Brian Charles Rooney
Encyclopedia
Brian Charles Rooney is an American actor and singer. He is technically a Sopranista (Sopranist or Male Soprano), yet he has also sung high Tenor roles in many theatrical productions across the United States, Canada, and parts of Europe. His vocal range reportedly spans almost 4 octaves, and he is known to be adept at vocally adapting to various styles of music.
Rooney made his Broadway
debut in The Roundabout Theatre Company's 2006 revival of Kurt Weill
& Bertolt Brecht
'sThe Threepenny Opera
in the fabled role of Lucy Brown. The production was directed by Scott Elliott, with a new translation by Wallace Shawn
, and co-starred Alan Cumming
as Macheath, Cyndi Lauper
as Jenny, Nellie McKay
as Polly Peachum, Jim Dale
as Mr. Peachum, Ana Gasteyer
as Mrs. Peachum, Christopher Innvar as Tiger Brown, and Carlos Leon
as Filch.
The controversial interpretation of this classic work of the modern-theater was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, and was extended past the planned closing of its limited run. Mr. Rooney received high marks for his performance creating a sensual, sexy, powerful, yet neurotically paranoid vixen in his portrayal of Mac the Knife's scorned lover.
This production restored the often cut Lucy's Aria (Or Arie der Lucy), which had been written for the original 1928 production in Berlin. Weill removed the aria from the show when the actress playing Lucy left the production 2 days before its opening night. The actress hired to replace her could not sing coluratura soprano, so the number was deleted. The aria pokes fun at high opera, the genre from which Weill & Brecht gleaned their inspiration for The Threepenny Opera
.
In the 2006 revival, Rooney sang the aria with ease, so much so that a few critics believed that his performance was lip-synched. Other critics mistakenly likened the vocal performance to those of countertenors. However, in this case, the world had been introduced to its first "Broadway" Sopranista. The rumors of lip-synching were debunked during the run of the show when a performance was given without the aid of electronic amplification. Fortunately, Rooney was not only able to prove that his voice was, in fact, his own, but also that it was an unusually strong one.
As a Tenor, Rooney has played the role of Tony on the European tour of the American musical West Side Story
. He has been featured in many highly acclaimed, and award-winning, musical and non-musical theatrical productions across the United States in such cities as San Francisco, Miami, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Dallas. He has also been a featured soloist with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra & The Oregon Symphony Orchestra.
He is also a pop-rock singer/song-writer, and has recently begun performing original material in concert venues in New York City. His collaborator is Paul Leschen, composer and arranger for the world-famous rock-band, The Scissor Sisters. Rooney's recent ventures in concert performance and production in New York City have been greeted by excellent reviews.
In 2007, Brian Charles Rooney was awarded the Lys Symonette Award for Outstanding Dramatic Excellence by the Kurt Weill Foundation.
Rooney made his Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
debut in The Roundabout Theatre Company's 2006 revival of Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
& Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
'sThe Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera is a musical by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, in collaboration with translator Elisabeth Hauptmann and set designer Caspar Neher. It was adapted from an 18th-century English ballad opera, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, and offers a Marxist critique...
in the fabled role of Lucy Brown. The production was directed by Scott Elliott, with a new translation by Wallace Shawn
Wallace Shawn
Wallace Michael Shawn , sometimes credited as Wally Shawn, is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, author, voice artist, and intellectual. His best-known film roles include Wally Shawn in My Dinner with Andre , Vizzini in The Princess Bride , and debate teacher Mr...
, and co-starred Alan Cumming
Alan Cumming
Alan Cumming, OBE is a Scottish stage, television and film actor, singer, writer, director, producer and author. His roles have included the Emcee in Cabaret, Boris Grishenko in GoldenEye, Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler in X2: X-Men United, Mr. Elton in Emma, and Fegan Floop in the Spy Kids trilogy...
as Macheath, Cyndi Lauper
Cyndi Lauper
Cynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...
as Jenny, Nellie McKay
Nellie McKay
Nellie McKay , is an American singer-songwriter, actor, and former stand-up comedienne, noted for her critically acclaimed albums, and for her Broadway debut in The Threepenny Opera , for which she won a Theatre World Award...
as Polly Peachum, Jim Dale
Jim Dale
Jim Dale, MBE is an English actor, voice artist, singer and songwriter. He is best known in the United Kingdom for his many appearances in the Carry On series of films and in the US for narrating the Harry Potter audiobook series, for which he received two Grammy Awards, and the ABC series Pushing...
as Mr. Peachum, Ana Gasteyer
Ana Gasteyer
Ana Kristina Gasteyer is an American actress of stage, film, and television. She is best known for her comedic roles when she was a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1996 to 2002.-Early life:...
as Mrs. Peachum, Christopher Innvar as Tiger Brown, and Carlos Leon
Carlos Leon
Carlos Manuel Leon is a Cuban personal trainer and actor and is most famous for being Madonna's baby daddy, as she gave birth to their daughter, Lourdes Maria Ciccone Leon, on October 14, 1996....
as Filch.
The controversial interpretation of this classic work of the modern-theater was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, and was extended past the planned closing of its limited run. Mr. Rooney received high marks for his performance creating a sensual, sexy, powerful, yet neurotically paranoid vixen in his portrayal of Mac the Knife's scorned lover.
This production restored the often cut Lucy's Aria (Or Arie der Lucy), which had been written for the original 1928 production in Berlin. Weill removed the aria from the show when the actress playing Lucy left the production 2 days before its opening night. The actress hired to replace her could not sing coluratura soprano, so the number was deleted. The aria pokes fun at high opera, the genre from which Weill & Brecht gleaned their inspiration for The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera is a musical by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, in collaboration with translator Elisabeth Hauptmann and set designer Caspar Neher. It was adapted from an 18th-century English ballad opera, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, and offers a Marxist critique...
.
In the 2006 revival, Rooney sang the aria with ease, so much so that a few critics believed that his performance was lip-synched. Other critics mistakenly likened the vocal performance to those of countertenors. However, in this case, the world had been introduced to its first "Broadway" Sopranista. The rumors of lip-synching were debunked during the run of the show when a performance was given without the aid of electronic amplification. Fortunately, Rooney was not only able to prove that his voice was, in fact, his own, but also that it was an unusually strong one.
As a Tenor, Rooney has played the role of Tony on the European tour of the American musical West Side Story
West Side Story
West Side Story is an American musical with a script by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and choreographed by Jerome Robbins...
. He has been featured in many highly acclaimed, and award-winning, musical and non-musical theatrical productions across the United States in such cities as San Francisco, Miami, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Dallas. He has also been a featured soloist with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra & The Oregon Symphony Orchestra.
He is also a pop-rock singer/song-writer, and has recently begun performing original material in concert venues in New York City. His collaborator is Paul Leschen, composer and arranger for the world-famous rock-band, The Scissor Sisters. Rooney's recent ventures in concert performance and production in New York City have been greeted by excellent reviews.
In 2007, Brian Charles Rooney was awarded the Lys Symonette Award for Outstanding Dramatic Excellence by the Kurt Weill Foundation.