At Grand Central Station, he is recognized but almost ignored by reporters who are there to see Ava Gardner. Best known for: Being the father of theatrical jazz dance. It’s a tribute to Comden and Green (and to the mostly top-drawer songs, of course) that The Band Wagon, now directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall, survives this with many of … ), This page was last edited on 1 May 2021, at 08:24. - Adele Astaire, The Beggar Waltz (dance) - Fred Astaire, Tillie Losch, This page was last edited on 21 April 2021, at 16:29. ... a choreographer played by a glowering Michael Berresse. At Grand Central Station, he is recognized but almost ignored by reporters who are there by chance as Ava Gardner is on the same train. This was the first New York production to use the double revolving stage for the songs and sketches. A pretentiously artistic director is hired for a new Broadway musical and changes it … The Martons are delighted that he will be acting as well as directing, but Tony is dubious about the Faust idea. "[7] A pretentiously artistic director is hired for a new Broadway musical and changes it … This record (L-24003) was one of the first commercially recorded at that speed. Mr. Kidd was the award-winning choreographer of exuberant dance numbers for Broadway shows like “Guys and Dolls” and Hollywood musicals including “The Band Wagon.” Awards: 1 Oscar, 5 Tonys!! Screenwriters Betty Comden and Adolph Green, who received the nomination for the screenplay, patterned the film's characters Lester and Lily Marton after themselves; however, the fictional characters were a married couple, and Comden and Green were not romantically involved. At the same time that he was choreographing The Band Wagon, he was staging dances for Cole Porter’s Broadway musical Can-Can. Available on AppleTV+, Amazon Prime, Google Play, YouTube, Vudu . Produced by Max Gordon, staging and lighting were by Hassard Short, choreography by Albertina Rasch, and scenic design by Albert R. Johnson. Eventually, it all proves too much for Tony, and he walks out. [1], A musical stage adaptation, titled Dancing in the Dark, premiered at The Old Globe Theatre (San Diego) March 4 – April 20, 2008, with plans to bring the show to Broadway. In "Smooth Criminal," Jackson wears a white suit with a blue-collared shirt and a white hat with a black stripe on it, replicating Astaire's outfit from "The Girl Hunt Ballet", The Band Wagon's finale . Adams' recording of the song was reused for Torch Song (1953) for a musical number featuring Joan Crawford. Gary Griffin directed, with a book by Douglas Carter Beane and choreography by Warren Carlyle. And director-choreographer Kathleen Marshall’s light-hearted production capitalizes on them with ebullience and humor. Ian Marshall Fisher, director, Jason Carr, Music Director. However, he is greeted enthusiastically by his good friends Lester and Lily Marton, and they tell him they have written a stage show, a light musical comedy, that will be a perfect comeback for Tony. "You know this show is— really very silly," says modern choreographer Paul Byrd (played by the delectably mean Michael Berresse) as he glowers out at … The cast included Fred Astaire, Adele Astaire, Helen Broderick, Tilly Losch, and Frank Morgan. Noting that there was no mention of the "other fixture," the salesman replies with a line of poetry from Keats -- "Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard/ Are sweeter," followed by a blackout. The song "That's Entertainment! Michael Kidd. The songs were written by the team of composer Arthur Schwartz and lyricist Howard Dietz. And of course it doesn’t get better than Fred Astaire dancing with Cyd Charisse. Diane Stevenson, "In Praise of Praise" in the Stanley Cavell special issue, Jeffrey Crouse (ed. 3. Afterwards, Gaby and Tony kiss in front of the entire cast and crew, and the finale is a reprise of That's Entertainment! When Tony and Gaby meet, they become sarcastic and hostile to each other, but this is actually because they are insecure: Each of them feels much less talented than the other. [1] According to Furia and Lasser, The Band Wagon is "arguably the greatest of the 'little' revues of the 1930s". [8], In October 5, 1931, RCA Victor pressed a two-sided record (program transcription) cut at 33.mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}1⁄3 RPM of the Band Wagon score, featuring Fred and Adele Astaire, composers Dietz and Schwartz, and Leo Reisman's Orchestra (including jazz trumpeter Bubber Miley). The character of an overachieving impresario was developed with the successful producer-director-actor José Ferrer in mind.[3]. [4] In 2006, this film ranked #17 on the American Film Institute's list of best musicals. and ("Nanette"). As soon as Jeffrey hears Lily outline the play, he declares it to be a brilliant reinterpretation of the Faust legend, which should star Tony and himself as the characters corresponding to Faust and the Devil. Tony agrees, and Jeffrey has the Martons rewrite the play as a dark, pretentious musical drama (when Lester also becomes dubious, Lily insists that one person must be in charge and Jeffrey can succeed at anything). They also begin to fall in love. special event. The revue opened on Broadway at the New Amsterdam Theatre on June 3, 1931 and concluded on January 16, 1932, running a total of 260 performances. When the first out-of-town tryout in New Haven proves disastrous, Tony demands that Jeffrey convert the production back into the light comedy that the Martons had envisioned. Minnelli had directed Fred in two of his biggest dogs, the ghastly Ziegfeld Follies and the execrable (perhaps that should be “inexorably execrable”) Yolanda and the Thief . Kathleen Marshall, the director-choreographer, has brought polish and pizzazz to many a venerable musical, from Anything Goes and The Pajama Game to Wonderful Town, the 1953 show by … The Band Wagon is a 1953 American musical-comedy film directed by Vincente Minnelli, starring Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse. The cast included Fred Astaire, Adele Astaire, Helen Broderick, Tilly Losch, and Frank Morgan. In his hotel room, she comments that the paintings by famous artists on the wall are better reproductions than usual in a hotel; he says they are his own property, and are originals. Tony Hunter, once a famous star of musical comedies on stage and later on screen, is largely forgotten after three years without a movie. Another song orchestrated by Conrad Salinger, "Dancing in the Dark", is considered part of the Great American Songbook and was from the original Broadway production. The Band Wagon (1953) marked the culmination of a series of near-autobiographical pictures Fred Astaire made for MGM following his return from premature retirement in the late '40s. [11][12][13][14], In the Variety review of the musical, Bob Verini wrote: "There's no reason this reconstituted Band Wagon can't soar once it jettisons its extraneous and self-contradictory elements. In 1995, The Band Wagon was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Percy Hammond repeatedly noted about the attractive chorus girls "They look, as Miss Laurette Taylor used to say, as if they all had mothers. The revue opened on Broadway at the New Amsterdam Theatre on June 3, 1931 and concluded on January 16, 1932, running a total of 260 performances. In "Good Old Nectar," instead of cheering the football star, the old graduates cheer the history champion (Adele Astaire, Fred Astaire, John Barker, Phillip Loeb, Frank Morgan, Francis Pierlot, Roberta Robinson, Jay Wilson). [5][6] Although it had incomparable dancing by Fred and Adele Astaire, it was the last time the brother and sister team appeared together. "Both are great backstage musicals, one about Hollywood, the other about Broadway, one starring Gene Kelly, the other Fred Astaire. Choreography by Michael Kidd and setting designed by Oliver Smith. In the movie version of The Band Wagon, the song was reworked as a specialty number by jazz arranger Skip Martin to showcase all of Astaire's musical talents.[2]. Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse generate gangster heat in Vincente Minnelli's THE BAND WAGON ('53). [clarification needed] Using the line "she came at me in sections" for the titular song of his album Dangerous, Jackson notably pays homage to the film on at least three successive albums. ", which Schwartz and Dietz wrote specifically for the film, was a hit and has become a standard in popular music. The Band Wagon has much to recommend it, almost every number is wonderful, and Cyd Charisse (as Gabrielle Gerard), though maybe not as great an actress as some other musical stars, is so sexy and such a great dancer, that her acting limitations are easily forgotten. The cast included Patrick Page as the "deliciously pretentious" director-actor-producer Jeffrey Cordova, Mara Davi playing Gabrielle Gerard and Scott Bakula as "song-and-dance man" Tony Hunter. The recordings were plagued by all kinds of small disasters. Tony and Gaby put their troubles aside, go for a horse-drawn carriage ride, dance together, and realize they can work together after all. In 2011, Lost Musicals, aka The Lost Musicals Charitable Trust, presented the UK premier of The Band Wagon. Star-Studded 'The Band Wagon' Brings "Sweet Music" to City Center", Newsweek discussion transcript about The Band Wagon, A Party with Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Exploits and Opinions of Dr. Faustroll, Pataphysician, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Band_Wagon&oldid=1020829742, Films with screenplays by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, United States National Film Registry films, Articles needing additional references from February 2019, All articles needing additional references, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from November 2020, Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers, Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz release group identifiers, Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz work identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat-VIAF identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Leroy Daniels as Shoeshine man in Arcade in "Shine on Your Shoes", "Shine on Your Shoes" – Tony and a shoeshine man (Leroy Daniels, "The Beggars Waltz" – danced by Gabrielle, James Mitchell, and corps de ballet, "Louisiana Hayride" – Lily and Chorus (introduced in the stage musical, "Triplets" – Tony, Jeffrey, and Lily (the performers dance on their knees, costumed in baby attire) (introduced in the stage musical, "Girl Hunt Ballet" (inspired by the novels of. The Band Wagon is a 1953 MGM musical film starring Fred Astaire, who coincidentally enough had also appeared in the 1931 Broadway revue of the same name, and Cyd Charisse.. Astaire plays Tony Hunter, a nearly washed-up hoofer who hopes to revitalize his career by doing a new Broadway musical written by his friends Lester and Lily Martin (Oscar Levant and Nanette Fabray). For example, Fred Astaire's wife was seriously ill (they would a year later succumb to lung cancer) and Jack Buchanan was between shots by so taken care of by his dentist (three root canal treatments) that he had severe pain. Several MGM musicals of this era have at their centre a standalone dance sequence, presented as a film within the film, and choreographer Michael Kidd’s creation for The Band Wagon is a … Jackson's "Billie Jean" music video features similar elements as those of the "Girl Hunt Ballet": The storefront scenery through which the paparazzo conducts his manhunt and the animal print cloth he finds for a clue are two very llusions. Some of the songs in the film had been created for the original 1931 Broadway musical by Schwartz and Dietz, also titled The Band Wagon, with a book by George S. Kaufman and starring Fred Astaire and his sister Adele. Directed by Vincente Minnelli. Jeffrey does succeed in arranging for the beautiful and talented ballerina Gabrielle "Gaby" Gerard to join the production, along with Paul Byrd, who is her boyfriend, choreographer, and manager—even though he always insisted that a musical play would be beneath her. Astaire's early number in the film, "A Shine on Your Shoes" was written for a 1932 Broadway revue with music and lyrics by Dietz and Schwartz titled Flying Colors. There's even a ballet, an extended parody of Mickey Spillane-type writing. [9], In seven weeks at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, the film grossed $1,044,000, one of the higher grossing films at the theater. Produced by Max Gordon, staging and lighting were by Hassard Short, choreography by Albertina Rasch, and scenic design by Albert R. Johnson. The vivid “Girl Hunt Ballet” features Astaire dancing a sultry duet with Cyd Charisse followed by a hilarious bar fight. Working in collaboration with legendary choreographer Hermes Pan for his films with Rogers, Astaire eschewed the then-popular Busby Berkeley approach to filmed musicals and its emphasis on special effects, surreal settings, and chorus girls in ever-changing kaleidoscope patterns. "The Band Wagon" (1953) came only a year after the same writers, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, wrote "Singin' in the Rain. [2] Ken Bloom states that The Band Wagon "is considered the greatest of all revues."[3]. If your favorite part of NBC’s dearly departed Smash was the dynamite dancing in the Broadway-style musical numbers, you can thank Joshua Bergasse, the … The cast starred Brian Stokes Mitchell, Tracey Ullman, Michael McKean, Tony Sheldon and Laura Osnes, with direction and choreography by Kathleen Marshall.[16]. The Band Wagon (1953) For this romantic comedy film, Fred Astaire specifically requested Kidd choreograph because of his ballet background. The great hypocho… This footage was included with the most recent DVD release of The Band Wagon. One of the greatest choreographers ever, great dancer and director! 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