Nan Knighton | |
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Born | c. 1947 Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. |
Occupation | Playwright |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Bryn Mawr School Sarah Lawrence College Boston University |
Nan Knighton is an American poet, playwright and lyricist.
Knighton is the daughter of physician Donald Proctor and artist Janice Proctor. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, she is a 1965 graduate of Bryn Mawr School, with an undergraduate degree from Sarah Lawrence College and a master's degree in creative writing from Boston University. [1]
She wrote for the Maryland Center for Public Broadcasting television show Consumer Survival Kit. [2]
Knighton wrote the book of the musical Saturday Night Fever which was produced on Broadway in 1999. Collaborating with composer Frank Wildhorn, she wrote the libretto and lyrics of The Scarlet Pimpernel (1997) and Camille Claudel (2003), as well as additional lyrics for Rudolf (2006). She was nominated for the 1998 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for The Scarlet Pimpernel.
She is also the author of the plays Bad Dreams and Man With Two Hearts Found on Moon.
She is married to producer and lawyer John Breglio.
The Scarlet Pimpernel is the first novel in a series of historical fiction by Baroness Orczy, published in 1905. It was written after her stage play of the same title enjoyed a long run in London, having opened in Nottingham in 1903.
Baroness Emma Orczy, usually known as Baroness Orczy or to her family and friends as Emmuska Orczy, was a Hungarian-born British novelist and playwright. She is best known for her series of novels featuring the Scarlet Pimpernel, the alter ego of Sir Percy Blakeney, a wealthy English fop who turns into a quick-thinking escape artist in order to save French aristocrats from "Madame Guillotine" during the French Revolution, establishing the "hero with a secret identity" in popular culture.
Linda Eder is an American singer and actress. She is most notable for having originated the role of Lucy Harris in the Broadway musical Jekyll & Hyde, for which she was nominated for the Drama Desk Award.
William Alan Finn is an American composer and lyricist. He is best known for his musicals, which include Falsettos, for which he won the 1992 Tony Awards for Best Original Score and Best Book of a Musical, A New Brain (1998), and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (2005).
Lynn Ahrens is an American songwriter, and librettist for the musical theatre, television and film. She has collaborated with Stephen Flaherty for many years. She won the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award for the Broadway musical Ragtime. Together with Flaherty, she has written many musicals, including Lucky Stiff, My Favorite Year, Ragtime, Seussical, A Man of No Importance, Dessa Rose, The Glorious Ones, Rocky, Little Dancer and, recently on Broadway, Anastasia and Once on This Island.
Douglas Howard Sills is an American actor and singer.
Frank Wildhorn is an American composer of both musicals and popular songs. His musical Jekyll & Hyde ran for four years on Broadway. He also wrote the #1 International hit song "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" for Whitney Houston.
Marc Kudisch is an American stage actor, who is best known for his musical theatre roles on Broadway.
The Scarlet Pimpernel is a musical with music by Frank Wildhorn and lyrics and book by Nan Knighton, based on the 1905 novel of the same name by Baroness Orczy. The show is set in England and France during the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution. The story is a precursor to the spy fiction and the superhero genres, where a hero hides under a mild-mannered alias.
Clue The Musical is a musical with a book by Peter DePietro, music by Galen Blum, Wayne Barker and Vinnie Martucci, and lyrics by Tom Chiodo, based on the board game Clue. The plot concerns a murder at a mansion, occupied by several suspects, that is solved by a detective, while the ending is decided by the audience.
Rachel York is an American actress and singer. She is known for stage roles in City of Angels, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Les Misérables, Victor/Victoria, Kiss Me, Kate, Sly Fox, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Anything Goes. She also has many film and television credits, including her portrayal of Lucille Ball in the CBS biographical film Lucy.
Christine Andreas is an American Broadway actress and singer.
James Valcq is an American musical theatre composer, lyricist, and librettist, as well as an actor and arts administrator. He contributed to various theatrical works.
Camille Claudel is a musical with a book and lyrics by Nan Knighton and music by Frank Wildhorn, their second musical. It is based on the life of the real-life French sculptor and graphic artist Camille Claudel. The musical premiered at Goodspeed Musicals in 2003.
Ed Dixon is an American character actor, playwright and composer.
The scarlet pimpernel is a very common small annual plant with red or orange flowers.
Gilles Chiasson is an American producer, director, composer, writer and actor. While he first came to prominence as an actor, particularly in the original cast of the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning RENT, Chiasson went on to work in film and television development, then theater administration and operations, and now works in education. He currently lives in Los Angeles, California, with his wife Sherri Parker Lee and their two sons. He is a theater teacher at a high school in Los Angeles.
Melissa Hart is an American actress, singer, and teacher. She made her Broadway debut in 1966 as an ensemble member in Jerry Bock's The Apple Tree. As Barbara Harris's understudy, she replaced the actress as the various heroines in that musical for several performances. In 1969 she took over the role of Sally Bowles in the original production of John Kander's Cabaret, a role she had previously performed in the musical's first National Tour. In 1970 she created the role of Meredith in the original Broadway cast of Tom Mankiewicz's Georgy; a performance for which she garnered a Tony Award nomination. She soon after performed the role of Fran Kubelik in the National Tour of Burt Bacharach's Promises, Promises.
Jason Howland is a musical theatre composer, playwright, conductor, music director, and producer. In 2015, he won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for his work producing the cast recording of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. He also wrote the music for the Broadway musical Little Women. He was a producer on the 2023 musical Shucked, for which he earned nominations for the Tony Award for Best Orchestrations, Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Orchestrations, and the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album.
Jack Murphy is a lyricist and composer. Murphy wrote the lyrics to several international musicals such as Death Note: The Musical and broadway musical The Civil War, which garnered him a Tony Nomination for Best Score. He has collaborated with composer Frank Wildhorn on many projects.