Louis Daniel Armstrong, nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several eras in the history of jazz. Armstrong received numerous accolades including the Grammy Award for Best Male Vocal Performance for Hello, Dolly! in 1965, as well as a posthumous win for the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1972. His influence crossed musical genres, with inductions into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame, among others.
Joseph Nathan "King" Oliver was an American jazz cornet player and bandleader. He was particularly recognized for his playing style and his pioneering use of mutes in jazz. Also a notable composer, he wrote many tunes still played today, including "Dippermouth Blues", "Sweet Like This", "Canal Street Blues", and "Doctor Jazz". He was the mentor and teacher of Louis Armstrong. His influence was such that Armstrong claimed, "if it had not been for Joe Oliver, Jazz would not be what it is today."
Warren "Baby" Dodds was an American jazz drummer born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is regarded as one of the best jazz drummers of the pre-big band era. He varied his drum patterns with accents and flourishes, and he generally kept the beat with the bass drum while playing buzz rolls on the snare. Early influences included Louis Cottrell, Sr., Dave Perkins, and Tubby Hall. Dodds was among the first drummers to be recorded improvising while performing.
Lillian Hardin Armstrong was an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, singer, and bandleader. She was the second wife of Louis Armstrong, with whom she collaborated on many recordings in the 1920s.
"West End Blues" is a multi-strain twelve-bar blues composition by Joe "King" Oliver. It is most commonly performed as an instrumental, although it has lyrics added by Clarence Williams.
Alfred Fox Uhry is an American playwright and screenwriter. He has received an Academy Award, two Tony Awards and the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for dramatic writing for Driving Miss Daisy. He is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers.
Ellis Louis Marsalis Jr. was an American jazz pianist and educator. Active since the late 1940s, Marsalis came to greater attention in the 1980s and 1990s as the patriarch of the musical Marsalis family, when sons Branford and Wynton became popular jazz musicians.
Terence Oliver Blanchard is an American jazz trumpeter and composer. He has also written two operas and more than 80 film and television scores. Blanchard has been nominated for two Academy Awards for Original Score for BlacKkKlansman (2018) and Da 5 Bloods, both directed by Spike Lee, a frequent collaborator.
Delfeayo Marsalis is an American jazz trombonist, record producer and educator.
Jeffrey Finn is a Tony-Award winning American theatrical producer. He is the Vice President of Theater Producing and Programming at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Artistic Director of Broadway Center Stage. He received the Commercial Theater Institute's 2013 Robert Whitehead Award for outstanding achievement in commercial theatre producing. Finn is the President of Jeffrey Finn Productions and Hot On Broadway. He attended Connecticut College, where he received his bachelor's degree in 1992. He attended Beaver Country Day School from 1984 to 1988. He is a member of the Executive Committee and Board of Governors of The Broadway League and is a part of The Independent Presenters Network.
JenniferDamiano is an American actress and singer. She made her Broadway debut in 2006 as an ensemble member in the original production of Spring Awakening, and went on to originate the role of Natalie Goodman in the musical Next to Normal, for which she was nominated for the 2009 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical, becoming one of the youngest nominees for the award at age 17. Her other Broadway roles include Mary Jane Watson in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark in 2011 and Jean in the 2016 musical American Psycho, in addition to a number of roles off-Broadway.
Branford Marsalis is an American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. While primarily known for his work in jazz as the leader of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, he also performs frequently as a soloist with classical ensembles and has led the group Buckshot LeFonque. From 1992 to 1995 he led the Tonight Show Band.
Memphis: Direct from Broadway is a 2011 film of the original Broadway production of the musical Memphis as captured live in performance on Broadway. The show was captured at Broadway's Shubert Theatre in New York City January 18–21, 2011, utilizing multiple high-definition cameras and 96 tracks of sound recording. The film had a limited theatrical release between April 28-May 3, 2011, in more than 530 theaters with high-definition digital projection systems in the US and Canada. This marked the first time the Tony Award-winning Best Musical was presented in movie theaters while concurrently running on Broadway.
Aladdin is a stage musical based on the Walt Disney Animation Studios 1992 film of the same name, with a book by Chad Beguelin, music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman, Tim Rice and Beguelin. It resurrects three songs written by Menken and Ashman for the film but not used, and adds four songs written by Menken and Beguelin.
James Monroe Iglehart is an American actor, singer and comic book writer. He is perhaps best known for his Tony Award-winning performance as the Genie in the original Broadway production of Aladdin. Iglehart assumed the roles of the Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in the Broadway cast of Hamilton in April 2017. He recreated the role of King Arthur in the 2023 Broadway revival of Spamalot, created the role of Louis Armstrong in the Broadway company of A Wonderful World and played Billy Flynn in Chicago. He can be heard as super producer Steve Jones in As The Curtain Rises, Broadway's first original podcast soap opera. More recently, Iglehart joined the casts of animated webseries Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel, as well having written for Marvel Comics, primarily one-shots featuring Spider-Man.
Kathryn Allison is a Broadway actor and singer. Allison won the New York Musical Theatre Festival's Next Big Broadway Sensation contest in 2014.
Hot Chocolates is a musical revue with music by Fats Waller and Harry Brooks and book by Andy Razaf. It was originally titled Tan Town Topics in hopes it would be picked up by Broadway. Performed at the Hudson Theater in New York City, it was directed by Leonard Harper and ran for 219 performances from June 20, 1929, to December 14, 1929. It is also referred to as Connie's Hot Chocolates. It was staged, directed and produced by Leonard Harper. While the revue featured music and singing, including the subsequent hit "Aint Misbehavin'", it was praised for the cast's dancing, including its male and female chorus lines.
Phillipa Anne Soo is an American actress and singer. Known for her leading roles on Broadway primarily in musicals, she has received two Grammy Awards along with nominations for a Tony Award and a Primetime Emmy Award.
Hercules is a musical based on the Walt Disney Animation Studios 1997 film of the same name, with music and lyrics by Alan Menken and David Zippel, and a book by Robert Horn and Kwame Kwei-Armah. The production is also loosely based on the legendary hero of the same name, the son of Zeus, in Greek mythology.
The Connector is a stage musical with music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown and a book by Jonathan Marc Sherman, from an original story by Daisy Prince. Set in the 1990s world of New York City journalism, the plot follows behind-the-scenes drama amongst staff of the fictional magazine The Connector, examining themes of journalistic integrity, gender inequality and plagiarism.
