Here is a small gallery of Idina Menzel looking stunning as usual.
Born on August 16th 1960 Sarah Brightman is one of the UK’s best known Soprano singers and actresses. She was born and raised in Hertfordshire, England by her parents Paula and Grenville Brightman and was the oldest in a large family of six children.
Sarah had an avid interest in ballet and took lessons from the age of three, but soon found her dreams of becoming a professional dashed when she failed to be accepted to London’s Royal Ballet. She continued to focus on her dancing skills and in 1976 joined the dance group ‘Pan’s People’ before moving on to lead the mixed dance group ‘Hot Gossip’ who soon became extremely well known for their hit song ‘I lost my heart to a star ship trooper’. She married young; at the age of 18 to music manager Andrew Graham Stewart but the couple soon divorced leaving Sarah more determined than ever to get her life back on track.
In 1981 Sarah decided to turn her attention to the world of theatre, and auditioned for a role in the hit London musical ‘Cats’ by Andrew Lloyd Webber. After winning the role of Jemima she became close to Andrew and the two later married in 1984. Clearly besotted with Sarah, he wrote several musicals directly for her, such as ‘Requiem’ for which she earned her first Grammy nomination and the starring role of Christina Daae in the much loved classic ‘The Phantom Of The Opera’ alongside actor Michael Crawford. After a hugely successful run in the show she went on to tour England, Canada and the US with a variety of Andrew Lloyd Webbers music and released two solo albums of her own: ‘The Trees They Grow So High’ and ‘The Songs That Got Away’.
By 1990 Sarah Brightman and Andrew Lloyd Webber had decided to separate but remained close friends with Andrew giving Sarah the lead role in his latest musical ‘Aspects’ on Broadway shortly after their divorce had become official.
Sarah’s next big career move took her to LA where she decided to pursue her singing career further and met with producer Frank Peterson who helped her in the release of two albums: ‘Dive’ in 1993 and ‘Fly’ in 1995.
One of her most successful moments came when she performed a duet with fellow opera singer Andrea Bocelli titled ‘Time to say Goodbye’ (Con Te Partirò) the song sold more than 3 Million copies in Germany alone becoming the largest selling single to date. Her next album ‘Timeless’ or ‘Time to say Goodbye’ as it was titled in the United States contained various different duets and classical inspired tracks and has proved to be Sarah Brightman’s best selling album to date.
She went on to release several more albums over the coming years such as ‘Eden’ and ‘La Luna’ which received mixed but generally positive reviews from critics.
Sarah continues to have a strong career in the classical music world and has many new projects lined up for the future, including taking part in the popular UK TV show ‘Just the two of us’ in which professional singers are partnered with someone from in the Entertainment industry and must compete against fellow stars to win the show. This is due to start on January 2nd 2007.
BirthPlace:Mazatlan, Sinaloa
BirthDate: 8/31/1976
Sara Ramirez was an original cast member in The Lady of the Lake in Monty Python’s Spamalot for which she won
the 2005 Tony Award. She recently joined the cast of Grey’s Anatomy as Dr. Calliope “Callie” Torres.
Sara Ramirez was born in Mazatlan, Sinaloa, a seaside city in Mexico. She attended the Juilliard School in
New York City and had parts in such Broadway shows such as Paul Simon’s “The Capeman”, “The Gershwins’ Fascinating Rhythm”, “A Class Act” and
The Vagina Monologues.
Sara the won the role of “Lady Of The Lake” in Spamalot which “officially” March 17, 2005. She was with the production until December 18, 2005.
Sara Ramirez Pictures
Michael Crawford is a British actor and singer who is probably best known for his roles in the hit comedy TV series ‘Some mothers do ‘Ave ‘Em’ and his timeless performance as the Phantom in Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s popular musical ‘The Phantom of the Opera’.
Originally born Michael Patrick Dumble-Smith on 19th January 1942 he spent much of his early life growing up in Salisbury, Wiltshire where he was raised by his mother and eventually his grandparents in Kent. He showed an interest in music and the arts from a very early age and began to pursue this taking part in a one off choir performance at St Paul’s Cathedral, London. He later went on to make his first stage appearance in a school production of Benjamin Britten’s Let’s Make an Opera as ‘Sammy the little sweep’ and was soon asked to play this character in a professional production of the play at the Scala Theatre in London. This is where Michael’s career really began to take off, and he was told that he should consider changing his name if he wanted to take things further in the business. Another actor was using Michaels real name, so after allegedly drawing inspiration from a ‘Crawford’s Biscuits’ truck he officially began to work under the name we all associate him with: Michael Crawford.
Michael went on to star in a number of plays with ‘Twelfth Night’ and ‘The importance of being Earnest’ being just a couple of the more popular ones.
In between these plays he also managed to find time to take part in several radio broadcasts and some early soap opera’s for the BBC such as ‘Sir Francis Drake’, ‘Two Living, One Dead’ and ‘Emergency Ward 10’.
In 1962 his blossoming film career also lead him to star alongside actor Steve McQueen in the movie ‘The war lover’ as well as a number of children’s films.
However he was soon drawn back to his love of the theatre by an offer to star in his first Broadway hit ‘Black comedy/White lies’ alongside fellow Broadway newcomer Lynn Redgrave. After a while film roles and theatre production offers slowly began to dry up and it was not until 1973 when one of his biggest career breaks of all time would present itself. Michael Crawford took the part of ‘Frank Spencer’ in a new BBC comedy series titled ‘Some Mother’s do Ave Em’ and it soon became one of the most popular TV series of all time, with fans instantly warming to Crawford’s portrayal of the clumsy and haphazard Frank Spencer.
The show came to an end in 1978 but this certainly didn’t mean the end of the line for Michael, as he was later offered the part of ‘The Phantom’ in a new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical production ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ alongside Sarah Brightman. The show became a huge cult phenomenon and has become one of Michael Crawford’s best known achievements to date and earned him several prestigious awards including an Olivier Award (Best Actor in a Musical), and a Tony Award (Best Performance By An Actor in a Lead Role, Musical).
His most recent theatre role has been that of ‘Count Fosco’ in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s latest musical ‘The woman in white’ in 2004 although due to ill health he was forced to end his run earlier than hoped.
He is considered as a hugely charitable man who has donated vast amounts of money to good causes over the years, and can still be seen performing in various different concerts around the world.
BirthPlace:Broken Arrow, Oklahoma
BirthDate: 7/24/1968
Kristin Chenoweth is best known to Broadway fans for her role of Glinda in Wicked. She was nominated for a Tony as
Best Leading Actress in a Musical for that role. She has parlayed her success to starring roles in Hollywood movies.
Kristin went to college at OCU where she majored in musical theater. She received a Masters degree in opera performance.
She also was a runner up in the Miss Oklahoma pageant. She made her Broadway debut in 1997 in the musical “Steel Pier”.
She had parts in several Broadway shows including “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown”.
In October 2003 she was an original cast member for “Wicked” at the George Gershwin Theatre.
Chenoweth played the part of Glinda opposite Idina Menzel.
One of Kristin Chenoweth’s first feature films was a part in “Bewitched”. From there she was in “the Pink Panther” and
was also in “RV” playing Mary Jo Gornicke. The Gornicke’s were the family that followed Robin William’s family.
Kristin also stars opposite Danny DeVito and Matthew Broderick in the comedy “Deck The Halls”. She is slated to play along side
Parker Posey in “Asphalt Beach” in a role which appeal to her fans.
The 4″11 actress is a natural in front of the camera.
Kristin Chenoweth Pictures
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- Wicked
Josh Groban: full name Joshua Winslow Groban was born in Los Angles, California on February 27th 1981. He is the son of a Jewish American Father and a Norwegian American Mother. He is best known for his strong classical baritone singing voice and his appearance on the TV show Ally McBeal.
After realizing his talent as a singer from a very young age Josh enrolled in the Interlochen Arts Camp and began to perform in school musicals and plays, his love of this also prompted him to take on singing lessons in his spare time. His vocal coach soon introduced him to a number of influential people in the music business and eventually Josh was offered a recording contract with Warner Brothers Records. His style of singing was versatile, ranging from classical to pop making him a great artist to work with.
He was lucky enough to perform with British singer Sarah Brightman on her 2000-2001 ‘La Luna’ tour and was even featured on the DVD of the show. Josh also regularly performed at various different charity and benefit events around the world and at ‘The family celebration’ event in 2001 he was introduced to David E Kelley who was so impressed by his voice he hired him to appear in his hit TV show at the time ‘Ally McBeal’. Josh played the role of Malcolm Wyatt and wowed viewers with his stunning performance of the song ‘You’re still you’ emails came flooding in begging to see Josh Groban on the show again so he was brought back the following season to perform ‘to where you are’.
His growing popularity was evident when he released his self titled debut album ‘Josh Groban’ in 2001 and it went from gold to double platinum in the space of just a year.
Josh performed alongside British classical singer Charlotte Church at the winter Olympics in February 2002 singing ‘The Prayer’ and later went on to perform at The Vatican, Rome in a special event alongside stars such as Lionel Richie, Sting and Ronan Keating.
In 2003 Josh Groban’s second album was released titled ‘Closer’ and he hoped to give fans more of an insight into his personality, it went in at number 11 on the Billboard Charts but quickly rose to number one with his cover version of the hit ‘You raise me up’ proving to be extremely popular with his older fans.
Josh has featured in several movie soundtracks over the past few years including ‘Troy’ and the animated hit ‘The Polar Express’.
In November 2004 Josh Groban released his second DVD titled ‘Live at the Greek’ and was also nominated for a string of awards that same year including an American Music Award and a Grammy. His latest single ‘You are Loved’ was released in September 2006 exclusively to AOL’s first listen. The song was taken from his third album ‘Awake’ which was released on November 7th 2006. Josh is also planning several new ventures for 2007 including a world tour where you can get a taste of this talented young musician’s music for yourself.
BirthPlace:Parsippany, New Jersey
BirthDate: 10/11/1968
Jane Krakowski is perhaps best known for her role of Elaine Vassal on the tv show Ally McBeal during the 90’s.
What fans didn’t realize is that Jane is a triple threat in the theater. She can act, dance and sing.
Jane Krakowski got her start in the early 80’s and was Cousin Vicki in “Vacation”. She also played the babysitter in “Fatal Attraction”.
She continued working in television throughout most of the 80’s and 90’s until her break out role of Elaine Vassal came along in 1997.
Jane was with the show through 2002.
Jane Krakowski is currently a cast member of the Tina Fey show “30 Rock” on NBC.
Jane Krakowski on Broadway
For much of the 90’s until Alley McBeal consumed her time Jane was starring is such Broadway shows such as
“Starlight Express”,”Grand Hotel”, “Once Upon a Mattress” and most recently in 2003 “Nine”
Jane Krakowski Pictures
BirthPlace:Syosset, New York
BirthDate: 5/30/1971
Idina Menzel is perhaps best know for her role of Maureen in “Rent”. She was an original cast memeber of the 1996 musical
and won a nod for a Tony award as best actress in a musical. While doing Rent she met her husband Taye Diggs.
She was also on the Rent Original Broadway Cast recording. She next appeared as Amneris in “Aida”.
Idina next major stage appearance was in Wicked-the musical. She played the role of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West opposite
Kristin Chenoweth who played Glinda. For this role she beat out Kristin for the 2004 Tony Award for best actress.
It’s interesting that Idina has appeared in two of the most popular plays and cast recordings of recent times.
Idina and 5 other original cast member reprised their roles for the movie “Rent” in 2005.
Idina Menzel Pictures
Andrea Bocelli is well known in the entertainment industry for his many talents including singing, writing and producing music. He was born on 22nd September 1958 and although many people do not know, he suffers from glaucoma which affects the vision, often leaving you completely blind. Andrea has recorded four complete opera’s over the span of his musical career including Tosca La Bohème, Il Trovatore, and Werther.
Andrea Bocelli was born in a small town in Tuscany, Italy where he was raised with a constant love of music and learned how to play the local church organ from a very young age. When he was just 12 years old he began to enter various different singing competitions and won the Margherita d’Oro in Viareggio with “‘O Sole Mio” this was to be the start of his musical career.
However, tragedy struck that same year when Andrea was left blind after an accident whilst playing a game of football and the disease glaucoma. He remained strong and focused harder on his musical career taking singing lessons from Luciano Bettarini a respected maestro, who helped him to break into the music scene full time.
In 1992 a lucky break came when Italian rock star Zucchero Fornaciari was searching for a group of tenors to duet with him on his new song ‘Miserere’ he met Andrea Bocelli who was auditioning for the part and was extremely impressed with his talent. Popular opera singer Luciano Pavarotti was eventually chosen to feature on the song, but Andrea was lucky enough to accompany Zucchero on his European tour.
In 1994 Bocelli received his first gold record for his performance of “Il Mare Calmo Della Sera” at the Sanremo Festival, and went on to have an extremely prosperous year by having the honour of performing for Pope Jean Paul II at Christmas and singing at a benefit concert arranged by Pavarotti in Modena.
He released his album ‘Bocelli’ in 1995 which proved to be a big success in several different countries worldwide.
Bocelli and acclaimed UK soprano singer Sarah Brightman performed a duet together in 1996 which was extremely popular, the song ‘Time to say goodbye’ broke sales records and hit the top pf the charts in Germany and around the world. Due to this sudden wave of popularity he went on to release several more highly regarded albums over the next few years such as the classic ‘Amore’.
Most recently you will have seen Andrea Bocelli working closely with contestants from the TV show ‘American Idol’. He still has an active music career, performing in various different shows and concerts worldwide with the same unmistakable passion and love for music that lead him to where he is today.
Kaley Cuoco stars as as Penny The Big Bang Theory. This show is wicked funny. “Penny” is the hot neighbor living next to two geeks named Leonard and Sheldon. Many of the plots center on the geeks trying to understand a normal person like Penny.
