Ivy Austin
Encyclopedia
Ivy Austin is an American actress, singer, and voice-over artist. Best known for her performances on Garrison Keillor
's A Prairie Home Companion
and her Sesame Street
voices, Ivy Austin also starred on Broadway
in Raggedy Ann
.
and Colgate University
.
(as Crissy) in 1976 and They're Playing Our Song
(Alter Ego) in 1979. She made her New York City Opera
debut in 1982's Candide
(Pink Sheep) and remained on the guest artist roster through 1989. Other NYCO credits include Naughty Marietta
(Lisette), The Merry Widow
(Zozo), The Music Man
(Ethel Toffelmier), The New Moon
, The Desert Song
, South Pacific
, and Sweeney Todd (Beggar Woman). Austin's Broadway debut in 1986 was as the starring role in the Joe Raposo/William Gibson musical Raggedy Ann, directed by Patricia Birch.
In 1989, Austin performed "The Story of Gloria" on American Radio Company (now known as A Prairie Home Companion
). According to Time Magazine
, "The show’s funniest sketch, a serial, produced a new star, actress Ivy Austin." She also played the crusty-voiced French lady Babette, and sang with Rob Fisher
and The Coffee Club Orchestra.
Austin has recorded countless songs for Sesame Street, and is the voice of Sesame Street characters Cereal Girl, Hammy Swinette, Sublime Miss M, Soo-ey Oinker of The Oinker Sisters, and Gloria Esta-worm. As writer/producer, Ivy Austin created holiday programs for National Public Radio and a long-running concert series at The World Financial Center
. Ivy Austin appeared in numerous television commercials and has an impressive list of theatrical and concert credits.
Austin is in her sixth year as a contributing lyricist and performer in The Thalia Follies, a political satire
in on New York’s Upper West Side
.
Austin performs regularly at Symphony Space
on WNYC
radio broadcasts of Selected Shorts
and Bloomsday, and has participated in years of "Wall-to-Wall" music marathons. She appeared in Wall-to-Wall Broadway singing "Adelaide’s Lament". She has performed several plays with the Night Kitchen Radio Theater
for XM Satellite Radio
.
Garrison Keillor
Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio personality. He is known as host of the Minnesota Public Radio show A Prairie Home Companion Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (born August 7, 1942) is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio...
's A Prairie Home Companion
A Prairie Home Companion
A Prairie Home Companion is a live radio variety show created and hosted by Garrison Keillor. The show runs on Saturdays from 5 to 7 p.m. Central Time, and usually originates from the Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul, Minnesota, although it is frequently taken on the road...
and her Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
voices, Ivy Austin also starred on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in Raggedy Ann
Raggedy Ann
Raggedy Ann is a fictional character created by American writer Johnny Gruelle in a series of books he wrote and illustrated for young children. Raggedy Ann is a rag doll with red yarn for hair and has a triangle nose...
.
Early life and education
Ivy Austin is a graduate of the High School of Performing ArtsHigh School of Performing Arts
The High School of Performing Arts, more formally known as The School of Performing Arts: A Division of the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, informally known as "PA", was a public alternative high school in New York, New York, USA that existed from 1948 through...
and Colgate University
Colgate University
Colgate University is a private liberal arts college in Hamilton, New York, USA. The school was founded in 1819 as a Baptist seminary and later became non-denominational. It is named for the Colgate family who greatly contributed to the university's endowment in the 19th century.Colgate has 52...
.
Career
Austin's stage career began with national tours of HairHair (musical)
Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. A product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement...
(as Crissy) in 1976 and They're Playing Our Song
They're Playing Our Song
They're Playing Our Song is a musical with a book by Neil Simon, lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager, and music by Marvin Hamlisch.In a story based on the real-life relationship of Hamlisch and Sager, a wisecracking composer finds a new, offbeat lyricist, but initially the match is not one made in heaven...
(Alter Ego) in 1979. She made her New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
debut in 1982's Candide
Candide (operetta)
Candide is an operetta with music composed by Leonard Bernstein, based on the novella of the same name by Voltaire. The operetta was first performed in 1956 with a libretto by Lillian Hellman; but since 1974 it has been generally performed with a book by Hugh Wheeler which is more faithful to...
(Pink Sheep) and remained on the guest artist roster through 1989. Other NYCO credits include Naughty Marietta
Naughty Marietta (operetta)
Naughty Marietta is an operetta in two acts, with libretto by Rida Johnson Young and music by Victor Herbert. Set in New Orleans in 1780, it tells how Captain Richard Warrington is commissioned to unmask and capture a notorious French pirate calling himself "Bras Priqué" – and how he is helped and...
(Lisette), The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow is an operetta by the Austro–Hungarian composer Franz Lehár. The librettists, Viktor Léon and Leo Stein, based the story – concerning a rich widow, and her countrymen's attempt to keep her money in the principality by finding her the right husband – on an 1861 comedy play,...
(Zozo), The Music Man
The Music Man
The Music Man is a musical with book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Willson, based on a story by Willson and Franklin Lacey. The plot concerns con man Harold Hill, who poses as a boys' band organizer and leader and sells band instruments and uniforms to naive townsfolk before skipping town with...
(Ethel Toffelmier), The New Moon
The New Moon
The New Moon is the name of an operetta with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Frank Mandel, and Laurence Schwab. The show was the third and last in a string of Broadway hits for Romberg written in the style of Viennese operetta...
, The Desert Song
The Desert Song
The Desert Song is an operetta with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel. It was inspired by the 1925 uprising of the Riffs, a group of Moroccan fighters, against French colonial rule. It was also inspired by stories of Lawrence of...
, South Pacific
South Pacific (musical)
South Pacific is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The story draws from James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific, weaving together characters and elements from several of its...
, and Sweeney Todd (Beggar Woman). Austin's Broadway debut in 1986 was as the starring role in the Joe Raposo/William Gibson musical Raggedy Ann, directed by Patricia Birch.
In 1989, Austin performed "The Story of Gloria" on American Radio Company (now known as A Prairie Home Companion
A Prairie Home Companion
A Prairie Home Companion is a live radio variety show created and hosted by Garrison Keillor. The show runs on Saturdays from 5 to 7 p.m. Central Time, and usually originates from the Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul, Minnesota, although it is frequently taken on the road...
). According to Time Magazine
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, "The show’s funniest sketch, a serial, produced a new star, actress Ivy Austin." She also played the crusty-voiced French lady Babette, and sang with Rob Fisher
Rob Fisher
Rob Fisher was a British keyboardist and songwriter from Cheltenham, England, who achieved chart success as a member of Naked Eyes, and later Climie Fisher...
and The Coffee Club Orchestra.
Austin has recorded countless songs for Sesame Street, and is the voice of Sesame Street characters Cereal Girl, Hammy Swinette, Sublime Miss M, Soo-ey Oinker of The Oinker Sisters, and Gloria Esta-worm. As writer/producer, Ivy Austin created holiday programs for National Public Radio and a long-running concert series at The World Financial Center
World Financial Center
The World Financial Center is a complex of buildings across West Street from the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan in New York City, overlooking the Hudson River. This complex is home to offices of companies including Merrill Lynch, RBC Capital Markets, Nomura Group, the Wall Street...
. Ivy Austin appeared in numerous television commercials and has an impressive list of theatrical and concert credits.
Austin is in her sixth year as a contributing lyricist and performer in The Thalia Follies, a political satire
Political satire
Political satire is a significant part of satire that specializes in gaining entertainment from politics; it has also been used with subversive intent where political speech and dissent are forbidden by a regime, as a method of advancing political arguments where such arguments are expressly...
in on New York’s Upper West Side
Upper West Side
The Upper West Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, that lies between Central Park and the Hudson River and between West 59th Street and West 125th Street...
.
Austin performs regularly at Symphony Space
Symphony Space
Symphony Space is a multi-disciplinary performing arts organization at 2537 Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Performances take place in the 760-seat Peter Jay Sharp Theatre or the 160-seat Leonard Nimoy Thalia theater. Programs include music, dance, theater, film, and literary readings...
on WNYC
WNYC
WNYC is a set of call letters shared by a pair of co-owned, non-profit, public radio stations located in New York City.WNYC broadcasts on the AM band at 820 kHz, and WNYC-FM is at 93.9 MHz. Both stations are members of National Public Radio and carry distinct, but similar news/talk programs...
radio broadcasts of Selected Shorts
Selected Shorts
Selected Shorts is an event at New York’s Symphony Space on the Upper West Side, in which actors read classic and new short fiction before a live audience. The annual season of the live events at Symphony Space begins in the mid-fall and ends in mid-spring, and a typical episode would include...
and Bloomsday, and has participated in years of "Wall-to-Wall" music marathons. She appeared in Wall-to-Wall Broadway singing "Adelaide’s Lament". She has performed several plays with the Night Kitchen Radio Theater
Night Kitchen Radio Theater
Night Kitchen Radio Theater is a radio theater company founded and directed by Arthur Yorinks. It has produced two dramatic radio programs: "Live From The Kennedy Center", featuring original radio plays and adaptations for family audiences; and "@7 The Henry Street Series", radio adaptations of...
for XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio is one of two satellite radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Radio. It provides pay-for-service radio, analogous to cable television. Its service includes 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional...
.
Discography
- Sing! Songs of Joe Raposo
- Big Bird Discovers the Orchestra
- Sesame Road
- Born to Add
- Splish Splash: Bathtime Fun
- Sing-Along Travel Songs
- Silly Songs
- Hot! Hot! Hot! Dance Songs
- Sesame Street Platinum-All Time Favorites
- Elmopalooza!Elmopalooza! (soundtrack)Elmopalooza! is a 1998 children's album featuring songs performed by characters from Sesame Street with special musical guests. First released on CD and cassette in 1998, this album is the soundtrack to the Elmopalooza television special which commemorated Sesame Street's 30th anniversary...
- We Are All Earthlings
- I’m Green and I’m Proud
- Signs of the Times from Moo-town Records
- Sesame Street Kids Favorite Songs
- Sesame Street Best
- Cheap Thrills
- New York City Opera Candide
- Lady Be Good!
- Wall to Wall Richard Rodgers
- A Prairie Home Christmas
- A Prairie Home Companion 25th Anniversary Collection
- Selected Shorts: A Night at the Office
Filmography
- Grease 2Grease 2Grease 2 is a 1982 American musical film and sequel to Grease, which is based upon the musical of the same name by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. Grease 2 was produced by Allan Carr and Robert Stigwood, and directed and choreographed by Patricia Birch, who also choreographed the first film...
(1982) - Girl Greaser - "The Charmkins" (1983) - (voice)
- My Little Pony: Escape from Catrina (1985) - (voice)
- Sesame StreetSesame StreetSesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
- Cereal Girl, Hammy Swinette, Sublime Miss M, Soo-ey Oinker of The Oinker Sisters, Gloria Esta-worm - High Strung (1991) - Contestant
- Big Bird's Birthday CelebrationBig Bird's Birthday CelebrationBig Bird's Birthday Celebration, or Eat My Cake, was a 1991 television special based on the legendary children's television show Sesame Street, in which Big Bird turned 6....
(1991) - (voice) Oinker Sister - The Tale of Peter RabbitThe World of Peter Rabbit and FriendsThe World of Peter Rabbit and Friends is an animated television series based on the works of Beatrix Potter, featuring Peter Rabbit and other anthropomorphic animal characters created by Potter. It was originally shown in the UK on BBC between 1992 and 1995 and subsequently broadcast in the USA on...
(1991) - (voice) Flopsy/Bluejay - AnimaniacsAnimaniacsSteven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs, usually referred to as simply Animaniacs, is an American animated series, distributed by Warner Bros. Television and produced by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. The cartoon was the second animated series produced by the collaboration of Steven...
- Carloota, "Garage Sale of the Century/West Side Pigeons" (1993) - Sesame Street Stays Up Late!Sesame Street Stays Up Late!Sesame Street Stays Up Late! is a Sesame Street New Year's Eve special with guest appearances of characters from the international versions of Sesame Street.-Plot:...
(1993) - (voice) Tita - The Real ShlemielThe Real ShlemielThe Real Shlemiel , also known in the United States as Aaron's Magic Village, is a European animated film originally released in 1995.-External links:* at Movie Magazine International...
(1995) - (voice) The Lantuch - Elmopalooza! (1998) - (voice) Oinker Sister
Artistic direction and producing
- Christmas at Rainbow Corner (co-producer Denise Lanctot) 1993, National Public Radio
- Her Funny Valentine, 1994, National Public Radio
- Women in Cabaret, 1994, World Financial Center
- Women on Broadway, 1995, World Financial Center
- The Tony Awards, 50 Years of Broadway’s Best Musicals, 1996, World Financial Center
- The Men I Love, A Centennial Salute to Ira Gershwin & George Gershwin, 1997, World Financial Center
- Happy Birthday New York, A Musical Tribute to the City’s Centennial, 1998, World Financial Center
- The Great Songwriters of Hollywood, 1999, World Financial Center
- Spring Fling, 2000, World Financial Center