Finnish Broadway

Finnish Broadway

Finnish artists on Broadway and on the West End stage

	Alfred Lunt (1892-1977) A legendary Broadway star, husband of Lynn Fontanne. Lunt often claimed to have been born in Finland and named Ecklunt, Ecklund, Erklund or Egland, but it was his stepfather Dr. Carl Sederholm who was Finnish. Lunt had step-siblings whom his mother called "my three Finns". The family lived in Finland 1907-09 where Lunt performed on the stage for the first time in an Ibsen play. Lunt spoke both Swedish and Finnish. Later Lunt spent many summers in Finland with the Sederholm family (1910, -14, -33, -38) and back in America he built a Finnish style wooden house for his family. Lunt and Fontanne were active in the Finnish War Relief, and Lunt directed and they both starred (as Dr. Kaarlo Valkonen and Mrs. Miranda Valkonen) in Robert E. Sherwood's There Shall Be No Night in 1940 about the Finnish-Soviet Winter War. The play also starred Montgomery Clift as their son Erik Valkonen and Sydney Greenstreet as Uncle Waldemar. IMDb IBDb
	Bobby Nelson (Sirkka Nissilä). Born in Kotka, Finland. Dancer on Broadway for Keith Vaudeville and Paramount at the Roxy theater. Was chosen by Florence Ziegfeld for his Follies among 8 dancers out of 800 applicants, but she chickened out at the morning of the first rehearsal, a decision she lived to regret. Tap-danced for her fare on the ocean liner Estonia when she visited her actress sister in Finland in 1930. Her interview appeared in the Finnish magazine Suomen Kuvalehti 4/1930.
	Pirkko Ahlqvist Born in Helsinki, Finland 1905. Arrived at Ellis Island in New York 7.4.1923 from Gothenburg on the ocean liner Drottningholm. Dancer on Broadway for Florence Ziegfeld. Appeared in the original cast for: Rosalie (1928), The Three Musketeers (1928), Whopee (1928) and Simple Simon (1930) Appeared on the cover of Suomen Kuvalehti 30/1930.
	Carolyn Carlson. First generation American. Born in Oakland, CA, in 1943 to Finnish parents. Dancer. Principal dancer with Alwin Nikolais Dance Company in New York 1965-71. Later in Paris. Several dance films. IMDb official site
	Värttinä, formed in 1983 (Mari Kaasinen b. 1971, Susanna Aho b. 1974, Johanna Virtanen, Janne Lappalainen, Hannu Rantanen, Markku Lepistö, Lassi Logren, Jaakko Lukkarinen, Antto Varilo, Sari Kaasinen b. 1967, Kirsi Kahkonen b. 1970, etc.) Finnish ethno band. Are co-composing (with the Bollywood composer A.R. Rahman) the most expensive musical ever produced, The Lord of The Rings, which was to premiere in the London West End in the fall of 2005, then relocated to Toronto in 2006 and opened with mixed reviews. Opening finally in London at the legendary Theatre Royal Drury Lane from 9 May 2007. The Lord of The Rings Musical official site

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