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Barbara Cook

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Barbara Cook

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Barbara Cook's History

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Introduction

Cook starred in an acclaimed 1960 City Center revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I and in the short-lived 1961 musical The Gay Life. In 1963, she created the role of Amalia Balash in the classic Jerry Bock-Sheldon Harnick musical She Loves Me.[17] Her performance prompted Norman Nadel of the World-Telegram & Sun to write, "Her clear soprano is not only one of the finest vocal instruments in the contemporary musical theatre, but it conveys all the vitality, brightness and strength of her feminine young personality, which is plenty."[17] One of the songs from She Loves Me, "Vanilla Ice Cream," became one of Cook's signature songs. She starred in national tours of The Unsinkable Molly Brown in 1964 and Funny Girl in 1967.[3] Her last original "book" musical role on Broadway came in 1971 when she played Dolly Talbo in The Grass Harp.[5][21] In 1972, Cook returned to the dramatic stage in the Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center's production of Maxim Gorky's Enemies 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. In 1998, Cook was nominated for an Olivier Award "The Observer Award for Outstanding Achievement" for her one-woman show, accompanied by Harper, at London's Donmar Warehouse and the Albery Theatre.[27] She won the Drama Desk Award "Outstanding One Person Show" 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.[29] In 1994, they performed a critically acclaimed concert series at the Sadler's Wells Theatre in London,[30] which was recorded by DRG as Live From London. "Cook still comes across with consummate taste and with a voice that shows little sign of wear after 40 years."[31] 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." Cook married acting teacher David LeGrant (December 8, 1923 – July 28, 2011) on March 9, 1952, after meeting at a resort on the Borscht Belt. They performed together in a national stage tour of Oklahoma in 1953. The couple divorced in 1965. They had one child, Adam (born 1959). Cook died, at the age of 89, of respiratory failure on August 8, 2017, at her Manhattan home. The marquee lights of the Broadway theaters were dimmed for one minute in tribute to Cook on August 9.
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Professional Career

The Broadway Years: Till There Was You (1995) Legends of Broadway—Barbara Cook (2006) The Essential Barbara Cook Collection (2009) Stage work[edit] Source:[75] Flahooley (1951) Oklahoma! (1953) Carousel (1954) Plain and Fancy (1955) Candide (1956) Carousel (1957) The Music Man (1957) The King and I (1960) The Gay Life (1961) Fanny (1962) She Loves Me (1963) Something More! (1964) The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964) Any Wednesday (1965) (replacement for Sandy Dennis) Show Boat (1966) Little Murders (1967) Funny Girl (1967) The Grass Harp (1971) Halloween (1972) Enemies (1972) Follies (1985) (Lincoln Center) Barbara Cook: Wait Till You See Her (1986) Barbara Cook: A Concert for the Theater (1987) Carrie (1988) [76] The King and I (1996) Mostly Sondheim (2002) Something Good: A Broadway Salute to Richard Rodgers on His 100th Birthday (2002) Barbara Cook's Broadway (2004) Sondheim on Sondheim (2010)
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Obituary

Barbara Cook (October 25, 1927 – August 8, 2017) was an American singer and actress who first came to prominence in the 1950s as the lead in the original Broadway musicals Plain and Fancy (1955), Candide (1956) and The Music Man (1957) among others, winning a Tony Award for the last. She continued performing mostly in theatre until the mid-1970s, when she began a second career as a cabaret and concert singer. She also made numerous recordings. 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 aged her voice took on a darker quality, even in her head voice, that was less prominent in her youth.[1] At the time of her death, Cook was 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 continued to earn high praise even into her eighties.[2] She was named an honoree at the 2011 Kennedy Center Honors. Early life Cook was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the daughter of Nell (née Harwell) and Charles Bunyan Cook. Her father was a traveling hat salesman and her mother was 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." While visiting Manhattan in 1948 with her mother, Cook decided to stay and try to find work as an actress.She landed another role quickly, portraying Ado Annie in the 1951 City Center revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma![5] and stayed with the production when it went on its 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.[6] In 1954, Cook appeared in the short-lived soap opera Golden Windows and starred as Jane Piper in a television version of Victor Herbert's operetta Babes in Toyland. That summer, she returned to City Center to portray Carrie Pipperidge in a revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, which Cook described as "the first time the critics really paid attention to me. It was like I was the new young thing. It was very important for me."[7] In 1955, she received major critical praise for playing the supporting role of Hilda Miller in Plain and Fancy. Walter Kerr wrote of her performance: "Barbara Cook, right off a blue and white Dutch plate, is delicious all the time, but especially when she perches on a trunk, savors her first worthwhile kiss, and melts into the melody of 'This Is All Very New to Me'."[8] Cook's critical reputation and coloratura soprano range won her the role of Cunegonde in Leonard Bernstein's 1956 operetta Candide, in which she debuted the show-stopping and vocally demanding comic aria "Glitter and Be Gay."[1] In 1957 she appeared in a second City Center revival of Carousel, this time in the role of Julie Jordan,[5] and won a Tony Award for creating the role of Marian the Librarian in Meredith Willson's 1957 hit The Music Man.[9] Cook continued to appear regularly on television in the late 1950s, starring in a 1956 Producers' Showcase production of Bloomer Girl, a 1957 live broadcast of The Yeomen of the Guard, and a 1958 musical adaptation of Hansel and Gretel.

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