Broadway - "the Great White Way"

[BuriedInCarolina 46]

Posted death news elsewhere and couldn't find a topic for general Broadway death discussion so decided to create this one!

 

"Lit by gas and poorly ventilated, theaters in nineteenth-century New York were vexed by fire. At the beginning of the twentieth century, architects realized that the safer electric light bulb had enormous advertising potential. As early as 1910, Broadway signage dazzled visitors and the street soon became known throughout the world as the Great White Way. In 1927, the journalist Will Irwin vividly captured the district’s look and energy: “Mildly insane by day, the square goes divinely mad by night. For then on every wall, above every cornice, in every nook and cranny, blossom and dance the electric advertising signs . . . . All other American cities imitate them, but none gets this massed effect of tremendous jazz interpreted in light.”"

 

http://www.spotlightonbroadway.com/the-great-white-way-0

[BuriedInCarolina 46]

Charlotte Holloman, concert singer and voice teacher, dies at 93,

 

She made her Broadway debut in 1950 in a short-lived musical drama about racial conflict, “The Barrier,” based on a Langston Hughes play. She then appeared in “My Darlin’ Aida” (1952), a version of the Giuseppe Verdi opera reimagined on a Southern plantation amid the Civil War.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/charlotte-holloman-concert-singer-and-voice-teacher-dies-at-93/2015/08/07/f54ca82e-3c5a-11e5-8e98-115a3cf7d7ae_story.html

[gcreptile 10,937]

Biff Liff now stiff:

 

http://variety.com/2015/legit/news/biff-life-dead-broadway-agent-1201570517/

[Sir Creep 7,069]

Not exactly 'the great white way'....

Kyle Jean-Baptiste, an actor who made his Broadway debut in Les Miserables, died Friday evening after falling from a fire escape at his mother's home. He was 21​.
SC​​

[YoungWillz 20,914]

Not exactly 'the great white way'....

 

Kyle Jean-Baptiste, an actor who made his Broadway debut in Les Miserables, died Friday evening after falling from a fire escape at his mother's home. He was 21​.

SC​​

 

Ok, so he was playing Jean Valjean at 21? There really is a limit to character acting, in his debut, well, this appears to be it. Boy in far older wig singing about the death of someone older than him. Who casts this?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og7lqYmuEmw

 

Tragic death though. Cast are probably miserables.

[Sir Creep 7,069]

 

Not exactly 'the great white way'....Kyle Jean-Baptiste, an actor who made his Broadway debut in Les Miserables, died Friday evening after falling from a fire escape at his mother's home. He was 21​.

SC​​

 

Ok, so he was playing Jean Valjean at 21? There really is a limit to character acting, in his debut, well, this appears to be it. Boy in far older wig singing about the death of someone older than him. Who casts this?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og7lqYmuEmw

 

Tragic death though. Cast are probably miserables.

I thought much of what you say Y-Dub. He was only an understudy though, then shit happened and he was Jean Valjean

SC

[BuriedInCarolina 46]

Thought this death had been posted elsewhere but didn't find it so here goes ...

 

Broadway Actress Vivien Eng Dies in Apartment Fire After ‘Good Wife’ Star’s Attempted Rescue - best known for her role in 1996’s “The King and I” revival, died on Thursday of injuries suffered in a fire at her New York City high-rise apartment on Wednesday. She was 51.

 

http://variety.com/2015/legit/news/broadway-actress-vivien-eng-dead-apartment-fire-dylan-baker-1201586038/

[BuriedInCarolina 46]

This death has been posted elsewhere but I wanted it included here as well.

 

‘Young Dr. Malone’ and Broadway star John P. Connell dies at 91

 

http://zap2it.com/2015/09/john-p-connell-dies-young-dr-malone/

[BuriedInCarolina 46]

Star of Broadway's HELLAZPOPPIN, June Winters Dies at 96

 

http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Star-of-Broadways-HELLAZPOPPIN-June-Winters-Dies-at-96-20150908#

[BuriedInCarolina 46]

Stage and TV Actress Jennifer Rae Beck Dead at 44; the actress who appeared in stage musicals including “Les Miserables” and co-starred in a TV-movie version of “Gypsy,” died Aug. 8 after a long battle with breast cancer, according to a spokesperson for her family. She was 44.

 

http://variety.com/2015/legit/news/jennifer-rae-beck-dead-1201573588/

[gcreptile 10,937]

What is this, a broadway holocaust?

[Sir Creep 7,069]

This death has been posted elsewhere but I wanted it included here as well.

 

Young Dr. Malone and Broadway star John P. Connell dies at 91

 

http://zap2it.com/2015/09/john-p-connell-dies-young-dr-malone/

But in both instances he was posted in threads of lesser import. The guy built a career in soap operas, and though you mention one of them, yet somehow his obit didn't get put in that thread. Alas, poor Mr Connell...

SC

[gcreptile 10,937]

Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Frank Gilroy, whose best known work was Broadway drama The Subject Was Roses, has died of natural causes at 89:

 

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/sep/14/frank-d-gilroy-playwright-dies-aged-89

[Sir Creep 7,069]

Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Frank Gilroy, whose best known work was Broadway drama The Subject Was Roses, has died of natural causes at 89:

 

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/sep/14/frank-d-gilroy-playwright-dies-aged-89

"In lieu of donations to a charitable organization, flowers can be sent to ...."

SC

[Sir Creep 7,069]

Tony winning Directors dropping like flies. This time the flyswatter smacks Melvin Bernhardt at the age of 84. He directed 'Da' among others.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/16/theater/melvin-bernhardt-tony-winning-director-dies-at-84.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share

[BuriedInCarolina 46]

Three-time Tony nominee Marin Mazzie has been battling ovarian cancer. Her husband, fellow Broadway star Jason Danieley, revealed the news and shared their journey from her diagnosis through treatment in a blog titled "I Am Woman Hear Me Roar!" on September 27.

 

http://www.broadway.com/buzz/182218/tony-nominee-marin-mazzie-undergoes-treatment-for-ovarian-cancer-husband-jason-danieley-shares-their-journey/

[BuriedInCarolina 46]

This death of a fellow "Carolinian" was ingloriously posted by a guest in another thread but deserves better and to be noted here.

 

Donald Seawell, Denver cultural and civic visionary, dies at 103

 

Seawell was born Aug. 1, 1912, in Jonesboro, N.C., and raised in Raleigh. His father, Aaron A.F. Seawell, was a North Carolina attorney general and later a state Supreme Court justice. He grew up in a family of monied, landed gentry and was an Eagle Scout.

 

Seawell became enamored of the theater, eventually producing 65 Broadway and London plays, including productions of "Showboat," "Our Town" and "Harvey."

 

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_28902918/donald-seawell-dead-103-denver-center-performing-arts-founder

[YoungWillz 20,914]

Broadway performer, director and choreographer Alan Weeks has passed away. http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Alan-Weeks-Star-of-Broadways-AINT-MISBEHAVIN-THE-WIZ-and-More-Passes-Away-20151012

 

He also appeared in film (The French Connection; Shaft) and on TV. Here he is dancing with Gene Anthony Ray in Fame: https://youtu.be/xtyPQjIi09M

[gcreptile 10,937]

Screenwrighter and Broadway playwright James Prideaux is dead at 88 after a stroke:

 

http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwtv/article/Screenwriter-and-Broadway-Playwright-James-Prideaux-Passes-Away-at-88-20151120

 

He was a close friend of Katharine Hepburn and also engaged Julie Harris and Liz Taylor for his plays and TV productions.

[BuriedInCarolina 46]

She only had one life to live: Tony-winning actress and TV soap star Patricia Elliott dies - won a Tony Award on her Broadway debut and went on to star opposite David Bowie in "The Elephant Man" and 23 years aboard the TV soap opera "One Life to Live," has died. She was 77.

http://www.wnem.com/story/30802921/tony-winning-actress-and-tv-soap-star-patricia-elliott-dies

[gcreptile 10,937]

Marin Mazzie talks about her ovarian cancer:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/31/theater/marin-mazzie-on-cancer-and-songs-in-the-key-of-life.html?_r=0

 

There were complications, but for the moment, she feels "normal".

[gcreptile 10,937]

Elizabeth Swados, creator of the Broadway musical 'Runaways' dead at 64, possibly because of esophagael cancer:

 

http://deadline.com/2016/01/elizabeth-swados-dead-at-64-broadway-musical-runaways-1201676659/

[BuriedInCarolina 46]

Martha Wright, Who Played Leading Roles in Beloved Musicals, Dies at 92, played well over 1,200 performances in leading musical roles on Broadway, nearly all of them as a replacement for Mary Martin, died on March 1 in Newburyport, Mass. She was 92.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/10/theater/martha-wright-who-played-leading-roles-in-beloved-musicals-dies-at-92.html?

[charon 4,943]

 

Don't think it's been posted elsewhere, but who cares.

 

Frankie Michaels aged 60.

 

Won a Tony aged 10 ffs.

 

 

http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Tony-Award-Winner-Frankie-Michaels-Has-Died-at-Age-60-20160402

[Spade_Cooley 9,468]

American Theatre Hall of Fame inductee John McMartin, dead at 86. Also an "oh, him" character actor in numerous TV shows and films from Golden Girls to that Kimmy Schmidt thing your girlfriend likes.