"Holka Polka" by D. M. Larson is a play for kids of all ages. Join a good little witch named Brenda who sets out to save Fairy Tale Land with the help of the Big Bad Wolf and Cinderella. This a Fairy Tale Mystery that puts a new twist on some famous fables such as Humpty Dumpty, Pinocchio, Little Red Riding Hood, The Wizard of Oz and Hansel and Gretel. The includes 6+ female actors, 2+ male actors and 11+ of either gender with optional extras. This scripts includes the following original monologues for kids: "Good Deeds and Stuff" "The Big Bad Wolf" "Perfectly Ugly" "Humpty Dumpty Private Egg Hard Boiled Detective"
The name Busby Berkeley, creator of the dances for films such as 42nd Street, Babes in Arms, and Million Dollar Mermaid, is synonymous with the spectacular musical production number. Films, television commercials, and MTV videos continue to use "Berkeleyesque" techniques long after Berkeley himself and the genre that nourished him have faded from the scene. The first major analysis of Berkeley's career on stage and screen, Showstoppers emphasizes his relationship to a colorful, somewhat disreputable tradition of American popular entertainment: that of P. T. Barnum, minstrel shows, vaudeville, Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show, burlesque, and the Ziegfeld Follies. Rubin shows how Berkeley absorbed this declining theatrical tradition during his years as a Broadway dance director and then transferred it to the new genre of the early movie musical. With lively prose and engaging photographs, Showstoppers explores new ways of looking at Busby Berkeley, at the musical genre, and at individual films. Appropriate for both specialists and general readers, Showstoppers is an exuberant study of a figure whose career, Rubin notes, "provides an extraordinarily rich point of convergence for a wide range of cultural and artistic contexts".
In its 114th year, Billboard remains the world's premier weekly music publication and a diverse digital, events, brand, content and data licensing platform. Billboard publishes the most trusted charts and offers unrivaled reporting about the latest music, video, gaming, media, digital and mobile entertainment issues and trends.
During the Twenties, the Great White Way roared with nearly 300 book musicals. Luminaries who wrote for Broadway during this decade included Irving Berlin, George M. Cohan, Rudolf Friml, George Gershwin, Oscar Hammerstein II, Lorenz Hart, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Sigmund Romberg, and Vincent Youmans, and the era’s stars included Eddie Cantor, Al Jolson, Ruby Keeler, and Marilyn Miller. Light-hearted Cinderella musicals dominated these years with such hits as Kern’s long-running Sally, along with romantic operettas that dealt with princes and princesses in disguise. Plots about bootleggers and Prohibition abounded, but there were also serious musicals, including Kern and Hammerstein’s masterpiece Show Boat. In The Complete Book of 1920s Broadway Musicals, Dan Dietz examines in detail every book musical that opened on Broadway during the years 1920-1929. The book discusses the era’s major successes as well as its forgotten failures. The hits include A Connecticut Yankee; Hit the Deck!; No, No, Nanette; Rose-Marie; Show Boat; The Student Prince; The Vagabond King; and Whoopee, as well as ambitious failures, including Deep River; Rainbow; and Rodgers’ daring Chee-Chee. Each entry contains the following information: Plot summary Cast members Names of creative personnel, including book writers, lyricists, composers, directors, choreographers, producers, and musical directors Opening and closing dates Number of performances Plot summary Critical commentary Musical numbers and names of the performers who introduced the songs Production data, including information about tryouts Source material Details about London productions Besides separate entries for each production, the book offers numerous appendixes, including ones which cover other shows produced during the decade (revues, plays with music, miscellaneous musical presentations, and a selected list of pre-Broadway closings). Other appendixes include a discography, filmography, a list of published scripts, and a list of black-themed musicals. This book contains a wealth of information and provides a comprehensive view of each show. The Complete Book of 1920s Broadway Musicals will be of use to scholars, historians, and casual fans of one of the greatest decades in the history of musical theatre.
In its 114th year, Billboard remains the world's premier weekly music publication and a diverse digital, events, brand, content and data licensing platform. Billboard publishes the most trusted charts and offers unrivaled reporting about the latest music, video, gaming, media, digital and mobile entertainment issues and trends.
In its 114th year, Billboard remains the world's premier weekly music publication and a diverse digital, events, brand, content and data licensing platform. Billboard publishes the most trusted charts and offers unrivaled reporting about the latest music, video, gaming, media, digital and mobile entertainment issues and trends.
The Great Depression was defined by poverty and despair, but visionary American filmmaker Busby Berkeley (1895-1976) managed to divert the public's attention away from the economic crash with some of the most iconic movies of all time. Known for his kaleidoscopic dance numbers featuring multitudes of performers in extravagant costumes, his musicals provided a brief respite for an audience whose reality was hard and bitter. Buzz: The Life and Art of Busby Berkeley is a revealing study of the director, drawing from interviews with his colleagues, newspaper and legal records, and Berkeley's own unpublished memoirs to uncover the life of a Hollywood legend renowned for his talent and creativity. Jeffrey Spivak examines how Berkeley's career evolved from creating musical numbers for other directors in films such as 42nd Street (1933) and Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) to directing his own pictures, such as Strike up the Band (1940) and The Gang's All Here (1943). Though Berkeley claimed he was no choreographer, his movies revitalized the public's waning interest in musical pictures. While other popular filmmakers advertised their works specifically as nonmusical, Berkeley embraced his niche, eventually becoming the premier dance director of his time. However, the happy face Berkeley presented publicly did not necessarily reflect his life. Offstage and away from the set, the director met with scandal, and his fondness for liquor and women was well known. In September 1935, he was involved in a car accident that left three people dead and four others severely injured. Accused of driving under the influence, he was put on trial for second-degree murder. The accident significantly changed the nature of his stardom.
Gerald Bordman's American Musical Theatre has become a landmark book since its original publication in 1978. In this third edition, he offers authoritative summaries on the general artistic trends and developments for each season on musical comedy, operetta, revues, and the one-man and one-woman shows from the first musical to the 1999/2000 season. With detailed show, song, and people indexes, Bordman provides a running commentary and assessment as well as providing the basic facts about each production.
From the joy of smearing glue on paper to the screaming delight of a bubble-blowing relay, kids love to play. In fact, it's every kid's built-in tool for experiencing the world at large. A parent-friendly encyclopedia, UNPLUGGED PLAY ("A wonderful guide," says Daniel Goleman) offers hundreds and hundreds of battery-free, screen-free, chirp-and-beep-free games and fun variations that stretch the imagination, spark creativity, building strong bodies, and forge deep friendships...and keep kids busy at the table while mom or dad makes dinner.
