Finian's Rainbow is a musical with a book by E. Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy, lyrics by Harburg, and music by Burton Lane, produced by Lee Sabinson. The original 1947 Broadway production ran for 725 performances, while a film version was released in 1968 and several revivals have followed.
Shani Wallis is an English actress and singer, who has worked in theatre, film, and television in both her native United Kingdom and in the United States. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, she is known for her roles in the West End and for the role of Nancy in the 1968 Oscar-winning film musical Oliver!
Joseph Arthurlin Harriott was a Jamaican jazz musician and composer, whose principal instrument was the alto saxophone.
British jazz is a form of music derived from American jazz. It reached Britain through recordings and performers who visited the country while it was a relatively new genre, soon after the end of World War I. Jazz began to be played by British musicians from the 1930s and on a widespread basis in the 1940s, often within dance bands. From the late 1940s, British "modern jazz", highly influenced by American bebop, began to emerge and was led by figures such as John Dankworth, Tony Crombie and Ronnie Scott, while Ken Colyer, George Webb and Humphrey Lyttelton played Dixieland-style Trad jazz. From the 1960s British jazz began to develop more individual characteristics and absorb a variety of influences, including British blues, as well as European and World music influences. A number of British jazz musicians have gained international reputations, although the music has remained a minority interest there.
Geoffrey Cecil Burridge was an English actor noted for his performances in theatre and television.
Ella Logan was a Scottish-American actress and singer who appeared on Broadway, recorded and had a nightclub career in the United States and internationally.
Jenny Logan is an English actress, trained dancer and singer. Though she played WPC Sally Reed in the television series Dixon of Dock Green between 1968 and 1969, she is most familiar from her appearances in the TV commercial for the carpet freshener Shake n' Vac, which was shot in 1979 and ran from 1980 to 1986.
George Coleridge Emerson Goode was a British Jamaican-born jazz bassist best known for his long collaboration with alto saxophonist Joe Harriott. Goode was a member of Harriott's innovatory jazz quintet throughout its eight-year existence as a regular unit (1958–65). Goode was also involved with the saxophonist's later pioneering blend of jazz and Indian music in Indo-Jazz Fusions, the group Harriott co-led with composer/violinist John Mayer.
Finian's Rainbow is a 1968 musical fantasy film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Fred Astaire and Petula Clark. The screenplay by E. Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy is based on their 1947 stage musical of the same name. An international co-production of Ireland and the United States, the film follows an Irishman and his daughter who steal a leprechaun's magic pot of gold and emigrate to the U.S., where they become involved in a dispute between rural landowners and a greedy, racist U.S. senator.
Roger B. M. Cotterrell is the Anniversary Professor of Legal Theory at Queen Mary University of London and was made a fellow of the British Academy in 2005. Previously he was the Acting Head of the Department of Law (1989–90), Head of the Department of Law (1990-1), Professor of Legal Theory (1990–2005) and the Dean of the Faculty of Laws (1993-6) at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London.
Ellsworth McGranahan "Shake" Keane was a Vincentian jazz musician and poet. He is best known today for his role as a jazz trumpeter, principally his work as a member of the ground-breaking Joe Harriott Quintet (1959–65).
Patrick Mungo Smythe was a Scottish jazz pianist, who rose to prominence as a member of the Joe Harriott Quintet during the 1960s.
Cowardy Custard is a musical revue and was one of the last Noël Coward shows staged during his life. It was devised by Gerard Frow, Alan Strachan and Wendy Toye. A book, also titled Cowardy Custard, was published in connection with the revue, similarly celebrating the Coward image.
Warren Carlyle is a British director and choreographer who was born in Norwich, Norfolk, England. He received Drama Desk Award nominations for Outstanding Choreography and Outstanding Director of a Musical for the 2009 revival of Finian's Rainbow.
Oh, Coward! is a musical revue in two acts devised by Roderick Cook and containing music and lyrics by Noël Coward. The revue consists of two men and one woman in formal dress, performing songs based on the following themes: England, family album, travel, theatre, love and women. There are also sketches, such as "London Pastoral" which tells of the joys of London in the spring, "Family Album" about relatives who "were not excessively bright", and a scene with excerpts from several of Coward's plays, such as Private Lives.
Katherine Baldwin is an American singer and actress known for her work in musical theater. She received a Tony Award nomination for her work in the 2009 Broadway revival of Finian's Rainbow. She also co-starred opposite Bette Midler, David Hyde Pierce, and Gavin Creel in the Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly!, for which she received Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle award nominations for her work as the saucy millineress Irene Molloy. Baldwin continued with the production until it closed in August 2018.
Beryl May Jessie Toye,, known professionally as Wendy Toye, was a British dancer, stage and film director and actress.
Yacub Addy was a Ghanaian traditional drummer, composer, choreographer and educator who collaborated with many musicians in various genres, including Wynton Marsalis. He has been referred to as "the leading ambassador of Ghanaian music and culture".
Stewart Nicholls is a British stage director and choreographer. His credits include productions of: A Spoonful of Sherman ,Bumblescratch, Bar Mitzvah Boy, Love Birds, Free As Air, Business As Usual, Jewish Legends, Salad Days and The Biograph Girl, Lunch With Marlene, Beatlemania, Gay's The Word, Over My Shoulder, South Pacific, and Carousel and Tim Rice's revival of Blondel. Choreography credits include: Iolanthe and The Mikado and Cowardy Custard. He has also directed productions in drama schools and staged numerous pantomimes.
Theresa "Terry" Devon was a British jazz singer. She worked as a hairdresser in her father's business but switched to singing after winning a crooning competition on Radio Luxembourg. She joined the Billy Thorburn orchestra and her first record was released in 1938. She was heard weekly on the BBC radio comedy programme Take It From Here. Devon later became a vocalist for the Tito Burns jazz Septet, developing the skill of scat singing. Burns and Devon married in November 1948. She stopped singing professionally and helped her husband to manage notable singers.
