Remembering Elaine Cancilla (and thinking about Tommy Tune)

Two years ago today, the world lost a sensational musical theatre performer named Elaine Cancilla. In addition to her eight Broadway credits, Ms. Cancilla worked regularly in stock and industrial shows. For five summers, she delighted audiences in Milwaukee with a variety of roles at Melody Top Theatre. I recently published a tribute to her on my website, Memories of Melody Top. Please take a look at the site, which features some unique photographs of her both on- and off-stage. I also included quotes from her fantastic reviews in the daily newspapers. I wish I could have seen her perform on stage, but I was only three years old in 1973. Judging from her rave reviews, she was a wonderful musical comedy star.

Also on the page is an interview with Tommy Tune, published in 1987, in which he talks about his early history as both choreographer and performer at Melody Top. There are some wonderful pictures of Mr. Tune on the page, and I love the extremely rare image of him staging a number from SWEET CHARITY.

Finally, I posted five new photographs at the bottom of the huge gallery of Melody Top stars. Be sure to check out the priceless shots of Monty Hall, Jo Anne Worley, Gretchen Wyler, Nanette Fabray and Margaret Hamilton. The sweet look on Margaret’s face always makes me smile. I hope you like it, too.

Thanks for visiting the site and making it a popular spot on the web!
Memories of Melody Top: Seeing Stars (2)

Thanks for mentioning Kurt Peterson! He worked as an ensemble member at Melody Top during the 1967 season. I'm including a picture of him (dressed as a baseball player) in that year's production of SWEET CHARITY. He would later appear in the original Broadway productions of two of my all-time favorite musicals, DEAR WORLD (Julian) and FOLLIES (Young Ben). Melody Top sure hired a lot of talented people in the late 1960s!