Authors / Creative Contributors
Karin Baker has been a soloist with the Cincinnati Opera Ballet Company, and performed with Alan Howard’s Pacific Ballet Company. On television she performed as a dancer on the Carol Burnett Show, and on the original Broadway productions of GEORGE M! starring Joel Gray, DIFFERENT TIMES, and GOODTIME CHARLIE, as well as dancing in the Broadway production of COCO with the legendary Katherine Hepburn. Karin was Director/ Choreographer for six years of IBM recognition events. She choreographed a series of musicals in Spanish at the Fabregas & Insurgentes Theatres in Mexico City, staging THE MAGIC SHOW in Johannesburg, South Africa and DRACULA in Madrid as well. She was a founding member of the American Dance Machine and it was through her work with Lee Theodore that she came to the attention of Gower Champion, who instantly offered her the job as his assistant on the original 42nd STREET. On Mr. Champion’s death, she assumed responsibility for maintaining the high quality of the show, and recreated 42nd STREET for two national companies and the London production at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. She was assistant choreographer to Gillian Gregory on ME AND MY GIRL for the Broadway production. Her work, BACH SUITE, a tap ballet, was commissioned by the Dance Ellington Company and had its world premiere at Town Hall in New York City. Off Broadway, she choreographed EXIT MUSIC based on a Noel Coward short story. Karin has directed productions of COLE, GRAND NIGHT FOR SINGING, and SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM for the Blowing Rock Stage Company in North Carolina.
She wrote and directed with Tony Parise, THE LAST OF THE RED HOT MAMAS, based on the life and music of Sophie Tucker, which had its World Premiere at the Blowing Rock Stage Company. The production then played to sold-out houses at the Steel City Theatre in Pittsburgh, the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, and the New Jewish Theatre in St. Louis. STAR SPANGLED RHYTHM, A Patriotic Revue, had it’s World Premiere in Philadelphia two seasons ago and was created by Karin. Her most recent work, a new musical based on J. Hartley Manner’s PEG O’ MY HEART, had a successful run at the Mid-town International Theatre Festival two summers ago, winning the Best Musical award, with a recent reading at the York Theatre in NYC.
THE MELODY LINGERS ON, The Songs of Irving Berlin, with dialogue from Mary Ellin Barrett’s book IRVING BERLIN: A Daughter’s Memoir, created and directed by Karin has been published by the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization. The show has been presented throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, and has completed a tour of the Netherlands. For more information on THE MELODY LINGERS ON, go online to rnh.com, Theatre Library.
