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Douglas Carter Beane

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Douglas Carter Beane
Born
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Notable work

Douglas Carter Beane is an American playwright and screenwriter. He has been nominated for five Tony Awards and won two Drama Desk Awards. His plays are essentially works with sophisticated, "drawing room" humor but just as often farce, particularly his work in musical theater.

His works include the screenplay of To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, and several plays including The Country Club and The Little Dog Laughed, which was nominated for the 2007 Tony Award for Best Play and As Bees in Honey Drown, which ran at New York's Lucille Lortel Theatre in 1997.

Early life

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Beane was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania.[1][2][3]

Beane trained as an actor, graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts New York campus in 1980. He is very involved with his alma mater, workshopping new pieces with the students.[4]

Beane is the artistic director of the Drama Department Theater Company in New York.

Career

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Beane wrote the book for Xanadu, a stage musical adaptation of the 1980 film of the same name, adding new plot twists and humor parodying the original movie. The musical was workshopped in 2006 and early 2007 with director Christopher Ashley and actors Jane Krakowski, Tony Roberts, and Cheyenne Jackson. The musical opened on Broadway at the Helen Hayes Theatre on July 10, 2007.[citation needed] Kerry Butler and Cheyenne Jackson were the Broadway leads. Beane won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical.

In 2011, Beane was hired to "doctor" the book for the musical Sister Act [5] alongside Bill and Cheri Steinkellner for which he was nominated for a Tony Award, Best Book of a Musical.[6]

Beane wrote the book for the musical Lysistrata Jones and rewrote the book for a new adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella which opened on Broadway in 2013.[7][8] Also opening in 2013 was his new play for Lincoln Center, The Nance, starring Nathan Lane and directed by Jack O'Brien.[8][9] Beane has revised the libretto for the Metropolitan Opera's new production of the operetta Die Fledermaus which was performed in 2013- 2014.[10]

Beane's 2013 play The Nance was a change of pace, essentially a drama set in the 1930's starring Nathan Lane as Chauncey Miles, a fading vaudeville comic specializing in nance characters, effeminate, mocking parodies of homosexual men. Miles is in fact gay and filled with self-hate and bitterness yet gets a chance at true love for the first time late in his life. Most reviews were favorable although much of the praise was directed at Lane's performance. The play was filmed by PBS and aired on Live from Lincoln Center the following year.

Beane's play "The Closet" premiered in 2018 at the Williamstown Theatre Festival for a limited two-week run starting June 30th. The play starred Matthew Broderick as a widely disliked heterosexual nerd working at a religious supplies company who suddenly becomes interesting and popular when his co-workers and family presume he is having an affair with his new roommate, a flamboyant homosexual (played by Brooks Ashmanskas). The farce received generally good reviews and was compared to Norman, Is That You?. [1]

Personal life

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Beane is married to his frequent collaborator, composer Lewis Flinn, and the two are parents to two adopted children, Cooper and Gabrielle.[11]

Awards and nominations

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  • 2013 Broadway.com Audience Choice Awards - Favorite New Play - The Nance
  • 2013 Tony Awards - Best Book of a Musical - Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella
  • 2012 Drama Desk Awards - Outstanding Book of a Musical - Lysistrata Jones
  • 2012 Tony Awards - Best Book of a Musical - Lysistrata Jones
  • 2011 Tony Awards - Best Book of a Musical - Sister Act
  • 2008 Tony Awards - 2008 - Best Book of a Musical - Xanadu
  • 2007 Drama Desk Award - Outstanding Book of a Musical - Xanadu - won
  • 2007 Tony Awards - Best Play - The Little Dog Laughed
  • 1999 Drama Desk Awards - Outstanding Play - As Bees in Honey Drown - won
  • 1998 Outer Critics Circle Awards - John Gassner Playwriting Award = As Bees in Honey Drown - won
  • 1997 Drama Desk Awards - Outstanding Orchestrations - As Bees in Honey Drown

Selected works

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Broadway

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Off-Broadway

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Film

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References

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  1. ^ "Douglas Carter Beane: Interview". Archived from the original on January 12, 2012. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
  2. ^ Hetrick, Adam (March 8, 2013). "Douglas Carter Beane's Next Project Will Be Autobiographical Play". Playbill.
  3. ^ Collins-Hughes, Laura (June 18, 2015). "Douglas Carter Beane Returns to His Childhood 'Home'". The New York Times.
  4. ^ "Notable Alumni". American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
  5. ^ "It's Official: Douglas Carter Beane Joins Sister Act Team". Broadway World. February 28, 2011.
  6. ^ Hetrick, Adam (May 3, 2011). "Just the List: 2011 Tony Award Nominees". Playbill.
  7. ^ "Theater Listings for March 1–7". The New York Times. March 1, 2013. Retrieved February 28, 2013.
  8. ^ a b "Douglas Carter Beane Broadway". Playbill Vault. Retrieved January 2, 2016.
  9. ^ Simonson, Robert. "Second Floor of Sardi's: A Drink With Douglas Carter Beane". Playbill. Archived from the original on March 20, 2013. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
  10. ^ "2013- 2014 Season — Composer Johann Strauss, Jr. Die Fledermaus". www.metoperafamily.org. Retrieved March 4, 2013.
  11. ^ Portwood, Jerry (December 12, 2011). "Double Take". Out. Retrieved February 4, 2018.
  12. ^ Viagas, Robert. The Verdict: Reviews for 'Shows for Days', Starring Patti LuPone and Michael Urie" playbill.com, July 1, 2015
  13. ^ Hernandez, Ernio. "Lithgow and Ehle are Gossip Folk 'Mr. & Mrs. Fitch' Off-Broadway" playbill.com, January 26, 2010
  14. ^ Siegel, Barbara and Scott. "Reviews. 'Music From a Sparkling Planet'" theatermania.com, July 30, 2001
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