It Happened on Broadway by Myrna Katz Frommer & Harvey Frommer

Author:Myrna Katz Frommer & Harvey Frommer [Frommer, Myrna Katz & Frommer, Harvey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor Trade Publishing
Published: 2014-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

7

Look, Look, Look Who’s Dancin’ Now

JAMES HAMMERSTEIN: Because my family was so heavily involved in musical theater, I didn’t know it was a golden age that came and went. I thought it was normal. The golden age did not go out with a bang. Basically, the ranks thinned. Cole Porter, Frank Loesser, Lerner and Loewe, Rodgers and Hammerstein died. They died. And replacements were not coming at any steady rate.

But then there were the Jerry Robbinses, the Michael Kidds, the Bob Fosses, and the Michael Bennetts. We went from a book era to a dance era. The choreographer was the last thing on the totem pole in the book musical, pushing it to more of the visual. Little by little, as the choreographers finally got into the position of being choreographer-directors, all that frustration was unleashed. With Jerome Robbins in West Side Story and Michael Kidd in Li’l Abner, there was a real breakthrough in dancing. Robbins integrated book and dance, but he used a great deal more dance to tell the story.

SUSAN STROMAN: Jerome Robbins crossed over and made musical comedy and the ballet world jell, first with On the Town and then with West Side Story. Robbins used behavioral dance; he made those Jets and Sharks fight and react to each other through dance, yet you still believed they were gangs. West Side Story is the ultimate musical. It’s a political story with racial problems told through dance, a beautiful American love story with great music and important characters, all of whom dance.

GWEN VERDON: It used to be that a show needed eight dancers and eight singers. Today a performer in a musical has to be multifaceted, able to dance, sing, and act as well. While I may have gone on to personify that multifaceted performer, the field was opened up by Agnes de Mille, Jack Cole, Michael Kidd, Jerome Robbins, and Bob Fosse.

Just about everything you see on Broadway today is there because of Jack Cole and Agnes de Mille. Jack Cole introduced what today you would call jazz. It was actually African dance, but we did it in high heels. Agnes said that dancers are not animated wallpaper. They’ve got to be carried through in the show. So each of her dancers, whether he or she had lines in the show or not, was given a character to play.

CELESTE HOLM: Agnes de Mille was blunt, but blunt is never anything to be afraid of. She told me, “Everything you are doing is fine, but do it bigger. Oklahoma is a great big state. Great big sunlight.” Even the polka dots on my costume were big. That was the idea.

HOWARD KISSEL: Gower Champion was apparently a control freak. Someone once called him a Presbyterian Hitler. Bob Fosse was also not a piece of cake. But they had this high degree of professionalism.

MARGE CHAMPION: Gower Champion had grown up as a one-man show in a cabaret, and he didn’t want us to be just another dance team.

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