Irish dramatist, novelist, and poet, who wrote in both French and English. He won international acclaim for his work, which includes the play En attendant Godot.
English dramatist and poet, born in Westminster, London. The high-spirited buoyancy of Jonson's plays and the brilliance of his language have earned him a reputation as one of the great playwrights in English literature.
From The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music With lyricist Tim Rice, Andrew Lloyd Webber composed the most successful rock musicals of the seventies. His highly melodic approach owed much to the traditions of operetta and the Broadway musical. After separating from Rice, Lloyd Webber had even greater success. Among his hits were Phantom of the Opera (1986) and Sunset Boulevard (1993). He also composed light classical works.
French novelist, poet, and dramatist. The verse play Hernani (1830) firmly established Hugo as the leader of French Romanticism. This was the first of a series of dramas produced in the 1830s and early 1840s, including Le Roi s'amuse (1832) and Ruy Blas (1838).
From The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music The authors of a series of highly popular comic operettas, Gilbert and Sullivan's works continued to be widely performed a century after they were first staged.
From 1945, with his first success, The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams has had a deep impact on the American theatre, bringing to it an original lyric voice and a new level of sexual frankness.
Wilson's plays center on the struggles and identity of African Americans and the deleterious effect of white American institutions on black American life.
Japanese author, b. Tokyo. His original name was Kimitake Hiraoka and he was born into a samurai family. Mishima wrote novels, short stories, essays, and plays. He appeared on stage in some of his plays as well as directing and starring in films.
Irish playwright and critic. He revolutionized the Victorian stage, then dominated by artificial melodramas, by presenting vigorous dramas of ideas. The lengthy prefaces to Shaw's plays reveal his mastery of English prose. In 1925 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Sarah Bernhardt was one of the most renowned stage actresses of all time; she was celebrated in her own lifetime as “the Divine Sarah.” Her flamboyant style, striking clear voice, and powerful emotional delivery suited her especially to tragic roles.
Like Marlene Dietrich, whose move from the screen to the concert hall paralleled her own, Garland's art and life were tightly interwoven, but, unlike Dietrich, Garland was never in control of her career.
Actor, dancer, and singer. She worked from the 1930s to the 1950s, often starring with Fred Astaire in such films as Top Hat (1935) and Swing Time (1936).
Singer, actress, and director, born in New York City, USA. Starting as a nightclub singer, stage and television appearances brought her the lead in the Broadway show Funny Girl (1964), which she repeated in the 1968 film version to win an Oscar.
The vaudeville performer Fanny Brice was a highly popular entertainer in the early decades of the 20th century. She appeared in more editions of the Ziegfeld Follies than any other star.
Actor and screenwriter, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. The son of a Cockney-English immigrant, he had little education but learned of life on the streets and took up juggling. By age 14 he was working professionally, and he soon began to appear in vaudeville and in Europe as ‘The Tramp Juggler’.
A madcap entertainer, Kaye was known for his tongue-twisters and his rubber-faced mimicry. Though his greatest success was in Hollywood, his recordings of 'Thumbelina' and 'The Ugly Duckling' (1952) have become perennial favourites with children.
From The Cambridge Guide to Theatre The most influential and best-loved of modern mimes. Inspired by both silent-film comics and the commedia dell'arte, his character Bip, recognizable by his striped jersey, whiteface and the red rose in his top hat, was adaptable to all kinds of pantomime.
Mae West began her acting career as a child performer in Vaudeville shows in Brooklyn. In the 1920s, West began to write and star in her own Broadway shows.
From The Reader's Companion to American History Theatrical producer and creator of The Ziegfeld Follies. As the master showman of the early twentieth century, Ziegfeld brought a unique and sophisticated style, taste, and extravagance to the theater, popularizing a new form of entertainment called the revue.
His extraordinary influence on subsequent theatre is based largely on his two short-lived attempts at directing and on his volume of essays, The Theatre and Its Double.
English theatrical director, born in London. An innovative, unconventional, and controversial figure, Brook mounts energetic productions in which the entire stage is utilized and realistic sets are banished in favor of bold, abstract, and austere settings.
Austrian theatrical producer and director. Reinhardt often used the entire auditorium for a production, seeking to bridge the gap between actor and audience by placing the spectator within the action.
Dramatist, director, and designer. A leading figure in postmodern theater since 1963, when he arrived in New York City, he has created lengthy, often controversial multimedia events that combine drama, dance, and stylized gesture with contemporary instrumental music, opera, and art.
Athenian tragic dramatist, b. Eleusis. The first of the three great Greek writers of tragedy, Aeschylus was the predecessor of Sophocles and Euripides.
He produced his first plays in 455 but did not win a victory in the competition until 441. He is said to have produced 92 plays (we know the titles of about 80), but won first prize only four times in his life (and once after his death with plays that he had left unperformed).