Nurse With Wound (of which band he is a member), Michael Cashmore, Douglas P. (of Death In June, on whose albums he has appeared several times), Steve Ignorant of Crass (using the name "Stephen Intelligent"), Boyd Rice, Little Annie, Björk, Nick Cave, Rose McDowall, and Ian Read of Fire and Ice.

Influences[link]

Tibet's lyrical subject matter reflects a consistent preoccupation with all aspects of apocalypse. He has long been a student of Christian eschatology. At a precocious age, he developed a strong interest in Aleister Crowley and the Ordo Templi Orientis. He joined the Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis and borrowed the term "93 Current", the current of Thelema or Agape, from Crowley. His initial recording as Current 93, LAShTAL, was, according to Tibet, "the invocation of Malkunofath on the Nightside of Eden, the reverse of the Tree of Life". He has long proclaimed a virtual anathema to Crowleyism (despite a strong appreciation for Crowley as an individual) and instead has embraced at various intervals, Tibetan Buddhism and esoteric Christianity. His projects continue to focus on the multifaceted aspects of apocalypse, mainly death, loss and destruction. Progressively, his works are tempered by Christian mysticism and an increasingly strong faith in the end of the world.

Other influences include Noddy, Gnosticism, Austin Osman Spare, Stock, Aitken and Waterman, Bobby Beausoleil, and a variety of occult topics.

In April 2006, Ordo Templi Orientis formed the International OTO Cabinet, an advisory, non-voting panel made up of both OTO Initiates and Non-Initiates. David Tibet was named among the initial non-member appointments.^[1]

Other activities[link]

He is an established Outsider artist and painter with much of his work in well-known galleries such as the Henry Boxer Gallery and Isis Gallery.^[2] Tibet is interested in the work of Count Stenbock, whose writings he has worked to republish. He also ran the Durtro publishing imprint and record label (1988–2010) which has since been replaced by an earlier label, Coptic Cat, where many Durtro releases continue to be available.^[3] He attended Newcastle University.^[4]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Keenan, David (2003) England's Hidden Reverse: a secret history of the esoteric underground, London: SAF Publishing.

External links[link]

• Tibet's Coptic Cat label, features weblog style news from Tibet
• Jnana Records
• Photo and list of "Involvements"
• Recordings
• Interview with FluxEuropa, April, 1997
• 1997 Interview with 'The Wire' magazine
• Isis Gallery Presents David Tibet

James Patterson
Born	(1947-03-22) March 22, 1947 (age 65) Newburgh, New York, United States
Occupation	Novelist
Genres	Thriller
Notable work(s)	Alex Cross series Maximum Ride series The Women's Murder Club series Michael Bennett series Daniel X series Witch & Wizard series
www.jamespatterson.com

James B. Patterson (born March 22, 1947) is an American author of thriller novels, largely known for his series about American psychologist Alex Cross. Patterson also wrote the Michael Bennett, Women's Murder Club, Maximum Ride, Daniel X, and Witch & Wizard series, as well as many stand-alone thrillers, nonfiction and romance novels.

Biography[link]

After Patterson retired from advertising in 1996, he devoted his time to writing.^[1] The novels featuring his character Alex Cross, a forensic psychologist formerly of the Washington D.C. Police Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation who now works as a private psychologist and government consultant, are his most popular and the top-selling U.S. detective series in the past ten years. Patterson has written 71 novels in 33 years.^{[2][citation needed]} He has had 19 consecutive #1 New York Times bestselling novels, and holds The New York Times record for most bestselling hardcover fiction titles by a single author, a total of 63, which is also a Guinness World Record.^[3] As the world's best-selling author (250 million copies in total worldwide), his novels account for one in 17 of all hardcover novels sold in the United States; in recent years his novels have sold more copies than those of Stephen King, John Grisham and Dan Brown combined.^[4]

Patterson's awards include the Edgar Award, the BCA Mystery Guild’s Thriller of the Year, the International Thriller of the Year award,^[3] and the Children's Choice Book Award for Author of the Year. He is the first author to have #1 new titles simultaneously on The New York Times adult and children’s bestsellers lists, and to have two books on NovelTracker’s top-ten list at the same time.^{[citation needed]} He appeared on the Fox TV show The Simpsons (in the episode "Yokel Chords") and in various episodes of Castle as himself.

Patterson works with different co-authors, such as Maxine Paetro, Andrew Gross, and Peter De Jonge^[5] and has often said that collaborating with others brings new and interesting ideas to his stories.

In September 2009, Patterson signed a deal to write or co-write 11 books for adults and 6 for young adults by the end of 2012. Forbes reported the deal was worth at least $150 million, because Patterson said the estimate is almost exact.^[6]

Patterson founded the James Patterson PageTurner Awards in 2005 to donate over US$850,000 to people, companies, schools, and other institutions that find original and effective ways to spread the excitement of books and reading.^[7] The PageTurner Awards were put on hold in 2008 to focus on Patterson's new initiative, ReadKiddoRead.com, which helps parents, teachers, and librarians find the best books for their children. The social networking site for ReadKiddoRead is hosted by Ning.

Education and personal life[link]

Patterson received a B.A. in English from Manhattan College and an M.A. in English from Vanderbilt University.

He lives in Palm Beach, Florida, with his wife, Susan, and son, Jack.

Bibliography[link]

Main article: James Patterson bibliography

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official James Patterson US web site
• Official James Patterson UK web site
• James Patterson at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• James Patterson at the Internet Book List
• James Patterson at the Internet Movie Database
• 2010 Time Magazine's 10 Questions for James Patterson
• Works by or about James Patterson in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Barack Obama
44th President of the United States
Incumbent
Assumed office January 20, 2009
Vice President	Joe Biden
Preceded by	George W. Bush
Personal details
Born	Barack Hussein Obama II[1] (1961-08-04) August 4, 1961 (age 50) Honolulu, Hawaii, United States[1]
Nationality	American
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Michelle Robinson (m. 1992)
Children	Malia (b.1998) Sasha (b.2001)
Residence	The White House
Alma mater	Occidental College Columbia University (B.A.) Harvard Law School (J.D.)
Profession	Community organizer Attorney Author Constitutional law professor United States Senator President of the United States
Religion	Christian,[2] former member of United Church of Christ[3][4]
Signature
Website	WhiteHouse.gov

	This article is part of a series on Barack Obama
Background Illinois Senate US Senate Political positions Public image Family 2008 primaries Obama–Biden campaign Transition Inauguration Electoral history Presidency Timeline '09 '10 '11 '12 First 100 days Nobel Peace Prize Re-election campaign

Barack Obama being sworn in as President of the United States.

The Presidency of Barack Obama began at noon EST on January 20, 2009, when he became the 44th President of the United States. Obama was a United States Senator from Illinois at the time of his victory over Arizona Senator John McCain in the 2008 presidential election. Barack Obama is the first African-American president of the United States, as well as the first born in Hawaii.

His policy decisions have addressed a global financial crisis and have included changes in tax policies, legislation to reform the United States health care industry, foreign policy initiatives and the phasing out of detention of prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. He attended the G-20 London summit and later visited U.S. troops in Iraq. On the tour of various European countries following the G-20 summit, he announced in Prague that he intended to negotiate substantial reduction in the world's nuclear arsenals, en route to their eventual extinction. In October 2009, Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

Transition period[link]

The presidential transition period began following Obama's election to the presidency on November 4, 2008. The Obama-Biden Transition Project was co-chaired by John Podesta, Valerie Jarrett, and Pete Rouse. During the transition period, Obama announced his nominations for his Cabinet and administration. Shortly after the election on November 4, Obama chose Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois as White House Chief of Staff.^[5]

Cabinet nominations included former Democratic primary opponents Hillary Rodham Clinton for Secretary of State and Bill Richardson for Secretary of Commerce (although the latter withdrew on January 4, 2009). Obama appointed Eric Holder as his Attorney General, the first African-American appointed to that position. He also nominated Timothy F. Geithner to serve as Secretary of the Treasury.^[6] On December 1, Obama announced that he had asked Robert Gates to remain as Secretary of Defense, making Gates the first Defense head to carry over from a president of a different party.^[7] He nominated former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Susan Rice to the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, which he restored to a Cabinet-level position.^[8]