"End star such as Olivier in the cast caused much interest. The play is in three acts, sub-divided into thirteen scenes. Some are set in the Rice family's house, and others show Archie Rice on stage at the music hall. The original music for the play was composed by John Addison. Melodies by Thomas Hastings (""Rock of Ages""), Arthur Sullivan (""Onward Christian Soldiers"" and ""The Absent-Minded Beggar""), and George Ware (""The Boy I Love is Up in the Gallery"") are also incorporated. The original production at the Royal Court was directed by Tony Richardson, with décor by Alan Tagg. The"
"The Entertainer (rag) ""The Entertainer"" is a 1902 classic piano rag written by Scott Joplin. It was sold first as sheet music, and in the 1910s as piano rolls that would play on player pianos. The first recording was by blues and ragtime musicians, the Blue Boys in 1928, played on mandolin and guitar. As one of the classics of ragtime, it returned to international prominence as part of the ragtime revival in the 1970s, when it was used as the theme music for the 1973 Oscar-winning film ""The Sting"". Composer and pianist Marvin Hamlisch's adaptation reached #3 on the"
"first production of the play when the play moved to the West End Theatre. Olivier, who had a disintegrating marriage with his wife Vivien Leigh (whom he had married in 1940), married Plowright in March 1961. Roger Livesey was cast as Archie's father Billy, despite being only one year older than Olivier. George Relph, the actor who originated the role in the play, died in April 1960. Alan Bates played Archie's cynical son Frank. The film was filmed on location in the Lancashire seaside town of Morecambe. The Entertainer (film) The Entertainer is a 1960 drama film directed by Tony"
"backdrop to the play. An experimental piece, ""The Entertainer"" was interspersed with music hall performances. Most critics praised the development of an exciting writing talent: The words are Billy Rice's, though as with much of Osborne's work they could be said to represent his own sentiments, as with this quote from ""Look Back in Anger"": Osborne followed ""The Entertainer"" with ""The World of Paul Slickey"" (1959) a musical that satirizes the tabloid press, the unusual television documentary play ""A Subject of Scandal and Concern"" (1960), and the double bill ""Plays for England"", comprising ""The Blood of the Bambergs"" and ""Under"
"media to describe young writers who were characterised by a disillusionment with traditional British society. The term, always imprecise, began to have less meaning over the years as the writers to whom it was originally applied became more divergent, and many of them dismissed the label as useless. The playwright John Osborne was the archetypal example, and his signature play ""Look Back in Anger"" (1956) attracted attention to a style of drama contrasting strongly with the genteel and understated works of Terence Rattigan that had been in fashion. Osborne's ""The Entertainer"" (1957) secured his reputation, with Laurence Olivier playing the"
"Entertainer"", in which he starred. Branagh also starred in ""The Winter's Tale"", ""Harlequinade"" and ""The Painkiller"". Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company also includes Judi Dench (""The Winter's Tale""), Zoë Wanamaker (""Harlequinade/All On Her Own""), Derek Jacobi, Lily James and Richard Madden (""Romeo and Juliet"") and Rob Brydon (""The Painkiller""). In September 2015 was announced that ""The Winter's Tale"", ""Romeo and Juliet"" and ""The Entertainer"" will be broadcast in cinemas, in partnership with Picturehouse Entertainment. Branagh is known for his film adaptations of William Shakespeare, beginning with ""Henry V"" (1989), followed by ""Much Ado About Nothing"" (1993), ""Hamlet"" (1996), ""Love's Labour's Lost"""
"and the two of them saw it together. Miller found the play revelatory, and they went backstage to meet Osborne. Olivier was impressed by the American's reaction, and asked Osborne for a part in his next play. John Heilpern suggests the great actor's about-face was due to a midlife crisis, Olivier seeking a new challenge after decades of success in Shakespeare and other classics, and fearful of losing his pre-eminence to this new kind of theatre. George Devine, artistic director of the Royal Court, sent Olivier the incomplete script of ""The Entertainer"" (1957, film version released in 1960) and Olivier"
"The Entertainer (song) ""The Entertainer"" is a single by singer Billy Joel released as the only single from his 1974 album ""Streetlife Serenade"". The song peaked at #34 on the US charts, a Top 40 hit for Joel that year. The song is a cynical and somewhat satirical look at the fleeting fame of a musician and fickle public tastes (""Today I am your champion / I may have won your hearts / But I know the game / You'll forget my name / And I won't be here / in another year / if I don't stay on the"
"The Entertainers The Entertainers was a one-hour American variety show which aired on CBS from September 25, 1964 through March 27, 1965. Produced by Joe Hamilton, the series featured three hosts; Hamilton's then-wife Carol Burnett, Bob Newhart, and Caterina Valente. In order to serve as a regular host, it was necessary for Burnett to leave her role in the Broadway musical ""Fade Out - Fade In"", and was summarily sued by the show's producers for breach of contact. Broadcast weekly from New York, where it was taped Friday evenings at CBS Studio 50 (now the Ed Sullivan Theater), the variety"
"Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a Nobel Prize-winning British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include ""The Birthday Party"" (1957), ""The Homecoming"" (1964), and ""Betrayal"" (1978), each of which he adapted for the screen. His screenplay adaptations of others' works include ""The Servant"" (1963), ""The Go-Between"" (1971), ""The French Lieutenant's Woman"" (1981), ""The Trial"" (1993), and ""Sleuth"" (2007). He also directed or acted in radio, stage, television, and film productions of his own and"
"The Connection (play) The Connection is a 1959 play by Jack Gelber. It was first produced by the Living Theatre, directed by Living Theatre co-founder Judith Malina, and designed by co-founder Julian Beck. The play has a play-within-a-play format, with characters Jim Dunn as the ""producer"" and Jaybird as the ""writer"". They are attempting to stage a production about the underbelly of society using ""real"" addicts. Some of the addicts are jazz musicians. They all (except for the ""producer"", ""writer"", and two ""photographers"") have one thing in common: they are waiting around for their drug dealer, their ""connection"". The dialogue"
"initially wanted to play Billy Rice, the lead character's decent elderly father. On seeing the finished script, he changed his mind and took the central role as failing music-hall performer Archie Rice, playing to great acclaim both at the Royal Court and then in the West End. ""The Entertainer"" uses the metaphor of the dying music hall tradition and its eclipse by early rock and roll to comment on the moribund state of the British Empire and its eclipse by the power of the United States, something flagrantly revealed during the Suez Crisis of November 1956 that elliptically forms the"
"The Apprentice (play) The Apprentice is a 1756 afterpiece by English dramatist Arthur Murphy. This two-act farce, which was Murphy's first play, satirized London's amateur spouting clubs. Like George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham's ""The Rehearsal"" (1671), the play relies, for much of its humor, on impersonation and personal satire in the acting. The farce was first performed on January 2, 1756 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. From its premier until 1800, ""The Apprentice"" was performed 223 times. Comedian and pantomimist Henry Woodward first performed the title character, Dick, and remained popular in the part for years. Later in"
"The Killer (play) The Killer (, sometimes translated ""The Killer without Reason"" or ""The Killer without Cause"") is a play written by Eugène Ionesco in 1958. It is the first of Ionesco's Berenger plays, the others being ""Rhinocéros"" (1959), ""Exit the King"" (1962), and ""A Stroll in the Air"" (1963). In ""The Killer"", Berenger, Ionesco’s downtrodden everyman, discovers an ideal ""radiant city"". The elation Berenger feels in the city of light is cut short by the discovery that the city is host to a killer who drowns his victims in a pool after luring them there by offering to show"
"Albert Finney Albert Finney (born 9 May 1936) is a retired English actor. Beginning in theatre, Finney achieved especial success as a Shakespearean actor before switching to film. He achieved prominence in film during the early 1960s, debuting with ""The Entertainer"", directed by Tony Richardson, who had previously directed him in plays. He became a leading Free Cinema figure at the same time as maintaining a successful career in theatre, film and television. He is known for his roles in ""Saturday Night and Sunday Morning"" (1960), ""Tom Jones"" (1963), ""Two for the Road"" (1967), ""Scrooge"" (1970), ""Annie"" (1982), ""The Dresser"""
"Back in Anger"", a play by one of the angry young men. The director was Tony Richardson. Osborne followed ""Look Back In Anger"" with ""The Entertainer"", with Laurence Olivier in the lead as Archie Rice, a play the actor effectively commissioned from the playwright. Significantly, although it was quickly reversed, the artistic board of the ESC initially rejected the play. Two members of the board were in agreement in opposing ""The Entertainer"". The Conservative Christian verse dramatist Ronald Duncan, the third co-founder of the ESC, disliked the work of Osborne according to Osborne biographer John Heilpern, while Lewenstein, a former"
"I reform at the End."" The Apprentice (play) The Apprentice is a 1756 afterpiece by English dramatist Arthur Murphy. This two-act farce, which was Murphy's first play, satirized London's amateur spouting clubs. Like George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham's ""The Rehearsal"" (1671), the play relies, for much of its humor, on impersonation and personal satire in the acting. The farce was first performed on January 2, 1756 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. From its premier until 1800, ""The Apprentice"" was performed 223 times. Comedian and pantomimist Henry Woodward first performed the title character, Dick, and remained popular in the"
"has ever been planned and this perhaps accounts partly for the play's relative obscurity in comparison with other contemporary works such as ""Look Back In Anger"" and ""A Taste of Honey"". The Party (play) The Party is a play by the British dramatist, actor and director Jane Arden (1927–82) which was first staged at the New Theatre, London on 28 May 1958. The play was directed by Charles Laughton and starred, in addition to Laughton himself, Albert Finney, Laughton's wife Elsa Lanchester, Ann Lynn, Joyce Redman, and John Welch. Following generally enthusiastic reviews ""The Party"" ran for six months at"
"the run and disliked it, but Miller was convinced that Osborne had talent, and Olivier reconsidered. He was ready for a change of direction; in 1981 he wrote: Osborne was already at work on a new play, ""The Entertainer"", an allegory of Britain's post-colonial decline, centred on a seedy variety comedian, Archie Rice. Having read the first act—all that was completed by then—Olivier asked to be cast in the part. He had for years maintained that he might easily have been a third-rate comedian called ""Larry Oliver"", and would sometimes play the character at parties. Behind Archie's brazen façade there"
"Entertaining Angels (play) Entertaining Angels is a play by Richard Everett. The production was directed by Alan Strachan and produced by Michael Codron. As a vicar's wife, Grace has spent a lifetime on her best behaviour. Now, after the death of her husband Bardolph, she can enjoy the new-found freedom of being able to do and say exactly what she wants. But the return of her eccentric missionary sister, Ruth, together with some disturbing revelations forces Grace to confront the truth of her marriage. Set in a lush vicarage garden complete with real grass, plants and a stream with running"
"The Hypnotist (1957 film) The Hypnotist is a 1957 British thriller film directed by Montgomery Tully and starring Paul Carpenter, Patricia Roc and Roland Culver. It follows a hypnotist who attempts to convince one of his patients to murder his own wife, whom he has grown sick of. It was based on a play by Falkland Cary. The film was released as ""Scotland Yard Dragnet"" in the U.S. The Radio Times wrote ""Irish-born director Montgomery Tully was one of the key figures in the British B-movie industry during the 1950s and 1960s. This is one of his better efforts, as"
"Manchester Guardian"" was lukewarm, finding the climax of the play ""banal"" but added, ""Sir Laurence brings to the wretched hero a wonderful sniggering pathos now and then and ultimately gives the little figure some tragic size. It is no great play but no bad evening either.""""The Times"" made no connection between the play and the condition of post-Imperial Britain, regarding it as almost ""the sombre, modern equivalent of Pinero's ""Trelawny of the Wells""."" By the time of the 1974 revival, ""The Times"" was agreeing with Tynan: ""Everyone remembers ""The Entertainer"" for its brilliant equation between Britain and a dilapidated old"
"for the remainder of the series' run. The repertory company included: The Entertainers The Entertainers was a one-hour American variety show which aired on CBS from September 25, 1964 through March 27, 1965. Produced by Joe Hamilton, the series featured three hosts; Hamilton's then-wife Carol Burnett, Bob Newhart, and Caterina Valente. In order to serve as a regular host, it was necessary for Burnett to leave her role in the Broadway musical ""Fade Out - Fade In"", and was summarily sued by the show's producers for breach of contact. Broadcast weekly from New York, where it was taped Friday evenings"
"The Dumb Waiter The Dumb Waiter is a one-act play by Harold Pinter written in 1957. ""Small but perfectly formed, ""The Dumb Waiter"" might be considered the best of Harold Pinter's early plays, more consistent than ""The Birthday Party"" and sharper than ""The Caretaker"". It combines the classic characteristics of early Pinter – a paucity of information and an atmosphere of menace, working-class small-talk in a claustrophobic setting – with an oblique but palpable political edge and, in so doing, can be seen as containing the germ of Pinter's entire dramatic oeuvre"". """"The Dumb Waiter"" is Pinter distilled – the"
"Roberta Levitow, Charles Newell, Roman Paska, Mary B. Robinson, David Saint, Joel Sass and Darko Tresnjak. Alan Schneider Alan Schneider (December 12, 1917 – May 3, 1984) was an American theatre director responsible for more than 100 theatre productions. In 1984 he was honored with a Drama Desk Special Award for serving a wide range of playwrights. He directed the 1956 American premiere of Samuel Beckett's ""Waiting for Godot"", Edward Albee's ""Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"" and ""Tiny Alice""; the American première of Joe Orton's ""Entertaining Mr Sloane"", Harold Pinter's ""The Birthday Party"", as well as Pinter's ""The Dumb Waiter"","
"religious sensibility."" After this, he worked on more ""commercial"" plays for more general audiences: ""The Family Reunion"" (1939), ""The Cocktail Party"" (1949), ""The Confidential Clerk"", (1953) and ""The Elder Statesman"" (1958) (the latter three were produced by Henry Sherek and directed by E. Martin Browne). The Broadway production in New York of ""The Cocktail Party"" received the 1950 Tony Award for Best Play. Eliot wrote ""The Cocktail Party"" while he was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study. Regarding his method of playwriting, Eliot explained, ""If I set out to write a play, I start by an act"
"and adapted it for the stage in collaboration with Andre Gregory. This stage adaptation was the basis for the film. The German director adapted this story for his movie """" (2015). The Master Builder The Master Builder () is a play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It was first published in December 1892 and is regarded as one of Ibsen's most significant and revealing works. The play was published by Gyldendal AS in Copenhagen in 1892 and its first performance was on 19 January 1893 at the Lessing Theatre in Berlin, with Emanuel Reicher as Solness. It opened at the"
"Indiana University at Bloomington; the Mandeville Special Collections Library, Geisel Library, at the University of California, San Diego; the British Film Institute, in London; and the Margaret Herrick Library, Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, California. Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a Nobel Prize-winning British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include ""The Birthday Party"" (1957), ""The Homecoming"" (1964), and ""Betrayal"" (1978), each of"
"in 1961 she became Atelje’s manager, shifting its focus to the avant-garde plays. Trailović herself directed over 20 plays, including some authors whose works were never before played in Serbia and Yugoslavia, like Jean-Paul Sartre (""No Exit"") in 1957, Eugène Ionesco (""The Chairs"") in 1957, Albert Camus (""The Misunderstanding"") in 1960 and Edward Albee (""Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"") in 1964. Other plays include ""Don Juan in Hell"" (by George Bernard Shaw; 1956), ""Medal"" (adapted folk tales; 1957), ""L'Histoire du soldat"" (Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz; 1959), ""Tchin-Tchin"" (François Billetdoux; 1960), ""The Fantasticks"" (Tom Jones; 1962), ""The Cocktail Party"" (T.S. Elliot); 1965), ""Marat/Sade"""
"original performance space – a converted ""squash-court"" as described by Billington (67) – which was recorded by the British Library Sound Archive. The Room (play) The Room is Harold Pinter's first play, written and first produced in 1957. Considered by critics the earliest example of Pinter's ""comedy of menace"", this play has strong similarities to Pinter's second play, ""The Birthday Party"", including features considered hallmarks of Pinter's early work and of the so-called Pinteresque: dialogue that is comically familiar and yet disturbingly unfamiliar, simultaneously or alternatingly both mundane and frightening; subtle yet contradictory and ambiguous characterizations; a comic yet menacing"
"Alan Schneider Alan Schneider (December 12, 1917 – May 3, 1984) was an American theatre director responsible for more than 100 theatre productions. In 1984 he was honored with a Drama Desk Special Award for serving a wide range of playwrights. He directed the 1956 American premiere of Samuel Beckett's ""Waiting for Godot"", Edward Albee's ""Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"" and ""Tiny Alice""; the American première of Joe Orton's ""Entertaining Mr Sloane"", Harold Pinter's ""The Birthday Party"", as well as Pinter's ""The Dumb Waiter"", ""The Collection"", and a trilogy of Pinter's plays under the title ""Other Places"" (including ""One for"
"The Caretaker The Caretaker is a play in three acts by Harold Pinter. Although it was the sixth of his major works for stage and television, this psychological study of the confluence of power, allegiance, innocence, and corruption among two brothers and a tramp, became Pinter's first significant commercial success. It premiered at the Arts Theatre Club in London's West End on 27 April 1960 and transferred to the Duchess Theatre the following month, where it ran for 444 performances before departing London for Broadway. In 1964, a film version of the play based on Pinter's unpublished screenplay was directed"
"The Hothouse The Hothouse (1958/1980) is a full-length tragicomedy written by Harold Pinter in the winter of 1958 between ""The Birthday Party"" (1957) and ""The Caretaker"" (1959). After writing ""The Hothouse"" in the winter of 1958 and following the initial commercial failure of ""The Birthday Party"", Pinter put the play aside; in 1979 he re-read it and directed its first production, at Hampstead Theatre, where it opened on 24 April 1980, transferring to the Ambassadors Theatre on 25 June 1980, and it was first published, also in 1980, by Eyre Methuen. The play received its American premiere at the Trinity"