1. 55. Diana ross

Read the text about a famous pop star. Find out how she started her singing career.

There are lots of superstars these days, but one person who really deserves the name is Diana Ross. At thirty-nine, she's been making hit records for nearly twenty years. Her career began in the 1960's with The Supremes. Then she left The Supremes and became a solo performer. Now, in the I980's, Diana Ross is more successive than ever before. She describes the 1980's as: "The Golden Age. There's so much opportunity. This is the information age, the computer age, the age of the future."

Things haven't always looked so good. Diana Ross started singing with school groups in a very poor area of Detroit, the home of America's motor industry. Together with two friends she approached the Motown record label. The Supremes, as they were called, impressed Motown's boss, Berry Cordy, and decided to add them to the other artists on his label.

It was the start of an enormously successful period for Motown. Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops, Marvin Gaye and The Temptations were just some of their stars in the 1960's. But none were as successful as The Supremes.

Diana Ross was the lead singer from the start, and after The Supremes became The Supremes, no one was surprised when Diana Ross decided to go solo at the end of the 60's. In the years that followed she made TV appearances, three movies and recorded several albums. But it wasn't until she moved into disco in the late 70's that Diana Ross caught the public's imagination.

Songs like "My Old Piano", "Upside Down" and "Work that Body" were big international hits. So, at an age when many performers begin to think about slowing down, Diana Ross' career seems to be at its peak. She's married with three children, needs only six hours sleep per night and is working harder than ever. She will star in a new film called "Josephine Baker", the story of a Parisian cabaret singer. She also has plans for records, tours and TV work.

Many people have tried to define what makes Diana Ross a superstar. Her voice? Her looks? Her elegance? Her ability to make you feel emotion? Diana Ross herself doesn't know the answer. About her long and varied career she says: "I just know that I'm still here and I'm still working."

(from "Clockwork")

Exercise

Find in the text : 1) how Diana’s career began;

2) what groups she worked with;

3) what songs of hers were the most popular;

4) about her family life.

1. 56. "Oklahoma!"

Read the text about one of the first musicals. What is its difference from the modern ones?

On March 31, 1943, the curtain went up at the St. James Theatre on a musical that became a Broadway legend: "Oklahoma!"

Beyond a shadow of doubt, "Oklahoma!" has been one of the most popular, most beloved, most widely-produced around the world musical shows in theatrical history. The New York run of five years and 2,212 performances was greater than any other in stage annals, until it was surpassed by "My Fair Lady" in 1961. It received a special Pulitzer Prize and a national tour that lasted for 10 years, with presentations in almost every corner of the world.

Looking back over the years in 1968, on the 25th anniversary of the show, Richard Rodgers recalled that he asked his old college school chum, Oscar Hammerstein 2nd, to join him and write the libretto and lyrics for a musical version of Lynn Riggs play "Green Grow the Lilacs." Hammerstein had not had a real hit since 1929, when he wrote the book and lyrics for "Sweet Adeline."

The show was to be based on Riggs fond remembrances of his childhood in Oklahoma - "Green Grow the Lilacs" was produced by the Theatre Guild in 1931, starring Franchot Tone as Curly, and ran for merely eight weeks. It wasn't exactly a smash hit.

Under the title of "Away We Go", the show opened a pre-Broadway tryout in New Haven, Connecticut, March 11, 1934. The critical reception was mild, for the show had many aspects which were then rather revolutionary for "musical comedy": a plausible plot; a ballet; songs that, like opera, sprang out of the plot and continued the action - hence no "hit songs" that had meaning outside of the plot's context; and finally, no "chorus line" or glamorous, rich society characters. Audience reaction was quite different. The standing ovation they gave to the number "Oklahoma!" brought a change in the title of the play - everyone knew there and then what the title should be. Commented Rodgers in 1968, "Some people might have thought we were being pretentious to name a musical after a state. But we simply left the old title on for the rest of the tour because a change would have meant a big printing bill."

In Boston, vital changes were made, and audiences demanded encore after encore of the song "Oklahoma!" - at this point, the exclamation point was added. Then the show rolled into New York. It was a historic event with electrifying success. Never before had a musical show draw in such ecstatic reviews. Never before had a whole metropolis and its visitors - all tried at once to see a single show. Every day for five years after the opening performance, people stood in line for hours - a line that never stopped - in order to buy tickets for performances as much as six months in advance.

The Theatre Guild was saved by this smash hit, and a new team - Rodgers and Hammerstein - formed, which over the next 17 years would collaborate on some of the durable giants of American repertoire - "Carousel", "South Pacific," "The King and I" and "The Sound of Music." Further, most theatre historians and theatre buffs agree that "Oklahoma!" revolutionized the form of the American musical comedy. Its influence was so widespread that all musicians since owe much to it: what was exciting, strange and different in 1943, is now taken for granted. "Oklahoma!" set a standard of style.

Exercise

Complete the sentences:

1. “My Fair Lady" received ... ... ...

2. Hammerstein had not had a real hit since ... ... ...

3. Looking back over the years in 1968, ... ... ...

4. The show was to be based on ... ... ...

5. The critical reception was mild, for ... ... ...

6. In New York the show ... ... ...

7. Rodgers and Hammerstein created ... ... ...