Chuck Cooper (actor)

Last updated

Chuck Cooper
Born (1954-11-08) November 8, 1954 (age 69)
OccupationActor
Spouse
(m. 2009)
Children3, including Lilli Cooper
Awards Tony Award (1997), Antonyo Lifetime Achievement Award (2020)
Website chuckcooper.net

Chuck Cooper (born November 8, 1954) is an American actor. He won the 1997 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical for his performance as the pimp Memphis in The Life .

Contents

Career

Cooper made his Broadway debut in 1983 in the musical Amen Corner , playing the role of Brother Boxer. [1] [2] He was an understudy in the original Broadway casts of his next three shows: Someone Who'll Watch Over Me (he eventually took over the role of Adam), Passion , and Getting Away with Murder.

Cooper won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical for his performance as the pimp Memphis in the 1997 Broadway production of the musical The Life .

Cooper has also appeared in Chicago as Billy Flynn, Caroline, or Change as the dual role of The Bus and The Dryer, and Finian's Rainbow as Bill Rawkins, as well as benefit performances of Hair and A Wonderful Life . In February 2010 he was the narrator in the U.S. premiere of Seven Scenes from Hamlet, by the Spanish composer Benet Casablancas, at the Miller Theatre in Manhattan. [3]

In 2015, Cooper appeared on Broadway as the slave Thomas in the new musical Amazing Grace, at the Nederlander Theatre. [4] The musical is about John Newton, the redeemed slave-trader who wrote the hymn "Amazing Grace". In 2021, he returned for the Broadway debut production of Alice Childress's 1955 play Trouble in Mind, at Roundabout Theatre Company's American Airlines Theatre. [5] For this performance, he has been nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.

Personal life

Cooper has three children—Eddie, Alex, and Lilli—from his first marriage. [6] His son Eddie and daughter Lilli have performed on television and on stage. [7] In May 2009, Cooper and playwright Deborah Brevoort were married in Carmel, New York, after almost ten years of dating. [8] Their initial meeting and eventual engagement were covered in a New York Times website video. [9]

Stage credits

YearTitleRoleLocationNotes
1982Colored People's TimeBert / Abner / Blind John / Isaac Cherry Lane Theatre Off-Broadway
1983 Amen Corner Brother Boxer Nederlander Theatre Broadway
1985-1986 The Tap Dance Kid William-US National Tour
1988-1989 Rumors Welch Broadhurst Theatre Broadway
1989-1990 Ethel Barrymore Theatre
1991Four Short Operas, BreakMan 1 / Man in Dirty Dungeons / Cabbie / Man Playwrights Horizons Off-Broadway
1993 Someone Who'll Watch Over Me Adam Booth Theatre Broadway
1994-1995 Passion u/s Private Augenti / u/s Fosca's Father / u/s Lieutenant Barri / u/s Major Rizzolli / u/s Lieutenant Torasso Plymouth Theatre
1995Police BoysCapt. Jabali Abdul LaRouche Playwrights Horizons Off-Broadway
1996-1997 Whistle Down the Wind Ed / Ensemble National Theatre Washington, D.C.
1997-1998 The Life Memphis Ethel Barrymore Theatre Broadway
1999 Caroline, or Change Dryer / Bus The Public Theater Off-Broadway
2001 Chicago Billy Flynn Shubert Theatre Broadway
2003-2004 Caroline, or Change Dryer / Bus The Public Theater Off-Broadway
2004 Eugene O'Neill Theatre Broadway
2005 A Wonderful Life Uncle Billy Shubert Theatre Broadway Concert
2007 Two Trains Running Memphis Old Globe Theatre Regional
2008 Hamlet Polonius Shakespeare Theatre Company
2009-2010 Finian's Rainbow Bill Rawkins St. James Theatre Broadway
2011 Lost in the Stars Stephen Kumalo New York City Center Off-Broadway
Encores!
2013 The Piano Lesson Wining Boy Signature Theatre Company Regional
Romeo and Juliet Capulet Richard Rodgers Theatre Broadway
2014 Act One Wally / Charles Gilpin / Max Siegel / Langston Hughes Vivian Beaumont Theatre
Amazing Grace Thomas / Paketuh Bank of America Theatre Regional
2015Thomas / Keita Nederlander Theatre Broadway
2016 West Side Story Doc / Krupke Carnegie Hall Concert
The Cherry Orchard Pischik American Airlines Theatre Broadway
2017 Prince of Broadway Performer Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
2018 Me and My Girl Sir John Tremayne New York City Center Off-Broadway
Encores!
2018-2019 Choir Boy Headmaster Marrow Samuel J. Friedman Theatre Broadway
2019 Much Ado About Nothing Leonato The Public Theater Off-Broadway
Road Show Papa Mizner New York City Center Off-Broadway
Encores!
Let 'Em Eat Cake Matthew Fulton Carnegie Hall Concert
2020 Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Jacob David Geffen Hall 50th Anniversary Concert
2021-2022 Trouble in Mind Sheldon Forrester American Airlines Theatre Broadway
2023 The Frogs Charon Lincoln Center Concert
2024 Titanic Captain Edward John Smith New York City Center Off-Broadway
Encores!

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References

  1. "Chuck Cooper Bio & Resume". Archived from the original on May 9, 2008. Retrieved August 1, 2008.
  2. "Playbill News: Chuck Cooper Appears in Free Opera in Eden Concert Jan. 7". www.playbill.com. Archived from the original on January 10, 2008.
  3. "Miller Theatre at Columbia University". July 14, 2011. Archived from the original on July 14, 2011.
  4. Amazing Grace on the Internet Broadway Database
  5. Green, Jesse (November 19, 2021). "Review: 'Trouble in Mind,' 66 Years Late and Still On Time". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved January 11, 2022.
  6. "It's an Actor's Life for Broadway Papa Chuck Cooper and His Kids Eddie and Lilli | TheaterMania". www.theatermania.com.
  7. "Eddie Cooper Replaces His Dad Chuck Cooper in Little Shop of Horrors, Starring Jake Gyllenhaal & Ellen Greene". Broadway.com.
  8. "Deborah Brevoort and Chuck Cooper". The New York Times. May 30, 2009.
  9. Monteleone, Michele (May 31, 2009). "Vows: Chuck and Deborah - Video Library - The New York Times". The New York Times .