KT Sullivan
Encyclopedia
KT Sullivan is an American
singer and actress known for her performances in cabaret
and musical theatre
.
to Elizabeth, a composer of religious and show music, and James A. Sullivan, a director of the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service
in Norman, Oklahoma
, she performed with her family as the Sullivan Family Gospel Singers. After attending the University of Oklahoma
, she studied opera
in Italy
and California
, but the Broadway
songs sung by Barbara Cook
led her in a different musical direction.
in New York City
, the Plush Room and the Third West Coast Cabaret Convention in San Francisco, and Pizza on the Park in London
. In a review of her appearance at the Oak Room in 2007, Rex Reed
said, "Larky and luscious as ever, she's also singing better."
All the Things You Are, Sullivan's 2008 cabaret show at the Oak Room, featured the work of Jerome Kern
. Stephen Holden
of The New York Times
wrote that "Ms. Sullivan ... has a fluttery, semioperatic soprano that gives Kern's most famous melodies their due. But her primary goal on Thursday was to bring his songs down to earth without damaging them." In October 2008, she and frequent partner Mark Nadler
performed their cabaret act Cole Porter
& Friends at the South Orange Performing Arts Center in South Orange, New Jersey
.
Another of her Oak Room shows, Dancing in the Dark, featured the works of Howard Dietz
and Arthur Schwartz
. In his March 2009 review, Holden wrote, "The ability to convey a sense of continual surprise and discovery while singing almost any standard is one of Ms. Sullivan's many gifts. That her light-operatic voice is as supple today as ever is her ace in the hole. A virtuoso at multiple styles of musical comedy who has refined a hundred variations of the double take, Ms. Sullivan can turn on a dime and deliver a formal rendition of "Dancing in the Dark" in which her luscious middle and lower registers supply serious drama."
and as Lorelei Lee in the 1995 revival of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
. She toured in Annie Get Your Gun
with Cathy Rigby
and also performed in Sugar
and Born Yesterday
. She, Mark Nadler, and Ruth Leon wrote American Rhapsody: A New Musical Revue, which she and Nadler performed at the off-Broadway
Triad Theatre between November 2000 and June 2002. The musical was nominated for the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical of 2001 and the Drama Desk Award
for Outstanding Musical Revue of 2000-2001 and won the MAC Award
for Best Musical Revue. She also appeared in the New York City productions A... My Name Is Alice
in 1984 and 1992 and Splendora in 1995, and performed in the Musicals Tonight concert presentations of So Long, 174th Street
and By the Beautiful Sea
in 1999 and Fifty Million Frenchmen
in 2006.
In regional theatre
, Sullivan appeared in You Never Know in 1996 at the Papermill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey
, and she has performed at the Old Globe Theatre
, the Hartford Stage Company, the Municipal Opera of St. Louis
, the Goodspeed Opera House, and the Great Lakes Theater Festival
.
In the West End
, Sullivan appeared in Vienna to Weimar in 2004 and has performed in revues celebrating the songs of Noël Coward
and Irving Berlin
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
singer and actress known for her performances in cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
and musical theatre
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...
.
Early years
Born Kathleen Sullivan in Boggy Depot, OklahomaOklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
to Elizabeth, a composer of religious and show music, and James A. Sullivan, a director of the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service
Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service
Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service was an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture. It administered programs concerning farm products and agricultural conservation...
in Norman, Oklahoma
Norman, Oklahoma
Norman is a city in Cleveland County, Oklahoma, United States, and is located south of downtown Oklahoma City. It is part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, Norman was to have 110,925 full-time residents, making it the third-largest city in Oklahoma and the...
, she performed with her family as the Sullivan Family Gospel Singers. After attending the University of Oklahoma
University of Oklahoma
The University of Oklahoma is a coeducational public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. the university had 29,931 students enrolled, most located at its...
, she studied opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, but the 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...
songs sung by Barbara Cook
Barbara Cook
Barbara Cook is an American singer and actress who first came to prominence in the 1950s after starring in the original Broadway musicals Candide and The Music Man among others, winning a Tony Award for the latter...
led her in a different musical direction.
Cabaret
Sullivan performs her cabaret act in venues such as the Firebird Cafe and the Oak Room at the Algonquin HotelAlgonquin Hotel
The Algonquin Hotel is a historic hotel located at 59 West 44th Street in Manhattan . The hotel has been designated as a New York City Historic Landmark....
in 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...
, the Plush Room and the Third West Coast Cabaret Convention in San Francisco, and Pizza on the Park in 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...
. In a review of her appearance at the Oak Room in 2007, Rex Reed
Rex Reed
Rex Taylor Reed is an American film critic and former co-host of the syndicated television show At the Movies. He currently writes the column "On the Town with Rex Reed" for The New York Observer.-Life and career:...
said, "Larky and luscious as ever, she's also singing better."
All the Things You Are, Sullivan's 2008 cabaret show at the Oak Room, featured the work of Jerome Kern
Jerome Kern
Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...
. Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden is an American writer, music critic, film critic, and poet.Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
wrote that "Ms. Sullivan ... has a fluttery, semioperatic soprano that gives Kern's most famous melodies their due. But her primary goal on Thursday was to bring his songs down to earth without damaging them." In October 2008, she and frequent partner Mark Nadler
Mark Nadler
Mark Nadler is a New York City-based cabaret performer, actor and comedic pianist. He has been described as "one of New York's most acclaimed singer/pianists" and a "virtuoso" of classical piano.Nadler was born and raised in Waterloo, Iowa...
performed their cabaret act Cole Porter
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...
& Friends at the South Orange Performing Arts Center in South Orange, New Jersey
South Orange, New Jersey
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 16,964 people, 5,522 households, and 3,766 families residing in the township. The population density was 5,945.3 people per square mile . There were 5,671 housing units at an average density of 1,987.5 per square mile...
.
Another of her Oak Room shows, Dancing in the Dark, featured the works of Howard Dietz
Howard Dietz
Howard Dietz was an American publicist, lyricist, and librettist.-Biography:Dietz was born in New York City and studied journalism at Columbia University...
and Arthur Schwartz
Arthur Schwartz
Arthur Schwartz was an American composer and film producer.Schwartz supported his legal studies at New York University and postgraduate studies at Columbia University by playing piano before concentrating his talents on vaudeville, Broadway theatre and Hollywood.Among his Broadway musicals are The...
. In his March 2009 review, Holden wrote, "The ability to convey a sense of continual surprise and discovery while singing almost any standard is one of Ms. Sullivan's many gifts. That her light-operatic voice is as supple today as ever is her ace in the hole. A virtuoso at multiple styles of musical comedy who has refined a hundred variations of the double take, Ms. Sullivan can turn on a dime and deliver a formal rendition of "Dancing in the Dark" in which her luscious middle and lower registers supply serious drama."
Theatre
On Broadway, Sullivan appeared as Suky Tawdry in the 1989 revival of The Threepenny OperaThe 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...
and as Lorelei Lee in the 1995 revival of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (musical)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is a musical with a book by Joseph Fields and Anita Loos, lyrics by Leo Robin, and music by Jule Styne, based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Loos...
. She toured in Annie Get Your Gun
Annie Get Your Gun (musical)
Annie Get Your Gun is a musical with lyrics and music written by Irving Berlin and a book by Herbert Fields and his sister Dorothy Fields. The story is a fictionalized version of the life of Annie Oakley , who was a sharpshooter from Ohio, and her husband, Frank Butler.The 1946 Broadway production...
with Cathy Rigby
Cathy Rigby
Cathleen Roxanne Rigby , best known as Cathy Rigby, is a former gymnast, actress and speaker.-Early life:Rigby was born in Los Alamitos, California in 1952....
and also performed in Sugar
Sugar (musical)
Sugar is a musical with a book by Peter Stone, music by Jule Styne, and lyrics by Bob Merrill. It is based on the film Some Like It Hot, which was adapted by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond from a story by Robert Thoeren and Michael Logan...
and Born Yesterday
Born Yesterday
Born Yesterday is a play written by Garson Kanin which premiered on Broadway in 1946, starring Judy Holliday as Billie Dawn. The play was adapted intoa successful 1950 film of the same name.- Plot :...
. She, Mark Nadler, and Ruth Leon wrote American Rhapsody: A New Musical Revue, which she and Nadler performed at the 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...
Triad Theatre between November 2000 and June 2002. The musical was nominated for the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical of 2001 and the Drama Desk Award
Drama Desk Award
The 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 Musical Revue of 2000-2001 and won the MAC Award
Mac Awards
The MAC Awards, begun in 1986, are presented annually to honor achievements in cabaret, comedy, and jazz. The award is organized by the non-profit organization Manhattan Association of Clubs and Cabarets , founded in 1983....
for Best Musical Revue. She also appeared in the New York City productions A... My Name Is Alice
A... My Name Is Alice
A… My Name Is Alice, is a musical revue conceived by Joan Micklin Silver and Julianne Boyd, first produced in 1983. It won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Revue...
in 1984 and 1992 and Splendora in 1995, and performed in the Musicals Tonight concert presentations of So Long, 174th Street
So Long, 174th Street
So Long, 174th Street is a musical with a book by Joseph Stein and lyrics and music by Stan Daniels.Based on Stein's play Enter Laughing, which had been adapted from the Carl Reiner book of the same name and served as the basis for a 1967 film, it focuses on the journey of young David Kolowitz from...
and By the Beautiful Sea
By the Beautiful Sea
By the Beautiful Sea is a musical with a book by Herbert Fields and Dorothy Fields, lyrics by Dorothy Fields, and music by Arthur Schwartz. Like Schwartz’ previous musical, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, also starring Shirley Booth, the musical is set in Brooklyn just after the turn of the century...
in 1999 and Fifty Million Frenchmen
Fifty Million Frenchmen
Fifty Million Frenchmen is a musical comedy with a book by Herbert Fields and music and lyrics by Cole Porter. It opened on Broadway in 1929 and was adapted for a film two years later...
in 2006.
In regional theatre
Regional theatre in the United States
Regional theaters, or resident theaters, in the United States are professional or semi-professional, theater companies that produce their own seasons. The term regional theatre most often refers to professional theatres outside of New York City...
, Sullivan appeared in You Never Know in 1996 at the Papermill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey
Millburn, New Jersey
Millburn is a township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 20,149.Millburn Township was created as a township by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 20, 1857, from portions of Springfield Township.Millburn also...
, and she has performed at the Old Globe Theatre
Old Globe Theatre
The Old Globe is a professional theatre company located in Balboa Park in San Diego, California. It produces about 15 plays and musicals annually in summer and winter seasons...
, the Hartford Stage Company, the Municipal Opera of St. Louis
The Muny
The Muny, short for The Municipal Theatre Association of St. Louis, is an outdoor musical theatre, located in Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri...
, the Goodspeed Opera House, and the Great Lakes Theater Festival
Great Lakes Theater Festival
Great Lakes Theater Festival is Cleveland, Ohio's professional classic theater company. Founded in 1962, the Festival is the second-largest regional theater in Northeast Ohio. It specializes in large-cast classic plays with a strong foundation in the works of Shakespeare and features an...
.
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...
, Sullivan appeared in Vienna to Weimar in 2004 and has performed in revues celebrating the songs of Noël Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
and Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...
.