The most important and influential producer in the history of the Broadway musical. It is said that Ziegfeld was involved in his first real-life, but accidental, “spectacular” at the age of four, when he and his family were forced to seek shelter under a bridge in Lake Park during the great Chicago fire of 1871. While in his teens, he was constantly running a variety of shows, and in 1893, his father, who was the founder of the Chicago Music College, sent him to Europe to find classical musicians and orchestras. Florenz returned with the Von Bulow Military Band — and Eugene Sandow, “the world’s strongest man.” The actress Anna Held, with whom Ziegfeld went through a form of marriage in 1897 (they were “divorced” in 1913), also came from Europe, and she made her U.S. stage debut in Ziegfeld’s first Broadway production, “A Parlor Match,” in 1896. He followed that with “Papa’s Wife,” “The Little Duchess,” “The Red Feather,” “Mam’selle Napoleon,” and “Higgledy Piggledy” (1904). Two years later, Held gave an appealing performance in Ziegfeld’s “The Parisian Model,” and introduced two songs that are always identified with her, “It’s Delightful to Be Married” and “‘I Just Can’t Make My Eyes Behave.”

Her success in this show, combined with her obvious star quality and potential, is said to have been one of the major factors in the impresario’s decision to launch a series of lavish revues in 1907 that came to be known as the “Ziegfeld Follies.” These spectacular extravaganzas, full of beautiful women, talented performers, and the best popular songs of the time, continued annually for most of the ’20s. In addition, Ziegfeld brought his talents as America’s master showman to other (mostly) hit productions such as “The Soul Kiss” (1908), “Miss Innocence,” “Over the River,” “A Winsome Widow,” “The Century Girl,” “Miss 1917,” “Sally,” “Kid Boots,” “Annie Dear,” “Louie the 14th,” “Ziegfeld’s American Revue” (later retitled “No Foolin'”), and “Betsy” (1926). After breaking up with Anna Held, Ziegfeld married the glamorous actress, Billie Burke. He opened his own newly built Ziegfeld Theatre in 1927 with “Rio Rita,” which ran for nearly 500 performances. The hits continued to flow with “Show Boat” (1927), “Rosalie,” “The Three Musketeers,” and “Whoopee!” (1928). In 1929, with the depression beginning to bite, he was not so fortunate with “Show Girl,” which only managed 111 performances, and to compound the failure, he suffered massive losses in the Wall Street crash of the same year.

“Bitter Sweet” (1929) was a bitter disappointment, and potential hits such as “Simple Simon,” with a score by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, “Smiles,” with Fred Astaire and his sister Adele, the last “Follies” of his lifetime (1931), and “Hot-Cha” (1932) with Bert Lahr simply failed to take off. It is said that he would have been forced into bankruptcy if his revival of “Show Boat,” which opened at the Casino on May 12, 1932, had not been a substantial hit. Ironically, Ziegfeld, whose health had been failing for some time, died of pleurisy in July, two months into the run. His flamboyant career, coupled with a reputation as a notorious womanizer, has been the subject of at least three films: THE GREAT ZIEGFELD (1936) with William Powell, which won two Oscars; ZIEGFELD FOLLIES, William Powell again, with Fred Astaire; and a television movie, ZIEGFELD: THE MAN AND HIS WOMEN (1978).

FURTHER READING:
ZIEGFELD, THE GREAT GLORIFIER, E. Cantor and D Freedman.
ZIEGFELD, C. Higham. THE WORLD OF FLO ZIEGFELD, R. Carter.
THE ZIEGFELD TOUCH, Richard and Paulette Ziegfeld.

Source: Biographical information provided by MUZE. Excerpted from the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR MUSIC, edited by Colin Larkin. © 2004 MUZE UK Ltd.

Photo credits: Photofest

A producer, director, author, dancer, and actor, White’s first taste of show business came in his teens when he formed a burlesque dancing team with Ben (or Benny) Ryan. Later, he had generally modest solo roles in shows such as “The Echo” (1910), “Ziegfeld Follies,” “The Whirl of Society,” “The Pleasure Seekers,” “The Midnight Girl,” and “Miss 1917,” which had music mainly by the young Jerome Kern. In 1919, he produced and directed the first of a series of revues, George White’s “Scandals,” which combined the best of America’s own burgeoning popular music (as opposed to the imported European variety) with fast-moving sketches and glamorous women. The shows were similar to, although perhaps not quite so lavish, as the undisputed leader of the genre, the “Ziegfeld Follies.” The “Scandals” appeared annually until 1926, and that edition, the longest runner of them all with 424 performances, was particularly notable for its score by DeSylva, Brown, and Henderson, which introduced several enduring numbers such as “Lucky Day,” “Black Bottom,” and “Birth of the Blues.”

There was no George White “Scandals” in 1927, but there was a show about the “Scandals” entitled “Manhattan Mary,” which ran for a decent 264 performances. White produced it and also co-wrote the book with Billy K. Wells. It too had songs by DeSylva, Brown, and Henderson, which included “The Five-Step” and “It Won’t Be Long Now,” and starred White himself and the highly popular zany comedian Ed Wynn. The “Scandals” proper resumed in 1928, and there were further editions in 1929 and 1931. In the latter show, the future movie star, Alice Faye, appeared in the chorus, and this time the songs were by Lew Brown and Ray Henderson (DeSylva had gone to work in Hollywood). Ethel Merman introduced the lovely “Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries” and “Ladies and Gentlemen, That’s Love,” as well as duetting with Rudy Vallee on “My Song.” Vallee also sang “The Thrill Is Gone” (with Everett Marshall) and “This Is the Missus” (with Peggy Moseley). George White’s “Music Hall Varieties” replaced the “Scandals” in 1932, and in the cast was another Hollywood star of the future, tap-dancer supreme Eleanor Powell, and the likeable song-and-dance man (among other things) Harry Richman, who introduced Herman Hupfield’s delightful ballad, “Let’s Put out the Lights and Go to Sleep.”

There were two more stage presentations of George White’s “Scandals” — in 1936 and 1939 — but fashions had changed, and they only ran for just over 100 performances each. George White’s “Scandals” of 1934, 1935, and 1945 were filmed, and the first two launched Alice Faye on her way to a glittering movie career. Over the years, the stage productions and the films showcased some of America’s most talented artists, such as Bert Lahr, Gracie Barrie, Cliff Edwards, Willie and Eugene Howard, Ann Miller, Ray Middleton, Ella Logan, Ann Pennington, Lou Holtz, W. C. Fields, Dolores Costello, Ray Bolger, and Ethel Barrymore. Other songwriters involved included Irving Caesar, George Gershwin (five scores), Jack Yellen, Harold Arlen, Sammy Stept, and Herb Magidson.

Source: Biographical information provided by MUZE. Excerpted from the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR MUSIC, edited by Colin Larkin. © 2004 MUZE UK Ltd.

Photo credits: Photofest and Culver Pictures

An actor, dancer, choreographer, and director. His father worked in the oil industry, and Tune grew up in Houston, Texas. He took dancing lessons from the age of five, directed and choreographed musicals in high school, and majored in performing arts at the University of Texas. Soon after he moved to New York, he moved right out again with a touring version of “Irma La Douce.” Ironically, his height of six feet nine inches, which he thought might be a hindrance, helped him to gain his first part on Broadway — as one of three tall men in the chorus of the musical “Baker Street” (1965). After further modest roles in “The Joyful Noise” and “How Now, Dow Jones,” he choreographed the 1969 touring version of “Canterbury Tales,” and appeared in two films, HELLO, DOLLY! (1969) and THE BOYFRIEND (1971). His big break came firstly as a performer in “Seesaw” (1973), in which he stopped the show almost every night with “It’s Not Where You Start (It’s Where You Finish),” a number that he choreographed himself. He won a Tony Award for best featured actor, and then did not work on a Broadway musical for five barren years (“I couldn’t even get arrested”). His role as choreographer-director on “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” (1978) changed all that, and, during the next decade, Tune became the natural successor to past masters in that field, such as Bob Fosse, Jerome Robbins, Gower Champion, and Michael Bennett.

He brought his own brand of “infectious, eye-popping pizzazz” to a string of hit shows: “A Day in Hollywood, A Night in the Ukraine” (1980), “Nine” (1982), “My One and Only” (1983, in which he also co-starred with Twiggy), “Grand Hotel” (1989), and “The Will Rogers Follies” (1991). They gained him a total of nine Tony Awards, and induction into New York’s Theater Hall of Fame in 1991. In the following year, Tune took time out from appearing in a lucrative U.S. tour of “Bye Bye Birdie” to stage the London production of “Grand Hotel,” which was greeted with apathy by the critics and public alike. In December 1992 he presented his own “Tommy Tune Tonight!” on Broadway for a limited period, prior to a 20-week 1993 national tour. Also in 1993, he directed the Takarazuka Theater Company in Japan, and two years later, his new production of “Grease” opened on Broadway. During the remainder of the ’90s, he toured with “Tommy Tune and the Rhythm Kings: Everything Old Is New Again,” but withdrew from the musicals “Busker Alley” and “The Royal Family” while they were still on the road. He also experienced problems with the Broadway-bound stage version of the highly successful movie EASTER PARADE, in which he was set to play the Fred Astaire role. However, things looked up in January 1999, when Tune took over from David Cassidy as the star of the special-effects musical spectacular “EFX” in Las Vegas.

FURTHER READING:
FOOTNOTES, Tommy Tune.

Source: Biographical information provided by MUZE. Excerpted from the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR MUSIC, edited by Colin Larkin. © 2004 MUZE UK Ltd.

Photo credits: Photofest

One of the most cerebral and experimental of theatrical directors and designers, whose fusion of folklore, puppetry, and intellectually demanding themes made her a favorite of those with a taste for the cutting edge, Julie Taymor worked almost exclusively in the world of the not-for-profit theater before bringing her downtown sensibility uptown as director of “The Lion King” (1997), Disney’s remarkable marriage of art and commerce at Broadway’s New Amsterdam Theater. The media giant’s deep pockets enabled her to experiment with new kinds of puppetry, to sculpt, to build, and to test, resulting in what THE NEW YORK TIMES called “the most memorable, moving and original theatrical extravaganza in years.” Disney did not compromise Taymor’s distinctive Indonesian-influenced minimalist style of mixing live actors, puppets, shadows, and masks, and she picked up two Tony Awards (directing and costumes) for her first exposure to mainstream audiences, drawing comparisons to such legends as Bob Fosse, Michael Bennett, and Harold Prince.

Taymor’s theatrical roots run deep. The Newton, MA native’s backyard performances for family and friends at age seven led to her playing Cinderella (despite preferring the wicked step-sisters), among other roles, with the Boston Children’s Theater. Her first exposure to Asian theater came while visiting Sri Lanka and India on a cultural exchange program at 15. She also studied mime in Paris before beginning her folklore and mythology studies at Oberlin College, where she joined Herbert Blau’s experimental theater company, which included teaching assistant Bill Irwin. After graduation, Taymor went to Indonesia for four years, courtesy of Watson and Ford Foundation fellowships, and developed a mask-dance troupe, Teatr Loh, living with one of the actors in a small compound with a dirt floor and no running water, electricity, or telephone. The tensions she witnessed as a slow-moving, individualistic culture confronted the fast pace of consumer-driven change inspired her first major theater work, “Way of Snow,” performed by an international company of actors, musicians, dancers, and puppeteers.

Taymor designed her first U.S. production, “The Odyssey” (1979), at the Baltimore Stage, then received her first NYC acclaim as production designer for Elizabeth Swados’ “The Haggadah” (1980), creating a giant seder tablecloth that billowed up, Peking Opera-style, to become the Red Sea, not to mention life-size puppet rabbis debating Passover scholarship and alarmingly graphic plague effects projected through Plexiglas shadow puppets. A mutual friend sent composer Elliot Goldenthal to see the show, calling it “just as grotesque” as his own work, and Taymor and he soon become companions, as well as co-creators of “Liberty’s Taken” (1985), an irreverent look at the American Revolution, produced in Boston and featuring a bobbing-wooden-heads-on-wheels device to satirize the morality-legislating Boston Committee of Safety. There are tentative plans to make movies out of two Goldenthal-Taymor collaborations, their mask-and-puppet adaptation of Thomas Mann’s fantastical novella “Transposed Heads” (1986) and “Juan Darien, A Carnival Mass” (1988), which Lincoln Center revived in 1996, giving Taymor her first Broadway credit.

As visually rich as it was musically complex, “Juan Darien” blended rain forest rhythms, the Latin Mass, and Day of the Dead imagery to tell the story of an orphaned jaguar cub, nursed to health and, miraculously, into the human form of a boy, Juan Darien, by a woman who lost her own son to a plague. Combining elaborate costumes and various forms of puppetry — from the Japanese bunraku style of large, eerily lifelike wooden figures manipulated by black-clad puppeteers to simple hand puppets a la Punch and Judy — “Juan Darien” follows the boy’s life up to his flogging and crucifixion and resurrection in jaguar form. All the human characters but one (Juan) wore masks designed by Taymor, haunting oversize heads reminiscent of primitive art and tribal carvings. Her staging resembled a kind of theater-cinema, suggesting the three-dimensional equivalent of pans, tracking shots, and close-ups as full-scale characters and sets shifted to miniatures that turned and moved through stage-space. It was genius, pure and simple, but a little overwhelming for the Lincoln Center membership audience.

Disney, hewing to the artistic high road, gambled that Taymor’s genius could sell tickets, and she, for her part, preserved the essence of “The Lion King” franchise characters while placing her distinctive stamp on them. A soft, furry, bland animal story was anathema to her, so she created puppets and masks with a sharp-edged, rough-hewn look that continued her trademark obscuring of the lines between actor and puppet and costume. Cable-operated masks hang over the actors playing the lions like headdresses, suggesting ancient religious masks, but when the lions turn aggressive, the masks lower smoothly to cover the actors’ faces. One low tech-to-high effect sequence involves the brilliant sea of savanna that as it grows reveals the actors underneath, wearing tables of savannalike hats, but her master stroke was to create life-size animal puppets operated by actors in full view of the audience. A giraffe, for instance, is actually an actor wearing a conelike giraffe neck and head — balanced on arm and leg stilts. It was this idea of the “duality of the puppet and the actor” that sold Disney, and the company did not balk at her changing male monkey Rafiki into a female baboon-cum-shaman, allowing a darker tone to underscore lion cub Simba’s journey to adulthood, and merging South African music with Elton John’s pop tunes.

Taymor took a story that everybody knew (the 1994 film grossed more than $450 million worldwide) and elevated it to a theatrical event that will play for years. This is in stark contrast to all her other work that enjoyed only limited runs, like her 1992 staging of Stravinsky’s opera “Oedipus Rex” (conducted by Seiji Ozawa) in Japan, employing a cast of 120, which played only two days, or her 1993 production in Florence, Italy of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” running fewer than a dozen performances. Besieged with opportunities since her incredible success, Taymor, whose only prior work for the screen was a hallucinatory short film for PBS (FOOL’S FIRE, 1992), made her feature directing debut with an adaptation of Shakespeare’s TITUS ANDRONICUS (lensed 1998), based on her bloody 1994 stage version at NYC’s Theater for a New Audience. Taymor’s artsy, edgy, and avant-garde take on Shakespeare’s early drama, complete with music video-style editing and cinematography, was definitely a lightning rod for discussion, with some praising its ingenuity and daring and others offended by its goriness and lack of reverence for the source material. She attempted to launch a film version of “The Magic Flute,” but the project languished in development. Her next directorial effort, the biopic FRIDA for star and producer Salma Hayek, was deemed far more conventional, albeit visual arresting, and the tamer Taymor disappointed many aficionados who admired her earlier boldness and daring. On the horizon is a long-discussed exploration of “Grendel,” a proposed opera in collaboration with Goldenthal based on John Gardner’s novel about Beowulf from the monster’s point of view, and THE FLYING DUTCHMAN, a modern-day film adaptation of Wagner’s opera.

Source: Excerpted from Baseline. BaselineStudioSystems — A Hollywood Media Corp. Company.

Photo credits: Photofest and Joan Marcus (© Disney)

One of Broadway’s brightest lights in the new millennium, innovative choreographer Susan Stroman made a smashing entrance to the directing ranks, with the original dance drama “Contact” (which she co-created) and the revival of “The Music Man” both premiering to raves on the Great White Way in the spring of 2000. Receiving four Tony nods for directing and choreographing the two shows, she joined Michael John LaChuisa (who also garnered four nominations that year for the books and scores of “The Wild Party” and “Marie Christine”) as the first quadruple honorees since Elizabeth Swados in 1978. Exposed to show tunes by her piano-playing salesman father, Stroman acted in community theater in her hometown of Wilmington, Delaware but really got the bug when a touring version of “Seesaw” came to the Wilmington Playhouse with Tommy Tune in clogs leading a chorus line of girls festooned with balloons. Inspired by the combination of a “great love story” and lots of choreography, she moved to New York and toured in the original productions of Bob Fosse’s “Chicago” and the revue “Sugar Babies.”

Stroman’s first big break came when director Scott Ellis hired her to choreograph the Off-Broadway revival of Kander and Ebb’s “Flora, the Red Menace” (1987). Director Harold Prince saw her work and tapped her to provide the dances for his New York City Opera production of “Don Giovanni.” After reteaming with Ellis for both the New York City Opera’s “A Little Night Music” (1990), telecast as part of “Live at Lincoln Center” (PBS), and the Kander and Ebb Off-Broadway review “And the World Goes ‘Round” (1991), which she also co-conceived, she collaborated with director (and future husband) Mike Ockrent on “Crazy for You” (1992), winning her first Tony for Choreography. Stroman received an Emmy nomination for choreographing LIZA MINNELLI LIVE! FROM RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL (PBS, 1992), co-conceived and choreographed the Emmy-nominated SONDHEIM: A CELEBRATION AT CARNEGIE HALL (PBS, 1993), and provided the Tony-winning choreography for the triumphant revival of “Show Boat” (1994), directed by Prince. She also created the dances for the Broadway revival of William Inge’s “Picnic” that year.

Stroman experienced back-to-back Broadway failures with “Big” (1996), the misfired adaptation of the popular Penny Marshall feature starring Tom Hanks, and Kander and Ebb’s “Steel Pier” (1997), reuniting with Ockrent on the former and Scott Ellis on the latter. However, Lincoln Center’s artistic director Andre Bishop, responding positively to the dancing and poetry of “Steel Pier,” told her if she had an idea for a show, he would help develop it. Stroman called John Weidman, who had written the book for “Big,” and the two began working on what would become the steamy, three-part dance play “Contact.” Meanwhile, she scored a major coup as choreographer of Trevor Nunn’s revival of “Oklahoma!” (1998) at London’s National Theatre. Receiving permission from the respective estates to break with tradition (as she would later do for “The Music Man”), she courageously replaced Agnes de Mille’s historic choreography at the close of Act I, stamping her own signature on the ballet by having the three principals (not their alternate fantasy selves) perform it. Michael Coveny of THE DAILY MAIL called her choreography “perhaps the biggest star of the night.”

“Contact” was a delight at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi Newhouse Theater when it opened in the fall of 1999, and it made a terrific transformation upstairs to the Broadway house in 2000 (where it was reclassified as a musical). The larger Vivian Beaumont Theater freed the dancers emotionally as well as physically, and made a much more suitable home for the marriage of Stroman’s exuberant and witty choreography with Weidman’s equally funny and touching words. If the choreography was an afterthought when “The Music Man” first opened in 1957, her version was a tour de force of dance. Resisting the pressure to put a “big star” in the role of consummate con man Harold Hill, she went with relative no-name Craig Bierko (in his Broadway debut) who proved more than up to the task. Yet, in the midst of bringing two shows to Broadway, Ockrent, with whom she had also collaborated annually on Madison Square Garden’s “A Christmas Carol,” lost his battle to leukemia, and the death of her husband stole much of the sweetness from Stroman’s greatest hour as a professional. She also provided choreography for Nicholas Hytner’s feature dance drama “Center Stage” (2000), including a climactic number that A. O. Scott in THE NEW YORK TIMES called “sexy and infectious.”

Stepping in for her late husband, Stroman assumed the reins of the stage musical adaptation of THE PRODUCERS, based on the Mel Brooks comedy. From its opening in Chicago, the musical earned sterling reviews and had audiences guffawing in the aisles. Stroman’s fluid direction and signature choreographic touches merely enhanced the hilarity inherent in the script and songs, and the show proved to be a triumph on Broadway, earning a record 12 Tony Awards, including those for direction and choreography.

Source: Excerpted from Baseline. BaselineStudioSystems — A Hollywood Media Corp. Company.

Photo credits: Photofest and Paul Kolnik

An important director, choreographer, and dancer, Robbins began his career with the celebrated Ballet Theatre in New York, and subsequently appeared as a dancer on Broadway in shows such as “Great Lady,” “The Straw Hat Revue,” and “Stars in Your Eyes.” In 1944, he and composer Leonard Bernstein conceived a short ballet, “Fancy Free,” which, with the participation of Betty Comden and Adolph Green, evolved into the musical “On the Town.” During the ’40s and early ’50s he was constantly acclaimed for his stylish and original choreography for shows such as “Billion Dollar Baby” (1945), “High Button Shoes” (1947, Tony Award), “Look Ma, I’m Dancing” (1948), “Miss Liberty” (1949), “Call Me Madam” (1950), “The King and I” (1951), and “Two’s Company” (1952). From then on, he also served as the director on a series of notable productions: “The Pajama Game” (1954), “Peter Pan” (1954), “Bells Are Ringing” (1956), “West Side Story” (1957; Tony Award), “Gypsy” (1959), “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” (1962), “Funny Girl” (1964), and “Fiddler on the Roof” (1964). For the last-named show, one of his greatest achievements, he won Tony Awards as choreographer and director. He and Robert Wise were also awarded Oscars when they co-directed the film version of “West Side Story” in 1961.

After working on the London productions of “Funny Girl” and “Fiddler on the Roof” in 1966 and 1967, Robbins turned away from the Broadway musical theater and announced that he was devoting his life to ballet. He had worked with the New York City Ballet since 1948 as dancer, choreographer, and associate artistic director, and in 1958 briefly formed his own chamber-sized company, Ballets: USA.

Robbins returned to the popular field in February 1989 to direct a celebratory revue of his work entitled “Jerome Robbins’ Broadway.” In a season that was so bereft of original musicals that “Kenny Loggins on Broadway” and “Barry Manilow at the Gershwin” were categorized as such, this reminder of Broadway’s glory days was greeted with relief and rejoicing (and six Tony Awards). It featured extended sequences from “West Side Story” and “Fiddler on the Roof,” along with other delights such as the gloriously incongruous “You Gotta Have a Gimmick” from “Gypsy,” and the famous Keystone Cops chase from “High Button Shoes,” all sandwiched between excerpts from Robbins’ first hit, “On the Town,” which opened and closed the show. An enormously expensive investment at $8 million, the show reportedly lost around half of that, even though it ran for 538 performances. Robbins continued to work on ballets until his death in July 1998.

Source: Biographical information provided by MUZE. Excerpted from the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR MUSIC, edited by Colin Larkin. © 2004 MUZE UK Ltd.

Photo credits: Photofest

A distinguished director and producer — the supreme Broadway showman — whose career has lasted for many decades. “Hal” Prince served his theatrical apprenticeship in the late ’40s and early ’50s with the esteemed author, director, and producer George Abbott. In 1954, he presented his first musical, “The Pajama Game,” in collaboration with Robert E. Griffith and Frederick Brisson. His association with Griffith continued until the latter’s death in 1961, mostly with hits such as “Damn Yankees,” “New Girl in Town,” “West Side Story,” and “Fiorello!” (1959). “Tenderloin” (1960) was a disappointment, as was Prince’s first assignment as a director, “A Family Affair” (1962). From then on, he has been the producer or co-producer and/or director for a whole range of (mostly) successful musicals such as “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” (1962), “She Loves Me” (1963), “Fiddler on the Roof” (1964), “Baker Street” (1965), “Flora, the Red Menace” (1965), “It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman” (1966), “Cabaret” (1966), “Zorba” (1968), “Company” (1970), “Follies” (1971), “A Little Night Music” (1973), “Candide” (1974), “Pacific Overtures” (1976), “On the Twentieth Century” (1978), “Evita” (1978), “Sweeney Todd” (1979), “Merrily We Roll Along” (1981), “A Doll’s Life” (1982), “Grind” (1985), “The Phantom of the Opera” (1986), “Roza” (1987), and “Kiss of the Spider Woman” (1992).

The list does not include restaging and directing the original productions in several different countries, nor his work with American opera companies such as the New York Opera, the Houston Opera, and the Chicago Lyric Opera. For his innovative concepts, the ability to find the exact visual framework for the musical-narrative content, and his role, notably with Stephen Sondheim, in the drastic reshaping of the modern theater musical, Prince has received more Tony Awards than anyone else, including one for his superb staging of the Broadway revival of “Show Boat” (1995). This was followed by a disappointingly brief run for Prince’s revival of the 1974 version of “Candide” (1997) and “Parade” (1998).

FURTHER READING:
CONTRADICTIONS, Harold Prince
HAROLD PRINCE AND THE AMERICAN MUSICAL THEATRE, Foster Hirsch.
FROM PAJAMA GAME TO THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA AND BEYOND, Carol Ilson.

Source: Biographical information provided by MUZE. Excerpted from the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR MUSIC, edited by Colin Larkin. © 2004 MUZE UK Ltd.

Photo credits: Photofest

Nunn was educated at Downing College, Cambridge, and in 1962 won an ABC Director’s Scholarship to the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry, where he produced a musical version of “Around the World in 80 Days.” In 1964 he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, was made an associate director in 1965, and became the company’s youngest-ever artistic director in 1968. He was responsible for the running of the RSC until he retired from the post in 1986. As well as his numerous productions for the RSC, he co-directed “Nicholas Nickleby” (winner of five Tony Awards), “Peter Pan,” and “Les Misérables,” which became one of the most-performed musicals in the world. Outside of the RSC he has directed the Tony Award-winning “Cats,” along with other musicals including “Starlight Express,” “Chess,” and “The Baker’s Wife,” and operas such as “Cosi Fan Tutte” and “Peter Grimes.” His “magnificent” 1986 Glyndebourne Festival Opera production of “Porgy and Bess,” which later transferred to the London Royal Opera House, became the first television version of George Gershwin’s masterpiece in 1993. He has also worked in television and directed several films, including HEDDA and LADY JANE.

Nunn is credited, along with Andrew Lloyd Webber and the late poet T. S. Eliot, with the writing of “Memory,” the hit song from “Cats” that has been recorded by hundreds of artists. In 1992 he directed the RSC’s highly acclaimed production of Pam Gems’ musical play “The Blue Angel,” and a year later became the ninth recipient of the “Mr. Abbott Award” given by the U.S. Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation. In the early ’90s he was back with Lloyd Webber again, staging the London, Los Angeles, and Broadway productions of “Sunset Boulevard.” It was also reported that Nunn had decided to take a break from the theater, and had signed a two-year deal to produce films for the New Line Cinema studio. However, in 1995, he did co-direct and supervise a one-night-only all-star 10th anniversary concert performance of “Les Misérables” at London’s Royal Albert Hall. A year later the movie TWELFTH NIGHT, which he scripted and directed, was released. In September 1997, Nunn took over from Richard Eyre as the artistic director of the Royal National Theatre, and in July of the following year his “triumphant” staging of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s “Oklahoma!” opened at the National’s Olivier Theatre, subsequently transferring to the Lyceum in the West End. On behalf of the show, Nunn collected the Evening Standard/Carlton Television Award for Best Musical. He subsequently turned his attention to another great American musical, “My Fair Lady,” which opened at the National’s Lyttelton Theatre in March 2001.

Source: Biographical information provided by MUZE. Excerpted from the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR MUSIC, edited by Colin Larkin. © 2004 MUZE UK Ltd.

Photo credits: Photofest

One of the most colorful and controversial theatrical producers and impresarios in the post-World War II years, Merrick is said to have believed that his life began on November 4, 1954, the night a musical called “Fanny” opened at New York’s Majestic Theater. After an early, insecure life as the son of a weak father and mentally disturbed mother, Merrick changed his name and trained as a lawyer before moving into the world of theater as an associate producer in the late ’40s. His production of “Fanny” ran for 888 performances on Broadway, and was followed by a series of successful shows, including the musicals “Jamaica,” “Destry Rides Again,” “Take Me Along,” “Vintage ’60,” “Irma La Douce,” “Do Re Mi,” “Carnival,” “I Can Get It for You Wholesale,” “Stop the World — I Want to Get Off,” “110 in the Shade,” “The Roar of the Greasepaint — The Smell of the Crowd,” “How Now, Dow Jones,” “The Happy Time,” “Sugar,” “Mack & Mabel,” and “Very Good Eddie” (1975 revival).

Among his greatest triumphs were “Gypsy” (1959), “Oliver!,” “Hello, Dolly!” (1964), “I Do! I Do!” (1966), “Promises, Promises” (1968), and “42nd Street” (1980). The latter ran for 3,486 performances, his most enduring Broadway production to date. Along the way, there were several failures, such as “Oh, What a Lovely War!” (1964), “Foxy” (1964), and “Pickwick” (1965). In addition, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1966) folded during previews, while “Mata Hari” (1967) and “The Baker’s Wife” (1976) closed out of town. However, with his sheer determination and flair for publicity, Merrick managed to wring every ounce of possibility out of even the most ailing shows. One of his most famous stunts came in 1961 during the run of the disappointing “Subways Are for Sleeping.” A member of his staff arranged for seven members of the public, with the same names as the leading New York drama critics, to be quoted in newspaper advertisements for the show (“7 Out of 7 Are Ecstatically Unanimous About ‘Subways Are for Sleeping’,” ran the copy). When it was published, each of these “namesakes” appeared opposite a rave quote that the Merrick organization had apparently culled from old reviews of some of Broadway’s greatest hits. Such outrageous, but immensely profitable, behavior came to a temporary halt in February 1983, when Merrick suffered a debilitating stroke that seriously impaired his powers of speech.

After initially handing over the reins to others, in 1985 he regained control of his affairs, and subsequently presented an all-black revival of “Oh, Kay!” (1990), and a stage adaptation of the popular movie STATE FAIR (1996). The last of the great American showmen, throughout his career Merrick was admired, feared, detested, and respected — but never ignored. His several Tony Awards and nominations included one for “Hello, Dolly!,” and special Tonys in 1961 and 1968 “in recognition of his fabulous production record.” On his 87th birthday Merrick retired as a producer, and was replaced at the head of his company by Natalie Lloyd, the only Asian-born American producer working on Broadway. Lloyd became Merrick’s sixth wife shortly before his death in April 2000.

FURTHER READING:
THE ABOMINABLE SHOWMAN, Howard Kissell.

Source: Biographical information provided by MUZE. Excerpted from the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR MUSIC, edited by Colin Larkin. © 2004 MUZE UK Ltd.

Photo credits: Photofest and the New York Public Library

One of the most prominent and important theatrical producers to emerge in the late 20th Century, Cameron Mackintosh was able to realize his childhood dream. At the age of eight, he was taken to see his first stage musical, “Salad Days,” and was so enchanted he decided then and there he would grow up to produce similar entertainments. After dropping out of London’s Central School of Speech and Drama, Mackintosh landed his first professional job as a chorus member and assistant stage manager for a touring company of “Oliver!” in 1965. Within four years, however, he had achieved his goal and produced an ill-fated revival of Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes.” Undaunted, Mackintosh persevered and finally had an international success with the revue of Stephen Sondheim songs, “Side by Side by Sondheim,” in 1976. After mounting a long-running revival of “Oliver!” (1977-80) and “My Fair Lady” (1979), he teamed with composer Andrew Lloyd Webber to present Lloyd Webber’s “Cats” in London in 1981. The musical, adapted from poems by T. S. Eliot, has gone on to become the longest-running musical in Broadway history.

Mackintosh’s streak continued in the ’80s with such London and NYC successes as “Little Shop of Horrors.” He twice reteamed with Lloyd Webber, for “Song and Dance” and “The Phantom of the Opera,” and also forged alliances with the French team of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg (“Les Misérables,” “Miss Saigon,” and “Martin Guerre”). Where Mackintosh has had the greatest effect is in the marketing of his shows. Each has a distinctive logo that pops up on merchandise ranging from T-shirts to caps to coffee mugs. Additionally, he pioneered the superspectacle, big-budgeted musicals with flashy scenery and ensemble casts, cutting down on the reliance of a star to bring in the audience. Not that there have not been “name” performers in his casts; their presence, however, is not necessarily germane to the production. For television, Mackintosh mounted a 10-year anniversary concert of “Les Misérables,” which was also released on video. In 1998, his 30-year career was saluted with “Hey, Mr. Producer!,” a gala performed in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, that was taped for broadcast and aired in the USA on PBS stations.

Source: Excerpted from Baseline. BaselineStudioSystems — A Hollywood Media Corp. Company.

Photo credits: Photofest

An important choreographer, director, and dancer who pioneered a joyful and energetic style of dancing. Kidd was a soloist with the Ballet Theatre (later called the American Ballet Theatre) before making his Broadway debut as choreographer with “Finian’s Rainbow” in 1947. He won a Tony Award for his work on that show, and earned four more during the ’50s for “Guys and Dolls” (1950), “Can-Can” (1953), “Li’l Abner” (1956), and “Destry Rides Again” (1959). His other shows around that time were “Hold It,” “Love Life,” and “Arms and the Girl.” From “Li’l Abner” onward he also directed, and sometimes produced, most of the shows on which he worked, but it was as a choreographer of apparently limitless invention that he dominated the Broadway musical during the ’50s.

In the ’60s and early ’70s he worked on productions such as “Wildcat,” “Subways Are for Sleeping,” “Here’s Love,” “Ben Franklin in Paris,” “Skyscraper,” “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (which closed during previews), “The Rothschilds” (1970), “Cyrano,” and a revival of “Good News” (1974). Kidd also filled the big screen with his brilliant and exuberant dance sequences in classic Hollywood musicals such as THE BAND WAGON, SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS, IT’S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER, and HELLO, DOLLY! He co-starred with Gene Kelly and Dan Dailey in IT’S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER, and appeared in several other films, including MOVIE MOVIE, an affectionate parody of a typical ’30s double feature that went largely unappreciated in 1979. However, recognition of his immense contribution to the screen musical came in 1997 when he received a special Honorary Academy Award.

Source: Biographical information provided by MUZE. Excerpted from the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR MUSIC, edited by Colin Larkin. © 2004 MUZE UK Ltd.

Photo credits: Photofest

For a man who was supposed to hate music and musicals with considerable fervor, George S. Kaufman made significant contributions as a librettist and director to a variety of productions in the American musical theater from the ’20s through to the ’50s. Early in his career he worked as a newspaper columnist for several years in Washington and later in New York, where he became one of the brightest young talents in the early ’30s, many of whom, including Kaufman, Ring Lardner, Dorothy Parker, Alexander Woollcott, and Robert Benchley, were members of the Algonquin Hotel’s Round Table set. After co-writing the book with Marc Connelly in 1923 for “Helen of Troy, New York,” which had a score by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, Kaufman contributed sketches or was the librettist or co-librettist on a number of other Broadway musical productions, including “Music Box Revue (Third Edition)”, “Be Yourself!”, “The Cocoanuts,” “Animal Crackers,” “The Little Show,” “Strike up the Band,” “Nine-Fifteen Revue,” and “The Band Wagon.”

By now an established figure, he also directed most of the subsequent productions on which he worked. In the ’30s and ’40s these included “Of Thee I Sing,” for which he won a Pulitzer, “Face the Music” (director only), “Let ‘Em Eat Cake,” “I’d Rather Be Right,” “Sing Out the News,” “Seven Lively Arts,” “Hollywood Pinafore,” and “Park Avenue” (1946). In 1950 Kaufman earned a Tony Award for his direction of the superb “Guys and Dolls,” and, five years later, collaborated with his second wife, the actress Leueen MacGrath, on the book for the Cole Porter musical “Silk Stockings.” His work in the musical theater was just a part of his wider output. He is credited with 45 plays written in conjunction with some 16 known collaborators who included Edna Furber, Ring Lardner, and his principal later collaborator Moss Hart. With Hart he wrote some of the American theater’s most enduring comedies — “Once in a Lifetime,” “You Can’t Take It With You” (for which he won his second Pulitzer Prize), and “The Man Who Came to Dinner.”

FURTHER READING:
GEORGE S. KAUFMAN: AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT, Howard Teichmann.
GEORGE S. KAUFMAN AND HIS FRIENDS, Scott Meredith.

Source: Biographical information provided by MUZE. Excerpted from the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR MUSIC, edited by Colin Larkin. © 2004 MUZE UK Ltd.

Photo credits: Photofest

Director-choreographer Bob Fosse forever changed the way audiences around the world viewed dance on the stage and in the film industry in the late 20th century. Visionary, intense, and unbelievably driven, Fosse was an artist whose work was always provocative, entertaining, and quite unlike anything ever before seen. His dances were sexual, physically demanding of even the most highly trained dancers, full of joyous humor as well as bleak cynicism — works that addressed the full range of human emotions. Through his films he revolutionized the presentation of dance on screen and paved the way for a whole generation of film and video directors, showing dance through the camera lens as no one had done before, foreshadowing the rise of the MTV-era of music video dance.

Robert Louis Fosse was born in Chicago, Illinois, on June 23, 1927. Bob was the youngest of six children and quickly learned to win attention from his family through his dancing. It was not long before he was recognized as a child prodigy. His parents sent him to formal lessons, where he immersed himself in tap dancing. A small boy who suffered from nagging health problems, he nevertheless was so dedicated that by the time he reached high school, he was already dancing professionally in area nightclubs as part of their sleazy vaudeville and burlesque shows. The sexually free atmosphere of these clubs and the strippers with whom Fosse was in constant contact made a strong impression on him. Fascinated with vaudeville’s dark humor and teasing sexual tones, he would later develop these themes in his adult work. After high school, Fosse enlisted in the Navy in 1945. Shortly after he arrived at boot camp, V-J day was declared, and World War II officially came to an end. Fosse completed his two-year duty and moved to New York City.

For the next seven years, Fosse went through two rocky marriages with dancers Mary Ann Niles and Joan McCracken, all the while performing in variety shows on stage and on television. He had a few minor Broadway chorus parts, but his big break came with his brief appearance in the 1953 MGM movie musical KISS ME, KATE. Fosse caught the immediate attention of two of Broadway’s acknowledged masters: George Abbott and Jerome Robbins.

Fosse’s first fully choreographed show was 1954’s “The Pajama Game.” Directed by Abbott, the show made Fosse an overnight success and showcased his trademark choreographic style: sexually suggestive forward hip-thrusts; the vaudeville humor of hunched shoulders and turned-in feet; the amazing, mime-like articulation of hands. He often dressed his dancers in black and put them in white gloves and derbies, recalling the image of Charlie Chaplin. He incorporated all the tricks of vaudeville that he had learned — pratfalls, slights-of-hand, double takes. Fosse received the first of his many Tony Awards for Best Choreography for “The Pajama Game.”

His next musical, “Damn Yankees,” brought more awards and established his life-long creative collaboration with Gwen Verdon, who had the starring role. With her inspiration, Fosse created a stream of classic dances. By 1960, Fosse was a nationally known and respected choreographer, married to Verdon (by then a beloved Broadway star) and father to their child Nicole. Yet Fosse struggled with many of his producers and directors, who wished him to tone down or remove the “controversial” parts of his dances. Tired of subverting his artistic vision for the sake of “being proper,” Fosse realized that he needed to be the director as well as the choreographer in order to have control over his dances.

From the late 1960s to the late 1970s, Fosse created a number of ground-breaking stage musicals and films. These works reflected the desire for sexual freedom that was being expressed across America and were huge successes as a result. Before Fosse, dance was always filmed either in a front-facing or overhead view. In his 1969 film version of SWEET CHARITY (Fosse’s 1966 stage version was based on an earlier movie by Italian director Federico Fellini, about a prostitute’s search for love; the film was commissioned by Universal Studios after the success of the stage version) and in later works, Fosse introduced unique perspective shots and jump cuts. These film and editing techniques would become standard practice for music video directors decades later.

His 1972 film CABARET was based on Christopher Isherwood’s stories of pre-Weimar Germany. Articles on the film appeared in all the major magazines. Photos appeared on the covers of TIME and NEWSWEEK. The film was Fosse’s biggest public success and won eight Academy Awards. Fosse’s “Pippin” (1972) became the highest earning Broadway show in history, as well as the first Broadway show to advertise on national television. “Pippin” was awarded five Tony Awards for the 1972-73 season, one of them given to Fosse for best direction and choreography. Fosse staged and choreographed a variety show special for NBC starring Liza Minnelli, LIZA WITH A Z, which brought Fosse an Emmy Award and made him the first person to ever win top honors in three entertainment mediums — stage, film, and television.

Two stage musicals followed: “Chicago” (1975) and “Dancin'” (1978). During rehearsals for “Chicago,” Fosse suffered a heart attack. He survived and used much of that traumatic experience in 1979 in his semiautobiographical dance film ALL THAT JAZZ. Two other films, LENNY (1974) and STAR 80 (1983), were not the popular successes that his other shows had been. “Big Deal,” Fosse’s last musical, was also poorly received. After a rehearsal for the revival of “Sweet Charity,” Fosse suffered a massive heart attack and died on the way to the hospital. Fosse’s contribution to American entertainment continued after his death via show revivals and dance classes. His most prominent contribution was through the body of his work recorded on film and video.

Source: Excerpted from ST. JAMES ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR CULTURE. 5 VOLS., St. James Press, © 2000 St. James Press. Reprinted by permission of The Gale Group.

Photo credits: Photofest and the New York Public Library

An important and influential choreographer, director, and dancer, who “helped transform the American musical theater of the ’40s and ’50s.” After graduating with honors from the University of California, Agnes de Mille gave her first solo dance recital in 1928 at the Republic Theater in New York. A year later she arranged the choreography for a revival of “The Black Crook” in Hoboken, New Jersey, and subsequently spent several years in London studying the ballet. In 1933 she arranged and staged the dances for Charles B. Cochran’s production of “Nymph Errant” at the Adelphi Theatre in London, and later returned to America to work on shows such as “Hooray for What!” and “Swinging the Dream,” and the film, ROMEO AND JULIET. In 1939 she joined the Ballet Theatre in New York and choreographed productions such as “Black Ritual,” “Three Virgins and a Devil,” and Aaron Copland’s “Rodeo.” Her work for the last-named, in which she herself danced the leading role, was highly acclaimed and led to her being hired for Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s first musical, “Oklahoma!” (1943). Her skilful blending of classical and modern dance, which enhanced and developed the show’s story, was highlighted by the “Dream Ballet” sequence, a feature that became the benchmark for many a future musical.

The list of her subsequent Broadway assignments, mainly as a choreographer, but occasionally as a director, included “One Touch of Venus” (1943), “Bloomer Girl,” “Carousel,” “Brigadoon,” “Allegro,” “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” “Out of This World” (1950), “Paint Your Wagon,” “The Girl in Pink Tights,” “Goldilocks,” “Juno,” “Kwamina,” “110 in the Shade,” and “Come Summer” (1969). Throughout her long and distinguished career Agnes de Mille received many awards, including two Tonys (for “Brigadoon” and “Kwamina”), and numerous other honors and citations. In her best work, her “gift for narrative dance not only told stories, but each step and gesture came out of an individualized concept of each character’s motivation. Her treatment of dancers as individual characters enabled the chorus dancers to become actors in the play.” As well as the Broadway shows, she maintained a full and satisfying career in ballet, performing, directing and choreographing, and continued to work even after suffering a stroke in 1975 that left her partially paralyzed. Her two final ballets were “The Informer” (1988) and “The Other” (1992).

FURTHER READING:
DANCE TO THE PIPER, Agnes de Mille.
AND PROMENADE HOME, Agnes de Mille.
TO A YOUNG DANCER, Agnes de Mille.
BOOK OF THE DANCE, Agnes de Mille
SPEAK TO ME, DANCE WITH ME, Agnes de Mille.
NO INTERMISSIONS, Carol Easton.

Source: Biographical information provided by MUZE. Excerpted from the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR MUSIC, edited by Colin Larkin. © 2004 MUZE UK Ltd.

Photo credits: Photofest and Culver Pictures

One of the most distinguished and influential directors and choreographers in the American musical theater, Champion was brought up in Los Angeles and took dancing lessons from an early age. When he was 15, he and his friend, Jeanne Tyler, toured nightclubs as “Gower and Jeanne, America’s youngest dance team.” After serving in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II, Champion found another dance partner, Marge Belcher, and they were married in 1947. In the ’50s they appeared together on numerous television variety programs and in their own situation comedy, THE MARGE AND GOWER CHAMPION SHOW. They also made several film musicals including MR. MUSIC, LOVELY TO LOOK AT, GIVE A GIRL A BREAK, JUPITER’S DARLING, THREE FOR THE SHOW, and the autobiographical EVERYTHING I HAVE IS YOURS. Their exuberant dancing to “I Might Fall Back on You” and “Life Upon the Wicked Stage” were two of the highlights of the 1951 remake of “Show Boat,” which starred Howard Keel and Kathryn Grayson. During the late ’30s and ’40s Champion worked on Broadway as a solo dancer and choreographer.

In 1948, he began to direct as well, and won a Tony Award for his staging of the musical “Lend an Ear,” the show that introduced Carol Channing to New York theater audiences. From then on he choreographed and directed a mixture of smash hits and dismal flops in a list that included “Three for Tonight,” “Bye Bye Birdie,” “Carnival,” “Hello, Dolly!”, “I Do! I Do!”, “The Happy Time,” “Sugar,” “Irene,” “Mack & Mabel” (1974), and “Rockabye Hamlet” (1976). They earned him another three Tonys and New York Critics and Donaldson Awards. After some years away from Broadway, he returned (uncredited) to “doctor” “The Act” (1977), but could do nothing to prevent “A Broadway Musical” (1978) folding after only one night. He finished with a smash hit, however, when he choreographed and directed a 1980 stage adaptation of the movie classic 42ND STREET. During the show’s tryout in Washington, Champion learned that he had a rare form of blood cancer, and after the first curtain call on the New York opening night, producer David Merrick informed the cast and the audience that Gower Champion had died that afternoon.

Source: Biographical information provided by MUZE. Excerpted from the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR MUSIC, edited by Colin Larkin. © 2004 MUZE UK Ltd.

Photo credits: Photofest

Mel Brooks is a former stand-up comic who, together with Woody Allen and Bill Cosby, set the stage in the 1960s for the entire postburlesque, TV generation of comedians. Allen was personal and self-deprecating, Cosby eschewed shtick in favor of witty commentary, and Brooks — often working with Carl Reiner — embraced the craziness at the root of all ethnic burlesque and reshaped it for decades to come.

Brooks graduated from 1950s TV writer (Sid Caesar’s YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS) to successful 1960s series creator (GET SMART!) before breaking into features with THE PRODUCERS (1968), which set the zany, comedic tone of all his subsequent films and brought him an Oscar for the screenplay. His two greatest commercial successes, BLAZING SADDLES and YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (both 1974), were broad send-ups of the Western and horror genres, respectively. As with other comedy performers who also made their own films — Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, Tati, Allen — the persona was more important than the filmmaking regardless of its degree of sophistication and expressiveness.

In 1979, Brooks formed his production company, BrooksFilms, Ltd., which has been responsible for such diverse works as David Lynch’s THE ELEPHANT MAN (1980), Graeme Clifford’s FRANCES (1982), Freddie Francis’ THE DOCTOR AND THE DEVILS (1985), David Jones’ 84 CHARING CROSS ROAD, and David Cronenberg’s THE FLY (both 1986).

HIGH ANXIETY (1977), an engaging if imprecise homage to Hitchcockian thrillers, was his last largely acceptable film. Since the early ’80s, Brooks’ track record as a writer-director has been less distinguished than his work as an executive producer. There has been a marked and depressing decline in quality, freshness, and relevance in his films. HISTORY OF THE WORLD PART I (1981), a scattershot parody of overblown historical epics, had some undeniably funny gags and sequences, but these were overwhelmed by the sheer volume of comic misfires and relentless scatological material. Six years elapsed before the release of the regrettable SPACEBALLS (1987), a small-minded and uninspired spoof of the STAR WARS films. Obviously not a labor of love, SPACEBALLS felt like a desperate attempt to connect with the youthful audience he no longer understood. Brooks aimed higher with his next feature, LIFE STINKS (1991), an admirable if wildly uneven attempt to tackle homelessness in a satirical format. The film, however, died at the box office.

While recent features have fizzled, Brooks continued to delight audiences with his riotous appearances on TV as a talk show guest, such as his memorable turn on one of the last installments of the Johnny Carson TONIGHT SHOW in 1992. While promoting LIFE STINKS, he appeared on three consecutive nights of LATER, the late-night talk show hosted by Bob Costas, where he rattled off many hilarious show biz anecdotes. In a more serious vein, as a guest on the revealing cable documentary series, NAKED HOLLYWOOD, Brooks spoke candidly about the machinations necessary to remain a player in contemporary Hollywood.

Brooks returned to the familiar ground of movie parody with ROBIN HOOD: MEN IN TIGHTS (1993), starring Cary Elwes and Richard Lewis. In the film’s press kit, Brooks stated, “I think you must have affection for whatever you tease. I love Westerns. I love monster movies. And I love the story of Robin Hood.” While certainly not in the league of BLAZING SADDLES and YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, this spoof was buoyed somewhat by this good-natured approach. Reviewers, however, thought otherwise, as apparently did the public.

Brooks, however, disproved the adage that there are no second acts in American lives. In 2000, he collaborated with Thomas Meehan (the award-winning librettist of “Annie” who had previously worked with Brooks on the remake of TO BE OR NOT TO BE and SPACEBALLS) in adapting the comedy classic THE PRODUCERS for the stage. In addition to his work on the show’s book, Brooks composed a battery of new songs (19 in all). Under the skillful direction of Susan Stroman and with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in the lead roles, “The Producers” began a pre-Broadway tryout in Chicago, where it became an immediate hit. Arriving in New York, the musical became the most acclaimed show in years and went on to amass numerous accolades, including a record 15 Tony Award nominations.

Source: Excerpted from Baseline. BaselineStudioSystems — A Hollywood Media Corp. Company.

Photo credits: Photofest and Paul Kolnik

A director, choreographer, and dancer, Bennett studied dance and choreography in his teens, and staged several shows at his local high school. After playing the role of Baby John in “West Side Story” on U.S. and European tours, he began his Broadway career as a dancer in early ’60s musicals such as “Subways Are for Sleeping,” “Here’s Love,” and “Bajour.” He made his debut as a choreographer in the 12-performance flop, “A Joyful Noise” (1966), which was followed a year later by another failure, “Henry, Sweet Henry.” His first hit came in 1968 with “Promises, Promises,” when he created several original and lively dance sequences from Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s highly contemporary score. During the next few years he choreographed the Katherine Hepburn vehicle “Coco” (1969), two Stephen Sondheim shows, “Company” (1970) and “Follies” (1971), along with “Seesaw” (1973), on which he was also the director and librettist.

Then came “A Chorus Line,” which opened in July 1975 and closed nearly 15 years later in April 1990. In 1995 it was still the longest-running Broadway production, musical or otherwise. As its choreographer and director, Bennett devoted several years of his life to the show, auditioning, rehearsing, and directing productions throughout the world. He declined to spend any more time making a film version, and Richard Attenborough’s “uninspired” adaptation was released in 1985. Bennett’s next musical was the short-lived “Ballroom” (1978), but he had one more major hit with “Dreamgirls” in 1981, which earned him his seventh and final Tony Award. In the early ’80s he toyed with various projects including another musical, “Scandal,” but nothing materialized. In 1985 he signed as the director of “Chess,” but had to withdraw in January 1986 through illness. Later in the year he sold his New York property and moved to Tucson, Arizona, where he stayed until his death from AIDS in 1987.

FURTHER READING:
A CHORUS LINE AND THE MUSICALS OF MICHAEL BENNETT, Ken Mandelbaum.

Source: Biographical information provided by MUZE. Excerpted from the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR MUSIC, edited by Colin Larkin. © 2004 MUZE UK Ltd.

Photo credits: Photofest and Martha Swope