Thu Dec 26, 11:10 AM ET
PLAYBILL ON-LINE'S BRIEF ENCOUNTER with Tommy Tune
by Kenneth Jones Playbill On-Line
Song-and-dance man Tommy Tune is back in business in New York City, performing White Tie and Tails, the new revue he created for himself and the Manhattan Rhythm Kings.
Although he's the celebrated director-choreographer of such Broadway musicals as The Will Rogers Follies, Nine, Grand Hotel and My One and Only, Tune never lost his interest in his showman roots. At age 63, the youthful 6-foot-6 Tune sings and dances to genuine theatre music (Irving Berlin, the Gershwins) in the new Off-Broadway show, a welcome break from his two years performing in the Las Vegas spectacular, EFX, which he regarded as a money job to pay the rent.
Prior to his Dec. 18 opening at the brand new 499-seat Little Shubert Theatre on West 42nd Street, Tune talked with Playbill On-Line about audiences today, amplified tap and his wish to direct again.
Playbill On-Line: There's a great vaudeville quality to your show,
as if it's a glance back to a time when a hoofer would stand in front of
a curtain and sell a song.
Tommy Tune: That's what I call it. I say "it's vaudeville and verisimilitude!"
It was before my time, too, but I did a lot of research. People used to
make their entire careers doing one routine in front of a painted drop.
They could have a whole career traveling the country performing for a thousand
people per performance - it's an amazing thing.
PBOL: And that kind of turn would make its way into narrative musical
theatre, like when Ray Bolger came out in Where's Charley? and sang in
a spotlight and encouraged the audience to sing along...
TT: That was like an accident. They clapped so much on opening night
of Where's Charley? - the "Once in Love With Amy" number. He finished it,
and the show couldn't go on, so he came out. He didn't know what to do
so he did it again, and did it again and then said, "OK, everybody sing!"
PBOL: I kind of love that idea, though.
TT: Yeah, well, me too, because that lets the audience know it's happening
live. It hasn't been filmed and edited. it's not on television in a delayed
performance.
PBOL: I assume some of White Tie and Tails includes some of the favorite
stuff you and The Manhattan Rhythm Kings have performed in the past.
TT: We have a very large repertoire because we've been working together
for 18 years. We went back and pulled out some of the old stuff that we
hadn't done in a few years and brushed it off and looked at it. Of course,
I've rechoreographed everything. Nothing is what it was at the beginning
because, y'know, tastes change. My tastes change. My interest level has
to be constantly piqued - we have to keep being fresh for the audience.
I added a slew of new numbers for this engagement because we're in New
York City, and New York deserves it. A lot of the show is brand new: The
dance that we do to the Chopin prelude, my opening is new, the Kings' two
numbers are brand new, the "New York at Christmas" is brand new and perishable
- that's only good 'til January first. The last song, "This Time Around,"
is totally new because that's for now, post-September 11th.
PBOL: What about "When I'm 64"?
TT: Yeah, that's new. [Laughs.]
PBOL: You weren't doing that 10 years ago.
TT: [Laughs.] No, I wasn't, you got me there.
PBOL: You intend to create new stuff for this show as it runs?
TT: Absolutely. That's the nature of a show that's not trapped in a
book. I love doing the show. Every night it's its own event. It's always
different.
PBOL: Has your stuff with the Kings always included a 16-piece orchestra?
TT: We always have 16 pieces, no matter where we play. The orchestrations,
and they are mostly by Peter Matz, are all done for 16 pieces. That is
the one place where we do not scrimp, even if we are playing one night
in the Catskills, we have a 16-piece orchestra. That's on the contract.
If they don't wanna do that, then I don't play. It's different when you're
just a singer - you can sing with a smaller group, as Liza does and people
do, and it's cool. But when you stop singing and you go into your dance,
the orchestra must replace the vocal energy and send you further up - so
you have something to dance on, a musical platform to dance on.
PBOL: In the age of Noise/Funk and Stomp, tap dance seems more amplified
- more miked - than ever. Has it changed in the past 10 years?
TT: I've been miking my taps for 10 years. I miked them in My One and
Only. As the technology is more refined, the sound is more refined. I've
always worn tap mikes, always. Even in Seesaw, I wore tap mikes.
PBOL: Does that literally mean there's a mike in your shoe?
TT: To be very technical, I wear a battery pack around my waist, in
the back. The line from the battery pack goes down the back of my legs
all the way into my socks and out the tongue of the shoe. Right at the
base of the laces there's a tiny mike.
PBOL: Does an audience want more sound these days?
TT: I don't like to acknowledge the fact that people don't listen like
they used to listen. But it's the truth. Everybody's ears are blown out.
It started with discotheques in the '70s. If you turned off the sound,
the modern-day audiences wouldn't hear it. They'd say, "Huh? Speak up!"
We are bludgeoned with such sound levels in this life that we live nowadays.
One has to compete in the real world (news - Y! TV), not in the dream world
where we used to sit quietly, lean forward in our seats, hang on every
word the performer said. Now, we expect to sit back and "Pump up da volume."
PBOL: I would guess you have a pile scripts on your nightstand that
you're reading.
TT: Nothing good yet. I'm going through 'em. I don't have a lot of
time right now, but I have a lot of scripts. I'd love to find something
that's substantial: A new musical that entertains and enlightens and takes
us to a higher place, something that would inspire me to do more. I get
a lot of offers to do revivals. I'm interested in creating, not recreating.
How boring! I think my calling is to find a new property of our time, otherwise
there will be nothing to revive in the future. We're feeding off the past
a little too much, I fear.
PBOL: But Tommy Tune the director is going to emerge again?
TT: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
PBOL: Does being in a Broadway show still interest you?
TT: Listen, my talent is like a buffet. There are desserts on it and
main courses on it, and side dishes. Whatever comes up, however I can make
the best plate for the audience, then that's what I'll scoop up.
PBOL: Wasn't there talk that you would stage Jerry Herman's new show,
Miss Spectacular, about a Kansas girl who flees to Vegas to compete in
a showgirl competition?
TT: Oh, yeah, we're hoping to do that. They're building the theatre
first. They have to build the theatre. It's a musical he wrote for Las
Vegas -
PBOL: It should not be on Broadway?
TT: Absolutely not, it's a Las Vegas musical. We'll see what happens.
They're trying to sew up the deal. It has to do with the building of the
theatre first. There are so many cirque-type shows. I'm thinking [it should
be] done with brevity, done in an abbreviated form. The attention span
in Las Vegas is much less than the attention span on the East Coast. Y'know,
the audience has been drinking, they've been at the tables all day, they've
been dazzled by the lights of the city. They want their entertainment and
they want it fast. Jerry and I are working on it an we'll see what happens.
back to Tommy Tune, White Tie And Tails
back to Tommy Tune "White Tie And Tails"
Created using Mac
Concept, Web Design, Copyright © ARKADY.COM
"Can't Make It Up!!!"