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Harold Lang (dancer)

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Not to be confused with Harold Lang (British actor).

Harold Lang
Born(1920-12-21)December 21, 1920
DiedJuly 26, 1985(1985-07-26) (aged 64)
Chico, California, US
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)dancer, singer, actor
Known forprofessor of dance at California State University, Chico

Harold Lang (December 21, 1920 – July 26, 1985) was an American dancer, singer and actor.

Life and career

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Lang began his professional career as a ballet dancer, making his professional debut with the San Francisco Ballet in 1938 and then going on to perform with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo two years later and American Ballet Theatre (then called Ballet Theatre) in 1943. While at ABT, he originated rôles in Jerome Robbins' Fancy Free and Interplay, in addition to performing in ballets by George Balanchine, David Lichine, Léonide Massine and Antony Tudor.

Beginning in the late 1940s, Lang moved from ballet to musical theater. He made his Broadway debut in the short-lived Mr. Strauss Goes to Boston (1945), then had more success as a soloist in Three to Make Ready (1946) and Look, Ma, I'm Dancin'! (1948). Lang's first major role, however, was as Bill Calhoun/Lucentio in the original production of Kiss Me, Kate (1948) — although he did not always get along with composer Cole Porter.[1] His second major Broadway rôle was Joey in the 1952 revival of Pal Joey.

Other Broadway appearances included Make a Wish (1951), Shangri-La (1956), Ziegfeld Follies of 1957, and I Can Get It for You Wholesale (1962). Lang also toured as the Jester in Once Upon a Mattress.

In the long-running Kiss Me, Kate, Lang (as Bill) performed his showstopping solo number, "Bianca", and also performed "We Open in Venice" (as Lucentio) with Alfred Drake (as Petruchio), Patricia Morison (as Katharine) and Lisa Kirk (as Bianca). Lang also performed "Tom, Dick or Harry" (as Lucentio) with Edwin Clay (as Gremio), Charles Wood (as Hortensio) and Lisa Kirk (as Bianca).

Although he appeared on television in the early 1950s, Lang made no commercial films. It was reported 20th Century-Fox wanted him for the role of Vera-Ellen's character's boyfriend Mike in Three Little Girls in Blue (1946) but he had to refuse because of a stage commitment in Three to Make Ready (1946).

The New York Public Library has archival films of Lang's work in Fancy Free and Interplay. He portrayed John Sappington Marmaduke "Bubber" Dinwiddie, the brother of Martha Dinwiddie Butterfield in the Patrick Dennis mock-bio First Lady. Lang is included in Ben Bagley's 'Jerome Kern Revisited' album, singing four songs. Both Arthur Laurents and Gore Vidal reported having affairs with Lang.[2]

From 1970 until his death in 1985, aged 64, from pancreatic cancer in Chico, California, Lang was a professor of dance at California State University, Chico.[3]

Stage appearances

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References

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Notes

  1. ^ William McBrien, Cole Porter (New York: Vintage, 2000), p. 310.
  2. ^ Arthur Laurents, Original Story by: A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000), 47 ff., 233; Gore Vidal, Palimpsest (New York: Penguin, 1995), pp. 130–32.
  3. ^ Timeline, harold-lang.com. Accessed July 15, 2023.

Further reading

  • Bayles-Yeager, Danni (ndg) Harold Lang: If He Asked Me, I Could Write a Book. Canada: Trafford Publishing. ISBN 1-4120-7135-6
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