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Stew | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Mark Stewart |
| Born | August 16, 1961 |
| Origin | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, playwright |
Mark Lamar Stewart (born August 16, 1961), known professionally as Stew, is an American singer-songwriter and playwright from Los Angeles, California. [1]
In the early 1990s, Stew formed a four-piece band called The Negro Problem. (Stew himself is Black. [2] ) In 1995 the band released a box set collection of singles including a cover of "MacArthur Park" and a multi-part pop operetta entitled "Miss Jones". [3]
Stew later went on to release albums under his own name. His 2000 release Guest Host was named Album of the Year by Entertainment Weekly and his 2002 album, The Naked Dutch Painter and Other Songs, repeated that feat. He toured in support of Love's Arthur Lee in 2002 and in 2003 he was invited to take part in the Lincoln Center's American Songbook series of concerts.
Starting in 2004, he began writing the book, lyrics and music (with Heidi Rodewald) for his semi-autobiographical rock musical Passing Strange , produced with the support of the Sundance Institute and The Public Theater, which won him the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics. Also in 2004, he wrote and performed "Gary's Song" for the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Have You Seen This Snail?(Where's Gary?)", which aired the following year, and is credited with giving him his first broadcast exposure. [4] In 2006, he and Rodewald continued to produce Passing Strange as well as working on a film project with The Sundance Institute. Passing Strange had successful runs at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Berkeley, California, in the fall of 2006, and off-Broadway at The Public Theater in New York City during the spring of 2007. It received critical praise from both the New York Times and Variety and opened on Broadway at the Belasco Theatre in February 2008 under the aegis of producer Liz McCann and the Shubert Organization. The play garnered seven Tony nominations in 2008, with Stew receiving four nominations and winning the award for Best Book. The play closed in July 2008, with Spike Lee filming the final performances for a feature film which screened at the Sundance Festival in January 2009.
As of 2016, Stew, Rodewald and members of The Negro Problem were involved in their live show and accompanying album titled Notes from a Native Song, inspired by the writings of James Baldwin. [5]
Stew is Professor of the Practice of Musical Theater Writing at Harvard University. [6]
Jonathan Tunick is an American orchestrator, musical director, and composer. He is best known for orchestrating the works of Stephen Sondheim, their collaboration starting in 1970 with Company and continuing until Sondheim's death in 2021.
Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero, known professionally as Chita Rivera, was an American actress, singer, and dancer. Rivera received numerous accolades including two Tony Awards, two Drama Desk Awards, and a Drama League Award. She was the first Latina and the first Latino American to receive a Kennedy Center Honor in 2002, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. She won the Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2018.
Jeanine Tesori, known earlier in her career as Jeanine Levenson, is an American composer and musical arranger best known for her work in the theater. She is the most prolific and honored female theatrical composer in history, with five Broadway musicals and six Tony Award nominations. She won the 1999 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music in a Play for Nicholas Hytner's production of Twelfth Night at Lincoln Center, the 2004 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music for Caroline, or Change, the 2015 Tony Award for Best Original Score for Fun Home, making them the first female writing team to win that award, and the 2023 Tony Award for Best Original Score for Kimberly Akimbo. She was named a Pulitzer Prize for Drama finalist twice for Fun Home and Soft Power.
Shoshana E. Bean is a Tony-nominated American singer, songwriter, and stage actress. She has appeared in numerous musicals, performing in major Off-Broadway and Broadway theatres, including in the original production of Hairspray.
Richard Eldridge Maltby Jr. is an American theatre director and producer, lyricist, and screenwriter. He conceived and directed the only two musical revues to win the Tony Award for Best Musical: Ain't Misbehavin' and Fosse.
Stephanie Janette Block is an American actress and singer, best known for her work on the Broadway stage.
David Joel Zippel is an American musical theatre lyricist, director, and producer.
Michael John Rupert is an American actor, singer, director and composer. In 1968, he made his Broadway debut in The Happy Time as Bibi Bonnard for which he received a Tony Award nomination and the Theater World Award. Later, he starred as the title role in Pippin for three years on Broadway starting in 1974. He originated the role of Marvin in the William Finn musicals March of the Falsettos, Falsettoland and Falsettos. In 2007, he originated the role of Professor Callahan in the Broadway cast of Legally Blonde. Rupert has been the nominee and recipient of several Tony and Drama Desk awards. He won a Tony for his performance in Sweet Charity in 1986.
The 62nd Tony Awards ceremony was held on June 15, 2008. The Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Awards, recognize achievement in live American theatre. CBS television broadcast the event from Radio City Music Hall in New York City as it has since the 51st Awards ceremony in 1997. The event recognized Broadway productions playing during the 2007 – 2008 season and was hosted by Whoopi Goldberg.
Passing Strange is a comedy-drama rock musical about a young African American's journey of self-discovery as an artist, while combining strong existentialist and meta-fictional elements. The musical's lyrics and book are by Stew with music and orchestrations by Heidi Rodewald and Stew. It was created in collaboration with director Annie Dorsen.
Colman Jason Domingo is an American actor, playwright, and director. Prominent on both screen and stage, he has received various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, and nominations for an Academy Award, and two Tony Awards. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2024.
Michael Starobin is an American orchestrator, conductor, composer, arranger, and musical director, primarily for the stage, film and television. He won Tony Awards for the orchestrations of Assassins (2004) and Next to Normal.
Douglas Besterman is an American orchestrator, musical arranger and music producer. He is the recipient of three Tony Awards out of six total nominations and two Drama Desk Awards out of six total nominations, and was a 2009 Grammy Award nominee.
Wednesday Week is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1983. After releasing two albums, the band split up in 1990, with members going on to form Lucky. Since 1998 Wednesday Week plays occasional shows with various lineups consisting of previous members.
Bill Elliott is an American pianist, bandleader, Hollywood composer and Broadway orchestrator. In 2015, he won a Tony Award for best orchestration for the Broadway musical, An American in Paris. In 2012 he was nominated for both Tony and Grammy awards for Broadway's Nice Work if You Can Get It. Elliott won Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Orchestrations in 2017 for the Broadway Musical Bandstand.
William Fitzgerald Harper, known professionally as William Jackson Harper, is an American actor and playwright. He gained acclaim for his role as Chidi Anagonye in the NBC comedy series The Good Place (2016–2020), for which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
David Driver is an American singer, performer, songwriter, and video artist. A staple on the downtown New York City music scene, he first achieved prominence in the mid-1990s, with his band MEOW, his role in Roy Nathanson’s Fire at Keaton’s Bar and Grill, and a stint as the understudy for the roles of Roger and Mark in the original Broadway cast of RENT. The Village Voice’s Rob Tannebaum credited Driver with creating “an oblique Downtown twist on saloon singing, devoid of melodrama, like Jerry Vale dreaming of Chet Baker.” The Advocate’s Andrew Velez wrote that Driver’s voice “is as bracing as a double Bourbon.”
Annie Dorsen is an American theater director. She is the co-creator and director of the Broadway musical Passing Strange, and her work in "algorithmic theater" includes the plays Hello Hi There, A Piece of Work, and Yesterday Tomorrow. Dorsen has received an Alpert Award in the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship.
A Strange Loop is a musical with book, music, and lyrics by Michael R. Jackson, and winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. First produced off-Broadway in 2019, then staged in Washington, D.C. in 2021, A Strange Loop premiered on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre in April 2022. The show won Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical at the 75th Tony Awards.
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