The Pittsburgh Tatler: You might be forgiven if the name Billy Strayhorn is familiar to you, but the specifics of his career and accomplishments are not. A talented and prolific composer and performer, Strayhorn spent the majority of his career out of the limelight, writing music for Duke Ellington and his Orchestra; indeed, many of his songs – like “Take the A Train” and “Satin Doll” – are more readily associated with Ellington than Strayhorn.
1 comment:
I had the pleasure of getting to see Billy Strayhorn last week and while I did feel like it had pacing problems at times, overall I think it was quite good. I definitely agree with the article that the cast was absolutely fabulous. Every single person on stage was absolutely wonderful, especially De Haas and Brown who were delights to see. One thing that I would like to point out that wasn’t in the article, is that this musical had the best fight choreography that I have ever personally seen, especially when it comes to the use of strobe lights. It’s hard to find examples where strobes are so perfectly matched with actors and it definitely stuck with me. Going into it, I had a passing knowledge of the pieces that Strayhorn had written, but knew nothing about his personal life. Overall, I would recommend people to go if they can, it is 100% worth it,
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