Gwen Verdon as Charity Hope Valentine in Sweet Charity. Photo by Ralph Morse for LIFE Magazine. Gwen Verdon All Aglow from LIFE Magazine, March 25, 1966 "Though the very look of it is rosy-hued sin, the lady is dreaming of the suburban world of kids, station wagons and PTA. She is Gwen Verdon, starring as Chair in the new Broadway musical Sweet Charity, in which she is anything but the devil’s helpmate she portrayed in Damn Yankees. She is a dime-a-dance girl who is the soul

Gwen Verdon as Charity singing "If My Friends Could See Me Now" Photo by Friedman-Abeles. Library of Congress Unfortunately there is no stage footage of Gwen in the original 1966 Broadway production of Sweet Charity. We do have two numbers that were recorded on the Ed Sullivan show on March 5, 1966: "If My Friends Could See Me Now" and "I'm a Brass Band." Sets, costumes and staging are not 100% accurate to the stage version due to the constrains of television studios. Below

Excerpts from an opening night review by Stanley Kauffman in the New York Times,  1966. "Mr. Fosse’s staging of numbers is often superb. ‘Big Spender,’ in which the hostesses line up at a railing that has arisen just behind the footlights, is a splendid mobile frieze of floozies. ‘Rich Man’s Frug’ and ‘Rhythm of Life,’ the ‘religious’ beatnik  number with a sharp vocal arrangement, are electric uses of jazz. Mr. Fosse also employs nice silent-movie touches—subtitles flashed o

Whatever Verdon Sings… excerpted from a New York Times article written by John S. Wilson, 1966 "The mere presence of Gwen Verdon in the original cast recording of Sweet Charity, gives this musical an advantage over most of those that have been served up to us this season. As a dance hall hostess of unquenchable romantic optimism, Miss Verdon works wonders with her oddly charming voice— a voice that is slightly nasal, slightly raspy, slightly sibilant but always touched with

The original Broadway production of Sweet Charity, composed by Cy Coleman with lyrics by Dorothy Fields and book by Neil Simon, opened on J anuary 29, 1966, at the Palace Theatre . The production played 10 previews and 608 performances before closing July 15, 1967, earning nine Tony Awards  with Bob Fosse winning Best Choreography . Based on the screenplay Nights of Cabiria  by Federico Fellini, Sweet Charity follows the adventures of a New York taxi dancer with an open-heart

Photo by Ralph Morse for LIFE Magazine, 1966 From Life Magazine, March 25, 1966  by Thomas Thompson: "Last year, Gwen decided she wanted to return to the stage [after a 5 year retirement], and Fosse started searching for an idea. One day they went to see a Fellini movie called Nights of Canaria. One their way home afterward, Gwen said: ‘It didn’t do a thing for me.’ But it did something for Bob. He stayed up all night working out a musical treatment for the plot. Fellini’s he

Suzanne Farrell in her autobiography Holding on to the Air: "Prodigal Son tells the story of the fall and redemption of the biblical character, and its recent revival had provided Edward Villella with one of the greatest roles of his career. I asked Mr. B if I might dance the Siren who lures the Prodigal Son into the depths of greedy sensuality, a part originally designed for my beloved teacher Mme. Doubrovska . I was curious to explore a darker, more earthy role. Because at

Michael Bennett was born Michael DiFiglia on April 8, 1943, in Buffalo, New York, and began dancing professionally as a teenager. He...

Maria Tallchief: “In Allegro Brillante George extended aspects of classical technique beyond anything I had done before. Rather than...

Back in August, I discovered several photos of a very young Suzy Pilarre in the corps of Serenade: Photos by Fred Fehl, 1964 Harry Ransom...

(27/50) Patricia McBride and Edward Villella in the Nutcracker Pas de Deux. This was filmed in the August of 1969 at Jacob's Pillow. Stay...

Violette Verdy's thoughts on Firebird: “What I love about Firebird is the quality of entombed independence of that bird who has a...

[47/50] “Suki Schorer was a Dew Drop that had the lightness of a refracted sunbeam, and made the “Waltz of the Flowers” an enchanted...

[42/50] Suzanne Farrell as Dew Drop. Photo by Martha Swope, 1966.

[23/50] Jumping into week 4 of Nutcracker like... Patricia Neary as Dewdrop. Martha Swope, 1966. New York Public Library

[22/50] “Kay Mazzo uses space in a surprisingly large and generous way for such a delicate girl” — The Village Voice, 1969 Kay Mazzo in...

[12/50] In 1985, Jean-Pierre Frohlich recalled his early years in The Nutcracker to author Ellen Switzer: "When I danced the Nutcracker...

(10/12) From everything I’ve read over the years, it seems clear that Balanchine never passed up an opportunity to dance. He would often...

(8/12) The Oberon variation has been described by dancers as one of the fastest and most difficult male variations that Balanchine...

(9/12) Patty originated the role of Hermia, however, the first photo shows her as Titania a few years later. I love the photos of...