\t\t\t\t\t\t [aesop_image force_fullwidth=”off” lightbox=”off” captionposition=”left” caption=”BALLROOM Post-Broadway Southeast Tour – Photo courtesy of Indianapolis newspaper” captionsrc=”custom” align=”center” imgwidth=”100%” img=”https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/kochbill\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/215\/2020\/11\/BALLROOM-cropped.jpg” panorama=”off”]\n
BALLROOM! What a great tour! A talented, delightful cast and crew, and fun venues\u2014like a paid, working vacation!<\/p>\n
When I was cast, certain friends queried \u201cWhy are you doing this \u2018ensemble\u2019 job\u2014your directing career is taking off?!\u201d<\/i> \u201cOne,\u201d<\/i> I answered \u201cbecause I\u2019ve always wanted to do a Michael Bennett show. Two, I really like this show. And three, nobody else has offered me a job for the summer!\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n Of course, typical of Theatre, I was shortly offered a guest directing job at a summer theater I\u2019d interviewed with for a couple of years\u2014and one of my favorite shows: Rodgers & Hammerstein\u2019s THE KING AND I! The conflict: the BALLROOM tour would be leaving town the opening day of THE KING AND I! Luckily THE KING producer understood and allowed me to hire an Assistant Director (with experience)\u2014my wonderful, talented friend Larry Engler\u2014to complete THE KING slot so I could also do the tour! The talented cast was also supportive and THE KING AND I opened successfully as I was<\/span> beginning rehearsals for BALLROOM!<\/span><\/p>\n My one regret before the tour was that I would have to wear \u201csuits\u201d through the whole show! The first suit the wardrobe person gave me was dark navy blue! I put it on sadly thinking \u201cWhatever I look like, I want to dance this show!\u201d <\/i>When I looked in the full-length mirror I felt like Natalie Wood in GYPSY\u2013\u201cMomma, I\u2019m beautiful!<\/i>\u201d After I had tried on all my suits, the wardrobe person was delighted and announced that the original Broadway dancer and I must have identical bodies!<\/p>\n I was excited to discover that my favorite dance partner, Joan Jaffe, would be on the tour as well. I was also thrilled that the lead on our tour was to be Janis Paige, who I\u2019d had the privilege and joy of working with several years earlier when she was a fabulous \u201cCharity Hope Valentine\u201d for Kenley Players! First day of rehearsal, Joan and I are warming up in the studio and I hear \u201cBill!\u2014How great that you\u2019re also doing this tour!\u201d<\/i> It was Janis! I was so amazed and pleased, that she remembered sharing SWEET CHARITY! And her terrific acting, singing & dancing made \u201cBea\u201d as beautifully human as her \u201cCharity.\u201d Even one night in a huge amphitheater, when she maintained a ballad successfully, while holding down the props from a heavy wind!<\/p>\n One number in the show I hated<\/em> at first! (and of course came to love on tour!) The music was five beats to a measure; the choreography was in 7 counts! So we had to listen to the music for tempo, but literally count our choreography! The actual simplicity of the number was that Michael had created only four choreographic patterns: \u201capples,\u201d \u201coranges,\u201d \u201cpears,\u201d \u201cbananas\u201d\u2014each dance couple actually repeated those four patterns, but each couple had a different order, so \u201capples,\u201d \u201coranges,\u201d \u201cpears,\u201d \u201cbananas,\u201d \u201cpears,\u201d \u201capples,\u201d \u201capples\u201d\u2026 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 \/ 1, 2 ,3, 4, 5, 6, 7\u2026 !! What the audience saw was a beautiful crazy quilt of movement where every couple seemed to be dancing something different \u2026 and yet somehow the same! That\u2019s what I saw as audience viewing a Broadway onstage performance\u2014that\u2019s what got me through rehearsals til I could just enjoy the number for the pure exhilaration of dancing it!<\/p>\n The final scene in BALLROOM is a glorious waltz\u2014ladies in formal gowns, men in soup & fish (long tail tuxedos). Joan & I always loved this scene! One night, also in the huge Kansas City amphitheater, I was about to drop from the onset of a summer flu (later found I had a 101 fever) but did the show alternating happy numbers onstage with runs to the bathroom offstage! Joan and I were the first couple to run on for bows, and that night though I had permission to skip them I said to Joan \u201cWhat the hell, I\u2019m here, just drag me on and off.\u201d<\/i> Bow Music! Joan and I (being led) run on with smiling faces as the lights hit us\u2014and\u2014Whoaa!!\u2014the entire audience rises to their feet clapping and cheering with good feelings as bright as the spotlights! It\u2019s reported that I said with fevered voice: \u201cJoan!\u2014this is what its all about!\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n That night in Kansas City I couldn\u2019t explain the \u201call about\u201d I felt when that flood of applause and feeling raced en masse across the footlights, but now I understand that that shared joy and appreciation from the audience was \u201call about\u201d all of us\u2014about me, and Joan, and Janis, and the rest of the performers, and the stage manager, and the stage crew, about the costumers, and the set designers, and the lighting designers, and about Michael and the other artists who created this amazing work of live Theatre\u2014going back to Maureen Stapleton and all the other talented persons who created the original TV film \u201cQueen Of The Stardust Ballroom\u201d\u2014and about the original Broadway cast, some of whom were on stage that night in Kansas City\u2014it was the \u201cwe\u201d of the audience sharing with the \u201cwe\u201d on & backstage\u2014sharing this amazing experience we call \u201cLive Theatre!\u201d That\u2019s what it\u2019s all about for me. What\u2019s it all about for you? [aesop_image force_fullwidth=”off” lightbox=”off” captionposition=”left” caption=”BALLROOM Post-Broadway Southeast Tour – Photo courtesy of Indianapolis newspaper” captionsrc=”custom” align=”center” imgwidth=”100%” img=”https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/kochbill\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/215\/2020\/11\/BALLROOM-cropped.jpg” panorama=”off”] BALLROOM! What a great tour! A talented, delightful cast and crew, and fun venues\u2014like a paid, working vacation! When I was cast, certain friends queried \u201cWhy are you doing this \u2018ensemble\u2019 job\u2014your directing career is taking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":227,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-highlight"],"metadata":{"_edit_last":["227"],"_wpac_members_redirect_to":[""],"_wpac_show_in_search":["0"],"_wpac_show_excerpt_in_search":["0"],"_wpac_nonmembers_redirect_to":[""],"ase_chapter_enable_timeline":["off"],"_wp_old_date":["2020-11-05"],"ase_map_component_start_point":["a:2:{s:3:\"lat\";d:29.76;s:3:\"lng\";d:-95.38;}"]},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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