Barbara Cook
Barbara Cook in concert in 2004.
Background information
Born	October 25, 1927 (1927-10-25) (age 79)
Origin	Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Genre(s)	Musical theatre, Traditional pop
Occupation(s)	Singer, actress
Years active	1951–present
Label(s)	Urania (1958-1959), Columbia (1975-1977), DRG (1993-present)
Website	BarbaraCook.com

Barbara Cook (born October 25, 1927) is a Tony Award-winning American singer and actress who first came to prominence in the 1950s after creating roles in the Broadway musicals Candide and The Music Man, among others. In the seventies, she began a second career that continues to this day as a cabaret and concert singer. Cook is widely recognized as one of the "premier interpreters" of musical theatre songs and standards, in particular the songs of composer Stephen Sondheim.^[1] Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... is the 298th day of the year (299th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1927 (MCMXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Nickname: Location in Fulton County and the state of Georgia Coordinates: , Country State Counties Fulton, DeKalb Government  - Mayor Shirley Franklin (D) Area  - City  132. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Black Crook (1866) is considered the first musical comedy Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance. ... mainstream pop music Traditional pop music is a neologism for Western popular music which encompasses music that succeeded big band music and preceded rock and roll as the most popular kind of music in the United States, most of Europe, and some other parts of the world. ... For other uses, see Singer (disambiguation). ... Actors in period costume sharing a joke whilst waiting between takes during location filming. ... This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... is the 298th day of the year (299th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1927 (MCMXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... What is popularly called the Tony Award (formally, the Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre) is an annual award celebrating achievements in live American theater, including musical theater, primarily honoring productions on Broadway in New York. ... For other uses, see Singer (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Actor (disambiguation). ... For other uses of Broadway, see Broadway. ... The Black Crook (1866) is considered the first musical comedy Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance. ... Candide is a comic operetta by Leonard Bernstein, based on the novella of the same name by Voltaire. ... This article is about the stage musical. ... Stephen Joshua Sondheim (b. ...

Biography

She was born in Atlanta, Georgia to a traveling hat salesman and an operator for Southern Bell. Her parents divorced when she was a child and, after her only sister died of whooping cough, Barbara lived alone with her mother. She later described their relationship as "so close, too close. I slept with my mother until I came to New York. Slept in the same bed with her. That's just, it's wrong. But to me, it was the norm....As far as she was concerned, we were one person."^[1] Though Barbara began singing at an early age, at the Elks Club and to her father over the phone, she spent three years after graduating from high school working as a typist.^[1] Nickname: Location in Fulton County and the state of Georgia Coordinates: , Country State Counties Fulton, DeKalb Government  - Mayor Shirley Franklin (D) Area  - City  132. ... BellSouth Corporation (NYSE: BLS) is a U.S. telecommunications company based in Atlanta, Georgia. ... Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks had modest beginnings in 1868 as a drinking club (then called the Jolly Corks) established as a private club to elude New York City laws governing the opening hours of public taverns. ...

While visiting New York City in 1948 with her mother, Cook decided to stay and try to find work as an actress.^[2] She made her Broadway debut a year later, as Sandy in the short-lived 1951 musical Flahooley. She next took roles in revivals of two Rodgers and Hammerstein hits: Ado Annie in Oklahoma! and Carrie Pipperidge in Carousel. In 1955, she began to attract major critical praise when she played the supporting role of Hilda Miller in Plain and Fancy. Cook's good reviews and clear soprano voice enabled her to win the role of Cunegonde in Leonard Bernstein's new musical Candide in 1956. In this show, she sang "Glitter and Be Gay". Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the state of New York and the entire United States. ... Flahooley is a musical with a book by E. Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy, lyrics by Harburg, and music by Sammy Fain. ... Rodgers (left) and Hammerstein (right), with Irving Berlin (middle) and Helen Tamiris, watching auditions at the St. ... Oklahoma! (1943) was the first musical play written by composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist/librettist Oscar Hammerstein II, working together. ... Carousel is a 1945 stage musical by Richard Rodgers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (book and lyrics) that was adapted from Ferenc Molnars play Liliom. ... Plain and Fancy is a Broadway musical with a book by Joseph Stein and Will Glickman, music by Albert Hague, and lyrics by Arnold Horwitt. ... This article is about the singing voice part. ... Leonard Bernstein in 1971 Leonard Bernstein (IPA pronunciation: )[1] (August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, and pianist. ... This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Although Candide was not a success, Cook's portrayal of Cunegonde established her as one of Broadway's leading ingenues. Her two most famous roles after this were Marian the Librarian in Meredith Willson's 1957 hit The Music Man and as Amalia Balash in the 1962 Jerry Bock-Sheldon Harnick musical She Loves Me. The song "Ice Cream" from the latter became one of Cook's signature songs. Ingenue is a stock character in literature, film and theatre. ... Robert Meredith Willson (18 May 1902 – 15 June 1984) was an American composer and playwright, best known as the writer of The Music Man. ... Jerry Bock (born 1928) is a Jewish-American musical theatre composer best known for his collaboration with lyricist Sheldon Harnick on shows such as Fiddler on the Roof. ... Sheldon Harnick (born 1924) is an American lyricist best known for his collaboration with composer Jerry Bock on hit musicals such as Fiddler on the Roof. ... She Loves Me is a Broadway musical. ...

During the 1960s, Cook created roles in some less successful musicals: Liesl Brandel in The Gay Life (1961) and Carol Deems in Something More! (1964). She also tried her hand at non-musical roles, replacing Sandy Dennis in the play Any Wednesday and originating the role of Patsy Newquist in Jules Feiffer's Little Murders. Cook's last original musical role on Broadway came in 1971 when she played Dolly Talbo in The Grass Harp. As she began struggling with depression, obesity, and alcoholism in the seventies (she eventually quit drinking in 1977), Cook began finding trouble getting stage work.^[1] The Gay Life is a musical with a book by Fay and Michael Kanin, lyrics by Howard Dietz, and music by Arthur Schwartz. ... Sandy Dennis Sandy Dennis (April 27, 1937 – March 2, 1992) was an Academy Award and Tony-winning American theater and film actress. ... Any Wednesday is a 1966 comedy film directed by Robert Ellis Miller, starring Jason Robards, Jane Fonda and Dean Jones. ... Jules Feiffer (1958) Jules Feiffer (born January 26, 1929) is an American syndicated comic-strip cartoonist and author. ... Little Murders is a 1971 black comedy film starring Elliott Gould and Marcia Rodd about a girl (Rodd) who brings home her boyfriend (Gould) to meet her parents amidst a series of random shootings, garbage strikes and electrical outages ravaging the neighborhood and the familys severe dysfunction. ... The Grass Harp is a 1951 novella by Truman Capote. ...

Then she met composer Wally Harper, who convinced her to put together a concert. On January 26, 1975, accompanied by Harper, she made her debut in a successful solo concert at Carnegie Hall that resulted in a popular live album and eventually became "legendary."^[2] Continuing a collaboration with Harper that lasted until his death in 2004, Cook became a successful concert performer. She returned only sporadically to acting, performing in occasional studio cast recordings of stage musicals, and originating the role of Margaret White in the notorious musical version of Stephen King's Carrie - The Musical when it premiered in England. After Wally Harper's death, Cook made the painful adjustment to new accompanists in solo shows like Tribute (a reference to Harper) and No One Is Alone that continued to receive acclaim; The New York Times exclaimed in 2005 that she was "at the top of her game....Cook's voice is remarkably unchanged from 1958, when she won the Tony Award for playing Marian the Librarian in The Music Man. A few high notes aside, it is, eerily, as rich and clear as ever."^[1] Wally Harper, a graduate of the New England Conservatory and the Juilliard School of Music, has worked as Musical Director, Composer, Conductor, Dance Arranger, and Musical Supervisor for many Broadway productions including: Company, Irene, Peter Pan, The Grand Tour, Brigadoon, Nine, A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine... Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street. ... Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of over 200 stories including over 50 bestselling horror novels. ... Carrie - The Musical was a stage adaptation of Stephen Kings novella, Carrie. The book was written by Lawrence D Cohen, Michael Gore wrote the music and Dean Pitchford wrote the Lyrics. ... The New York Times is a daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed internationally. ...

Cook married acting teacher David LeGrant on March 9, 1952. They had one child, Adam, in 1959, and were divorced in 1965. is the 68th day of the year (69th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1952 (MCMLII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Most recently, Cook was the featured artist at the Arts! by George gala on September 29th, 2007 at the Fairfax campus of George Mason University. George Mason University, also known as GMU or simply Mason, is a public university in the United States. ...

Discography

Solo

• Songs of Perfect Propriety (1958)
• Sings From the Heart: Memorable Songs of Rodgers & Hart (1959)
• At Carnegie Hall (1975)
• As Of Today (1977)
• It's Better With a Band (1981)
• The Disney Album (1988)
• Dorothy Fields: Close as Pages in a Book (1993)
• Live from London (1994)
• Oscar Winners: The Lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein II (1997)
• All I Ask of You (1999)
• The Champion Season: A Salute to Gower Champion (1999)
• Sings Mostly Sondheim: Live at Carnegie Hall (2001)
• Count Your Blessings (2003)—Grammy Award nominee (Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album)
• Barbara Cook's Broadway! (2004)
• Tribute (2005)
• Barbara Cook at The Met (2006)
• No One Is Alone (2007)

Cast and studio cast recordings Rodgers and Hart (1936) Rodgers and Hart was the songwriting team of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. ... Dorothy Fields was immortalised on a USPS postage stamp. ... For work done with Richard Rodgers, see Rodgers and Hammerstein Oscar Hammerstein II (July 12, 1895 – August 23, 1960) was a New-York born writer, producer, and (usually uncredited) director of musicals for almost forty years. ... Gower Champion was an American theatre director, choreographer, and dancer. ... Stephen Joshua Sondheim (b. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

• Flahooley (1951)
• Plain and Fancy (1955)
• Candide (1956)
• The Music Man (1957)—Grammy Award winner (Best Original Cast Album)
• Hansel and Gretel (1958)
• The Gay Life (1961)
• Show Boat (Studio Cast, 1962)
• She Loves Me (1963)—Grammy Award winner (Best Score From An Original Cast Show Album)
• The King and I (1964)
• Show Boat (Lincoln Center Cast, 1966)
• The Grass Harp (1971)
• Follies in Concert (1985)
• The Secret Garden (World Premiere Recording, 1986)
• Carousel (1987)
• Lucky in the Rain (2000)

Compilations This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

• The Broadway Years: Till There Was You (1995)
• Legends of Broadway—Barbara Cook (2006)

Edie Adams (born Elizabeth Edith Enke) is an American singer and light comedienne who was born on April 16, 1927, in Kingston, Pennsylvania. ... Lil Abner is a musical theatre production based on the comic strip Lil Abner by Al Capp. ... The Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical is awarded to the actress who is voted the best non-starring actress in a musical, whether a new production or a revival. ... This article is about the stage musical. ... Pat Stanley (born April 12th 1931, Cincinnati, Ohio) is a Tony award winning actress. ... Original cast recording Goldilocks is a musical with a book by Jean and Walter Kerr, music by Leroy Anderson, and lyrics by the Kerrs and Joan Ford. ...

References

Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st Century. ... is the 138th day of the year (139th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st Century. ... is the 138th day of the year (139th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• The Official Barbara Cook Online Resource
• Barbara Cook at The Internet Broadway Database
• Barbara Cook - Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing.org
• TonyAwards.com Interview with Barbara Cook