Georgia Brown (English singer)
Encyclopedia
Georgia Brown was a British
singer
and actress.
Born Lillian Claire Laizer Getel Klot in the East End of London
to Mark and Annie Kirschenbaum Klot, Jewish immigrants to the United Kingdom
, she was dispatched to Wales
during the Blitz
to escape the bombings in London. A lover of jazz, she selected her professional name from the 1925 tune "Sweet Georgia Brown" by Ben Bernie
, Maceo Pinkard
and Kenneth Casey
. She also had a brother called Henry Kent (changed his surname).
Brown starred alongside Pamela Green
in Bernard Delfont's Follies Bergere at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London, but she first came to prominence as Lucy in the 1956 London revival of The Threepenny Opera
at London's Royal Court Theatre
, a role she repeated the following year when she joined the cast of the highly successful off-Broadway
production. Three years later she received critical and public acclaim for her portrayal of Nancy in Lionel Bart
's musical
Oliver!
in the West End
. She reprised the role in the 1963 Broadway
production, earning a Tony Award
nomination for her performance. The role of Nancy was originally written with Lionel Bart's friend Alma Cogan
in mind, but Cogan was unable to commit to the role, although she did record a studio cast album
of Oliver!, which was released before the musical opened on Broadway, but years after it had opened in London. Brown lost out in the film version
to friend Shani Wallis
.
After a stint in Bart's Maggie May
in 1965, Brown concentrated on screen work in mostly forgettable films, with the exception of The Raging Moon
(for which she was nominated for a BAFTA Award) and The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
, for more than a decade.
Brown returned to Broadway to join the cast of the long-running revue Side By Side By Sondheim
in 1977. Two years later, she created the title role in Alan Jay Lerner
and Burton Lane
's flop musical Carmelina
. She toured Britain in Georgia Brown and Friends, then brought the revue to New York City
for a limited run in 1982. Five years later, the Gilbert Becaud
musical Roza
, under the direction of Hal Prince
, closed after only twelve performances, but her performance of Mrs. Peachum in the 1989 revival of The Threepenny Opera earned her another Tony nomination.
On 9 February 1964, she appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show with 16-year old Davy Jones
(pre-Monkees) recreating two scenes from the Broadway show Oliver!
. It was the same night as The Beatles
made their premiere appearance in America on the same show.
In the 1980s, Brown took the lead role of Dorothy Brock in Gower Champion's musical 42nd Street at Drury Lane, London and Shani Wallis
took over the role.
In her later years, Brown limited herself to concerts, cabaret appearances, and guest spots on such television
series as Great Performances
, Murder, She Wrote
, Cheers
, which earned her an Emmy Award
nomination and two appearances in Star Trek: The Next Generation
in which she played Helena Rozhenko, Worf
's adoptive mother.
In addition to a number of original cast albums, Brown recorded several solo albums, including Georgia Brown Sings Kurt Weill and Georgia Brown Sings Gershwin.
A permanent resident of the United States
, Brown died at age 58 during a visit to London
from complications during emergency surgery to remove an intestinal obstruction.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
singer
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
and actress.
Born Lillian Claire Laizer Getel Klot in the East End of London
East End of London
The East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is the area of London, England, United Kingdom, east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Although not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries, the River Lea can be considered another boundary...
to Mark and Annie Kirschenbaum Klot, Jewish immigrants to the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, she was dispatched to Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
during the Blitz
The Blitz
The Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...
to escape the bombings in London. A lover of jazz, she selected her professional name from the 1925 tune "Sweet Georgia Brown" by Ben Bernie
Ben Bernie
Ben Bernie , born Bernard Anzelevitz, was an American jazz violinist and radio personality, often introduced as The Old Maestro. He was noted for his showmanship and memorable bits of snappy dialogue....
, Maceo Pinkard
Maceo Pinkard
Maceo Pinkard was an American composer, lyricist, and music publisher. Among his compositions is "Sweet Georgia Brown", a popular standard for decades after its composition and famous as the theme of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team.Pinkard was inducted in the National Academy of...
and Kenneth Casey
Kenneth Casey
Kenneth Casey was a United States composer, publisher, author and child actor.He is best remembered as the lyricist for the song "Sweet Georgia Brown".-External links:...
. She also had a brother called Henry Kent (changed his surname).
Brown starred alongside Pamela Green
Pamela Green
Pamela Green was an English glamour model and actress, best known at the end of the 1950s and early 1960s...
in Bernard Delfont's Follies Bergere at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London, but she first came to prominence as Lucy in the 1956 London revival of 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...
at London's Royal Court Theatre
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
, a role she repeated the following year when she joined the cast of the highly successful off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
production. Three years later she received critical and public acclaim for her portrayal of Nancy in Lionel Bart
Lionel Bart
Lionel Bart was a writer and composer of British pop music and musicals, best known for creating the book, music and lyrics for Oliver!-Early life:...
's musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
Oliver!
Oliver!
Oliver! is a British musical, with script, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical is based upon the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens....
in the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
. She reprised the role in the 1963 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...
production, earning a Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
nomination for her performance. The role of Nancy was originally written with Lionel Bart's friend Alma Cogan
Alma Cogan
Alma Cogan was an English singer of traditional pop music in the 1950s and early 1960s. Dubbed "The Girl With the Laugh/Giggle/Chuckle In Her Voice", she was the highest paid British female entertainer of her era...
in mind, but Cogan was unable to commit to the role, although she did record a studio cast album
Studio recording
The term studio recording means any recording made in a studio, as opposed to a live recording, which is usually made in a concert venue or a theatre, with an audience attending the performance.-Studio cast recordings:...
of Oliver!, which was released before the musical opened on Broadway, but years after it had opened in London. Brown lost out in the film version
Oliver! (film)
Oliver! is a 1968 British musical film directed by Carol Reed. The film is based on the stage musical Oliver!, with book, music and lyrics written by Lionel Bart. The screenplay was written by Vernon Harris....
to friend Shani Wallis
Shani Wallis
Shani Wallis is an English actress and singer.Wallis was born in Tottenham, London. Making her first stage appearance at the age of four, she later studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art on a scholarship...
.
After a stint in Bart's Maggie May
Maggie May (musical)
Maggie May is a musical with a book by Alun Owen and music and lyrics by Lionel Bart.Based on "Maggie May", a traditional ballad about a Liverpool prostitute, it deals with trade union ethics and disputes and the life of streetwalker Margaret Mary Duffy after her sweetheart dies.The show includes...
in 1965, Brown concentrated on screen work in mostly forgettable films, with the exception of The Raging Moon
The Raging Moon
The Raging Moon is a British film from 1971 based on the book by British novelist Peter Marshall and starring Malcolm McDowell and Nanette Newman...
(for which she was nominated for a BAFTA Award) and The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution: Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D. is a 1974 novel by American writer Nicholas Meyer. It is written as a pastiche of a Sherlock Holmes adventure, and was made into a film of the same name in 1976....
, for more than a decade.
Brown returned to Broadway to join the cast of the long-running revue Side By Side By Sondheim
Side By Side By Sondheim
Side by Side by Sondheim is a musical revue featuring the songs of Broadway and film composer Stephen Sondheim. Its title is derived from the song "Side by Side by Side" from Company.-History:...
in 1977. Two years later, she created the title role in Alan Jay Lerner
Alan Jay Lerner
Alan Jay Lerner was an American lyricist and librettist. In collaboration with Frederick Loewe, he created some of the world's most popular and enduring works of musical theatre for both the stage and on film...
and Burton Lane
Burton Lane
Burton Lane was an American composer and lyricist. His most popular and successful work is the musical Finian's Rainbow, "the score for which Lane will always be most remembered."-Biography:...
's flop musical Carmelina
Carmelina
Carmelina is a musical with a book by Joseph Stein and Alan Jay Lerner, lyrics by Lerner, and music by Burton Lane.Based on the 1968 film Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell , it focuses on an Italian woman who has raised her teenaged daughter Gia to believe her father was an American who died heroically in...
. She toured Britain in Georgia Brown and Friends, then brought the revue to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
for a limited run in 1982. Five years later, the Gilbert Becaud
Gilbert Bécaud
Gilbert Bécaud was a French singer, composer and actor, known as "Monsieur 100,000 Volts" for his energetic performances. His best-known hits are "Nathalie" and "Et Maintenant", a 1961 release that became an English language hit as "What Now My Love"...
musical Roza
Roza
Roza is an urban locality in Korkinsky District of Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. Population: It was founded on October 1, 1981. The official holiday of Roza is observed on the last Sunday of August....
, under the direction of Hal Prince
Hal Prince
Harold Smith Prince is an American theatrical producer and director associated with many of the best-known Broadway musical productions of the past half-century...
, closed after only twelve performances, but her performance of Mrs. Peachum in the 1989 revival of The Threepenny Opera earned her another Tony nomination.
On 9 February 1964, she appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show with 16-year old Davy Jones
Davy Jones (actor)
David Thomas "Davy" Jones is an English rock singer-songwriter and actor best known as a member of the Monkees.-Early life:...
(pre-Monkees) recreating two scenes from the Broadway show Oliver!
Oliver!
Oliver! is a British musical, with script, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical is based upon the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens....
. It was the same night as The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
made their premiere appearance in America on the same show.
In the 1980s, Brown took the lead role of Dorothy Brock in Gower Champion's musical 42nd Street at Drury Lane, London and Shani Wallis
Shani Wallis
Shani Wallis is an English actress and singer.Wallis was born in Tottenham, London. Making her first stage appearance at the age of four, she later studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art on a scholarship...
took over the role.
In her later years, Brown limited herself to concerts, cabaret appearances, and guest spots on such television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
series as Great Performances
Great Performances
Great Performances, a television series devoted to the performing arts, has been telecast on Public Broadcasting Service public television since 1972...
, Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote is an American television mystery series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network, with 264 episodes transmitted. It was followed by four TV films and a spin-off series,...
, Cheers
Cheers
Cheers is an American situation comedy television series that ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993. It was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television for NBC, and was created by the team of James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles...
, which earned her an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
nomination and two appearances in Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...
in which she played Helena Rozhenko, Worf
Worf
Worf, played by Michael Dorn, is a main character in Star Trek: The Next Generation and in seasons four to seven of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He also appears in the films based on The Next Generation. Worf is the first Klingon main character to appear in Star Trek, and has appeared in more Star...
's adoptive mother.
In addition to a number of original cast albums, Brown recorded several solo albums, including Georgia Brown Sings Kurt Weill and Georgia Brown Sings Gershwin.
A permanent resident of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Brown died at age 58 during a visit to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
from complications during emergency surgery to remove an intestinal obstruction.