Where the f*ck is Tommy Tune
Where the f*ck is Tommy Tune
Joined: 12/31/69
#1Where the f*ck is Tommy Tune
Posted: 4/7/07 at 9:46pm
Just was watching some Youtube clips again and it made me wonder again--where the Hell is Tommy Tune? I mean as a director/choreographer? We don't reallyhave any *stellar* lavish scale directors working right now with the possible exception of Prince, yet Tune seems to have disappeared (was his last show Busker Alley? Did he actually direct that? I think he was somehow involve din the Grease revival too)
I think Nine and Grand Hotel are GREAT shows for instance evn though I can't actually say I'mmuch of a fan of either score--so I give most credit to Tune. I don't know My One and Only but it does seem to have started the "reconfigure classic songs" trend that Crazy for You etc took to. I adore Cy Coleman and Comden and Green but I think Will Rogers Follies is a loud, loud, headache inducing mess that is only really worth it for me to watch some of Tune's great production numbers (I watch the oepning on the Japanese broadcast quite often--considering it's a show i'm not a fan of...)
So where's he been?
#2re: Where the f*ck is Tommy Tune
Posted: 4/7/07 at 9:49pmHe did Doctor Doolittle on tour. I too would love to see him come back to Broadway. He's one of the last of the great director-choreographers.
#2re: Where the f*ck is Tommy Tune
Posted: 4/7/07 at 10:58pm
Well, he's working on a show with the bookwriters of JERSEY BOYS (their names escape me right now). I think he's one of the most brilliant living directors at the moment, we'd be lucky if he decided to come back to Broadway soon. I think he should've been in charge of overseeing and "directing" the A CHORUS LINE revival.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
Updated On: 4/7/07 at 10:58 PM
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#3re: Where the f*ck is Tommy Tune
Posted: 4/7/07 at 11:00pmIt's a shame that he doesn't seem to care too much about the quality of the material (of course to some extent neither did FOsse some could argue--or Bennett... or maybe even Prince :P ). I saw him in the tour of Bye Bye Birdie in the ealry 90s and thought hew as wonderful but remember the show being fairly routine -- though I'm not sure if he directed that or just stared
morosco
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/10/04
#4re: Where the f*ck is Tommy Tune
Posted: 4/7/07 at 11:01pmI've said it a million times before and saying it again now will make it a million and one times...I'd love to see him direct a production of FOLLIES.
#5re: Where the f*ck is Tommy Tune
Posted: 4/7/07 at 11:01pm
Bennett probably had some stipulation in his will that he could never do one of his shows after what happened with Dreamgirls and Nine. He would have done quite an excellent job with it though.
Prince certainly cared and sitll does care about the quality of his material, though sometimes I wonder what he saw in Phantom. Bennett, I think did too, although compared to other scores, A Chorus Line and Dreamgirls are slightly weak. Fosse always wanted good music, but I doubt he ever cared about the book.
Updated On: 4/7/07 at 11:01 PM
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#6re: Where the f*ck is Tommy Tune
Posted: 4/7/07 at 11:16pm
My comment re Bennett was written after reading what he did out of town with Seesaw--completley changing it so much that no one was even sure who wrote the libretto. But you're probably right.
I sort aget what Prince saw in Phantom actually--as he said he was going more for the atmosphere than anything else. He prob also wanted a hit--I was thinking more of some of his odder flops (Roza comes to mind...)
And you're right of course with Fosse--music was very important, I agree about the book. A friend recently, oddly, asked me who I thought was a better director, Bennett or Fosse and of course the thing is when Fosse did a show it became a FOSSE show in a way that's not as true of Bennett IMHO--for better *and* for worse
And **** yes! I never thought of Tune doing Follies but it could be great! (though, me beign the traditionalist, that's one show I wish they could try to revive in its origina Aronson/Prince/bennett staging)
Updated On: 4/7/07 at 11:16 PM
#7re: Where the f*ck is Tommy Tune
Posted: 4/7/07 at 11:27pm
God, I can't think of anyone more appropriate to do FOLLIES effectively.
Well, Eric, Tommy Tune refused to do BYE BYE BIRDIE on Broadway, so I'm sure he does care about the material. I really cannot wait to see what he'll come up with next (if he decides to return to Broadway).
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
#8re: Where the f*ck is Tommy Tune
Posted: 4/7/07 at 11:27pm
He was right here on Tuesday night.
8th photo down:
Photo Coverage: Keely Smith Opens at the Cafe Carlyle
"Winning a Tony this year is like winning Best Attendance in third grade: no one will care but the winner and their mom."
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
#9re: Where the f*ck is Tommy Tune
Posted: 4/7/07 at 11:28pmJESUS CHRIST! I need me somw Tommy Tune!
dramaqueen2
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/23/05
#10re: Where the f*ck is Tommy Tune
Posted: 4/7/07 at 11:41pmditto that. come home tommy!
hear my song; it was made for the time when you don't know where to go, listen to the song that i sing, you'll be fine..
EdmundOG
Broadway Star Joined: 7/9/05
#11re: Where the f*ck is Tommy Tune
Posted: 4/7/07 at 11:58pmYou guys, he was on broadway last season in Fame Becomes Me, remember?
Broadway Star Joined: 12/31/69
#12re: Where the f*ck is Tommy Tune
Posted: 4/8/07 at 12:20am
We're talking directing/choreographing...
I wonder why he did the tour of Birdie but refused to bring it to Broadway
being.jeremiah
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/23/05
#13re: Where the f*ck is Tommy Tune
Posted: 4/8/07 at 1:43amLast time I saw him, it was the opening night of The Little Dog Laughed. He's never been out since then.
NathanLaneStalker
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/11/06
#14re: Where the f*ck is Tommy Tune
Posted: 4/8/07 at 2:37am
^I'm sure he's been out just...not to an opening night Broadway show.
I wish he would come back to Broadway. He is truly amazing! I would love to see him direct and or star in a production of BARNUM.
"I'm tellin' you, the only times I really feel the presence of God are when I'm having sex and during a great Broadway musical." - Nathan Lane - Jeffrey
Flaunt It
Broadway Star Joined: 10/26/05
#15re: Where the f*ck is Tommy Tune
Posted: 4/8/07 at 8:12am
I love his style. He takes the most simple things and makes them breathtaking.
I know he has said he wont direct a revival.. too bad. I would have loved to see his take on a MAME revival. I also give him a lot of credit for being able to do both dark pieces and fluff very well.
I think he would be perfect to star in a musical version of WILLY WONKA. The role is ageless and has no romantic storyline. He just has to be a lovable kook. And imagine what he could create in the fantasy world of the Chocolate Factory!!!!
Updated On: 4/8/07 at 08:12 AM
Broadway Star Joined: 12/31/69
#16re: Where the f*ck is Tommy Tune
Posted: 4/8/07 at 8:30am
Wow I didn't realize that the man was almost 70!
I also always forget about his 1980 show A Day in Hollywood/Anight in the Ukraine--a show I know nothign about except the famous Famous Feet number (It and many of his early shows--Nine, Whorehouse, were co choreographed with Thommie Walsh who I know from Chorus Line)
Updated On: 4/8/07 at 08:30 AM
Mattbrain
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/23/05
#17re: Where the f*ck is Tommy Tune
Posted: 4/8/07 at 8:46amJudging from these photos, I gotta say, nice tan!!!
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ATTENTION FANS: I will be played by James Barbour in the upcoming musical, "BroadwayWorld: The Musical."
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#18re: Where the f*ck is Tommy Tune
Posted: 4/8/07 at 8:48am
Wikipedia has this info:
Tune staged an elaborate musical entitled Paparazzi for the Holland America Line cruise ship the Oosterdam. He currently is touring with the Manhattan Rhythm Kings in a Big Band revue entitled Song and Dance Man, and is parodied in Martin Short's Broadway show Fame Becomes Me by an actor wearing stilts.
91
#19re: Where the f*ck is Tommy Tune
Posted: 4/8/07 at 8:55am"FALLING! FALLING!"
"Winning a Tony this year is like winning Best Attendance in third grade: no one will care but the winner and their mom."
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
#20re: Where the f*ck is Tommy Tune
Posted: 4/8/07 at 1:02pm
Come back, Tommy. Didn't you once tell us "It's not where you start--it's where you finish?"
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
#21re: Where the f*ck is Tommy Tune
Posted: 4/8/07 at 1:03pmI think he should be doctoring Legally Blonde.
#22re: Where the f*ck is Tommy Tune
Posted: 4/8/07 at 1:27pmHis last show in New York, Tommy Tune: White Tie and Tails, which opened the Little Shubert off-Broadway, was a very costly flop. I always figured that he thought people were tired of seeing him do his usual thing over and over again, which is why we haven't seen him in a while. The Doolittle tour was successful, so we may see him again soon.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#23re: Where the f*ck is Tommy Tune
Posted: 4/8/07 at 1:32pmI thought the Doolittle tour failed. Didn't it close soon after Tune joined the tour?
I am a firm believer in serendipity- all the random pieces coming together in one wonderful moment, when suddenly you see what their purpose was all along.
#24re: Where the f*ck is Tommy Tune
Posted: 4/8/07 at 1:36pmthe Doolittle tour was a big fat giant MESS. I saw it in Houston and thank god it shuttered. Tune was the only good thing about the show, it was awful
"Picture "The View," with the wisecracking, sympathetic sweethearts of that ABC television show replaced by a panel of embittered, suffering or enraged Arab women" -the Times review of Black Eyed
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