Timothy Britten Parker | |
---|---|
Born | Iowa City, Iowa, U.S. | February 8, 1962
Other names | Toby |
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1976–present |
Spouse | Tiffany Denise Hayzlett (m. 2004) |
Relatives | Sarah Jessica Parker (sister) Pippin Parker (brother) |
Timothy Britten Parker (born February 8, 1962), also known as Toby Parker, is an American actor.
This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources .(October 2022) |
Parker was born in Iowa City, Iowa, the eldest son of Barbara (née Keck) and Stephen Parker. They divorced and his mother married Paul Forste, who had been a babysitter to the three Parker children. The family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. The Forstes had four more children.
Parker initially studied, with his sister, at the Cincinnati Ballet on full scholarship. His mother, Barbara, said in a 2023 interview that television was "discouraged" and each of her children were encouraged to take a library book with them when leaving the house. “The kids got free lunches for a while, which was embarrassing,” she said. “But I don’t think that we ever lived in an impoverished situation where there was no culture.” [1]
He moved to New York City with his family in 1977 as he began pursuing his professional career. Toby is one of eight children. He has three brothers and four sisters, most of whom also have careers in the entertainment industry, including siblings Sarah Jessica Parker and Pippin Parker.
This section of a biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification .(October 2022) |
In October 1976, Parker made his Broadway debut as an understudy at the Morosco Theatre in a revival of the play The Innocents , adapted and directed by Harold Pinter.
He and his siblings performed in a touring production of "The Sound of Music." [1]
The Family moved to New York City in 1978 and his parents managed his career and that of his siblings. [1] That same year, he was cast in Runaways , which made its Off-Broadway premiere at The Public Theater and later moved to Broadway at the Plymouth Theatre. He was in the original cast of The Visit at Criterion Center Stage Right in 1992, in which he played the roles of Ottilie Schill, Pedro Cabral, and Wechsler.
In 1996, he joined Anthony Rapp, Adam Pascal, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Taye Diggs, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, and Idina Menzel in the Broadway cast of Rent . His roles included Gordon in "Life Support", the man in "Christmas Bells", Mr. Grey in "La Vie Boheme", and others. His voice can be heard on the original Broadway cast recording of Rent. He appeared with the rest of the cast to perform "Seasons of Love" and "La Vie Boheme" at the 1996 Tony Awards. Among the four awards the show won that evening was a Tony Award for Best Musical. The original cast has reunited to celebrate the show's 5th and 10th anniversaries in special one-night concerts. Parker joined the original cast at the Final Broadway Production of Rent, where the final cast and original cast sang an encore of "Seasons of Love".
Since 1991, Parker had a recurring role as a Forensics Technician on Law & Order with Rent co-star Jesse L. Martin. His film credits include Marshall Fine in Gold Coast; Bill in The Last Supper; and the M.C./King of Comedy in Joey Breaker.
Parker originated the role of Doctor Dillamond on the First National US Tour of the musical Wicked , which began previews in Toronto on March 9, 2005 and opened March 31. He left the cast on March 5, 2006 to join the show's sit-down production in Chicago, replacing Steven Skybell on March 28, 2006. He left the Chicago cast on December 10, 2006.
He originated the role of Doctor Dillamond in the Los Angeles sit-down production, which opened on February 21, 2007, following previews on February 10. He played his final performance on May 25, 2008.
He reprised the role in the Broadway production, beginning performances on September 2, 2008, again replacing Skybell.
On October 27, 2008, he appeared in "The Yellow Brick Road Not Taken", a one night only benefit performance celebrating the fifth anniversary of Wicked. [2]
He played Doctor Dillamond in early drafted scenes that were cut from the final version of the musical. After over two years in the Broadway company, making him the longest-running Broadway Dillamond to date, he played his final performance October 31, 2010.
After a year away from the show and Doctor Dillamond, Parker returned to the role in the Second National US Tour company, marking his fourth North American production. He replaced Martin Moran on December 20, 2011, and he played his last show on September 30, 2012. From March 20 through April 14, 2013, he returned to the first touring production, where he created the role in 2005, covering in the absence of Clifton Davis.
On September 23, 2014, he returned to the show on Broadway, replacing K. Todd Freeman as Doctor Dillamond and played his final performance on January 31, 2016. [3]
Along with eleven other theater artists, including his brother Pippin Parker, Toby co-founded Naked Angels Theater Company in New York City in 1986. It operated out of a defunct picture-frame factory on Seventeenth Street and attracted actors including Marisa Tomei, Fisher Stevens, and Gina Gershon. “Everybody hung around Naked Angels,” Parker said in a 2023 profile in The New Yorker. This group included Matthew Broderick, who would later marry his sister Sarah Jessica Parker. [1]
Parker married Tiffany Denise Hayzlett June 12, 2004, in Staatsburg, New York. She served as a producer and production manager on Sex and the City and the series Vinyl. [4]
Rent is a rock musical with music, lyrics, and book by Jonathan Larson. Loosely based on the 1896 opera La bohème by Giacomo Puccini, Luigi Illica, and Giuseppe Giacosa, it tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists struggling to survive and create a life in Lower Manhattan's East Village, in the thriving days of the bohemian culture of Alphabet City, under the shadow of HIV/AIDS.
La bohème is an opera in four acts, composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème (1851) by Henri Murger. The story is set in Paris around 1830 and shows the Bohemian lifestyle of a poor seamstress and her artist friends.
Pippin is a 1972 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Roger O. Hirson. Bob Fosse, who directed the original Broadway production, also contributed to the libretto. The musical uses the premise of a mysterious performance troupe, led by the Leading Player, to tell the story of Pippin, a young prince on his search for meaning and significance. The 'fourth wall' is broken numerous times during most traditional productions.
Jesse Lamont Martin is an American actor and singer. He is best known for his role of Tom Collins on Broadway in the musical Rent and performed on television as NYPD Detective Ed Green on Law & Order, Captain Joe West on The Flash, and professor Alec Mercer on The Irrational.
Wicked is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. It is a loose adaptation of the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which in turn is based on L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its 1939 film adaptation. The musical is told from the perspective of two witches, Elphaba and Galinda, before and after Dorothy's arrival in Oz. The story explores the complex friendship between Elphaba and Galinda. Their relationship is tested by their contrasting personalities, conflicting viewpoints, shared love interest, reactions to the corrupt rule of the Wonderful Wizard, and ultimately, Elphaba's tragic fall.
Sean McCourt is an American actor. His Broadway credits include Wicked, Titanic, It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, and Mary Poppins.
Kristoffer Cusick is an American actor of stage, television and film. He has performed in such musicals as Saturday Night Fever, Rent and Wicked.
Matthew Stocke is an American stage and television actor. His hometown is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He moved to New York City in 1996 as he began his professional career and educational company. He graduated from the Carnegie Mellon College of Fine Arts in 1995 with a BFA in Acting/Musical Theatre, where he occasionally returns as a guest instructor.
Pippin Parker is an American playwright and theatre director. He is Dean of The New School for Drama.
William Youmans is an American Broadway, film and television actor and singer, best known for originating the roles of John Jacob Astor in Titanic: the Musical, Sir Richard Bingham in The Pirate Queen, and Doctor Dillamond in Wicked. He made a return to Wicked on March 7, 2023.
Naked Angels is an American theater company founded in 1986 and based in New York City. It was named after John Tytell's book about the Beat Generation, Naked Angels. The company has produced plays on controversial social topics, including the critically acclaimed Broadway transfer Next Fall, and has featured many Hollywood stars.
Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway is a 2008 film of the final performance of the original Broadway production of the musical Rent on September 7, 2008, with some footage of the closing night celebration. The film had a limited theatrical release between September 24 and 28, 2008, in more than 500 theaters with high definition digital projection systems in the US and Canada. According to Sony Pictures Releasing President Rory Bruer, it was the first live Broadway show to be available in major North American movie theaters. The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on February 3, 2009.
Matthew James Elwyn Thomas, also occasionally credited as Matthew Thomas, is a British actor who has made appearances in television, film, and theater. He is known for his television roles including The Lost Prince, and the ITV drama-musical show, Britannia High. In the U.S., Thomas is best known for having played the title role in the 2013 Broadway revival of Pippin, which received a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. He was also a late addition to the U.S. national tour of Pippin in 2014. He had his Broadway debut in 2010 playing Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark directed by Julie Taymor, with music by U2's Bono and The Edge.
Sarah Jessica Parker is an American actress and television producer. In a career spanning over five decades, she has performed across several productions of both screen and stage. Her accolades include six Golden Globe Awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2022.
Toby Marlow is a British musical theatre composer, lyricist, playwright, writer, and actor best known for co-creating the international hit musical Six with Lucy Moss. Six received five Olivier Award nominations, including Best New Musical and Outstanding Achievement in Music. Marlow and Moss went on to win the Tony Award for Best Original Score in 2022.
The Book of Mormon is a musical comedy with music, lyrics, and book by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt Stone. The story follows two missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as they attempt to preach the faith to the inhabitants of a remote Ugandan village. The earnest young men are challenged by the lack of interest from the locals, who are distracted by more pressing issues such as HIV/AIDS, famine, female genital mutilation, child molestation, and oppression by the local warlord.
The Innocents is a play written by William Archibald that premiered on Broadway in 1950 and was revived in 1976. The play is based on the 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.
Ashley Parker Angel is an American musician and actor who rose to prominence as a member of the boy band O-Town. After the band dissolved, he had a brief solo music career, and was the only former band member who declined to go on a reunion tour with O-Town in 2011. Parker Angel has acted in several Broadway productions since 2007, and most recently appeared in Wicked as the lead male character Fiyero Tigelaar.
Rachel Bay Jones is an American actress and singer. She has played the roles of Catherine in the 2013 Broadway revival of Pippin and Evan Hansen's mother, Heidi Hansen, in Dear Evan Hansen. The latter earned her an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, and the 2017 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She emerged as one of few artists to have received three of the four major American entertainment awards.
Rent: Live is an American television special that was broadcast by Fox on January 27, 2019. It is a partially live production of the 1996 Tony Award-winning musical Rent, which tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists struggling to survive and create a life in Lower Manhattan's East Village in the thriving days of Bohemian Alphabet City, under the shadow of HIV/AIDS.