Jerome Robbins/Succeed in 2005's Broadway?

Jerome Robbins was a sadistic, vile, low life of a man. On the day he died, the phone calls shared among me and theater friends, many of us who had worked with him, or knew him, well--most everyone hoped his death was as PAINFUL as possible. However, even a painful death would never been punishment enough for what this creep did to people in his lifetime.

Would his behavior be tolerated in today's highly sophisticated and "lawsuit happy" world? Would the vicious cruelty and truly unbelievable acts of sadism that were part of his everyday life, be tolerated by today's Equity?

REmember, we are not simply talking about an "evil genius" here. Bob Fosse, Gower Champion, Michael Bennett and many others were task masters and on occasion the term of evil genius would be appropriately applied to them.

Robbins was different. This excuse for a human certainly took part in legendary theater works such as FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, GYPSY, WEST SIDE STORY, CALL ME MADAM, PETER PAN, HIGH BUTTON SHOES, many others.

But, his legacy for anyone that I know who worked with him is one of lasting hatred. This IS NOT even taking into account his TESTIFYING before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee and NAMING NAMES. This gave his sickness the opportunity to destroy lives and careers in a swift easy manner.

Although, those who worked with him, know that he preferred to apply his twisted sadism more directly and in a more vicious manner. He often seemed to select "chosen" people in different shows and he proceeded to torture them.

His cruelty to Bea Arthur in FIDDLER was beyond anything I will write about here. I suspect Ms. Arthur will write about this herself someday. I still cannot believe the things he did to her.

Kaye Ballard has written simply that "his sadism destroyed my Broadway career."

The psycho sexually sick things he forced his young male dancers through were the workings of a much hated piece of garbage.

Would today's theater professionals allow his behavior?

Anyone else on this Board who worked with this creep of choreography think he would be able to "keep his job" with his behavior in today's theater world?

He was unquestionably brilliant in many of his theater works. It is indeed a shame that this brilliance was put into the body of a man who was indeed miserable, but never as miserable as he deserved to be.

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Updated On: 2/25/05 at 01:25 PM

I don't know about his attitude or personality, but his choreography is excellent. I think producers would deal with him for that reason.

Robbins was definitely an unpleasant, mean man, bjivie.

I think the original question was whether or not performers would put up with him these days. I'm sure there would be many a grievance filed against him, and perhaps lawsuits as well. The producers would most likely be named in both. All that could keep him from having much of a career, genius though he was.

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Joekv99, THERE ARE books about Jerome Robbin's career and cruelty....Off the top of my head, you might want to read DANCE WITH DEMONS by Greg Lawrence. It is a "great read."

David Merrick did not come even close to being the vile creature that Jerome Robbins was. David Merrick was brisk, to the point, sometimes loud. He also knew how to charm. All of Broadway's Dollys were treated very wisely by David Merrick.

Ask some folks you might know who worked with Robbins. He was very very sick.

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bjivie2, geniuses can indeed be crazy. As has been said, "there is a fine line between genius and insanity."

There are many example of this in the world of the arts, of course. Perhaps the woman many consider the greatest singer/actress/perfomer whoever lived, Judy Garland, is a fine example. She was certainly a genius and certainly emotionally and mentally "disturbed," to say the least.

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ElTico, I am surprised you are shocked. I suspect you may be very young. Anyone in the theater community who is, shall we say past the age of 40, Certainly knows about Robbins' legendary sadism.

It has been talked about often in interviews, is discussed in numerous books about theater, and stories of hatred towards him appear in virtually EVERY biography or autobiography of those who worked with him.

Cast members DID INDEED LOVE Gower Champion and Bob Fosse(are there any straight female dancers out there who worked with Mr. Fosse and did not sleep with him?--there may be one or two, but I doubt it.)

Michael Bennett? EVERYONE fell in love with Michael Bennett. Even those who only knew him for five minutes or perhaps overnight. His dancers worshipped him--they still do. Bennett had a quality about him that put you in a trance, even when you were just watching him across "a crowded room." Dancers wanted to give blood to Michael Bennett--sadly, too many of his male dancers freely gave of their bodies to him. EVERYONE, men and women alike, Wanted Michael Bennett. It was unreal. Most of us still don't know what the heck the story was with his very brief marriage to his "muse," Donna McKechnie(did I spell her name wrong?) I am still shocked about that(Mr. Bennett was not only a gay man--he taught lots of gay men many things they had never thought of, and not just onstage.) I hope it gives Donna comfort and joy that she can say she was Mrs. Michael Bennett for a while. She truly loved him very very much. There were many of us who did.

And oh yes, he also gave us A CHORUS LINE and DREAMGIRLS, after some minor works such as PROMISES, PROMISES, SEESAW, and FOLLIES

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I've heard many a horror story about Robbins. None of this surprises me one bit.

melissa errico fan, I am not surprised that you are not surprised:) and GirlfriendfromCanada, someone PMd me and asked me to share a Robbins story that I personally witnessed. Here is one of many:
during rehearsals for FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, he was giving Bea Arthur a very hard time one day...she asked him why he was picking on her...he replied, "You wanna know what it really is? It is genuinely and I mean this with all respect, it is genuinely hard to work with you because you are really a very ugly woman. And I'm a Jew here directing a show about Jews and your face is repulsive. People are gonna think we cast this ugly woman to represent what Jewish women look like. The audience certainly isn't going to think you got this job for your performing abilities Bea. You know you are not doing very well." I will tell u one more personal story for now:

during the "gypsy" performance of WEST SIDE STORY(that is what we called in the old days, the tech dress performance where others in shows and friends were allowed to attend) before its New York opening, (I won't mention the dancers involved on this Board)---it was during the "Officer Krupke" number...in the middle of the number.......Robbins walked ONTO the stage from the wings (remember the theater was filled with family, friends, etc.) He yelled stop, Stop, STOP. to the orchestra leader and the person controlling the followspot. Obviously to the cast and audience as well. It was amazing. Jerome Robbins walked over to one of the Jets and yanked this boy by his arm out of the position of repose this performer had been in as part of the choreographed movement in the number. He yanked him to his feet and he LITERALLY HURLED him towards the wings, stage left. I remember it like it was five minutes ago. During this he was yelling into the wings "get this schmuck's understudy out here!(remember the year this was--the use of the word schmuck in public was shocking in itself.) Robbins continued........"You're acting like a queer! A Jet can't be a queer! You wanna be Marilyn Monroe! You think you're Carol Haney! Get off!!----------At this point Mr. Robbins led the understudy outta the wings by his hand and actually put him in place, it was very odd, as though he were finishing a painting. As he was putting him in place he said to the audience "Excuse us, we will resume in just a moment, Right where we Left Off."

Robbins existed stage left. The spotlight hit the Jets and they began the song where they had left off with the understudy doing the remainder of the "gypsy" performance.

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Oh my god. What an asshole.

Re: Bea, Jerome was no prize, either.

"I've read story after story about how horrible a human being he was in bios of Laurents,"

The irony.

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MaRGo, Absolutely........the highest profile examples I can think off the top of my head are:

Zero Mostel with whom Robbins did FORUM and a few years later FIDDLER ON THE ROOF

and Ethel Merman, with whom Robbins did CALL ME MADAM and a few years later GYPSY.

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sticktopriest, I was using the term "minor works" sarcastically. :)

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Hate the artist, love the art, in situations like this. It's how I've learned to appreciate Wagner.

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