Rhonda Coullet | |
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| Birth name | Rhonda Lee Oglesby |
| Born | September 23, 1945 Magnolia, Arkansas, U.S. |
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Rhonda Lee Oglesby Coullet (born September 23, 1945) is an American actress, comedian, singer-songwriter, theatre composer and playwright.
Oglesby was born in 1945 in Magnolia, Arkansas, the daughter of Horace and Cecil Oglesby. She was raised in Springhill, Louisiana before her family moved to Pine Bluff, where she attended Sam Taylor Elementary School and Pine Bluff High School. A singer, she received a music scholarship to attend the University of Arkansas. [1]
She represented the University of Arkansas in the 1965 Miss Arkansas competition, which she won. After three months, she announced she was relinquishing the crown to pursue a show business career in Los Angeles. [1] [2]
In Los Angeles, she was in the original cast of the Aquarius Theatre's production of Hair . She was promoted to the lead female role of Jeanie, and went on to restage the musical in Seattle, Detroit, Miami, Montreal, Copenhagen, and touring productions in Europe. [1]
On her return, she settled in New York City. She joined the cast of the 1973 Off Broadway show National Lampoon Lemmings , performing in various roles alongside such comedic actors as John Belushi, Chevy Chase and Christopher Guest. After touring with the show, she took part in The National Lampoon Radio Hour , which included Belushi, Chase, Guest, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner and Harold Ramis. She appeared on such albums as National Lampoon Missing White House Tapes and National Lampoon That's Not Funny, That's Sick . [3]
Many of her fellow National Lampoon cast members went on to join Saturday Night Live . Coullet was a close friend of John Belushi, and after his death she composed and sang a tribute to him, "West Heaven," for a taped segment on SNL produced by Belushi's widow Judith Jacklin. [4]
In 1976–77, Coullet starred in the Broadway production of the musical The Robber Bridegroom , playing the role of Rosamund, and can be heard on the original Broadway album with Barry Bostwick. She also starred on Broadway in Pump Boys and Dinettes and in the off-Broadway production of Cowgirls. [1]
Coullet wrote "Bigger Than the Both of Us" for Jimmy Buffett on his Riddles in the Sand album, which was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1985. She was a back-up singer for Buffett, Spinal Tap, and Meat Loaf on his Dead Ringer album. [1]
In 1992, she recorded an album of her own songs, titled The American Secret. [5] Several of the semiautobiographical songs from the album were incorporated into her theatrical musical production, Runaway Beauty Queen, produced at Florida Studio Theatre in 2005 and The Vineyard Playhouse in 2010. [1]
She was married to musician Armand Coullet from 1970 to 1980. [1] Her brother Scott Oglesby is a published essayist and novelist.
Into the Woods is a 1987 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine.
John Adam Belushi was an American comedian, actor, and musician. He was one of the seven original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL). Throughout his career, Belushi had a personal and artistic partnership with his fellow SNL star Dan Aykroyd, whom he met while they were both working at Chicago's Second City comedy club.
Mame is a musical with the book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. Originally titled My Best Girl, it is based on the 1955 novel Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis and the 1956 Broadway play by Lawrence and Lee. A period piece set in New York City and spanning the Great Depression and World War II, it focuses on eccentric bohemian Mame Dennis, whose famous motto is "Life is a banquet and most poor sons of bitches are starving to death." Her fabulous life with her wealthy friends is interrupted when the young son of her late brother arrives to live with her. They cope with the Depression in a series of adventures.
Anneliese Louise van der Pol is a Dutch-born American actress and singer. She is known for her theatre work, and for starring as Chelsea Daniels on the Disney Channel series That's So Raven (2003–2007) and its spin-off Raven's Home (2017–2021). Her films include the musical comedy film Bratz (2007), the spoof film Vampires Suck (2010), and the international-production 5 Weddings (2017). Van der Pol has recorded several songs for The Walt Disney Company, including "Over It" for the Stuck in the Suburbs soundtrack, which debuted on August 7, 2004, at number 182 on the Billboard 200.
Anne Beatts was an American comedy writer.
Ann Harada is an American actress and singer who was first known for the musical Avenue Q, in which she originated the role of Christmas Eve, the heavily accented Japanese therapist.
The Miss Arkansas competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Arkansas in the Miss America pageant. Arkansas has won the Miss America title three times.
Barbara Walsh is an American musical theatre actress who has appeared in several prominent Broadway productions. Walsh is known for her Drama Desk Award and Tony Award nominated role as Trina in the original Broadway production of Falsettos, as well as her turn as Joanne in the 2006 Broadway Revival of Stephen Sondheim's musical Company.
Riddles in the Sand is the thirteenth studio album by American popular music singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett. It was released in September 1984 as MCA 5512 and was produced by noted country music producer Jimmy Bowen and represented a concerted shift toward a more country sound by Buffett. He appeared on the album's cover in typical country singer garb and promoted the album at Fan Fair country music festival in Nashville, Tennessee. The album was originally to have been titled Gulf and Western Music reflecting the fusion of musical styles seen in much of Buffett's music often called Gulf and Western music. In the album's liner notes, Jim Harrison says, "This album has a musical range expanding in an arc from Bob Wills to Bob Marley with the Gulf somehow always there."
National Lampoon: Lemmings, a spinoff of the humor magazine National Lampoon, was a 1973 stage show that helped launch the performing careers of John Belushi, Christopher Guest, and Chevy Chase. The show was co-written and co-directed by a number of people including Sean Kelly. The show opened at The Village Gate on January 25, 1973, and ran for 350 performances.
Matthew Finnen Doyle is an American actor and singer known for his work in musical theater. He made his Broadway debut in 2007 in Spring Awakening as replacement for the role of Hanschen, and later had supporting roles in the Broadway productions of Bye Bye Birdie in 2009 and War Horse in 2011. He joined The Book of Mormon in 2012, replacing Nic Rouleau as Elder Price.
National Lampoon White Album is an American album of humorous songs and spoken word skits. It was originally released as a vinyl record and cassette tape in 1980, but it was reissued and is still available as a CD. It was written and performed by people associated with National Lampoon magazine and its related productions.
Melissa van der Schyff is a Canadian award-winning actress, singer, comedian and songwriter who is best known for her work on Broadway. She was nominated for a 2012 Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for "Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical" for originating the role of Blanche Barrow in the Broadway Musical Bonnie & Clyde, which opened at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre in New York City on 1 December 2011.
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical is a jukebox musical with a book by Douglas McGrath that tells the story of the early life and career of Carole King, using songs that she wrote, often together with Gerry Goffin, and other contemporary songs by Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Phil Spector and others.
Barbara Lang is an American actress who has been featured in many Broadway productions of the 1960s and 1970s.
Jenn Colella is an American actress and singer. She began her career as a comedian and then branched out into musical theater. In her New York debut in Urban Cowboy, she earned a 2003 Outer Critics Circle Award nomination. More recently, she landed a Tony Award nomination, and won the Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, and three regional theater awards for her portrayal of Annette/Beverley Bass in Come from Away. She received a Grammy Award in January 2018 for her role for the Dear Evan Hansen original cast album. See: Awards and nominations
Sophia Anne Caruso is an American actress and singer best known for originating the role of Lydia Deetz in the Broadway musical Beetlejuice, a role for which she won a Theatre World Award. She also portrays Sophie in The School for Good and Evil, in 2022. Other theatre credits include Girl in Lazarus (2015-17) and Iris in The Nether (2015).
Elizabeth 'Liz' Shearer White was an American independent film producer and founder of the Shearer Summer Theatre in Martha's Vineyard. She is known for her stage production of Shakespeare's Othello with an all-black cast, which she eventually filmed and released as a movie in 1980 at Howard University.
Tina: The Tina Turner Musical is a jukebox musical featuring the music of Tina Turner and depicting her life from her humble beginnings in Nutbush, Tennessee, to her transformation into a rock 'n roll superstar. Directed by Phyllida Lloyd with a book by Katori Hall, Frank Ketelaar, and Kees Prins, the musical had its world premiere on 17 April 2018 at the Aldwych Theatre in London. The Broadway production opened on 7 November 2019.
Holly O’Brien is an American actress and singer. She played the role of Goldie in Tony Award Winner Martin Charnin’s World Premiere of his new production of Two by Two and performed the role of Belle multiple times in Disney’s musical Beauty and the Beast. She played Loretta in the original Off-Broadway cast of the concert revival of Love from Judy with the Obie Award winning company Musicals Tonight! in New York City.
This week Saturday Night Live will air a five-minute tribute to her late husband, designed and produced by Jacklin and entitled West Heaven. The tape consists of a montage of candid photos of Belushi over 15 years, accompanied by a melancholy ballad composed and sung by close friend Rhonda Coullet (backed up by several members of David Letterman's Late Night band).
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