Dancing Man: A Broadway Choreographer's Journey

by Bob Avian, Tom Santopietro (With)

Overview

Tony and Olivier Award–winning Bob Avian’s dazzling life story, Dancing Man: A Broadway Choreographer’s Journey, is a memoir in three acts. Act I reveals the origins of one of Broadway’s legendary choreographers who appeared onstage with stars like Barbra Streisand and Mary Martin all before he was thirty. Act II includes teaching Katharine Hepburn how to sing and dance in Coco and working with Stephen Sondheim and Michael Bennett while helping to choreograph the original productions of Company and Follies. During this time, Avian won a Tony Award as the cochoreographer of A Chorus Line and produced the spectacular Tony Award–winning Dreamgirls. For a triumphant third act, Avian choreographed Julie Andrews’s return to the New York stage, devised all of the musical staging for Miss Saigon and Sunset Boulevard, and directed A Chorus Line on Broadway. He worked with the biggest names on Broadway, including Andrew Lloyd Webber, Carol Burnett, Jennifer Holliday, Patti LuPone, Elaine Stritch, and Glenn Close.

Candid, witty, sometimes shocking, and always entertaining, here at last is the ultimate up-close and personal insider’s view from a front row seat at the creation of the biggest, brightest, and best Broadway musicals of the past fifty years.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781496826985
Publisher:	University Press of Mississippi
Publication date:	02/06/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Bob Avian (1937–2021) was an award-winning Broadway choreographer known for his work on A Chorus Line, Miss Saigon, and Sunset Boulevard. He began his career on Broadway as a dancer in such classic shows as West Side Story, Funny Girl, and Hello, Dolly! He also served as an original producer of Dreamgirls in 1981 and directed the Broadway and London revivals of A Chorus Line in 2006 and 2013. Tom Santopietro is author of seven books, including the national best-selling The Sound of Music Story and the New York Times Editor's Choice, Considering Doris Day. Over the past thirty years, he has managed more than two dozen Broadway shows.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

The Leading Ladies xi

Chapter 1 Katharine Hepburn, Coco, and a Big Smash Flop 3

Chapter 2 Beginnings 11

Chapter 3 Broadway Gypsy 18

Chapter 4 Funny Girl, Hello, Dolly!, and I Do! I Do! 26

Chapter 5 Henry, Sweet Henry and Promises, Promises 42

Chapter 6 Company 52

Chapter 7 Follies 61

Chapter 8 Straight Plays 72

Chapter 9 "If Hitler's Alive I Hope He's Out of Town with a Musical" 76

Chapter 10 Straight Plays: The Sequel 83

Chapter 11 5-6-7-8: A Chorus Line 87

Chapter 12 Hooray for Hollywood 104

Chapter 13 How Do You Follow Up A Chorus Line? 108

Chapter 14 Dreamgirls 115

Chapter 15 Record-Breakers, Might-Have-Beens, and a Marriage 133

Chapter 16 Out OH My Own 142

Chapter 17 Miss Saigon 148

Chapter 18 Putting It Together 158

Chapter 19 Sunset Boulevard: The Mansion Has Landed 163

Chapter 20 Martin Guerre 171

Chapter 21 Hey, Mr. Producer and The Witches of Eastwick 175

Chapter 22 Back on the Line 180

Chapter 23 Saigon Redux 185

Chapter 24 Coming Full Circle 189

Index 195