Composer Carol Hall Launches New Website

Composer Carol Hall has launched a brand new website. In a statement issued the site was described as "In a world strewn with clutter and excessive information, Carol Hall, a composer/lyricist/playwright known for the clarity and directness of her writing, has just launched a new website that captures those same qualities.

The design is classic and elegant.

The content is a definitive representation of her acclaimed body of work, easy on the eye, easy to access and absorb."

The web address is www.carolhall.net.

Biography: The first Carol Hall song that was ever recorded was “Jenny Rebecca.”

She had intended it only as a gift for a friend who had just had a baby, but it was immediately picked up and performed by cabaret legend Mabel Mercer, and recorded soon after by a young up-and-coming singer…. Barbra Streisand.

Since then, her songs have been performed by such extraordinary singers as Tony Bennett, Harry Belafonte, Barbara Cook, Lena Horne, Chita Rivera, Michael Feinstein, Mark Murphy, Mabel Mercer, Olivia Newton-John, Maureen McGovern, Miriam Makeba, RuPaul, Frederica von Stade, Kermit the Frog and Big Bird.

Her classic musical THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS won two Drama Desk Awards for lyrics and music, received a Grammy nomination for its cast album, and entertained Broadway audiences for almost five years. It also became a popular film starring Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton. Dolly’s recording of Carol’s song “Hard Candy Christmas” won an ASCAP "Most Performed Country Song" Award, and the film generated an Oscar nomination for Charles Durning, who sang “The Sidestep” as the slippery Governor of Texas. A national tour of WHOREHOUSE, starring the entertainment legend Ann-Margret, enjoyed a run for over a year and a half. A Broadway revival is planned for 2012.

A particular joy and specialty of Carol’s has been her work for children. For over ten years, she wrote songs for SESAME STREET and was one of the major contributors to Marlo Thomas’ ground-breaking FREE TO BE… YOU AND ME (Emmy Award and gold album). She also contributed songs to FREE TO BE… A FAMILY, THANKS & GIVING: ALL YEAR LONG, and wrote the music and lyrics for the musical MAX AND RUBY (TheatreWorks, NYC), which toured the country for four years.

Usually Carol writes both music and lyrics (although she also enjoys collaborating with other writers by contributing either). This is the case with her most recent work as the lyricist for a brand new musical based on Truman Capote’s well-known classic story A CHRISTMAS MEMORY. This show received rave reviews and broke attendance records at its world premiere in December 2010 (Theatreworks in Palo Alto, California) With a libretto by Duane Poole and music by Broadway veteran composer Larry Grossman, its southern premiere is scheduled at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, in December, 2011.

Other stage work includes GOOD SPORTS (Goodspeed Theatre), PAPER MOON (Paper Mill Theatre), ARE WE THERE YET? (Williamstown Theatre Festival), TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN (Off-Broadway), and songs for A… MY NAME IS ALICE and A… MY NAME IS STILL ALICE. Her collection of non-musical one-act plays is called THE DAYS ARE AS GRASS and has been done at the Woodstock Fringe Festival, Bay Street Theater, and Actors Studio Playwrights Unit, NYC.

Carol is a Lifetime Member of the Board of the Dramatists Guild, and Vice-President of the Dramatists Guild Fund. She also is on the teaching staff of the International Cabaret Conference at Yale University, and is a moderator at the Playwrights/Directors Workshop at Actors’ Studio, NYC.

She is married to Media Producer Leonard Majzlin and is the mother of Susannah Blinkoff, a songwriter & screenwriter, and Daniel Blinkoff, an actor.

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