Copacabana (song)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl. --"Copacabana" (1978) |
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Copacabana (1978) is a musical composition first interpreted by by Barry Manilow, and written by Jack Feldman, Barry Manilow, and Bruce Sussman.
The song's title refers to the famous New York City night club, the Copacabana night club. As per the lyrics "... at the Copa, Copacabana, hottest spot north of Havana ...", and tells the story of Lola, a showgirl, and her lover Tony, a bartender at the club.
The recording was used as incidental music in the 1978 movie Foul Play, which starred Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn, and has been featured in over a dozen other films.
In 1985, Manilow and his collaborators Bruce Sussman and Jack Feldman expanded the song into a full length, made-for-television film musical, writing many additional songs and expanding the plot suggested by the song. This was the first original musical written for television since Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella in 1957. This film version was then further expanded by Manilow, Feldman, and Sussman into a full-length, two-act stage musical that ran at the Prince of Wales Theatre on London's West End for two years prior to a lengthy tour of the UK. An American production was later mounted that toured the US for over a year. Over 200 productions of the show have since been mounted worldwide.
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