Attention Tommy Tune !

[Trish2]

Posted: 10/29/09 at 8:55pm

You used this number well.....
Hooray for our favorite Tommy Tune !

[YipHarburg]

Posted: 10/29/09 at 9:06pm

I'm probably in the minority, but I've always found him to be a so-so director and choreographer. The "sit-down" segment of FAVORITE SON was the one bit of Tune staging that really sparkled for me. Oh well...

Go to 1:15 to see the Tune version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9-1XutZfPY

[Pgenre]

Posted: 10/29/09 at 9:51pm

KING OF JAZZ: Wow at 1:02 my mouth went agape... talk about plagiarism...

P
Updated On: 10/29/09 at 09:51 PM

[Trish2]

Posted: 10/29/09 at 9:57pm

Touche !

[SingMeASong]

Posted: 10/29/09 at 10:24pm

I am truly stunned.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/29/09 at 10:39pm

So...?

[Eris0303]

Posted: 10/29/09 at 10:46pm

I thought this thread was going to say "Please don't sit in front of me".

[Trish2]

Posted: 10/29/09 at 10:48pm

Let's face it-Back in 1991 we had so few media outlets such as youtube to research such things. Tune was notorious for never giving "proper" credit where credit was due. i.e. GRAND HOTEL where i was blown away by the choreography ( especially the fantastic Ballroom sequences) only to find out a month later while looking through my Playbill and finding the info: "Ballroom Choreography by Yvonne Marceau and Pierre Dulaine" which was listed in the back of the Playbill under Staff. Ouch. The list goes on, but i digress.
Updated On: 10/29/09 at 10:48 PM

[theatreguy]

Posted: 10/29/09 at 10:57pm

Wasn't Jeff Calhoun responsible for the "Favorite Son" choreography?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/29/09 at 11:50pm

And Peter Gennaro did all the Shark movement for Jerome Robbins. And Michael Bennett directed most of Follies.

Your point is?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 12:02am

What's your point?

[theatreguy]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 12:04am

Um, I thought it was pretty clear, but just in case . . . my point is that Jeff Calhoun choreographed a good deal of The Wills Rogers Follies - including Our Favorite Son.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 12:35am

THE WILL ROGERS FOLLIES was a Ziegfeldian revue based on elements of Rogers' life.

Tune and his collaborators researched very carefully the routines done in the ZIEGFELD FOLLIES to recreate that syle.

I think instead of plagerism, it reflects accurate period stye.

Updated On: 10/30/09 at 12:35 AM

[Trish2]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 12:44am

Well, if you'd like to be historically correct, it was Russell Markert, choreographer of the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes, who staged the slap happy number in the 1930 film King of Jazz.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 11:42am

That's the first time I've seen that wonderful clip. It's pretty clear that whoever should be credited with the choreography for Our Favorite Son lifted some of choreography from this number and then expanded on it. But the genius part of Our Favorite Son, to me, was the use of the tambourine hats and the arrangement of the dance music to fit around it. But I agree that there should be some program credit when the work of one choreographer is so literally recreated in a new work. It's something akin to the use of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata during the song "Schroeder" in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.

I adore Will Rogers Follies and have always considered it to be a brilliant homage to both Will Rogers and the Ziegfeld Follies. The entire conceit of the show was to recreate the Ziegfeld look and style, so no doubt, there are other similar instances as this that will prove to be the direct inspirations for many of the scenes, choreography, costumes and set designs.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 11:51am

I HATED that number in WRF. I think I remember rolling my eyes. I knew it wasnt original then, and I've never seen that clip from the 30s.

The only Tune shows I've actually adored are Whorehouse and Nine.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 11:54am

Its brilliant pastiche - and we haven't had any choreography on Broadway in years to even be mentioned in the same sentence as Tommy Tune's work.

[ZiggyCringe]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 12:11pm

Where IS Tommy Tune?

He's alive, and should be directing Broadway musicals.

I was at "Whorehouse Goes Public," which was his last Broadway attempt

It was god-awful. And he hasn't worked since.

"Nine" remains my favorite musical. Tune was GENIUS.

He came up with concepts. He INVENTED the whole women/dressed in lingerie thing.

His first show, as a director, was Caryl Churuchill's "Cloud Nine."

It rocked.

He needs to come back. I'd buy a ticket.

[blaxx]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 2:50pm

He's watching Finian's Rainbow. That's where he is.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 3:11pm

I love him. His breakthrough directorial achievement was Caryl Churchill's Cloud 9 Off Broadway the year before he did Nine on Broadway.

He had already done The Club Off Broadway, which was a brilliant feminist take on men's clubs, with all the mustachioed men played by actresses. And then he did Day in Hollywood/Night in the Ukraine, which was pure entertainment, superbly done.

But I suppose that those who know him only from Will Rogers and Grand Hotel don't think of him as quite such a genius.

But after Michael Bennett and Bob Fosse died, many of us kept thought he would pick up their mantles and do ever more brilliant work. Sadly that never quite happened.

Of course, it still could...

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 3:23pm

I still think GRAND HOTEL is one of the most brilliant stagings I've seen.

I wish he'd hopped on stage last night and fixed some of that choreography in FINNIAN's RAINBOW. He really is one of the last great bridges to the genius choreographers that were everywhere in the 40s-60s. He should be teaching master classes showing Warren Carlyle and Robert Longbottom how its done.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 3:29pm

The Aggie Angelette sequence in Whorehouse was enough to make me fall in love with the man. Revival, please!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 4:47pm

okay, I'll add Whorehouse and Grand Hotel to the list of things he's done that are brilliant.

My point is that musicals are collaborative endeavors, and there has always been an overlapping of jobs: Directors helped write the book. Book writers helped write the score. Orchestrators and dance-music arrangers helped write the score too. Choreographers helped direct. Assistant choreographers helped choreograph. Sometimes individual performers dancers created steps or choreographed entire numbers.

But that's how musicals were put together.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 5:10pm

Absolutely pal, and to quote our friend Jerry Robbins-"if it works- take it. Borrow it- steal it- make it your own"

that's certainly what Tune did here

[YipHarburg]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 5:41pm

"Absolutely pal, and to quote our friend Jerry Robbins-"if it works- take it. Borrow it- steal it- make it your own"

that's certainly what Tune did here"

I see your point. After all Jews were dancing with bottles on their heads way before FIDDLER ON THE ROOF.

At the end of the day I still don't see what is so great about Tune as director/choreographer. WHOREHOUSE, NINE and GRAND HOTEL made me feel claustrophobic with his self-limited use of space. WILL ROGERS and GOES PUBLIC were bigger canvas's but not great shows. Add to all that a strange Roger Debris type sensibility and I keep finding myself just slightly impressed.

Updated On: 10/30/09 at 05:41 PM