A Tribute to Peter Gennaro

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/22/09 at 2:23pm

by Dancers Over 40--Part One includes a wonderful dance duet that Carol Lawrence did with Peter on an Ed Sullivan Show:



PART ONE:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVTlDrlq09U


PART ONE, cont'd:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp4_irWK16o


PART TWO:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4pm-8z19vg


PART THREE:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7N-_nChd04

Updated On: 11/22/09 at 02:23 PM

Posted: 11/22/09 at 2:45pm

Thanks for this, I love that youtube channel. So many gems. (Shouldn't this be ontopic?)
Updated On: 11/22/09 at 02:45 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/22/09 at 2:55pm

It's just you and me. If I move it, will erase your comment here?

Updated On: 11/23/09 at 02:55 PM

[tazber]

Posted: 11/22/09 at 3:30pm

Thanks for sharing PJ. You're links are always adored!

Posted: 11/22/09 at 3:31pm

I suspect so, but I can easily add another useless "thanks!" comment It's a great link and might get lost in the shuffle here...

[tazber]

Posted: 11/22/09 at 3:49pm

Lol, that's what I was thinking Eric.

I always check out your links PJ, I just don't always post a comment.

But as of now it's gotten 75 views, so a lot of people seem to enjoy it.

Updated On: 11/22/09 at 03:49 PM

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 11/22/09 at 4:20pm

Oh keep it here. Nobody on the main board (sadly) cares. Ty for posting!

[Pgenre]

Posted: 11/22/09 at 4:32pm

All the cool people hang out over here anyway.

Especially in this thread! Love you all!

Thanks, as always, PJ!

P

Posted: 11/22/09 at 4:34pm

Hahah it's a good thing I "discovered" the OT board last week then :P

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/22/09 at 5:07pm

Awards
* 1977 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography – Annie
* 1977 Tony Award for Best Choreography – Annie

Nominations

* 1960 Tony Nomination for Best Choreography – Fiorello!
* 1965 Tony Nomination for Best Choreography – Bajour
* 1973 Tony Nomination for Best Choreography – Irene
* 1982 Tony Nomination for Best Choreography – Little Me
* 1999 Laurence Olivier Theatre Nomination for Best Theatre Choreographer – Annie

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/22/09 at 5:07pm

* 1997 Annie (revival) (Choregraphy)
* 1989 Threepenny Opera (Musical Staging)
* 1983 Singin' In the Rain (London) (Choreography)
* 1982 Little Me (revival) (Choreography)
* 1980 West Side Story (revival) (Co-Choreography)
* 1980 One Night Stand (Choreography)
* 1979 Carmelina (Choreography)
* 1978 Bar Mitzvah Boy (London) (Choreography)
* 1977 Annie (Choreography)
* 1973 Irene (Choreography)
* 1969 Jimmy (Choreography)
* 1964 Bajour (Choreography)
* 1964 West Side Story (revival) (Co-Choreographer)
* 1962 Mr. President (Choreography)
* 1960 The Unsinkable Molly Brown (Choreography)
* 1959 Fiorello! (Choreography)
* 1957 West Side Story (Co-Choreography)
* 1956 Bells Are Ringing (Performer)
* 1954 The Pajama Game (Performer)
* 1950 Guys and Dolls (Performer)
* 1950 Arms and the Girl (Performer)
* 1948 Kiss Me Kate (Performer)
* 1948 Make Mine Manhattan (Performer)

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 11/22/09 at 5:23pm

You just discovered the OT board Eric? Come over here more often. Heck, post Broadway stuff over here even. I do it. So many long time posters can't take the main board (and who can blame em?).

Posted: 11/22/09 at 5:39pm

I didn't realize Gennaro had choreographed so many major shows on his own, I'm ashamed to admit--I knew that both Robbins and Fosse loved using him as a dancer, and he was one of the Steam Heat boys along with Buzz.

BobbyBubby--yeah, well to be fair I sorta come and go in spurts of a few weeks on the main board, until I get fed up and don't come back for a few months. It was just on a whim, when completely bored, a bit back I decided to check out the OT. :P I think I'll stay

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/22/09 at 5:54pm

In Judy Garland's second TV special in 1956, 7 years before her TV series, she did a dance with Peter Gennaro to Come Rain or Come Shine.

Peter's solo starts at 4:30 on this clip and Judy enters at 5:52.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVmoZkco5Kc

WARNING: For those who have never seen her pudgy, this is shortly after her son Joey was born, and she is not her usual skinny self.

Updated On: 11/22/09 at 05:54 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/22/09 at 9:59pm

Interesting note about this 1956 special. It was Judy's second foray into television, after the 1955 Ford Star Jubilee, a 90-minute version of her Palace act that wasn't completely effective on television, although the ratings were spectacular.

This show was originally conceived to be a 30-minute concert sung by Judy and conducted by her good friend Leonard Bernstein, conducting the New York Philharmonic. Judy and Lenny had performed at parties and were eager to do so for the public, but CBS said no.

The concept for the show changed to a surrealistic set designed by another friend, photographer Richard Avedon, with choreography by Gennaro and arranged and conducted by Nelson Riddle.

It was part of the General Electric Theatre series, which was hosted by not-yet-politician Ronald Reagan, which is pretty surrealistic in itself when you watch the DVD nowadays.

The show was pretty much a debacle. She broke her ankle and danced in a cast for rehearsals, lost her voice before the broadcast, and between her nerves and some lingering medication for her nerves, the show is fabulous only in bits and pieces.

Nevertheless, the ratings again were sky high.

Updated On: 11/24/09 at 09:59 PM

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 11/22/09 at 10:06pm

Thanks for posting this. :)

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/22/09 at 10:07pm

Seven years later, in 1963, Judy was doing her TV series and she chose Peter as the choreographer. He worked on the show until it moved from NY to LA, and he performed this number on Episode 16, the now famous episode with Ethel Merman, taped a few weeks after JFK's assassination. Judy wanted to sing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" as a tribute to her friend, the late president. Again Jim Aubrey of CBS refused, saying that "in a few weeks, the nation will have forgotten about JFK."

As we all know, she did it anyway. As we all know, the nation didn't forget.

In this number from that show, Peter Gennaro and his dancers perform "I Love a Parade":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA1VwGtnglo

Updated On: 11/24/09 at 10:07 PM

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 11/22/09 at 10:38pm

Debbie Reynolds, Gus Trikonis and my friend, Grover Dale knock the sh*t out of Peter Gennaro's choreography. My favorite dance number from any MGM musical. PERIOD!

http://www.4shared.com/file/117244699/512a6580/THE_UNSINKABLE_MOLLY_BROWN-01_1_.html

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/22/09 at 10:51pm

I'm really glad his film and television work remain. Unsinkable Molly Brown soars with his work.

And the original stage production of Annie was a big, fun rousing Broadway musical at a moment in time when there was precious little of that to be seen. He deserved the Tony and the Drama Desk for that.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 11/22/09 at 10:59pm

So true about Annie. And everybody, including Rob Marshall and Adam Shankman, could take a cue from the old-school directors like Charles Walters, on how to film a dance number!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/22/09 at 11:05pm

Chuck Walters deserves his own thread. I'm posting another Peter Gennaro clip--his "Making Whoopee" with Judy Garland.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 12:00am

Peter's "Making Whoopee" danced with the incomparable Judy Garland

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOEncbW52Pk

Sheer joy.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 12:05am

And this is the aforementioned "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Just Judy, no Peter, but one of the most extraordinary performances ever given on television.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4Xz7WV_qJs

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 11:44am

One final number from another JG show: The Peter Gennaro Dancers doing the jazz classic "Take Five":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rYNUQhcTB4

[Kristie-K2]

Posted: 11/24/09 at 1:39am

He's wonderful....PJ, Did he ever dance with Chita?