Welcome to the Club is a 1989 Broadway musical with music and lyrics by Cy Coleman. Despite its run of only twelve performances, it was nominated for two Tony Awards, and some other honors.
Broadway theatre, commonly known as Broadway, refers to the theatrical performances presented in the 41 professional theatres, each with 500 or more seats located in the Theater District and Lincoln Center along Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Along with London's West End theatre, Broadway theatre is widely considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world.
Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole. Although musical theatre overlaps with other theatrical forms like opera and dance, it may be distinguished by the equal importance given to the music as compared with the dialogue, movement and other elements. Since the early 20th century, musical theatre stage works have generally been called, simply, musicals.
Cy Coleman was an American composer, songwriter, and jazz pianist.
The musical, set in a New York City jail for alimony violators, opened on April 13, 1989 at the Music Box Theatre. The director of the production was Peter Mark Schifter.
The City of New York, usually called either New York City (NYC) or simply New York (NY), is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2017 population of 8,622,698 distributed over a land area of about 302.6 square miles (784 km2), New York is also the most densely populated major city in the United States. Located at the southern tip of the state of New York, the city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass and one of the world's most populous megacities, with an estimated 20,320,876 people in its 2017 Metropolitan Statistical Area and 23,876,155 residents in its Combined Statistical Area. A global power city, New York City has been described as the cultural, financial, and media capital of the world, and exerts a significant impact upon commerce, entertainment, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, art, fashion, and sports. The city's fast pace has inspired the term New York minute. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy.
Alimony is a legal obligation on a person to provide financial support to their spouse before or after marital separation or divorce. The obligation arises from the divorce law or family law of each country.
The Music Box Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 239 West 45th Street in Midtown Manhattan, NY.
Reviews were poor; the New York Times deemed it "embarrassingly out of touch with the present-day realities of men, women, sex, marriage and divorce", with limited praise given to Coleman's "inconsistent" score. [1] The musical closed nine days after its opening, on April 22nd, and was considered a flop. [2] However, the musical was nominated for two Tonys: Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Scott Wentworth) and Best Direction of a Musical (Schifter). In addition, actress Sally Mayes, in her Broadway debut, won a 1989 Theatre World award.
Scott Wentworth is an American actor and director who immigrated to Canada in 1986.
Sally Lee Mayes is an American actress and cabaret and concert singer.
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in Manhattan. The awards are given for Broadway productions and performances, and an award is given for regional theatre. Several discretionary non-competitive awards are also given, including a Special Tony Award, the Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre, and the Isabelle Stevenson Award. The awards are named after Antoinette "Tony" Perry, co-founder of the American Theatre Wing.
Sir Trevor Robert Nunn, CBE is an English theatre director. Nunn has been the Artistic Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and, currently, the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. He has directed dramas for the stage, like Macbeth, as well as opera and musicals, such as Cats (1981) and Les Misérables (1985).
Ellen Tyne Daly is an American actress. She has won six Emmy Awards for her television work and a Tony Award, and is a 2011 American Theatre Hall of Fame inductee.
Stephen Flaherty is an American composer of musical theatre and film. He works most often in collaboration with the lyricist/book writer Lynn Ahrens. They are best known for writing the Broadway musicals Ragtime, which was nominated for thirteen Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards, and won the Tony for Best Original Score; Once On This Island, which won the Tony Award for Best Revival Of A Musical, the Olivier Award for London’s Best Musical, and was nominated for a Grammy Award and eight Tony Awards; and Seussical, which was nominated for a Grammy and is now one of the most performed shows in America. Flaherty was also nominated for two Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards for his songs and song score for the animated film musical Anastasia.
Carolyn Leigh was an American lyricist for Broadway, film, and popular songs. She is best known as the writer with partner Cy Coleman of the pop standards "Witchcraft" and "The Best Is Yet to Come". With Johnny Richards she wrote the million-seller "Young at Heart" for the film of the same name, starring Frank Sinatra.
David Joel Zippel is an American musical theatre lyricist, director and producer.
Mark Bramble was an American theatre director, author, and producer. He was nominated for a Tony Award three times, for the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for Barnum and 42nd Street (1981) and Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical, 42nd Street (2001).
Cy Feuer was an American theatre producer, director, composer, musician, and half of the celebrated producing duo Feuer and Martin. He won three competitive Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, and a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award. He was also nominated for an Oscar for 1938's Storm Over Bengal.
Daisy Eagan is an American actress.
Lillias White is an American singer and actress of stage, television, and film who is particularly admired for her performances in Broadway musicals. In 1989 she won an Obie Award for her performance in the Off-Broadway musical Romance in Hard Times. In 1997 she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical and Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical for portraying Sonja in Cy Coleman's The Life. She was nominated for a Tony Award again in 2010 for her work as Funmilayo in Fela Kuti's Fela!.
I Love My Wife is a musical with a book and lyrics by Michael Stewart and music by Cy Coleman, based on a play by Luis Rego.
Albert Marre was an American stage director and producer. He directed the stage musical Man of La Mancha in 1965, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Director of a Musical.
Julie May Wilson was an American singer and actress "widely regarded as the queen of cabaret". She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical in 1989 for her performance in Legs Diamond.
Gertha Boston is an American singer and actress.
Alex Timbers is an American two-time Tony-nominated writer and director and the recipient of Golden Globe, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and London Evening Standard Awards, as well as two OBIE and Lucile Lortel Awards.
Douglas "Doug" 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.
Lauren Ward is an American singer and actress. She has appeared in Broadway, Off-Broadway and West End musicals and plays. Ward originated the role of Miss Honey in the original Stratford-Upon-Avon, West End and Broadway productions of the musical Matilda, and has been nominated for the Tony Award, Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance.
Judy Gordon is an American theater producer of plays and musicals on Broadway and off-Broadway as well as internationally. Her productions include the musical Barnum with music by Cy Coleman, starring Jim Dale and Glenn Close on Broadway and Michael Crawford in London. She also produced A History of the American Film by Christopher Durang on Broadway, and 2x5 by John Kander and Fred Ebb off Broadway.
