Joe Layton
Encyclopedia
Joe Layton was an American director and choreographer known primarily for his work on Broadway
.
(1953), and he appeared uncredited
in the ensemble
of the original live TV production of Rodgers and Hammerstein
's Cinderella (1957) starring Julie Andrews
. However from the start, his primary interest was in musical staging. In addition to his many legitimate theatre credits, he conceived and directed Broadway concerts for Bette Midler
(1975), Diana Ross
(1976), and Harry Connick, Jr.
(1990).
In 1965, Layton won an Emmy Award
for his work on My Name Is Barbra, the television
special that introduced the public to the more sophisticated side of Barbra Streisand
. It was his first of four collaborations with the star; the others were Color Me Barbra
(1966), The Belle of 14th Street (1967) and Barbra Streisand ... And Other Musical Instruments (1973).
He also directed and/or produced specials for Paul Lynde
, Hal Linden
, Richard Pryor
, and Olivia Newton-John
.
Layton broke into films as the dance director for Thoroughly Modern Millie
in 1967. He executive produced the film version of Annie
(1982) and reunited with Midler to choreograph For the Boys
(1991).
Layton directed the 1972 West End
and 1973 Los Angeles
productions of Scarlett
, the musical stage adaptation of Gone with the Wind
, and the 1985 world premiere of the Jule Styne
musical Pieces of Eight in Edmonton.
Joe Layton also choreographed a ballet for the Sadlers Wells Royal Ballet, London titled "Grand Tour" which received critical acclaim as well as a warm reception from the audiences around the UK.
Nominations
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...
.
Biography
Born Joseph Lichtman in Brooklyn, New York, Layton began his career as a dancer in Wonderful TownWonderful Town
Wonderful Town is a musical with a book written by Joseph A. Fields and Jerome Chodorov, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and music by Leonard Bernstein...
(1953), and he appeared uncredited
Motion picture credits
-Opening credits:Opening credits, in a television program, motion picture, or video game, are shown at the beginning of a show and list the most important members of the production. They are usually shown as text superimposed on a blank screen or static pictures, or sometimes on top of action in...
in the ensemble
Ensemble cast
An ensemble cast is made up of cast members in which the principal actors and performers are assigned roughly equal amounts of importance and screen time in a dramatic production. This kind of casting became more popular in television series because it allows flexibility for writers to focus on...
of the original live TV production of Rodgers and Hammerstein
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were a well-known American songwriting duo, usually referred to as Rodgers and Hammerstein. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age of the medium...
's Cinderella (1957) starring Julie Andrews
Julie Andrews
Dame Julia Elizabeth Andrews, DBE is an English film and stage actress, singer, and author. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award honors...
. However from the start, his primary interest was in musical staging. In addition to his many legitimate theatre credits, he conceived and directed Broadway concerts for Bette Midler
Bette Midler
Bette Midler is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys...
(1975), Diana Ross
Diana Ross
Diana Ernestine Earle Ross is an American singer, record producer, and actress. Ross was lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes during the 1960s. After leaving the group in 1970, Ross began a solo career that included successful ventures into film and Broadway...
(1976), and Harry Connick, Jr.
Harry Connick, Jr.
Joseph Harry Fowler Connick, Jr. is an American singer, big-band leader/conductor, pianist, actor, and composer. He has sold over 25 million albums worldwide. Connick is ranked among the top 60 best-selling male artists in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America, with...
(1990).
In 1965, Layton won 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...
for his work on My Name Is Barbra, the television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
special that introduced the public to the more sophisticated side of Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
. It was his first of four collaborations with the star; the others were Color Me Barbra
Color Me Barbra
Color Me Barbra is the title of the seventh studio album by singer Barbra Streisand released on Columbia Records in 1966. It reached #3 in the US albums charts and was certified GOLD by the RIAA...
(1966), The Belle of 14th Street (1967) and Barbra Streisand ... And Other Musical Instruments (1973).
He also directed and/or produced specials for Paul Lynde
Paul Lynde
Paul Edward Lynde was an American comedian and actor. A noted character actor, Lynde was well known for his roles as Uncle Arthur on Bewitched and Harry MacAfee, the befuddled father in Bye Bye Birdie...
, Hal Linden
Hal Linden
Hal Linden is an American stage and television actor and television director, best known for his role in the television comedy series Barney Miller and as presenter on the ABC educational series Animals, Animals, Animals....
, Richard Pryor
Richard Pryor
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor was an American stand-up comedian, actor, social critic, writer and MC. Pryor was known for uncompromising examinations of racism and topical contemporary issues, which employed colorful vulgarities, and profanity, as well as racial epithets...
, and Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE is a singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA...
.
Layton broke into films as the dance director for Thoroughly Modern Millie
Thoroughly Modern Millie
Thoroughly Modern Millie is a 1967 American musical film directed by George Roy Hill and starring Julie Andrews. The screenplay by Richard Morris focuses on a naive young woman who finds herself in the midst of a series of madcap adventures when she sets her sights on marrying her wealthy boss.The...
in 1967. He executive produced the film version of Annie
Annie (film)
Annie is a 1982 American musical film directed by John Huston and choreographed by Arlene Phillips. The film is an adaption of the 1977 stage musical of the same name, which in turn was based on the 1924 Little Orphan Annie comic strip by Harold Gray. The movie features music by Charles Strouse,...
(1982) and reunited with Midler to choreograph For the Boys
For the Boys
For the Boys is a 1991 film which tells the story of Dixie Leonard, a 1940s actress/singer who teams up with Eddie Sparks, a famous performer to entertain American troops. The film traces her life through 50 years. The original music score was composed by Dave Grusin.The film was adapted by...
(1991).
Layton directed the 1972 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...
and 1973 Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
productions of Scarlett
Scarlett (musical)
Scarlett is a musical with a score by Harold Rome. The original Japanese book is by Kazuo Kikuta. The Tokyo production was directed by American director/choreographer Joe Layton, with musical direction by Lehman Engel....
, the musical stage adaptation of Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind
The slaves depicted in Gone with the Wind are primarily loyal house servants, such as Mammy, Pork and Uncle Peter, and these slaves stay on with their masters even after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 sets them free...
, and the 1985 world premiere of the Jule Styne
Jule Styne
Jule Styne was a British-born American songwriter especially famous for a series of Broadway musicals, which included several very well known and frequently revived shows.-Early life:...
musical Pieces of Eight in Edmonton.
Joe Layton also choreographed a ballet for the Sadlers Wells Royal Ballet, London titled "Grand Tour" which received critical acclaim as well as a warm reception from the audiences around the UK.
Stage
- Once Upon a MattressOnce Upon a MattressOnce Upon a Mattress is a musical comedy with music by Mary Rodgers, lyrics by Marshall Barer and book by Jay Thompson, Dean Fuller, and Marshall Barer. It opened off-Broadway in May 1959, and then moved to Broadway...
(1959) - The Sound of MusicThe Sound of MusicThe Sound of Music is a musical by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the memoir of Maria von Trapp, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers...
(1959) - TenderloinTenderloin (musical)Tenderloin is a musical with a book by George Abbott and Jerome Weidman, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and music by Jerry Bock, their follow-up to the highly successful Pulitzer Prize-winning Fiorello! a year earlier. The musical is based on a 1959 novel by Samuel Hopkins Adams...
(1960) - GreenwillowGreenwillowGreenwillow is a musical with a book by Lesser Samuels and Frank Loesser and music and lyrics by Loesser.Based on the novel by B. J. Chute, the fantasy is set in the magical town of Greenwillow, where the eldest in each generation of Briggs men must obey the "call to wander," while the women they...
(1960) - Sail AwaySail AwaySail Away may refer to:* Sail Away ; also the title of the first single from this album* Sail Away ** "Sail Away" , from that album* "Sail Away"...
(1961) - No StringsNo StringsNo Strings is a musical drama with a book by Samuel A. Taylor and words and music by Richard Rodgers, his only Broadway score written without a collaborator. The musical opened on Broadway in 1962 and ran for 580 performances...
(1962) - The Girl Who Came to SupperThe Girl Who Came to SupperThe Girl Who Came to Supper is a musical with a book by Harry Kurnitz and music and lyrics by Noël Coward.Based on Terence Rattigan's 1953 play The Sleeping Prince, it is set in 1911 London at the time of George V's coronation...
(1963) - Drat! The Cat!Drat! The Cat!Drat! The Cat! is a musical with a book and lyrics by Ira Levin and music by Milton Schafer.Originally called Cat and Mouse, this spoof of late-Victorian melodrama has at its core Alice Van Guilder, who wants to be a career girl at a time when nice young ladies marry well instead of having careers...
(1965) - Sherry!Sherry!Sherry! is a musical with a book and lyrics by James Lipton and music by Laurence Rosenthal. The musical is based on the George S. Kaufman-Moss Hart play The Man Who Came to Dinner....
(1967) - George M!George M!George M! is a Broadway musical based on the life of George M. Cohan, the biggest Broadway star of his day who was known as "The Man Who Owned Broadway." The book for the musical was written by Michael Stewart, John Pascal, and Francine Pascal. Music and lyrics were, of course, by George M...
(1968) - Dear WorldDear WorldDear World is a Broadway musical with a book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. With its opening, Herman became the only composer-lyricist in history to have three productions running simultaneously on Broadway...
(1969) - Two by TwoTwo by Two (musical)Two By Two is a Broadway musical with a book by Peter Stone, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and music by Richard Rodgers.Based on Clifford Odets's play The Flowering Peach, it tells the story of Noah's preparations for the Great Flood and its aftermath....
(1970) - PlatinumPlatinum (musical)Platinum is a musical with a book by Will Holt and Bruce Vilanch, music by Gary William Friedman, and lyrics by Holt. Set in a Hollywood recording studio, it centers on Lila Halliday, a star of 1940s and 50s movie musicals who is attempting a comeback...
(1978) - BarnumBarnum (musical)Barnum is a musical with a book by Mark Bramble, lyrics by Michael Stewart, and music by Cy Coleman. It is based on the life of showman P. T. Barnum, covering the period from 1835 through 1880 in America and major cities of the world where Barnum took his performing companies. The production...
(1980) - Bring Back BirdieBring Back BirdieBring Back Birdie is a musical with a book by Michael Stewart, lyrics by Lee Adams, and music by Charles Strouse.A sequel to Bye Bye Birdie, it focuses on a scheme for rock 'n' roller Conrad Birdie, who disappeared after being discharged from the U. S. Army twenty years ago, to make a comeback on a...
(1981) - The Three MusketeersThe Three Musketeers (musical)The Three Musketeers is a musical with a book by William Anthony McGuire, lyrics by Clifford Grey and P. G. Wodehouse, and music by Rudolf Friml. It is based on the classic 1844 novel by Alexandre Dumas, père....
(1984)
TV
- Once Upon a MattressOnce Upon a MattressOnce Upon a Mattress is a musical comedy with music by Mary Rodgers, lyrics by Marshall Barer and book by Jay Thompson, Dean Fuller, and Marshall Barer. It opened off-Broadway in May 1959, and then moved to Broadway...
(1964) - My Name Is Barbra (1965)
- Color Me BarbraColor Me BarbraColor Me Barbra is the title of the seventh studio album by singer Barbra Streisand released on Columbia Records in 1966. It reached #3 in the US albums charts and was certified GOLD by the RIAA...
(1966) - The Belle of 14th Street (1967)
- Androcles and the Lion (1967)
- A Special Olivia Newton-John (1976)
- An Evening with Diana RossAn Evening with Diana RossAn Evening with Diana Ross is a 1977 live double album released by American singer Diana Ross on the Motown label. Recorded live at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles during the international tour of Ross' celebrated one-woman show, for which she was awarded a special Tony Award after the show's...
(1977) - Paul Lynde at the Movies (1979)
- The Hal Linden Special (1979)
Film
- Thoroughly Modern MillieThoroughly Modern MillieThoroughly Modern Millie is a 1967 American musical film directed by George Roy Hill and starring Julie Andrews. The screenplay by Richard Morris focuses on a naive young woman who finds herself in the midst of a series of madcap adventures when she sets her sights on marrying her wealthy boss.The...
(1967) - Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset StripRichard Pryor: Live on the Sunset StripLive on the Sunset Strip is a comedy album by Richard Pryor. Recorded in 1982, the film was the most financially lucrative of the comedian's concert films...
(1982) - AnnieAnnie (film)Annie is a 1982 American musical film directed by John Huston and choreographed by Arlene Phillips. The film is an adaption of the 1977 stage musical of the same name, which in turn was based on the 1924 Little Orphan Annie comic strip by Harold Gray. The movie features music by Charles Strouse,...
(1982) - For the BoysFor the BoysFor the Boys is a 1991 film which tells the story of Dixie Leonard, a 1940s actress/singer who teams up with Eddie Sparks, a famous performer to entertain American troops. The film traces her life through 50 years. The original music score was composed by Dave Grusin.The film was adapted by...
(1991)
Awards and nominations
Awards- 1962 Tony AwardTony AwardThe 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...
for Best Choreography – No StringsNo StringsNo Strings is a musical drama with a book by Samuel A. Taylor and words and music by Richard Rodgers, his only Broadway score written without a collaborator. The musical opened on Broadway in 1962 and ran for 580 performances... - 1965 Emmy AwardEmmy AwardAn 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...
for Conception, Choreography and Staging - My Name Is Barbra (TV) - 1969 Tony Award for Best Choreography – George M!George M!George M! is a Broadway musical based on the life of George M. Cohan, the biggest Broadway star of his day who was known as "The Man Who Owned Broadway." The book for the musical was written by Michael Stewart, John Pascal, and Francine Pascal. Music and lyrics were, of course, by George M...
Nominations
- 1960 Tony Award for Best Choreography – GreenwillowGreenwillowGreenwillow is a musical with a book by Lesser Samuels and Frank Loesser and music and lyrics by Loesser.Based on the novel by B. J. Chute, the fantasy is set in the magical town of Greenwillow, where the eldest in each generation of Briggs men must obey the "call to wander," while the women they...
- 1962 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical – No Strings
- 1966 Emmy Award - Musical Program - Color Me BarbraColor Me BarbraColor Me Barbra is the title of the seventh studio album by singer Barbra Streisand released on Columbia Records in 1966. It reached #3 in the US albums charts and was certified GOLD by the RIAA...
(TV) - 1973 Emmy Award - Special - Comedy-Variety, Variety or Music - Barbra Streisand ... And Other Musical Instruments (TV)
- 1980 Tony Award for Best Choreography – BarnumBarnum (musical)Barnum is a musical with a book by Mark Bramble, lyrics by Michael Stewart, and music by Cy Coleman. It is based on the life of showman P. T. Barnum, covering the period from 1835 through 1880 in America and major cities of the world where Barnum took his performing companies. The production...
- 1980 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical – Barnum
- 1980 Drama Desk AwardDrama Desk AwardThe Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
for Outstanding Choreography – Barnum - 1980 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical – Barnum