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Chuck Cooper (actor)

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Chuck Cooper
Born (1954-11-08) November 8, 1954 (age 68)
OccupationActor
Spouse
(m. 2009)
Children3, including Lilli Cooper
AwardsTony Award (1997), Antonyo Lifetime Achievement Award (2020)
Websitechuckcooper.net

Chuck Cooper (born November 8, 1954) is an American actor. He won the 1997 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical for his performance as the pimp Memphis in The Life.

Career

Cooper made his Broadway debut in 1983 in the musical Amen Corner, playing the role of Brother Boxer.[1][2] He was an understudy in the original Broadway casts of his next three shows: Someone Who'll Watch Over Me (he eventually took over the role of Adam), Passion, and Getting Away with Murder.

Cooper won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical for his performance as the pimp Memphis in the 1997 Broadway production of the musical The Life.

Cooper has also appeared in Chicago as Billy Flynn, Caroline, or Change as the dual role of The Bus and The Dryer, and Finian's Rainbow as Bill Rawkins, as well as benefit performances of Hair and A Wonderful Life. In February 2010 he was the narrator in the U.S. premiere of Seven Scenes from Hamlet, by the Spanish composer Benet Casablancas, at the Miller Theatre in Manhattan.[3]

In 2015, Cooper appeared on Broadway as the slave Thomas in the new musical Amazing Grace, at the Nederlander Theatre.[4] The musical is about John Newton, the redeemed slave-trader who wrote the hymn "Amazing Grace". In 2021, he returned for the Broadway debut production of Alice Childress's 1955 play Trouble in Mind, at Roundabout Theatre Company's American Airlines Theatre.[5] For this performance, he has been nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.

Discover more about Career related topics

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, or Broadway, are the theatrical performances presented in the 41 professional theatres, each with 500 or more seats, located in the Theater District and the Lincoln Center along Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Broadway and London's West End together represent the highest commercial level of live theater in the English-speaking world.

Amen Corner (musical)

Amen Corner (musical)

Amen Corner is a musical with a book by Philip Rose and Peter Udell, lyrics by Udell, music by Garry Sherman, orchestration by Garry Sherman & Dunn Pearson and dance arrangements by Dunn Pearson & George Butcher, based on the 1954 play of the same title by James Baldwin. The score consists of mostly gospel-inspired music.

Chicago (musical)

Chicago (musical)

Chicago is a 1975 American musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. Set in Chicago in the jazz age, the musical is based on a 1926 play of the same title by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins, about actual criminals and the crimes on which she reported. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal".

Caroline, or Change

Caroline, or Change

Caroline, or Change is a musical with music by Jeanine Tesori and lyrics and book by Tony Kushner. The score combines spirituals, blues, Motown, classical music, and Jewish klezmer and folk music.

Finian's Rainbow

Finian's Rainbow

Finian's Rainbow is a musical with a book by E. Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy, lyrics by Harburg, and music by Burton Lane, produced by Lee Sabinson. The original 1947 Broadway production ran for 725 performances, while a film version was released in 1968 and several revivals have followed.

Benefit concert

Benefit concert

A benefit concert or charity concert is a type of musical benefit performance featuring musicians, comedians, or other performers that is held for a charitable purpose, often directed at a specific and immediate humanitarian crisis.

Hair (musical)

Hair (musical)

Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado and music by Galt MacDermot. The work reflects the creators' observations of the hippie counterculture and sexual revolution of the late 1960s, and several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement. The musical's profanity, its depiction of the use of illegal drugs, its treatment of sexuality, its irreverence for the American flag, and its nude scene caused much comment and controversy. The work broke new ground in musical theatre by defining the genre of "rock musical", using a racially integrated cast, and inviting the audience onstage for a "Be-In" finale.

A Wonderful Life (musical)

A Wonderful Life (musical)

A Wonderful Life is a 1986 musical with a book and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick and music by Joe Raposo.

Benet Casablancas

Benet Casablancas

Benet Casablancas Domingo is a Catalan composer and musicologist.

Amazing Grace (musical)

Amazing Grace (musical)

Amazing Grace is a musical with music and lyrics by Christopher Smith and a book by Smith and Arthur Giron. The musical is Smith's first foray as a professional writer or composer. It is based loosely on the life of John Newton, an English slave trader who later became an Anglican priest and eventually an abolitionist. He wrote many hymns, including "Amazing Grace".

Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace

"Amazing Grace" is a Christian hymn published in 1779 with words written in 1772 by English Anglican clergyman and poet John Newton (1725–1807). It is an immensely popular hymn, particularly in the United States, where it is used for both religious and secular purposes.

Alice Childress

Alice Childress

Alice Childress was an American novelist, playwright, and actress, acknowledged as "the only African-American woman to have written, produced, and published plays for four decades." Childress described her work as trying to portray the have-nots in a have society, saying: "My writing attempts to interpret the 'ordinary' because they are not ordinary. Each human is uniquely different. Like snowflakes, the human pattern is never cast twice. We are uncommonly and marvellously intricate in thought and action, our problems are most complex and, too often, silently borne." Childress became involved in social causes, and formed an off-Broadway union for actors.

Source: "Chuck Cooper (actor)", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2022, November 26th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Cooper_(actor).

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References
  1. ^ "Chuck Cooper Bio & Resume". Archived from the original on May 9, 2008. Retrieved August 1, 2008.
  2. ^ "Playbill News: Chuck Cooper Appears in Free Opera in Eden Concert Jan. 7". www.playbill.com. Archived from the original on January 10, 2008.
  3. ^ "Miller Theatre at Columbia University". July 14, 2011. Archived from the original on July 14, 2011.
  4. ^ Amazing Grace on the Internet Broadway Database
  5. ^ Green, Jesse (November 19, 2021). "Review: 'Trouble in Mind,' 66 Years Late and Still On Time". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 11, 2022.
  6. ^ "It's an Actor's Life for Broadway Papa Chuck Cooper and His Kids Eddie and Lilli | TheaterMania". www.theatermania.com.
  7. ^ "Eddie Cooper Replaces His Dad Chuck Cooper in Little Shop of Horrors, Starring Jake Gyllenhaal & Ellen Greene". Broadway.com.
  8. ^ "Deborah Brevoort and Chuck Cooper". The New York Times. May 30, 2009.
  9. ^ Monteleone, Michele (May 31, 2009). "Vows: Chuck and Deborah - Video Library - The New York Times". The New York Times.
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