Michael Bennett salute now available online (video)

[morosco]

Posted: 6/2/10 at 3:34pm

Dancers Over 40 Presents a special evening celebrating the life of Michael Bennett and his dancers. The entire evening was recorded and is posted on YouTube in 16 parts. Here's part one...
Michael Bennett: A Joyful Noise, Part I

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/2/10 at 3:44pm

I was there. It was three hours long and the audience could have had them go on for three more.

Watch as much as you can, especially the Kelly Bishop and Alice Playten segments--and the one with Carolyn Kirsch, who was the first to step into Donna's shoes as Cassie. She's lovely.

[Marquise]

Posted: 6/2/10 at 5:47pm

Thanx for the heads up... Michael Bennett is my personal theater God.

[othell]

Posted: 6/2/10 at 6:02pm

I have already viewed all of the videos, and will keep going back to view them over and over again, picking up new nuggets of information each time. I enjoyed it all; A CHORUS LINE stories, of course, and especially the stories of FOLLIES, since I had just finished reading EVERYTHING WAS POSSIBLE, and I am a big Dorothy Collins fan, so it was nice to hear her spoken of with such warmth.

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/3/10 at 10:41pm

I was surprised to learn it that wasn't Margo Sappington in the much ballyhooed "Turkey Lurkey" Tony Awards clip. It was her replacement Juliane Stites, according to her, along with Baayork Lee and Donna M.

Margo left "Promises, Promises" very early in the run to choreograph "Oh, Calcutta!"

Lordy.

Updated On: 6/3/10 at 10:41 PM

[Marquise]

Posted: 6/4/10 at 12:39am

I wasn't. I already knew that, as Sappington had short hair and wore it that way in the show. Another misconception is that it's Julane Stites leading the dance as Miss Della Hoya in the Ed Sullivan clip and it's actually Lada Edmund (of "Hullabaloo").

Updated On: 6/4/10 at 12:39 AM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/4/10 at 7:34am

Margo was so grateful to Michael for mentoring her career. It was lovely.

And Kelly Bishop's nuanced description of the love/hate power struggle between them in real life gives so much insight into the character of Sheila.

[HouGuy77002]

Posted: 6/4/10 at 8:21pm

Thanks for posting! I've always thought a Michael Bennett Bio-Movie could be amazing!! Think of it: love, sex, drugs, disease, and amazing musical numbers! In the hands of the right director...magic.

[Scripps2]

Posted: 6/6/10 at 5:06am

I thought this would be a bit too technical for me but it's actually very interesting.

Interesting to see the Hullaballo sequence: proving that really good choreography (like really good design in any medium) is timeless. Is one of the dancers in there the dancer on the right in the Ed Sullivan Turkey Lurkey Time video? She is quite tall and leggy and always has such a joyful smile on her face.

Interesting to see Larry Fuller. He directed and choreographed a couple of musicals in London when I was a teenager (Time, Marilyn) and I used to look out for him in rehearsal photographs in the brochures because he was a bit gorgeous.

This is distracting me from other viewing. I'm now going to have to think of another excuse as to why I still haven't watched that documentary on BBC4 about eighteenth century lesbians.

Updated On: 6/6/10 at 05:06 AM

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/6/10 at 8:39am

The dancers in that Hullabaloo sequence are really fantastic. In addition to "Mike Bennett" and Donna McKechnie, there's Suzanne Charney, who was the lead dancer with the long dark ponytail for Rich Man's Frug in the OBC and movie "Sweet Charity." Patrick Adiarte, who was Prince Chulalongkorn in the film of "The King and I" as well as a principle (with a terrific dance solo) in the movie "Flower Drum Song." He was also a semi-regular on the TV show M*A*S*H.

The tall leggy black girl is Barbara Alston, who was the original lead singer of the '60s girl group The Crystals, and she was indeed a replacement Turkey Lurkey girl in Promises, Promises, along with Lada Edmund, Jr., who is featured here as well. Both of them are in the Ed Sullivan Turkey Lurkey number, as Miss Polanski and Miss Della Hoya, respectively.

And of course the Hullabaloo choreographer was David Winters who was Baby John in the OBC of West Side Story and played Arab in the film version.

Heres' the Hullabaloo clip (a little easier to see than in the Bennett tribute) ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sEArYFZAco

Updated On: 6/6/10 at 08:39 AM

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/6/10 at 9:02am

Some cool pics of the Hullabaloo dancers in that clip ...

Suzanne Charney:


Patrick Adiarte:


Lada Edmund Jr.:



Barbara Alston: