Barbara Cook
(born October 25, 1927) is an American singer and actress who first came to prominence in the 1950s after starring in the original Broadway musicals Candide
(1956) and The Music Man
(1957) among others, winning a Tony Award for the latter. She continued performing mostly in theatre until the mid 1970s, when she began a second career that continues to this day as a cabaret and concert singer.
During her years as Broadway’s leading ingénue Cook was lauded for her excellent lyric soprano voice. She was particularly admired for her vocal agility, wide range, warm sound, and emotive interpretations. As she has aged her voice has taken on a darker quality, even in her head voice, that was less prominent in her youth. [1] Today Cook is widely recognized as one of the "premier interpreters" of musical theatre songs and standards, in particular the songs of composer Stephen Sondheim. Her subtle and sensitive interpretations of American popular song continue to earn high praise even into her eighties. [2]
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BARBARA COOK TICKETS
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Biography
Cook was born in
Atlanta, Georgia to Charles Bunyan, a traveling hat salesman, and Nell (Harwell) Cook, an operator for
Southern Bell.
[3] 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."
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.
While visiting
New York City in 1948 with her mother, Cook decided to stay and try to find work as an actress.
[4] She began to sing at clubs and resorts, eventually procuring an engagement at the Blue Angel club in 1950. She made her Broadway debut a year later, as Sandy in the short-lived 1951 musical
Flahooley
.
She landed another role quickly, portraying Ado Annie in the 1951
City Center revival of
Rodgers and Hammerstein's
Oklahoma!
. She stayed with the production when it went on National tour the following year. Also in 1952, Cook made her first
television appearance on the show
Armstrong Circle Theatre
which presented her in an original play entitled
Mr. Bemiss Takes a Trip
. In 1954, Cook was cast in the short lived
soap opera Golden Windows
which ran for only a handful of episodes before being canceled. She also starred as Jane Piper in a television version of
Victor Herbert's
operetta Babes in Toyland
and returned to City Center to portray Carrie Pipperidge in the revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's
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. She became famous for the show stopping song, "
Glitter and Be Gay".
That same year she appeared on television in a
Producers' Showcase
production of
Bloomer Girl
as Evelina Applegate. In 1957, she took the role of Julie Jordan in the yet another City Center revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's
Carousel
and portrayed Elsie Maynard in a television version of
The Yeomen of the Guard
as part of the
Hallmark Hall of Fame series. Other television credits for Cook during this time of her career include appearances on
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
,
The Perry Como Show
,
The Ed Sullivan Show
,
The Dinah Shore Chevy Show
,
The United States Steel Hour
,
Play of the Week
, and a musical version of
Hansel and Gretel
.
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 her Tony Award winning portrayal of 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.
Cook married acting teacher David LeGrant on March 9, 1952. They had one child, Adam, in 1959, and were divorced in 1965.
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 did, however, make a well received portrayal of
Anna Leonowens in Rodgers and Hammerstein's
The King and I
in 1960 and an acclaimed portrayal of Magnolia in
Show Boat
in 1966, both revivals at
City Center. Cook also recorded the role of Anna in a 1964 studio recording with
Theodore Bikel as the King. She starred in two National tours during the 1960s, Molly Brown in
The Unsinkable Molly Brown
in 1964 and Fanny Brice in
Funny Girl
in 1967.
[5] Cook 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
. Her last original musical role on Broadway came in 1971 when she played Dolly Talbo in
The Grass Harp
. In 1972, she returned to the dramatic stage in the Repertory Theatre of
Lincoln Center's production of
Gorky's
Enemies
. 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.
In the mid 1970s Cook's fortunes changed for the better when she met and befriended composer and pianist
Wally Harper. Harper convinced her to put together a concert and on January 26, 1975, accompanied by Harper, she made her debut in a legendary solo concert at
Carnegie Hall that resulted in a highly successful live album.
Continuing a collaboration with Harper that lasted until his death in 2004, Cook became a successful concert performer. Over the next three decades, the two performed together at not only many of the best cabaret spots and music halls like
Michael's Pub and the
St. Regis Hotel in New York City but nationally and internationally. Cook and Harper returned to Carnegie Hall in September 1980, to perform a series of songs arranged by Harper. The performance was captured on the CD
It's Better With a Band
. In 1986, Cook was nominated for an
Olivier Award for her one-woman show, accompanied by Harper, at London's
Albery Theatre. She won a
Drama Desk Award in 1987 for her Broadway show
A Concert for the Theatre
, again with Harper. In October 1991 they appeared as featured artists at the Carnegie Hall Gala
Music and Remembrance: A Celebration of Great Musical Partnerships
which raised money for the advancement of the performing arts and for
AIDS research. In 1994, they performed a critically acclaimed performance at the
Sadler's Wells Theatre in London. Alistair Macauley wrote in the
Financial Times
about the concert, "Barbara Cook is the greatest singer in the world... Ms. Cook is the only popular singer active today who should be taken seriously by lovers of classical music. Has any singer since
Callas matched Cook's sense of musical architecture? I doubt it." The performing duo traveled all over the world giving concerts together including a number of times at the
White House - for Presidents
Carter,
Reagan,
Bush and
Clinton.
From the mid 1970s on, Cook returned only sporadically to acting, mostly in occasional studio cast and live concert versions of stage musicals. In September 1985 she appeared with the
New York Philharmonic as Sally in the renowned concert version of
Stephen Sondheim's
Follies
. In 1986, she recorded the role of Martha in the Sharon Burgett musical version of
The Secret Garden
along with
John Cullum,
Judy Kaye, and
George Rose. In 1987 she performed the role of Julie Jordan in a concert version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's
Carousel
with
Samuel Ramey as Billy,
Sarah Brightman as Carrie, and the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and she won the
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show for
A Concert for the Theatre
. In 1988 she originated the role of Margaret White in the notorious musical version of
Stephen King's
Carrie - The Musical
which premiered in England and was presented by the
Royal Shakespeare Company. In 1994 she provided both her acting and singing skills to the animated film version of
Thumbelina
which featured music by
Barry Manilow. That same year she was inducted into the
American Theatre Hall of Fame. In 2000 she was joined by
Lillias White,
Malcolm Gets, and
Debbie Gravitte on the studio cast recording of
Jimmy McHugh's
Lucky in the Rain
.
In 1997, Cook celebrated her 70th birthday by giving a concert at
Albert Hall in
London with the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2000, she was one of the only American performers chosen to perform at the
Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival in the fabled
Sydney Opera House.
In February 2001, Cook returned to
Carnegie Hall to perform
Sings Mostly Sondheim
which was recorded live and released on CD. Critically acclaimed from the start, Cook took the concert to London's
West End where it was the smash hit during London's 2001 summer season. She garnered two
Olivier Award nominations for Best Entertainment and Best Actress in a Musical for the concert. She went on to perform
Sings Mostly Sondheim
at
Lincoln Center for a sold-out fourteen week run, winning a
Tony Award nomination for Best Theatrical Event, and then took the show on a National tour throughout major cities in the United States. DRG filmed the stage production and it was released on DVD on the DRG/Koch Entertainment label.
Sings Mostly Sondheim
was the last major project that Wally Harper and Cook worked on together.
After Harper's death in 2004, 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."
In January 2006, Cook became the first female pop singer to be presented by the
Metropolitan Opera in the company's more than one hundred year history. She presented a solo concert of Broadway show tunes and classic jazz standards, and was supported on a few numbers by guest singers
Audra McDonald and
Josh Groban. The concert was recorded and subsequently released on CD. On June 25 2006, Cook was the special guest star of the Award Winning
Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, D.C., celebrating GMCW's Silver Anniversary in a performance at the
Kennedy Center in Washington DC.
Cook was the featured artist at the
Arts! by George
gala on September 29, 2007 at the Fairfax campus of
George Mason University.
[6] On October 22, 2007, Cook sang at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts (Fort Lauderdale, FL) with the Fort Lauderdale Gay Men's Chorus in the chorus's concert entitled "An Evening With Barbara Cook". Upon completion of the concert, an almost full house greeted her with a round of "Happy Birthday" in honor of her impending 80th birthday. On December 2, 2007, Cook celebrated her birthday in the UK with a concert at the home of
English National Opera - The
Coliseum Theatre, in London's West End.
Most notably as she entered her ninth decade, she performed in two sold-out concerts with the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center. The New York Times's reviewer threw his hat in the air, writing of Miss Cook as "a performer spreading the gospel of simplicity, self-reliance and truth" who is "never glib" and summoning adjectives such as "astonishing" and "transcendent," concluding that she sings with "a tenderness and honesty that could break your heart and mend it all at once."
[7]
In June 2008, Cook appeared in
Strictly Gershwin
at the
Royal Albert Hall in London, England with the full company of
English National Ballet. She is scheduled to appear with the
Ulster Orchestra as the Closing Concert of this year's Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queen's at the
Waterfront Hall in Belfast on 31 October 2008.
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
- 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)
- The King and I: 50th Year
(1993)
- Lucky in the Rain
(2000)
- The Grass Grows Green
(1972)
- Thumbelina Soundtrack
(1994)
Compilations
- The Broadway Years: Till There Was You
(1995)
- Legends of Broadway—Barbara Cook
(2006)
Watch and listen
- Barbara Cook sings from The Music Man
.
- Barbara Cook sings from She Loves Me
References
- {{wikicite|id=idGroveMusicOnline|reference=Howard Goldstein: "Barbara Cook", ''Grove Music Online'' ed. L. Macy (Accessed December 04, 2008), (subscription access)}}
- Alone, Again
- filmreference.com
- Barbara Cook: Toast of Broadway
- http://www.filmreference.com
- Arts! by George
- New York Times 2007