Musical Theatre
Popular Music
Classical Music
Presidents Day Facts
100
"There’s no business like show business” is a line from what classic musical?
a) West Side Story
b) The Sound of Music
c) Guys and Dolls
d) Annie Get Your Gun
"There's No Business Like Show Business" is an Irving Berlin song, written for the 1946 musical Annie Get Your Gun and orchestrated by Ted Royal.
100
Paul McCartney credits which artist with teaching him everything he knows?
a) Elvis Presley
b) Little Richard
c) Chuck Berry
d) Buddy Holly
“Little Richard came screaming into my life when I was a teenager,” McCartney stated. “I owe a lot of what I do to Little Richard and his style, and he knew it. He would say, 'I taught Paul everything he knows'.
100
What game did Mozart like to play while he composed symphonies?
a) Chess
b) Poker
c) Billiards
d) Table tennis
Billiards Mozart loved to play Billiards, and would sometimes play all night, composing symphonies as he played.
100
Which U.S. president is the first and only independent candidate ever elected to office?
a) Thomas Jefferson
b) George Washington
c) Abraham Lincoln
d) Theodore Roosevelt
George Washington
200
This musical is a version of William Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew.”
a) My Fair Lady
b) Chicago
c) Kiss Me, Kate
d) Rent
Kiss Me, Kate
200
Name the only recording artist in history to have a number 1 album in six consecutive decades?
a) Elvis Presley
b) Frank Sinatra
c) Barbra Streisand
d) Cher
Barbra Streisand is the only artist to have number-one albums in six different decades. Her first was the 1964 album People, and her most recent was the 2016 album Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway, with a few weeks shy of 52 years between the two hitting number one
200
What famous Russian composer composed "Flight of the Bumblebee," a virtuosic piece often featured as a showpiece for solo instruments?
a) Sergei Rachmaninoff
b) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
c) Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
d) Dmitri Shostakovich
Written by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov for his opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan, composed in 1899–1900. Its composition is intended to musically evoke the seemingly chaotic and rapidly changing flying pattern of a bumblebee.
200
Which Founding Father and future U.S. president wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence?
a) George Washington
b) Thomas Jefferson
c) John Adams
d) Benjamin Franklin
Thomas Jefferson
300
This classic is the fourth longest-running Broadway musical in history, and the show revolves around a British schoolteacher in Bangkok, Siam.
a) The Phantom of the Opera
b) Les Misérables
c) Cats
d) The King and I
The King and I
300
Stevie Nicks is a member of which 1970s rock band?
a) Led Zeppelin
b) Fleetwood Mac
c) The Eagles
d) The Rolling Stones
Fleetwood Mac
300
Name the most celebrated violin virtuoso of the early 1800s?
a) Ludwig van Beethoven
b) Franz Schubert
c) Niccolò Paganini
d) Johann Sebastian Bach
Niccolò Paganini was an Italian violinist and composer. He was the most celebrated violin virtuoso of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique.
300
Which Washington D.C. museum is home to the United States Constitution?
a) The Smithsonian National Museum of American History
b) The National Museum of American Art
c) The National Archives Museum
d) The Library of Congress
The National Archives Museum
400
Which Broadway musical, composed by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, intricately weaves together the narratives of African Americans, immigrants, and upper-class suburbanites in the United States during the early 20th century?
a) Cats
b) Ragtime
c) The Phantom of the Opera
d) Les Misérables
Ragtime
400
Which Country & Western singer/songwriter was awarded a special posthumous Pulitzer Prize in 2010 for songwriting?
a) Johnny Cash
b) Hank Williams
c) Dolly Parton
d) Willie Nelson
The Pulitzer Prize Board has awarded a posthumous Special Citation to country music icon Hank Williams for his lifetime achievement as a musician, Columbia University announced today.
400
Which Russian composer, best known for his piano works, composed a setting of the Russian vespers and a choral setting of Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Bells"?
a) Tchaikovsky
b) Rachmaninoff
c) Stravinsky
d) Shostakovich
Rachmaninoff
400
What kind of crop did President Jimmy Carter and his family farm in Georgia?
a) Cotton
b) Corn
c) Peanuts
d) Soybeans
In Carter’s early years, his father began growing peanuts, a crop that made a great impact on his life. His family first raised the small Spanish peanuts, which were used as salted nuts, in candy bars.