Category: people

“Time magazine proclaimed him the ‘patron saint of laughter’” His shows, with an arsenal of sarcastic wit, became highly entertaining staples of high school and community theaters, and they popped up on stages as far away as Beijing and Moscow. But mostly, he dominated Broadway like no other playwright of the past half-century. Hardly a year passed from 1961 to 1993 without a new production by Mr. Simon, whose legacy was a colossally successful run of comedies and comic dramas on topics such as romance, adultery, divorce, sibling rivalry, cancer and the fear of aging.”

While he’s most famous for having taught the singers Kate Bush and David Bowie (He helped invent and coached Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust persona), Kemp founded his own contemporary dance company in the 1960s and created flamboyant, pioneering stage productions that combined – and ignored any boundaries between – dance, mime, musical and spoken-word theatre.

“Pratt painted items she saw around her, transforming them. A jar of currant jelly glowed from within. The aluminum foil holding a meal of fish seemed to have eerie qualities. The flowers she picked outside became beacons of strength.”

The South African-born Murray began his career at the Royal Shakespeare Company before settling in the U.S., where he had a 50-year career that included directing and occasional film appearances as well as countless roles on and Off-Broadway (including three Tony nominations) and in regional theater.

Eva’s mother, Esther (Ilsa) Hoffe, was the secretary of Kafka’s friend and executor, Max Brod, and she inherited Brod’s archive when he died. After Esther’s death, the National Library of Israel, citing the term’s of Brod’s will, sued Eva for the papers, leading to a long string of litigation.

In documents filed with the Oakland County probate court, Ms. Franklin’s sons — Clarence, Edward and KeCalf Franklin, and Ted White Jr. — listed themselves as “interested parties.” One document, signed by KeCalf Franklin, checked a box indicating that “the decedent died intestate,” or without a will.

He was born 100 years ago on Aug. 25, and his centenary is being celebrated as his achievement — and the smilingly confident place and time he symbolized — seems ever more unrepeatable. Who today could write both “West Side Story” and three thorny, searching symphonies? Who could bring together Brahms and the Beatles on national television, and have millions watch? To what maestro’s left-wing political dalliances would New York magazine devote a cover story in 2018?

He and producing partner Neil Meron produced countless television movies and miniseries, most notably musicals and biopics of music and music-theater stars such as the Beach Boys and Judy Garland. His work bringing musicals to the small screen ranged from the Bette Midler Gypsy (1993) to NBC’s recent succession of shows performed live, from The Sound of Music (2013) to this year’s Jesus Christ Superstar.

“She choreographed pivotal scenes in the films The Apartment, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, and she also conceived the dance moves for Judy Garland’s first TV special, two Academy Awards telecasts and episodes of The Red Skelton Hour, The Lucy Show and The Bob Hope Show.” (And that’s not even near the half of it.) “Miriam Nelson may not have achieved the kind of fame as the actors who executed her moves. But [she] left behind a sizable body of film and TV work as well as the legacy of being the rare female choreographer in a field that was dominated by men.”

“He was as comfortable with dramas like William Inge’s Bus Stop … as he was with a musical like The Tap Dance Kid, whose 1983 Broadway production earned him a [Tony] nomination for best direction of a musical.” (He won a Tony three years earlier for a revival of Morning’s at Seven.) “Though he worked with many stars over the years, he had special memories of directing [Noel] Coward late in his career.”