Ken Bloom

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (May 2008) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

This article or section needs to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please help improve this article with relevant internal links. (May 2008)

Ken Bloom is a New York-based theatre historian, writer, director, and record producer.

He began his theatre career in the mid-70s at the New Playwrights Theatre of Washington. With some friends, Bloom co-founded the ASTA theatre. That company became the basis for New Playwrights. While at ASTA, Bloom joined the Smithsonian Puppet Theatre, performing as part of Allan Stevens and Company in Washington and on tour throughout the United States for almost two years. At New Playwrights, Bloom co-produced and directed a series of musicals and musical revues written by Tim Grundmann including Sirocco, Bride of Sirocco (which transferred to a commercial run), Nightmare!, Out to Lunch, and Eddie’s Catchy Tunes. Bloom also was in charge of the theatre’s PR, audience development, and marketing. After leaving New Playwrights Bloom edited The Washington Season, an arts supplement for the Washington Post. In Washington, he hosted a musical theatre radio show for WKCR-FM, DC’s NPR station.

He continued radio work after moving to New York in 1980 as a correspondent for Morning Edition and All Things Considered. He was also Broadway correspondent for the CBC. Bloom worked with Ezio Petersen on Musical Theatre Today on WKCR-FM, a weekly program that ran for fifteen years. He also hosted 12 hours a week for Serius Satellite Broadcasting’s musical theatre channel.

Shortly after his move to New York, Bloom, in partnership with Cleveland’s Bill Rudman, founded Harbinger Records, an independent label devoted to the preservation of the music of American popular song, musical theatre, and cabaret. Their first release was Geraldine Fitzgerald’s one-woman show, Streetsongs. Bloom and Rudman’s first studio record was Maxine Sullivan Sings the Great Songs of the Cotton Club by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocalist and won the NAIRD award for Best Jazz Vocal of the Year. They continued working with Sullivan on the highly acclaimed Together: The Music of Jule Styne and The Lady’s in Love with You: Maxine Sullivan Sings the Music of Burton Lane. Harbinger has also produced albums devoted to the talents of Barbara Carroll, Mabel Mercer, Susan Johnson, jazz singer Eric Comstock, Sylvia McNair, opera diva Amy Burton (Opera News Recording of the Month), Lorna Dallas, Eric Michael Gillette, and others. They have also released on CD the legendary Walden Records series of recordings as well as recordings by Noel Coward, Strouse and Adams, Richard Rodgers, Jerry Herman, and Barry Kleinbort. In 2008, Harbinger Records celebrated its 25th Anniversary.

Bloom is also a noted author. His first book, American Song: The Complete Musical Theatre Companion is a listing of every song written for the American Theatre which was named Reference Book of the Year by Choice Magazine. He followed it up with Hollywood Song which contained information on songs from over 7,000 films. His Tin Pan Alley features complete songographies of the top 175 composer and lyricists of American popular song. Bloom also wrote the Encyclopedia of Broadway and Times Square which won a prestigious Source Magazine Award. In collaboration with Frank Vlastnik, Bloom wrote the bestseller, Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of All Time which was awarded the George Freedley Award and Sitcoms: The 101 Greatest Comedies of All Time. Bloom also wrote The American Songbook: Singers, Songwriters and Songs. He also compiled, with Jerry Herman, Jerry Herman: The Lyrics: a Celebration. Bloom is currently editor of Marquee, the journal of the Theatre Historical Society.

Bloom consulted with Decca Broadway on their musical theatre catalog for nearly ten years. For such organizations as The Library of Congress and The Billy Rose Theatre Collection at Lincoln Center, Bloom catalogued the papers of such theatrical greats as Burton Lane, Florence Klotz, Peter Stone, and Jerry Herman.

With Barry Kleinbort, Bloom wrote the off-Broadway musical revue A Brief History of White Music which ran for a year at the Village Gate Uptown. Bloom directed benefits for the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The New York City Opera, and Toys R Us featuring such stars as Patti LuPone, Carol Burnett, Marc Antony, Paul Anka, Wynona Judd, Donna Murphy, Jerry Orbach, and Duncan Sheik.

As a press agent he has represented Cirque de Soleil, the Bolshoi Theatre Grigorovich Balley, the Moscow Art Theatre, the Kirov Ballet, George Abbott’s Broadway at the Royale Theatre at the Royale Theatre on Broadway, internationally known children’s performers Sharon, Lois and Bram, and many others.