Les Misérables (musical): History and Key Facts
Les Misérables (, French: [le mizeʁabl]), colloquially known as Les Mis or Les Miz (), is a sung-through musical based on the 1862 novel by Victor Hugo.
Stage & Theatre archive
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Hamilton (musical): History and Key Facts
Hamilton: An American Musical, known simply as Hamilton, is a sung-and-rapped-through biographical musical with music, lyrics, and a book by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Death of a Salesman: History and Key Facts
Death of a Salesman is a 1949 stage play written by the American playwright Arthur Miller.
August Wilson: Biography and Background
August Wilson (né Frederick August Kittel Jr.; April 27, 1945 – October 2, 2005) was an American playwright.
Lorraine Hansberry: Biography and Background
Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (May 19, 1930 – January 12, 1965) was an American playwright and civil rights activist.
Broadway theatre: History and Key Facts
Broadway theatre is a theatre genre that consists of the theatrical performances presented in 41 professional theaters, each with 500 or more seats, in the Theater District and Lincoln Center alo
West End theatre: History and Key Facts
West End theatre is mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres in and near the West End of London.
Ballet: History and Key Facts
Ballet (French: [balɛ]) is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia.
Contemporary dance: History and Key Facts
Contemporary dance is a genre of dance performance that developed during the mid-twentieth century and has since grown to become one of the dominant genres for formally trained dancers throughout
Waiting for Godot: History and Key Facts
Waiting for Godot is a play by Irish playwright and author Samuel Beckett.
West Side Story: History and Key Facts
West Side Story is a musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents.
Wicked (musical): History and Key Facts
Wicked (known in full as Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz) is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman.
Sarah Kane: Biography and Background
Sarah Kane (3 February 1971 – 20 February 1999) was an English playwright.
Commedia dell'arte: History and Key Facts
Commedia dell'arte was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Italian theatre, that was popular throughout Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries.
Tap dance: History and Key Facts
Tap dance (or tap) is a form of dance in which the dancers use sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion; it is often accompanied by music.
Breakdancing: History and Key Facts
Breakdancing or breaking, also called b-boying (when performed by men) or b-girling (when performed by women), is a style of street dance developed by African Americans and Puerto Ricans in the B
The Crucible: History and Key Facts
The Crucible is a 1953 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller.
Angels in America: History and Key Facts
Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes is a 1991 two-part play by American playwright Tony Kushner.
Wole Soyinka: Biography and Background
Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka (; born 13 July 1934) is a Nigerian writer, playwright, and poet.
Athol Fugard: Biography and Background
Harold Athol Lanigan Fugard ( ATH-əl FYOO-gard; 11 June 1932 – 8 March 2025) was a South African playwright, novelist, actor and director.
Rent (musical): History and Key Facts
Rent (stylized in all caps) is a rock musical with music, lyrics, and book by Jonathan Larson.
The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical): History and Key Facts
The Phantom of the Opera is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Charles Hart, and additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe, with a libretto by Lloyd Webber and Stilgoe, inspired by
Flamenco: History and Key Facts
Flamenco (Spanish pronunciation: [flaˈmeŋko]) is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed in part within the gitano subculture of the Andalusian re
Kathak: History and Key Facts
Kathak is one of the eight major forms of Indian classical dance.
Epic theatre: History and Key Facts
Epic theatre (German: episches Theater) is a theatrical movement that arose in the early to mid-20th century from the theories and practice of a number of theatre practitioners who responded to t
The Importance of Being Earnest: History and Key Facts
The Importance of Being Earnest, a Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde, the last of his four drawing-room plays, following Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), A Woman of No Impor
The Glass Menagerie: History and Key Facts
The Glass Menagerie is a memory play by Tennessee Williams that premiered in 1944 and catapulted Williams from obscurity to fame.
Dario Fo: Biography and Background
Dario Luigi Angelo Fo (Italian: [ˈdaːrjo ˈfɔ]; 24 March 1926 – 13 October 2016) was an Italian playwright, actor, theatre director, stage designer, songwriter, political campaigner for the Italia
Suzan-Lori Parks: Biography and Background
Suzan-Lori Parks (born May 10, 1963) is an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: History and Key Facts
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (often referred to simply as Sweeney Todd) is a 1979 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler.
Hadestown: History and Key Facts
Hadestown is a musical with music, lyrics, and book by Anaïs Mitchell.
Bharatanatyam: History and Key Facts
Bharatanatyam is an Indian classical dance form that comes from Tamil Nadu, India.
Tango: History and Key Facts
Tango is a partner and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay.
Kabuki: History and Key Facts
Kabuki (歌舞伎; Japanese pronunciation: [ka.bɯ.kʲi]) is a classical form of Japanese theatre, mixing dramatic performance with traditional dance.
Noh: History and Key Facts
Noh (能, Nō; Japanese pronunciation: [no(ꜜ)ː], Sino-Japanese for "ability") is a major form of classical Japanese dance-drama that has been performed since the 14th century.
A Doll's House: History and Key Facts
A Doll's House (Danish and Bokmål: Et dukkehjem; also translated as A Doll House) is a three-act play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen.
The Cherry Orchard: History and Key Facts
The Cherry Orchard (Russian: Вишнёвый сад, romanized: Vishnyovyi sad) is the last play by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov.
Samuel Beckett: Biography and Background
Samuel Barclay Beckett ( ; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish playwright, novelist, and poet.
Bertolt Brecht: Biography and Background
Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet.
Cuff links for Ain't Misbehavin' costume worn by André De Shields: Museum Object and Cultural History
Cuff links for Ain't Misbehavin' costume worn by André De Shields: Date: 1982. Created by: Unidentified. Worn by: André De Shields, American, born 1946.