Michael Bennett (theater)
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Michael Bennett (April 8, 1943 – July 2, 1987) was an American
musical theatre Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movemen ...
director, writer, choreographer, and dancer. He won seven
Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual cer ...
s for his choreography and direction of Broadway shows and was nominated for an additional eleven. Bennett choreographed '' Promises, Promises'', '' Follies'' and ''
Company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...
''. In 1976, he won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical and the Tony Award for Best Choreography for the musical '' A Chorus Line''. Bennett, under the aegis of producer
Joseph Papp Joseph Papp (born Joseph Papirofsky; June 22, 1921 – October 31, 1991) was an American theatrical producer and director. He established The Public Theater in what had been the Astor Library Building in Lower Manhattan. There Papp created a y ...
, created ''A Chorus Line'' based on a workshop process which he pioneered. He also directed and co-choreographed '' Dreamgirls'' with Michael Peters.


Early life and career

Bennett was born Michael Bennett DiFiglia in
Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...
, the son of Helen (née Ternoff), a secretary, and Salvatore Joseph DiFiglia, a factory worker. His father was Italian American and his mother was Jewish. He studied dance and choreography in his teens and staged a number of shows in his local high school before dropping out to accept the role of Baby John in the US and European tours of ''
West Side Story ''West Side Story'' is a musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents. Inspired by William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo and Juliet'', the story is set in the mid-1 ...
''. Bennett's career as a Broadway dancer began in the 1961 Betty ComdenAdolph Green
Jule Styne Jule Styne (; born Julius Kerwin Stein; December 31, 1905 – September 20, 1994) was an English-American songwriter and composer best known for a series of Broadway musicals, including several famous frequently-revived shows that also became s ...
musical '' Subways Are for Sleeping'', after which he appeared in
Meredith Willson Robert Reiniger Meredith Willson (May 18, 1902 – June 15, 1984) was an American flutist, composer, conductor, musical arranger, bandleader, playwright, and writer. He is perhaps best known for writing the book, music, and lyrics for the 195 ...
's '' Here's Love'' and the short-lived '' Bajour''. In the mid-1960s he was a featured dancer on the NBC
pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...
series ''
Hullabaloo Hubbabaloo or hullaballoo may refer to: * Hullabaloo (band), a punk band * Hullabaloo (song), a 1990 single by Absent Friends * Hullabaloo (festival), a music festival at the University of California San Diego * ''Hullabaloo'' (film), a 1940 film ...
'', where he met fellow dancer Donna McKechnie. Bennett made his choreographic debut with '' A Joyful Noise'' (1966), which lasted only twelve performances, and in 1967 followed it with another failure, ''
Henry, Sweet Henry ''Henry, Sweet Henry'' is a musical with a book by Nunnally Johnson and music and lyrics by Bob Merrill. Based on the 1964 novel ''The World of Henry Orient'' by Johnson's daughter Nora and the subsequent film of the same name, the plot focuse ...
'' (based on the Peter Sellers film '' The World of Henry Orient''). Success finally arrived in 1968, when he choreographed the hit musical '' Promises, Promises'' on Broadway. With a contemporary pop score by
Burt Bacharach Burt Freeman Bacharach ( ; born May 12, 1928) is an American composer, songwriter, record producer and pianist who composed hundreds of pop songs from the late 1950s through the 1980s, many in collaboration with lyricist Hal David. A six-time Gra ...
and Hal David, a wisecracking book by Neil Simon and Bennett's well-received production numbers, including "
Turkey Lurkey Time "Turkey Lurkey Time" is a song-and-dance number from Act 1 of '' Promises, Promises'', the Burt Bacharach/Hal David musical, with a book by Neil Simon. It was originally choreographed for the 1968 Broadway production by Michael Bennett. The dance t ...
", the show ran for 1,281 performances. Over the next few years, he earned praise for his work on the straight play ''
Twigs A twig is a thin, often short, branch of a tree or bush. The buds on the twig are an important diagnostic characteristic, as are the abscission scars where the leaves have fallen away. The color, texture, and patterning of the twig bark are ...
'' with Sada Thompson and the musical '' Coco'' with
Katharine Hepburn Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress in film, stage, and television. Her career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned over 60 years. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited perso ...
. These were followed by two
Stephen Sondheim Stephen Joshua Sondheim (; March 22, 1930November 26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. One of the most important figures in twentieth-century musical theater, Sondheim is credited for having "reinvented the American musical" with sho ...
productions, ''
Company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...
'' and '' Follies,'' co-directed with
Hal Prince Harold Smith Prince (born Harold Smith; January 30, 1928 – July 31, 2019), commonly known as Hal Prince, was an American theatre director and producer known for his work in musical theatre. One of the foremost figures in 20th century America ...
. In 1973, Bennett was asked by producers Joseph Kipness and Larry Kasha to take over the ailing
Cy Coleman Cy Coleman (born Seymour Kaufman; June 14, 1929 – November 18, 2004) was an American composer, songwriter, and jazz pianist. Life and career Coleman was born Seymour Kaufman in New York City, United States, to Eastern European Jewish parents ...
Dorothy Fields musical '' Seesaw''. In replacing the director Ed Sherin and choreographer Grover Dale, he asked for absolute control over the production as director and choreographer and received credit as "having written, directed, and choreographed" the show.


''A Chorus Line'' and the 1980s

Bennett's next project was '' A Chorus Line''. The musical was formed out of twenty hours of taped sessions with Broadway dancers. Bennett was invited to the sessions originally as an observer but soon took charge. He co-choreographed and directed the production, which debuted in July 1975
off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...
. It won nine
Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual cer ...
s and the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. He later claimed that the worldwide success of ''A Chorus Line'' became a hindrance, as the many international companies of the musical demanded his full-time attention. Bennett would later become a creative consultant for the 1985
film version A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dia ...
of 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. There are some filmed records which testify to the show's initial power. Television talk-show host
Phil Donahue Phillip John Donahue (born December 21, 1935) is an American media personality, writer, film producer and the creator and host of ''The Phil Donahue Show''. The television program, later known simply as ''Donahue'', was the first talk show forma ...
devoted an entire program to the original cast, during which they reminisce and recreate some of the musical numbers. The 2008 feature-length documentary ''Every Little Step'' chronicles the casting process of the musical's 2006 revival, with re-created choreography by Bennett's long-time associate
Baayork Lee Baayork Lee (born December 5, 1946) is an American actress, singer, dancer, choreographer, theatre director, and author. Early life and career Lee was born in New York City's Chinatown, to an Indian mother and Chinese father. She started dancing ...
, and, in the course of the film, the saga of the original production is re-told as well, through the use of old film clips and revealing interviews from the original collaborators, including Lee, Bob Avian (who was the show's original co-choreographer with Bennett and the director of the revival), composer
Marvin Hamlisch Marvin Frederick Hamlisch (June 2, 1944 – August 6, 2012) was an American composer and conductor. Hamlisch was one of only seventeen people to win Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards. This collection of all four is referred to as an " EGOT ...
and the original's leading lady, Donna McKechnie. Bennett's next musical was a project about late-life romance called ''
Ballroom A ballroom or ballhall is a large room inside a building, the primary purpose of which is holding large formal parties called balls. Traditionally, most balls were held in private residences; many mansions and palaces, especially historic man ...
''. Although financially unsuccessful, it garnered seven Tony Award nominations, and Bennett won one for Best Choreography. He admitted that any project that followed ''A Chorus Line'' was bound to be an anti-climax. Bennett had another hit in 1981 with '' Dreamgirls'', a backstage epic about a
girl group A girl group is a music act featuring several female singers who generally harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female pop music singing groups, many of who ...
like
The Supremes The Supremes were an American girl group and a premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s. Founded as the Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, the Supremes were the most commercially successful of Motown's acts and the most successful ...
and the expropriation of black music by a white recording industry. In the early 1980s, Bennett worked on various projects, one of which was titled ''The Children's Crusade'', based on a legendary story " Children's Crusade", but none of them reached the stage. In 1978, he purchased 890 Broadway and converted it for use as a rehearsal studios complex for dance and theatre. In 1986, he was forced to sell it for $15 million due to stress-induced angina and the financial losses of the property. Two tenants purchased the building, and it remains a rehearsal facility for
American Ballet Theatre American Ballet Theatre (ABT) is a classical ballet company based in New York City. Founded in 1939 by Lucia Chase and Richard Pleasant, it is recognized as one of the world's leading classical ballet companies. Through 2019, it had an annual ei ...
, Eliot Feld's Ballet Tech, Gibney Dance Company, and others. He always collaborated with his assistant Bob Avian, who was a lifelong friend. In 1985, Bennett abandoned the nearly-completed musical ''Scandal'', by writer
Treva Silverman Treva Silverman (born May 20, 1936) is an American screenwriter. Career Silverman is best known for her work on the 1970s sitcom ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show''. In the 1960s and 1970s, Silverman also wrote scripts for ''That Girl'', ''The Mo ...
and songwriter Jimmy Webb, which had been developing for nearly five years through a series of workshop productions. The show was sexually daring, but the conservative climate and the growing AIDS panic made it unlikely commercial material. He was then signed to direct the West End production of ''
Chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...
'' but had to withdraw in January 1986 due to his failing health, leaving
Trevor Nunn Sir Trevor Robert Nunn (born 14 January 1940) is a British theatre director. He has been the Artistic Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and, currently, the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. He has directed dramas f ...
to complete the production using Bennett's already commissioned sets.


Analysis

Unlike his more famous contemporary Bob Fosse, Bennett was not known for a particular choreographic style. Instead, Bennett's choreography was motivated by the form of the musical involved, or the distinct characters interpreted. In act 2 of ''Company'', Bennett defied the usual choreographic expectations by deliberately taking the polish off the standard Broadway production number. The company stumbled through the steps of a hat and cane routine ("Side By Side") and thus revealed to the audience the physical limitations of the characters' singing and dancing. Bennett made the audience aware that this group had been flung together to perform, and that they were in over their heads. He intended the number to be not about the routine, but rather the characters behind it. The song "One" from ''A Chorus Line'' functions in a different way. The various 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 Broadway production values. Bennett's choreography also reveals the cost of the number to the people behind it. Bennett was influenced by the work of
Jerome Robbins Jerome Robbins (born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz; October 11, 1918 – July 29, 1998) was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television. Among his nu ...
. "What Michael Bennett perceived early in Robbins' work was totality, all the sums of a given piece adding to a unified whole". In ''Dreamgirls'', Bennett's musical staging was described as a "mesmerizing sense of movement":
The most thrilling breakthrough of the extraordinary show is that whereas in ''A Chorus Line'' Michael Bennett choreographed the cast, in ''Dreamgirls'' he has choreographed the set. Bennett's use of he plexiglass towers that dominated the setwas revolutionary. The towers moved to create constantly changing perspectives and space, like an automated ballet. They energized the action, driving it forcefully along. It's why there were no set-piece dance routines in the show: dance and movement were organic to the entire action. But Bennett had made the mechanical set his dancers."


Personal life

Bennett was gay, though he was romantically linked to a number of women. In his younger days, Bennett had a relationship with Larry Fuller, a dancer, choreographer and director. He had a long professional and personal relationship with the virtuoso dancer Donna McKechnie, who danced his work in both '' Promises, Promises'' and ''
Company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...
'' and won the 1976
Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical The Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical is awarded to the best actress in a musical, whether a new production or a revival. The award has been given since 1948, but the nominees who did not win have only been publicly ...
in the role he had created for her in '' A Chorus Line''. They married on December 4, 1976, but after only a few months they separated and eventually divorced in 1979. In the late 1970s, Sabine Cassel, the then-wife of French actor Jean-Pierre Cassel. left her family in Paris to live with Bennett in Manhattan, but the relationship soured. During his adult life, Bennett "took elaborate pains to ensure that the public never suspected he was gay. When he was diagnosed with AIDS in December 1985, (he) carefully disguised that fact as well". Bennett's addictions to alcohol and drugs, notably
cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...
and
quaaludes Methaqualone is a hypnotic sedative. It was sold under the brand names Quaalude ( ) and Sopor among others, which contained 300 mg of methaqualone, and sold as a combination drug under the brand name Mandrax, which contained 250 mg met ...
, severely affected his ability to work and affected many of his professional and personal relationships. His paranoia grew as his dependency did. Worried by his celebrity and his father's Italian background, he began to suspect he might fall victim to a Mafia hit. Bennett's last lover was Gene Pruit. In 1986 both Pruit and friend Bob Herr lived with Bennett for the last eight months of his life in
Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...
, where he received care at the Arizona Medical Center. Bennett died from AIDS-related
lymphoma Lymphoma is a group of blood and lymph tumors that develop from lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell). In current usage the name usually refers to just the cancerous versions rather than all such tumours. Signs and symptoms may include enlar ...
at the age of 44. He left a portion of his estate to fund research to fight the pandemic. Bennett's memorial service took place at the Shubert Theatre in New York City (the home at that time of ''A Chorus Line'') on September 29, 1987.Gerard, Jeremy
"From Friends and Associates, A Tribute to Michael Bennett"
''
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'', September 30, 1987.


Awards and nominations


Other media

''
A Class Act ''A Class Act'' is a quasi-autobiographical musical loosely based on the life of composer-lyricist Edward Kleban, who died at the age of 48 in 1987. Featuring a book by Linda Kline and Lonny Price along with music and lyrics by Kleban himself, ...
''—A Musical About Musicals (2001). Bennett and lyricist
Ed Kleban Edward "Ed" Kleban (April 30, 1939 – December 28, 1987) was an American musical theatre composer and lyricist. Kleban was born in the Bronx, New York City, in 1939 and graduated from New York's High School of Music & Art and Columbia Univers ...
are portrayed in this partly fictionalized life story of Kleban, using some of Kleban's unpublished songs. '' A Chorus Lines number "One" is included in this musical.


Notes


References

* * * * Long, Robert Emmet (2001). ''Broadway, the Golden Years: Jerome Robbins and the Great Choreographer-directors: 1940 to the Present''. Continuum International Publishing Group. . * * McKechnie, Donna (2006). ''Time Steps: My Musical Comedy Life''. Simon and Schuster. . * Shea, Tom (2004). ''Broadway's Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of Dynamic Divas, Surefire Showstoppers, and Box Office Busts''. Brassey's. . * Webb, Jimmy (1999). ''Tunesmith: Inside the Art of Songwriting''. Hyperion. . * Zadan, Craig (1987). ''Sondheim & Co.''. Pavilion Books. .


Further reading

* Chapin, Ted (2005). ''Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical Follies''. Applause Books. . * Flinn, Denny Martin (1989). ''What They Did for Love: The Untold Story Behind the Making of "A Chorus Line"''. Bantam, . * Hamlisch, Marvin (1992). ''The Way I Was'' (1st edition). Scribner's. . * Stevens, Gary (2000). ''The Longest Line: Broadway's Most Singular Sensation: A Chorus Line''. Applause Books. . * Viagas, Robert (1990). ''On the Line: The Creation of A Chorus Line'' (2nd edition). Limelight Editions. .


External links

* * * * Michael Bennett Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bennett, Michael 1943 births 1987 deaths AIDS-related deaths in Arizona American choreographers American jazz dancers American male dancers 20th-century American Jews American musical theatre directors American people of Italian descent Broadway theatre directors LGBT dancers Drama Desk Award winners LGBT theatre directors LGBT Jews American LGBT entertainers LGBT people from New York (state) Artists from Buffalo, New York Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners Tony Award winners Deaths from lymphoma Bisexual men Bisexual entertainers Writers from Buffalo, New York 20th-century American dancers Deaths from cancer in Arizona 20th-century LGBT people