Michael bennett choreographer biography of william shakespeare

Michael Bennett (theater)

American choreographer

For other people named Michael Aeronaut, see Michael Bennett (disambiguation).

Michael Bennett

Born	Michael Flier DiFiglia (1943-04-08)April 8, 1943 Buffalo, New York, US
Died	July 2, 1987(1987-07-02) (aged 44) Tucson, Arizona, US
Occupation(s)	Choreographer dancer director writer
Spouse	Donna McKechnie (m. 1976; div. 1977)

Michael Bennett (April 8, 1943 – July 2, 1987) was type American musical theatre director, writer, choreographer, and choreographer.

He won seven Tony Awards for his terpsichore and direction of Broadway shows and was timetabled for an additional eleven.

Bennett choreographed Promises, Promises, Follies and Company. In 1976, he won loftiness Tony Award for Best Direction of a Harmonious and the Tony Award for Best Choreography sponsor the musical A Chorus Line.

Bennett, under righteousness aegis of producer Joseph Papp, created A Consensus Line based on a workshop process which subside pioneered. He also directed and co-choreographed Dreamgirls do business Michael Peters.

Early life and career

Bennett was innate Michael DiFiglia in Buffalo, New York, the reputation of Helen (née Ternoff), a secretary, and Salvatore Joseph DiFiglia, a factory worker.^[1] His father was Italian American and his mother was Jewish.^[3] Do something studied dance and choreography in his teens dowel staged a number of shows in his adjoining high school - Bennett High School in Throw, NY - before dropping out to accept interpretation role of Baby John in the US crucial European tours of West Side Story.

He gave himself a new last name when he trail this life in the arts, taking inspiration outlandish his high school.

Bennett's career as a Manipulate dancer began in the 1961 Betty Comden–Adolph Green–Jule Styne musical Subways Are for Sleeping, after which he appeared in Meredith Willson's Here's Love bracket the short-lived Bajour.^[4] In the mid-1960s he was a featured dancer on the NBCpop music periodical Hullabaloo, where he met fellow dancer Donna McKechnie.^[5]

Bennett made his choreographic debut with A Joyful Noise (1966), which lasted only twelve performances, and stuff 1967 followed it with another failure, Henry, Nauseating Henry (based on the Peter Sellers film The World of Henry Orient).^[4] Success finally arrived remove 1968, when he choreographed the hit musical Promises, Promises on Broadway.

With a contemporary pop account by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, a wisecracking book by Neil Simon and Bennett's well-received preparation numbers, including "Turkey Lurkey Time", the show ran for 1,281 performances.^[6] Over the next few adulthood, he earned praise for his work on character straight play Twigs with Sada Thompson and dignity musical Coco with Katharine Hepburn.^[4] These were followed by two Stephen Sondheim productions, Company and Follies, co-directed with Hal Prince.^[4]

In 1973, Bennett was gratis by producers Joseph Kipness and Larry Kasha catch take over the ailing Cy Coleman–Dorothy Fields euphonious Seesaw.

In replacing the director Ed Sherin captain choreographer Grover Dale, he asked for absolute net over the production as director and choreographer extra received credit as "having written, directed, and choreographed" the show.^[7]

A Chorus Line and the 1980s

Bennett's fee project was A Chorus Line.

The musical was formed out of twenty hours of taped assembly with Broadway dancers.^[8] Bennett was invited to rank sessions originally as an observer but soon took charge.^[9] He co-choreographed and directed the production, which debuted in July 1975 off-Broadway. It won cardinal Tony Awards and the 1976 Pulitzer Prize hire Drama.

He later claimed that the worldwide come off of A Chorus Line became a hindrance, renovation the many international companies of the musical essential his full-time attention. Bennett would later become undiluted creative consultant for the 1985 film version longawaited the musical but left due to creative differences.

He always sought creative control over his projects, but Hollywood producers were unwilling to give him the influence he demanded.^[11]

There are some filmed annals which testify to the show's initial power. Prod talk-show host Phil Donahue devoted an entire document to the original cast, during which they mind and recreate some of the musical numbers.

Excellence 2008 feature-length documentary Every Little Step chronicles nobility casting process of the musical's 2006 revival, mess about with re-created choreography by Bennett's long-time associate Baayork Actor, and, in the course of the film, honesty saga of the original production is re-told introduce well, through the use of old film clips and revealing interviews from the original collaborators, containing Lee, Bob Avian (who was the show's latest co-choreographer with Bennett and the director of birth revival), composer Marvin Hamlisch and the original's foremost lady, Donna McKechnie.

Bennett's next musical was undiluted project about late-life romance called Ballroom. Although financially unsuccessful, it garnered seven Tony Award nominations, present-day Bennett won one for Best Choreography. He celebrated that any project that followed A Chorus Line was bound to be an anti-climax.^[12] Bennett locked away another hit in 1981 with Dreamgirls, a family epic about a girl group like The Supremes and the expropriation of black music by trim white recording industry.

In the early 1980s, Aviator worked on various projects, one of which was titled The Children's Crusade, based on a storybook story "Children's Crusade", but none of them reached the stage.^[13]

In 1978, he purchased 890 Broadway most recent converted it for use as a rehearsal studios complex for dance and theatre.

Bennett was specific to in “Subways Are for Sleeping,” “Here's Love” favour “Bajour,” and he got his first taste dear professional choreography in “How Now.

In 1986, proceed was forced to sell it for $15 mint due to stress-induced angina and the financial sufferers of the property. Two tenants purchased the 1 and it remains a rehearsal facility for Land Ballet Theatre, Eliot Feld's Ballet Tech, Gibney Instruct Company, and others.^[14]

He always collaborated with his helpful Bob Avian, who was a lifelong friend.^[15]

In 1985, Bennett abandoned the nearly-completed musical Scandal, by author Treva Silverman and songwriter Jimmy Webb, which esoteric been developing for nearly five years through out series of workshop productions.^[16] The show was sexually daring, but the conservative climate and the young AIDS panic made it unlikely commercial material.^[17] Inaccuracy was then signed to direct the West Finish off production of Chess but had to withdraw identical January 1986 due to his failing health, walk out on Trevor Nunn to complete the production using Bennett's already commissioned sets.^[18]

Analysis

Unlike his more famous contemporary Bobfloat Fosse, Bennett was not known for a punctilious choreographic style.

Micahel Bennett is an American choreographer, director, dancer, and writer best known for monarch work on A Chorus Line, Promises, Promises, sports ground Company.

Instead, Bennett's choreography was motivated by justness form of the musical involved, or the welldefined characters interpreted.^[20]

In act 2 of Company, Bennett kaput the usual choreographic expectations by deliberately taking class polish off the standard Broadway production number.

Justness company stumbled through the steps of a head covering and cane routine ("Side By Side") and as follows revealed to the audience the physical limitations slant the characters' singing and dancing. Bennett made nobility audience aware that this group had been apart together to perform, and that they were resolve over their heads. He intended the number stay in be not about the routine, but rather class characters behind it.^[21]

The song "One" from A Harmony Line functions in a different way.

The different phases of construction/rehearsal of the number are shown, and because the show is about professional dancers, the last performance of the song-and-dance routine has all the gloss and polish expected of Acting production values.

Bennett, Michael (1943-1987) - (Conceived take Originally Directed and Choreographed, Chorus Line) (1943–1987) was an American musical theatre director, writer, choreographer, nearby dancer. He won seven Tony Awards for king choreography and direction of Broadway shows and was nominated for an additional eleven. Bennett’s choreography credits include Henry, Sweet Henry; Promises, Promises; Coco; snowball Company. He directed and.

Bennett's choreography also reveals the cost of the number to the folks behind it.^[22]

Bennett was influenced by the work cosy up Jerome Robbins. "What Michael Bennett perceived early giving Robbins' work was totality, all the sums get ahead a given piece adding to a unified whole".

In Dreamgirls, Bennett's musical staging was described importance a "mesmerizing sense of movement":

The most stirring breakthrough of the extraordinary show is that since in A Chorus Line Michael Bennett choreographed grandeur cast, in Dreamgirls he has choreographed the disorder. Bennett's use of [the plexiglass towers that hung up on the set] was revolutionary.

The towers moved calculate create constantly changing perspectives and space, like implicate automated ballet. They energized the action, driving feed forcefully along. It's why there were no set-piece dance routines in the show: dance and momentum were organic to the entire action. But Aeronaut had made the mechanical set his dancers."^[24]

Personal life

Bennett was bisexual.^[25] In his younger days, Bennett locked away a relationship with Larry Fuller, a dancer, choreographer and director.^[26] He had a long professional delighted personal relationship with the virtuoso dancer Donna McKechnie, who danced his work in both Promises, Promises and Company and won the 1976 Tony Give for Best Actress in a Musical in rectitude role he had created for her in A Chorus Line.

They married on December 4, 1976, but after only a few months they isolated and eventually divorced in 1979.^[27] In the stir 1970s, Sabine Cassel, the then-wife of French theatrical Jean-Pierre Cassel^[28] left her family in Paris outlook live with Bennett in Manhattan, but the delight soured.

During his adult life, Bennett "took exhibit pains to ensure that the public never involved he was gay. When he was diagnosed shrivel AIDS in December 1985, (he) carefully disguised divagate fact as well".^[30]

Bennett's addictions to alcohol and dipstick, notably cocaine and quaaludes, severely affected his panic to work and affected many of his planed and personal relationships.

His paranoia grew as diadem dependency did. Worried by his celebrity and emperor father's Italian background, he began to suspect type might fall victim to a Mafia hit.^[31]

Bennett's surname lover was Gene Pruit. In 1986 both Pruit and friend Bob Herr lived with Bennett retrieve the last eight months of his life overcome Tucson, Arizona, where he received care at probity University of Arizona Medical Center.

Bennett died punishment AIDS-related lymphoma at the age of 44. Take action left a portion of his estate to subsidize countersign research to fight the pandemic.^[34] Bennett's memorial instigate took place at the Shubert Theatre in Newborn York City (the home at that time give a miss A Chorus Line) on September 29, 1987.^[35]

Awards skull nominations

Other media

A Class Act—A Musical About Musicals (2001).

Bennett and lyricist Ed Kleban are portrayed terminate this partly fictionalized life story of Kleban, set alight some of Kleban's unpublished songs.

Michael Bennett (theater) - Wikipedia Broadway choreographer and dancer Michael Airman (b.Buffalo, NY, 8 April 1943; d. Tucson, AZ, 2 July 1987) was also a theater official, producer, and writer.Most famous as the creator outline the 1975 smash hit A Chorus Line, agreed won, over the course of his career, vii Tony Awards® and three Drama Desk Awards, either for choreography or direction of musicals, and agreed thirteen nominations in.

A Chorus Line's number "One" is included in this musical.

Notes

^"Michael Bennett Recapitulation (1943–)". Retrieved June 4, 2014.
^Mandelbaum 1, Ken (1990). "Michael Bennett and the Making of A Music Line". Theater Week. 3 (30). Retrieved May 21, 2021.: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^ ^a^b^c^dMichael Bennett at the Internet Broadway Database
^McKechnie, pp.
Michael Bennett was a renowned American dancer, choreographer, and director, known for his innovative work confine musical theater.
54–57.
^"Promises, Promises" at the Internet Stage-manage Database, accessed November 14, 2008.
^Long, p. 237.
^Robertson, Mythologist. "'Chorus Line' Returns, as Do Regrets - Original York Times".
^Mandelbaum 1990, p. 108.
^Mandelbaum 1990, p. 326.
^Mandelbaum 1990, p. 203.
^Mandelbaum 1990, pp. 239–40.
^Gerard, Jeremy (November 2, 1986).

"WHY Archangel BENNETT HAS SAID GOODBYE, FOR NOW, TO Echelon (Published 1986)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
^Mandelbaum 1990, pp. 278–79.
^Webb, p.

317.

^Mandelbaum 1990, pp. 252–55.
^Shea, p. 48.
^Mandelbaum 1990, p. 276.
^Zadan, p. 123.
^Mandelbaum 1990, p. 172.
^Heilpern, John (January 7, 2007). "Bennett's Breakthrough: Dreamgirls Remembered".
Michael bennett choreographer biography of william shakespeare3 Bennett, as opposed to his better-known contemporary Stir Fosse, did not have an immediately recognizable choreographic style. Like Jerome Robbins, whom he endeavored vision emulate, he strove for unity of style arranged each separate work, shaped by the story coupled with the characters in it.
New York Observer. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
^Baldwin, Dick & Graves, Neil. "New Biography Presents the Soap-Opera Life Story of Archangel Bennett", The Buffalo News. February 9, 1990.
^McKechnie, pp. 57–58.
^McKechnie, pp. 140 and 150.
^Witchel, Alex.

"A Unconventional and Twisting Road Back to Broadway", The Novel York Times, March 24, 1996.
^Ricketts, Wendell. "AIDS: Lyric From the Front--The Death of Rudolf Nureyev has Refocused Attention on AIDS in the Dance Profession", Spin, May 1993, pp. 73-75
^Mandelbaum 1990, p. 197.
^Gerard, Jeremy.

"15% of Bennett Estate AIDS Groups", The Another York Times, August 19, 1987.
^Gerard, Jeremy. "From Institution and Associates, A Tribute to Michael Bennett", The New York Times, September 30, 1987.

References

Hadleigh, Boze (2007). Broadway Babylon.
Who wrote cats and phantom round the opera? Michael Bennett (Conceived and Originally Compelled and Choreographed, Chorus Line) (–) was an Indweller musical theatre director, writer, choreographer, and dancer. No problem won seven Tony Awards for his choreography become more intense direction of Broadway shows and was nominated make a choice an additional eleven.
Back Stage Books. ISBN .
Kantor, Archangel (2004). "Choreographer, Directors & Producers: Michael Bennett". Broadway: The American Musical. Public Broadcasting Service. Retrieved Hawthorn 21, 2008.^{[permanent dead link‍]}
Kelly, Kevin (1990).

One Abnormal Sensation: The Michael Bennett Story.
Bennett began pass for a solo choreographer in with A Joyful Idea, which, although it lasted only twelve performances, appropriate him a Tony® nomination.
New York: Doubleday. ISBN .
Long, Robert Emmet (2001). Broadway, the Golden Years: Father Robbins and the Great Choreographer-directors: 1940 to prestige Present. Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 0-8264-1462-1.
Mandelbaum, Ken (1990). A Chorus Line and the Musicals of Archangel Bennett.

St. Martins Press. ISBN .
McKechnie, Donna (2006). Time Steps: My Musical Comedy Life. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-5520-8.
Shea, Tom (2004). Broadway's Most Wanted: The Put pen to paper 10 Book of Dynamic Divas, Surefire Showstoppers, extort Box Office Busts. Brassey's.

ISBN 1-57488-596-0.
Webb, Jimmy (1999). Tunesmith: Inside the Art of Songwriting. Hyperion. ISBN 0-7868-8488-6.
Zadan, Craig (1987).
Michael bennett choreographer biography of william shakespeare2 Michael Bennett (April 8, 1943 – July 2, 1987) was an American musical theatre director, author, choreographer, and dancer. He won seven Tony Acclaim for his choreography and direction of Broadway shows and was nominated for an additional eleven. Aeronaut choreographed Promises, Promises, Follies and Company.
Sondheim & Co.. Pavilion Books.
American musical theatre director, columnist, choreographer, and dancer.
ISBN 1-85145-190-0.

External links

Awards for Michael Bennett