Word: broadway
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Abbott or Balanchine. "We have a wonderful company," he says. "They are devoted to the show and to each other and to the material, and I am touched and astounded by their capacity." He is already a bit sad that this long voyage into his shining past and Broadway's iffy future is completed. "I'm like a cruise director," he says. "I organize the trip and the entertainment and the luggage. Then everybody gets on the ship, and it sails off without me. After a show opens, a chasm opens before me. My relationships with 70 people almost come...
...Broadway misses Robbins. For a decade or so after his abdication, the American musical was dominated by choreographer-directors in the Robbins mold: Bob Fosse, Michael Bennett, Tommy Tune. Today, though, Broadway is little more than a posh road stop for the British musical; the '80s' three signature smashes (Cats, Les Miserables and The Phantom of the Opera) were born in London. Jacobs tacitly acknowledges this when he proclaims Robbins "a genius, probably the genius of our time," then adds, "God pity me if Andrew Lloyd Webber hears that...
...hear this: Jerome Robbins is Broadway's perennial prince charming, and his show is a kiss of life to the Sleeping Beauty of the American musical. "I always felt this might well be the most exciting piece of theater in my lifetime," Jacobs says with unaccustomed fervor. "I certainly hope so." High hopes, yes, but Robbins has usually soared to achieve them. "He is the real Peter Pan," says Mary Martin, who 35 years ago played that role for Robbins. "He loves...
Forget for a moment that Jerome Robbins is one of the pivotal figures in Broadway history and that the gala onstage is a summing up of his invaluable career. For audiences who know what came after, how entertaining is this journey to the bottom of Robbins' trunk? If Broadway is not making 'em the way it used to, should we be regretful? Or relieved? If neither revivals from Broadway's heyday nor imitations of that style lead to commercial success, then does this logical next step, a greatest-hits compendium, offer much hope...
...answers, as might be expected with such a patchwork show, depend on what is onstage at the moment. The pratfall pandemonium of the opening scene of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum makes one long for a full-scale Broadway revival. The dance suite of teen gang wars adapted from West Side Story actually benefits by being divorced from the original's cute, coy lyrics, which in life would not tumble trippingly from the tongues of underprivileged youth. The wide-eyed wonder of city life may never have been more vibrantly shown than among the World...