Alfred Drake

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Alfred Drake was an American actor and singer, born Alfred Capurro in New York in 1914 to parents from Recco, near Genoa. He began his Broadway career while a student at Brooklyn College. He was primarily a stage and television actor and made only one film, Tars and Spars in 1946. He did play small roles on television and was heard as a voice in a Rankin-Bass film about Santa Claus. He also had a part in Trading Places in 1983.

Music and breakthrough

His best-known work was done on the stage. He played the leading roles in the original Broadway productions of Oklahoma! and Kiss Me, Kate, and sang the title song in Babes in Arms. For his role as Hajj in Kismet he received a Tony Award. Kismet, from 1953, used the music of Alexander Borodin for songs such as Stranger in Paradise. He also played a great deal of Shakespeare, including Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing opposite Katharine Hepburn, and in 1964 Claudius in the Hamlet with Richard Burton. His last Broadway musical was Gigi in 1973 and 1974.

Influence

Drake also directed and wrote plays, and a book about gin rummy. From 1970 to 1978 he was president of The Players, a theatre club in New York. In 1981 he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame. He died in 1992. He shows how a singer on a Broadway stage uses his voice as an actor, with clear diction and a strong theatrical sense.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• ?Kismet (soundtrack)