Bill Russell (songwriter)

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Bill Russell (* 15. July 1949 in Deadwood , South Dakota ) is an American musical - lyricist .

Artistic career

Russell attended Morningside College in Sioux City , Iowa , where he studied theater for two years. Besides, he was a director for shows in northern New Jersey , where he on Janet Hood met with which he is a rock musical in the style of the hippie - musicals Hair wrote. "Sun, Son" , a modern Icarus myth, was then presented at the University of Kansas and won the national BMI Inter-Varsity Show competition . Russell became the manager of Janet Hood and her friend Linda Langford, who formed the duo Jade & Sarsaparillaformed. For them he wrote songs that achieved some success in New England . In addition, he tried to make the comedy formation Monteith & Rand known. They performed on and off Broadway for 14 years .

In 1980 Russell made his off-Broadway debut with the book and lyrics for the Fortune show. The music was written by Ronald Melrose. The show reached 241 performances at the Actors Playhouse and also made it to Rio de Janeiro . In 1985 he teamed up with composer Albert Evans and his co-writer Frank Kelly and they wrote the revue The Texas Chainsaw Musical together . In 1987, Family Style , for which Janet Hood wrote the music, was performed at the Minnesota Musical Theater Workshop . Two years later, in 1989, the team wrote the song cycle Elegies For Angels, Punks and Raging Queens , which deals with the subject of AIDS and HIV .

The musical Pageant started as an off-Broadway show in 1991 and was played for a year. In addition to Russell, Frank Kelly worked as a writer and Albert Evans as a composer. It made it to Japan, and when it played in London, it got two Olivier Award nominations. With the music of Henry Krieger, Russell made his Broadway debut in 1997 with " Side Show ". Inspired by a true story, the piece won two Tony Award nominations ("Best Book" and "Best Score"). It was also nominated as "Best Musical" and the actresses of the Hilton sisters, Alice Ripley and Emily Skinner , received a joint nomination for "Best Actress". After that success, Russell and Krieger tried an eccentric version of the ugly duckling story . A major production of Everything's Ducky was staged five times starting in 2000. Russell co-wrote the book with Jeffrey Hatcher. The piece won several national prizes. Shortly afterwards, in 2004, there was a new edition with the title Lucky Duck . This new edition was directed by Tony Award winner for Urinetown , John Rando . Russell and Krieger also worked together for " Kept ". The musical takes place in and around Studio 54 . Other pieces include the musical "Up in the Air" and the opener for the "Christmas Spectacular" in the Radio City Music Hall .

Works

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://billrussell.net/biography/
  2. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from October 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.pageantthemusical.com
  3. ↑ http://www.tragoedia.com/pdfs/SS07Curriculum.pdf
personal data
SURNAME Russell, Bill
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American musical lyricist
DATE OF BIRTH July 15, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Deadwood , South Dakota