Ella Jane Fitzgerald was an American singer, songwriter and composer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, intonation, absolute pitch, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.
Matthew Broderick is an American actor. His roles include the Golden Globe–nominated portrayal of the title character in Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), the voice of adult Simba in Disney's The Lion King (1994), and Leo Bloom in both the Broadway musical The Producers and its 2005 film adaptation. Other films he has starring credits in include WarGames (1983), Glory (1989), The Freshman (1990), The Cable Guy (1996), Godzilla (1998), Election (1999), Inspector Gadget (1999), You Can Count on Me (2000), and The Last Shot (2004). Broderick also directed himself in Infinity (1996) and provided voice work in Good Boy! (2003), Bee Movie (2007), and The Tale of Despereaux (2008).
Harvey Forbes Fierstein is an American actor, playwright, and screenwriter, known for his distinctive gravelly voice. He is best known for his theater work in Torch Song Trilogy and Hairspray and film roles in Mrs. Doubtfire, Independence Day, and as the voice of Yao in Mulan and Mulan II. Fierstein won two Tony Awards, Best Actor in a Play and Best Play, for Torch Song Trilogy. He received his third Tony Award, Best Book of a Musical, for the musical La Cage aux Folles and his fourth, the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical, for playing Edna Turnblad in Hairspray, a role he revived in its live television event, Hairspray Live! Fierstein also wrote the books for the Tony Award-winning musicals Kinky Boots, Newsies, and Tony Award-nominated, Drama League Award-winner A Catered Affair. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2007.
Torch Song Trilogy is a collection of three plays by Harvey Fierstein rendered in three acts: International Stud, Fugue in a Nursery, and Widows and Children First! The story centers on Arnold Beckoff, a Jewish homosexual, drag queen, and torch singer who lives in New York City in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The four-hour play begins with a soliloquy in which he explains his cynical disillusionment with love.
Joel Anthony Crothers was an American actor. His credits primarily included stage and television work, including a number of soap opera roles, the best known being Miles Cavanaugh on The Edge of Night, whom he played for eight years. He was also known for his roles as Joe Haskell and Lieutenant Nathan Forbes on Dark Shadows, Ken Stevens #2 on The Secret Storm, and pianist/newspaper editor Julian Cannell on Somerset.
Joseph McFadden is a Scottish actor, best known for his roles in The Crow Road,Sex, Chips & Rock n' Roll, Heartbeat and Holby City. He won the 2017 series of the BBC One series Strictly Come Dancing with professional dance partner Katya Jones.
Paul Bogart was an American television director and producer. Bogart directed episodes of the television series 'Way Out in 1961, Coronet Blue in 1967, Get Smart, The Dumplings in 1976, All In The Family from 1975 to 1979, Mama Malone in 1982, and four episodes of the first season of The Golden Girls in 1985. Among his films are Oh, God! You Devil, Torch Song Trilogy, Halls of Anger, Marlowe, Skin Game, and Class of '44. He won five Primetime Emmy Awards during his long career, from sixteen nominations. In 1991, he was awarded the French Festival Internationelle Programmes Audiovisuelle at the Cannes Film Festival.
American Hot Wax is a 1978 biographical film directed by Floyd Mutrux with a screenplay by John Kaye from a story by John Kaye and Art Linson. The film tells the story of pioneering disc jockey Alan Freed, who in the 1950s helped introduce and popularize rock and roll, and is often credited with coining the term "rock 'n' roll". The film starred Tim McIntire, Fran Drescher, Jay Leno, Laraine Newman, Jeff Altman, and Moosie Drier. It also featured musical performances by Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Frankie Ford, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, and Brooklyn Dreams as "Professor La Plano and The Planotones". The film was not a box-office success.
Common Ground is a 2000 Showtime television film directed by Donna Deitch and written by Paula Vogel, Terrence McNally and Harvey Fierstein.
Mikael Salomon is a Danish cinematographer, director and producer of film and television. After a long cinematography career in Danish cinema, he transitioned to the Hollywood film industry in the late 1980s, earning two Academy Award nominations. He is also a television director whose credits include dozens of series, films and miniseries including Band of Brothers, Salem's Lot, Rome, and The Andromeda Strain. His awards and nominations include a Primetime Emmy Award and a Directors Guild of America Award.
Michael Lorenzo Urie is an American actor. He is known for his portrayal of Marc St. James on the ABC comedy drama television series Ugly Betty. He can be heard as Bobby Kerns in As the Curtain Rises, an original podcast soap opera from the Broadway Podcast Network.
Founded in 1976 by John Glines, Barry Laine and Jerry Tobin, The Glines is an American not-for-profit organization based in New York City, New York, devoted to creating and presenting gay art to develop positive self-images and dispel negative stereotyping.
John Glines was an American playwright and theater producer. He won a Tony Award and multiple Drama Desk Awards during his producing career.
A torch song is a sentimental love song.
Estelle Gettleman, known professionally as Estelle Getty, was an American actress and comedienne. She was best known for her portrayal of Sophia Petrillo on The Golden Girls (1985–1992), for which she won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She reprised the role in Empty Nest (1993–1995), The Golden Palace (1992–1993), Blossom (1990–1995), and Nurses (1991–1994). Notable films in which she appeared include Mask (1985), a semibiographical film in which she played the grandmother of Roy L. Dennis, Mannequin (1987), and Stuart Little (1999). She retired from acting in 2001 due to failing health, and died in 2008 from dementia with Lewy bodies.
Linal Haft is an English actor, best known for playing controlling or manipulative characters in both film and television, most notably his role as businessman Harry Gold in the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders from 2010 to 2011. He is sometimes credited as Lionel Haft.
Peter Matz was an American musician, composer, arranger, and conductor. His musical career in film, theater, television, and studio recording spanned fifty years. He worked with a number of prominent artists, including Marlene Dietrich, Noël Coward and Barbra Streisand. Matz won three Emmys and a Grammy Award. He is best known for his work on Streisand's early albums and for his tour as the orchestral conductor and musical director for The Carol Burnett Show.
Edward af Sillén is a Swedish screenwriter and director for stage, film and TV. He has translated and directed numerous successful theatre shows including Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare, The Drowsy Chaperone, Bull and Cock by Mike Bartlett, Torch Song Trilogy by Harvey Fierstein, Shirley Valentine by Willy Russell, and Art by Yasmina Reza.
Sylvia Kauders was an American actress.
Court Miller (1952–1986) was an American actor most notable for starring in the Broadway production of Torch Song Trilogy.
