Attention Tommy Tune !- Page 2

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 5:54pm

Yip - I can't imagine anyone describing GRAND HOTEL as having a "limited use of space" = Tune used just about every corner of the entire Martin Beck stage - including at times the space above it.

If you want so see a limited use of space - go see this production of FINNIAN's RAINBOW where the set doesn't even start until half way to the proscenium. Its incredibly cramped but people seem to still love it regardless.

[Pgenre]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 6:00pm

I really never had a lot of respect for Tune as an artist until I saw the first Boston preview of GRAND HOTEL... to see how he made a MESS of a show into something close to a masterpiece by the time it reached Broadway (did Bennett help?) is truly a masterful achievement.

And why do I feel that he could have made WICKED work?

P

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 6:08pm

Michael Bennett was dead by the time GRAND HOTEL came around. But he might have offered some tips from the other side. That would have been his style for sure.

Genre - you'll have to post more sometime about that first preview - Id love to hear about it

[YipHarburg]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 6:12pm

What I meant by "self-limited" was for those first three shows Tune chose to work in specific spacial confines ... so much so that the audience was forced to focus on the world only within the proscenium.. however so much musical material is emotionally expansive. It inspires your imagination to stretch the picture presented to you. However with Tune you are always forced back into the box.

As an audience member I found it frustrating and claustrophobic.

With the later two works Tune allowed himself to burst forth, paint with bigger strokes.. however the show weren't that good.

I don't know if any of that made sense.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 7:15pm

No. None of it did.

[YipHarburg]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 7:30pm

Well I remember for WHOREHOUSE, NINE and GRAND HOTEL they were essentially one-set with all action bordered by the constant reminder of the set's strict parameters. For me they were like watching the show in a snow globe or a petri dish.

I remember having a similar reaction seeing the first act of GREY GARDENS.. but in that case the sense of confinement re-enforced the central character's oppressive circumstances. In act two the frame was broken and audience's imagination was less restricted.

While I don't "get" Tune, I've never been turned off from buying a ticket when his name is involved.


Updated On: 10/30/09 at 07:30 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/31/09 at 12:15am

Didn't anyone ever tell you not to drink before posting?

Posted: 11/15/09 at 11:44am

"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... "

Didn't he recently stage a cruiseship show? For a while I thought he was gonna lend his name to a lot of other work (the way the tacky Grease revival which Jeff Calhoun did became known as Tommy Tune's production of Grease even in ads) but I did hearfrom someone involved in his recent charity one man show that he's been quite depressive lately (something he admitted to--almost--in his memoirs a while back anyway. His memoirs are a great, bizarre read BTW--for example he mentions that he has thoughts of suicide every single day of his life and feelings of disconnect, but then he follows that by saying he doesn't think there's anyway he could be even slightly depressive).

I do find it frustrating though that the man isn't working (did he stage that Sherman Bros show? I can't remember).

My direct experience with his work is seeing the tour of Grand Hotel when I was 11 or 12. I didn't know the show at all, just the original Baum novel, and was just blown away--a brilliant, powerful staging (one that honestly has reminded me of my similar experiences seeing recreations of the original Robbins WSS staging in London, and the tour of Bennett's Chorus Line staging--I'd rank it THAT highly). I admit I still haven't even bought the cast album, the music just didn't make much of an impression on me, yet I LOVED that show (would love to see it again--not just the Tony clip I've played endlessly).

Then right around the same time it seems I saw him in the tour of Bye Bye Birdie with Anne Reinking. My main dance teacher at the time said I had to go--and it was great to see him perform though it wasn't that great a show (I don't think he had anything to do with the staging--at any rate I'm not a big Birdie fan)

Otherwise I've seen the Tony clips for Nine (I'm such a big fan of Nine and what I've seen of his staging that I think it would become my fave of his shows), and Whorehouse, seen the hysterical infomercial (!) for the awful looking Whorehouse Goes Public, and seen the Japanese filming of Will Rogers Follies. I think Will Rogers Follies is a mess of a show--even the concept doesn't really quite work (It doesn't follow, for one thing, the true concept of a real Ziegfeld show closely at all--which kinda ruins the point), despite good performances (and about two good songs--something I hate to admit about my beloved Cy Coleman and the often brilliant Comden and Green). But if there's a reason to watch the show, and a reason I never was bored and turned off the tape, it's definetly for Tune's direction and his and Calhoun's routines.

It's funny when people get mad he didn't choreograph something--a bit I guess like how, as mentioned,some are shocked Robbins didn't do some of the iconic WSS numbers, Bennett used Avian as choreographer for some key Follies and Chorus Line numbers (not to mention Michael Peters did the majority of Dreamgirls) etc... (Fosse seems more or less exempt from this). It works so ultimately who cares--and it still is their vision.

(Though PalJoey I think saying Bennett directed most of Follies is overstating things--he morethan deserved his co director credit but Everything Was Possible makes it quite clear who did what)

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 11/15/09 at 12:35pm

Struck up a conversation with him outside Brighton Beach final & found him to be very accessible & down to earth.

It is a shame he has not been back to Broadway

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/15/09 at 1:06pm

I'm always psyched to find out people are down to earth. I hate it when they aren't down to earth. I think, "If you can't be down to earth, then stick a fork in you. You're through. You're not down to earth."

Posted: 11/15/09 at 1:09pm

Although having known someone who worked with him recently, in a working environment that's not so much the case. (it actually sounds a bit sad, like the man is getting obsessive compulsive and insecure about his own talents)

*gossip gossip*

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 11/15/09 at 2:14pm

NAMO

Stick a fork in you & your angry person routine. This show should have closed a long time ago.