Ann Reinking's version of AGAINST ALL ODDS

Phil Collins wasn't even asked to sing the song that night, even though he attended the ceremony.

OMG...she didnt try to do an interpretive dance around but she tried to act out the song rather than sing it. My friends and I still mimic it to this day...

It was worse than Rob Lowe's dance with Snow White.

I don't remember the reason why they didn't allow, or ask, Phil Collins to sing his own song. I loved that song!! Anyone?

There was a pas de deux with the outstanding Gary Chryst who played the pimp in Pat Benatar's "Love is a Battlefield." At one time, there was Ann and Gary dancing while her prerecorded vocals played in the background. She was later even a presenter, which caused many to wonder who she was fucking. The answer? Billionaire Herb Allen.

It wrecked her Hollywood career, which was taking flight with her very appealing performance in the Dudley Moore comedy "Micki and Maude."

This performance was seen as the catalyst for allowing the original performers to do their nominated songs instead of trying for production numbers.

I remember the controversy. They allowed deniece williams and ray parker jr. to perform their hit songs. But not kenny loggins, stevie wonder and phil collins. Stevie wonder ended up winning. Dont know if kenny loggins was there or not. But people were really upset about phil collins. I think all the songs ended up being performed as production numbers. And he didnt fit in with that.

They should just have one super-talented singer do all of the nominated songs. They did that one year and it was a smash hit. I, uh, she got to have a shitload of costume changes, too.

I have only heard of this fiasco, but have never seen it. I wish someone would put it up on Youtube. From what I've heard over the years, it really was as awful as legend would have it.

Isn't it amazing that there are no pictures or clips of it on the internet at all?!?!?

It was Against All THE Odds.

#92 on this list...

I saw it when it originally aired, and yes, it was just as god-awful as you have heard.

I have it on videotape. If I were to digitize it and put it on youtube, would I get kicked off or banned from youtube?

Really a shame because she was stunning in All That Jazz and really good in Micki and Maude. I know she was supposed to star opposite Matthew Broderick in No Small Affair but it was recast with Demi Moore and Jon Cryer.

She's an amazing dancer and choreographer and very well respected in the theatre community where no one gives a rats ass about the oscars.

Oooh, pretty please, r13!!!

Bump this motherfucker! I've got to see this!

Does anyone remember how the Oscars treated the nomination of the song "Purple Rain"? He accepted the award onstage (link) but I can't find anything about a performance.

r17 It was the typical Prince live performance; in other words, he and The Revolution tore it up, and received a standing ovation. It was the highlight of the evening.

I agree with r14. I know this board hates her, but I just have to disagree - she was stunning, a great dancer, a decent if deep voiced singer, and a good enough actress who probably would have gotten better.

But it this really why her movie career ended? Especially in the days before Internet and google, I can't imagine something like this literally derailing a career to the point where she never acted again short of a Cosby Show appearance. Or even if it was that much of a career killer, she still would done some low grade direct to video crap and bit parts here and there. The fact that she literally did NOTHING leads me to believe that it was more voluntary, but it has always been a mystery to me anyway. Maybe Herb Allen gave her some huge chunk of change so she was set for life?

Crickets? I've actually been curious about this for some time (why she suddenly stopped working, that is).

R 13 - can I buy a copy of this perfomance from you

Is it as good as Lucille Ball's interpretation of "It's Today"?

[all posts by tedious, racist idiot removed.]

Being in ANNIE didn't help.

The video is now on youtube

Take a look at me. NOW!

Take a look at it now!

This is it

I tried to give it a little 'oh, that was just the coked-out 80s' context, but no, that truly was career-ending awful, like a Molly Shannon SNL sketch crossed with some white Miss America contestant singing the Dreamgirls songbook. And the pimp from Pat Benetar's video is just the right addition of wtf.

Wow, that was really bad. Was Reinking ever considered a singer or was she mostly just known for dancing?

I love the end of it. How she looks like she thing she really killed it. Well she did. Just not in the way she thinks.

Phil Collins asked/inquired twice (once in writing) about performing the song.

He was told they would prefer someone that was a member of the AMPAS to perform the song.

He said the letter denying his request started with "Dear Phillip"

I watched the Oscar broadcast live and Reinking's performance of "against all odds" was embarrassingly bad.

That shouldn't have been a career-ending performance, that should have been a singing-live-on-national-TV-ending performance.

Thanks for finding it, R28!

In the very beginning of that video, you see Angela Lansbury in a caftan.

She wasn't singing live and I posted the clip first, so you're 0 for 2, R33.

It looked to me like she sang the first part live, and then the recording took over as the dancing started.

As a singer, Ann Reinking is quite a dancer.

It was particularly funny how she kept singing against all THE odds ........ and when she whisper/screeched that 'so take a look at me now'

I would've rather seen them perform the hooker ho-down from 'Love Is A Battlefield' ..

Oh my god.

Come back, AnnE, all is forgiven.

In your face, Ann.

I danced with him better.

Starting at 3:18

I love the hooker hoe down! Thanks r37 and 39. Always loved Pat' take on Sweet Charity.

She was beautiful and a great dancer. That lame performance did not end her career. She returned to Broadway and won awards for acting, directing and choreography (Chicago, Fosse).

Except for the end, where she overdid it just a tad, I still don't get what was wrong with that. Put it this way...I've seen far worse Oscar performances.

Or has anyone seen the Teri Garr Oscar opening from I think '86? If that had been anyone else, that probably would have been a career ender - the whole concept was ridiculous, she was singing completely off key (you think THIS was bad?) and the dancing was pretty amateurish. But she's Teri Garr and she's still adorable even if she can't sing a note that you can't possibly hold it against her.

Reinking was great and got a little residual resentment that Collins (then at his peak) wasn't allowed to sing his own song. Nobody thought she butchered it. But she wasn't given much of a fair shake with the "controversy" pre-show.

Loved her then, watch her now on the Criterion version of "All That Jazz". She's held up well though I wouldn't recognize her on the street these days.

By the way, I watched that 1984 Oscar ceremony at a big manager's apartment -- with Phyllis Diller sitting across the table from me the whole night (and groaning "Jesus" when Sally Field gave her famous bad speech.) She didn't say one word to me the whole night, ha. Dorothy Lamour at least smiled in my direction -- once.

R43 I saw her in the Food Emporium sometime in the early 2000s. She was jowlier, of course, but I definitely recognized her.

Btw her son was born in the 90s and she quit the biz well before that - for those saying his illness was the reason she left.

Saw her and Tommy Tune (!) doing "Bye Bye Birdie" in Long Beach during her "final act" before retirement. Man, those legs... and, yes, she could sing too.

She is responsible for one of my all time favorite film moments too, one I actually show acting students: that choky voiced delivery to Joe Gideon, "I wish you weren't so generous with your cock." All hers.

P.S. Just meet her, R42, and you'll change your tune (or out of tune).

OMG. I haven't seen that since it aired, and I'm just as WTF about it now as I was in middle school.

It was really not good, but not THAT bad.

It's one of those bad showbiz moments that gets blown way out of proportion, like Supertrain or Life With Lucy—reputed to be napalm but actually just meh.

Anyway - everyone download this quick in case it gets deleted from YouTube!

Yes, it is indeed awful. She's overwrought, has a... character voice, and phrases badly. Oh, and she gets the fucking lyrics wrong on a playback vocal ("Against all THE odds").

Strange that they had her dance with a man who appears shorter than her

The entire 1985 Academy Awards is on YouTube btw.

Just for you OP.

Teri Garr opening...

I preferred Ann Reinking's performance on 'Night of 100 Stars". Wardrobe by Oscar de la Rent, hair by Sticking Her Head Out the Window of Her Limo.

Stick around for a minute if you click on R53's link and check out who's wearing Pauline Trigere!

Not quite as bad as Ireland's Linda Martin and her cover version of Daft Punk's "Get Lucky":

I was 15 when that ceremony aired and the funny thing is, the only 2 moments I remember are Sally Field's win and this atrocity.

I can't imagine that Deniece Williams and Ray Parker, Jr., were members of AMPAS, so that can't be the reason Collins wasn't allowed to perform his song.

In fact, he got cheated out of performing his next nominated song, "Two Hearts" from "Buster" (1988); since there were only 3 songs nominated that year, the Academy decided not have any of them performed! Shocking, I know. (That was the year Carly Simon won for "Let the River Run" -- incidentally, she also got cheated out of performing her other nominated song at the Oscars -- 1977's "Nobody Does it Better" was performed by Aretha Franklin, of all people.)

Here's Aretha Franklin's performance of "Nobody Does It Better" at the Oscars:

Terri Garr's opening number was pretty typical of them all. Since the beginning was meant to be funny anyway and the end had her surrounded by a bunch of dancers, even with her bad singing ....it didn't come off much worse than others.

Among the worst ever was the one that aired the same night as Snow White/Rob Lowe ....

Presenting the 'Stars Of Tomorrow' .... well, not so much ! But always fun to see Corey 'Michael Jackson' Feldman.

Starts at 4:10

One of Ann Reinking's shining hours: Big Noise from Winnetka, a pas de deux with Jeff Hyslop

Can someone post a link to the Ann Reinking performance? I can't seem to find it on Youtube.

TIA

"Against all THE odds"

Yeah.

R56 I was thinking the same thing. Collins was a bigger name in 1985 than Williams and Parker jr. Yet they performed their hit songs. Even though Kenny Loggins and Stevie Wonder didn't perform theirs. Wonder was bigger than all of them put together at the time! I don't know wtf they were thinking.

I don't look so bad now, do I?

[quote] I don't look so bad now, do I?

[quote] Alyson Reed

Have you lost the weight?

Yeah, I don't know what the Oscars people were thinking that year. It was, I think, the only time that all 5 nominees were #1 hits, and they had Debbie Allen do Footloose and Ann Reinking do Against All Odds. And Phil Collins wrote the song, so he was a nominee that night.

I don't know why she kept singing "Against all the Odds" when it doesn't fit the music.

OP, don't watch it. I still can't get it out of my mind.

Erm, let's start with the fact that Ann Reinking CANNOT sing.

The panties? Where were the panties?

Doesn't Phil Collins say "against the odds" (you coming back to me is...) in his own version? Besides, she had to put her thumbprint on it, right?

Go watch the clip of Dyan Cannon (!) singing a nominated song and the mike going out on her. That's more of a hoot than this.

[quote]Not quite as bad as Ireland's Linda Martin and her cover version of Daft Punk's "Get Lucky"

LOL! Is this the inspiration for Tracy Ullman's Linda Granger character?

r53 thanks for the link to Nigh of 100 Stars. I haven't thought about that show in years.

For the love of God what was Toukie Smith doing in that parade people? And she wasn't even wearing a design by her brother.

I remember Against All THE Odds as well. We were howling when it was performed.

The night of the Teri Garr debacle I was in the hospital and a couple of friends were visiting. We just looked at each other, stunned. Finally I said, already knowing the answer, "maybe it's SUPPOSED to be funny." We all just shook our heads.

I don't believe that this performance killed Ann Reinking's film career. No, IMHO her film career fizzled out quickly because she couldn't really act. Yes, her BF Fosse got a very good performance out of her in "All That Jazz", but in other films she was a stiff and chilly presence. She was a great dancer, but that was it.

And in R52's clip, the 80s fashions on the red carpet are much more WTF than the opening musical number.

And they got the knives out for me for less than that!

R52 just watched that again and it's actually worse then I remembered. Girl really can't sing, and in theory that should have been much more of a "career killer" then Reinking's performance. And I adore Garr (despite the anti-Garr troll's best efforts), so I'm hardly saying this out of any sort of bias.

Was this the performance where Garr insinuated (in her book) that she caught Lange in the audience giving her the stink-eye? I get confused because her timeline for that book was so fucking all over the place.

Ann's film career ended when she and Herb Allen got a divorce.

R74 I thought she was funny in Micki and Maude and made the most of what was always an underwritten part in Annie. Plus she was just starting out. I think she only would have gotten better had she kept at it.

It's not a great song to begin with.

R79 that's true. Btw, has anyone here actually seen the movie? Because I know no one has ever seen "Buster."

[quote]an underwritten part in Annie.

Did someone say underpants?

r80, "Against All Odds" was a minor hit back in 1984 -- I remember my mom taking me to see it -- besides Jeff Bridges, it had Rachel Ward as the leading lady, just coming off the colossally successful miniseries "The Thorn Birds."

I remember the last shot being a long close-up of Rachel Ward which any actress would envy. But I also remember thinking that she aint Garbo - after a while her face had nothing more to reveal.

I like the Pauline Kael review of Rachel Ward in this movie: "After a while, you walk away thinking 'She's not as pretty as I thought she was.'" (I paraphrase). It really was downhill from there for her.

She married Byron Brown and became an Aussie hausfrau.

It honestly couldn't hold a candle to Rob Lowe's Proud Mary with Snow White, which involved the humiliation of several older stars as well.

"The night of the Teri Garr debacle I was in the hospital and a couple of friends were visiting. "

Funny thing, I've spent an incredible number of Oscar nights in hospitals, as a patient, visitor, volunteer, and worker.

Maybe that's the real "Oscar Curse", R73, at least for some of us.

[quote]Was this the performance where Garr insinuated (in her book) that she caught Lange in the audience giving her the stink-eye? I get confused because her timeline for that book was so fucking all over the place.

Yes, R76. She looked out into the audience and saw Sam Shepard and Jessica Lange "staring smugly" back at her.

Bump

Bump you, R88.

I adore this thread.

Why was Lange giving Garr the stink-eye. I mean, it was Lange who stole Garr's Oscar, not the other way around.

I was available . . .

[quote] It was worse than Rob Lowe's dance with Snow White.

I still say that was worse by far.

In re: [italic]Annie[/italic], someone once asked me why Bernadette Peters didn't play Grace, assuming she was vocally more appropriate for the role. That would have left the role of Lily open for Reinking, and that way she'd still get to dance in "Easy Street," except even with Bernie as Lily and even with the first verse on the cutting room floor it still ended up being one of the best parts of the film.

I'm with R79, it's kind of a crappy song anyway.

Ha! From the youtube comments, I assume the "pirate guy" is Gary Chryst:

I remember this night well and when the pirate guy touched her shoulder I seriously thought it was to console her and take her off stage. Seriously.

I haven't read all the comments here. I just googled the song and Ann Reinking and the song came up right away. I'll see if I can get Rob Lowe and his song.

"So Take A Look At Me NOOOOOOoooooooooowwwwww!"

Poor Gary must have emphysema now from standing in all that stage smoke.

There's something off about her facial expression from the get go. She's got a deer-in-the-headlights terror thing going. Is that supposed to be her acting "How can I just let you walk away/Just let you leave without a trace?"

She kind of creeped me out when I was little, with her slick, flat, middle-parted hair and undersized nose, but she was a great dancer, and those legs! that body!

My gawd. Even more horrible than I had imagined it could be. Why does she look like a zombie with those wide open eyes staring off into nothingness? Was she just released from a North Korean labor camp? And I thought "We Got Annie" was bad.

I think the number in R58's clip is even worse than the Ann Reinking debacle. NONE of those "up and comers" got anywhere near winning an Oscar in their careers. And poor Carrie Hamilton--dead way too young.

In the book "The Last Days of Dead Celebrities," I believe someone quoted Lucy as saying she had no idea who any of those young actors were, let alone believing they'd be winning Oscars for many years to come.

Collins pronounced Reinking's performance as awful but he was still glad he hadn't been allowed to do it, after seeing what they producers did to Ray Parker, Jr. with his performance of "Ghostbusters". Parker was stuck performing the track in a horrifying orange jumpsuit, on a truck elevated above the stage. Below him were ghost dancers that looked like nothing out of the Ivan Reitman film and stand-ins for the film’s actors who hardly resembled the likes of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd or Harold Ramis. Top that off with a random cameo by Dom DeLuise as Dracula and you had just about the most bizarre sight possible. Equally bad was said to be Debbie Allen's version of "Footloose". Sporting a blinding-red jumpsuit and surrounded by an ensemble that looked straight out of a Richard Simmons workout video, this was to have captured ’80s camp at its absolute worst.

Ann Reinking's biggest success was fucking the right men.

Fosse made her a Broadway leading lady and gave her her best film role. She danced well, but was never in the class of Gwen Verdon it Chita Rivera. She sucked as Donna McKechnie's replacement in A Chorus Line because unlike Donna and unlike Cassie, Ann Reinking blends just fine into the line.

The marriage to Herb Allen was her second coup. A billionaire husband is good for business. And she left with more money than anyone reading Datalounge will ever see. Miss Reinking does not have to take a job to make the rent.

She danced well. But Lenora Nemetz did, too. As did Pamela Sousa and Dana Moore. Reinking's liaisons were more carefully chosen.

R103- Here's "Footloose".

That's horrifying, R105. I'm horrified.

Allen is a fantastic dancer, but this ridiculous number undermines both her and the song. Nobody wins in this scenario.

I saw the Reinking horror when it first aired and even now I cannot finish watching it. Dreadful. She has been very lucky in other aspects of her life however.

I'm very disappointed. After all that build-up, and it's not bad at all. It's certainly not the schadenfreude-delight we'd been led to expect. And the dance was excellent.

The Rob Lowe-Snow White number maintains its crown as the all-time worst number on the Tonys.

Old-skool data lounge. AT LAST

[quote]She has been very lucky in other aspects of her life however.

Yes, except for that "My only child has Marfan Syndrome and will probably die young" thing.

Watching the Reinking and Allen performances reminds me of how self-indulgent the 80's were. So cheesy looking back on it, but you can see how pleased they both were with themselves. The audience applauding at various points throughout both videos is hilarious. I was just a kid back then, but these types of performances were fine art to me! I grew up watching Days of Our Lives with my grandmother...I dreamed of being a business executive by day, lounge singer by night; I lived for this kind of stuff. Lol...the 80's were so bad.

I was searching for the 1991 Oscars opening number on YouTube but couldn't find anything. It was another awful Debbie Allen choreographed number featuring Jasmine Guy from 'A Different World' as the lead dancer. Remember how hard she tried to be the 'It' girl of the 90s?

^^^^

R104, you nailed it. Reinking is unbearable to listen to, always has been. Her speaking voice always sounded like Lucy in her later years and her singing rivals Lucy's in "Mame". She has great legs but a terrible upper body: Thick waist, short torso, no neck, broad shoulders. As a dancer, she has as much grace as a treadless tank but for a number like "Charlie's Place" from "Over Here", it suited the jitterbug number. She was so ill-suited for "Against All Odds" that it seemed almost a set-up. What compounded the controversy was that she also presented an award later on. Another question of "who is she fucking?"

She definitely has talents of observation as her work as a director and choreographer has always been good. But her contemporaries like Cheryl Clark and Sandahl Bergman were certainly better. Speaking of Bergman, do you remember the stunning dance she did with Bruce Willis on "Moonlighting?" It was Maddie's dream after learning David had been married and Sandahl plays the dream ex-wife. It has a sensuality and grace that Reinking couldn't even approach.

It's her over dramatic "TAKE A LOOK AT ME NOW!" that made the performance a joke. Otherwise, I don't think anyone would be talking about this number (well, outside of the DL anyway...).

R115, you're kidding. Google "Ann Reinking Oscars" and you'll find scores of entries from Rolling Stone to Telegraph.

Yes, r116 - because of what I mentioned above.

No R117, they're talking about it because it was and remains TERRIBLE. The articles talk about how Reinking "snorted" the song, how she got the lyrics wrong, even though they were pre-recorded and her high school style interpretive dance. They also note that it had legendary status before it showed up on YouTube and then when people saw it, it was worse than they remembered. EW said that had it not been for Rob Lowe's Snow White number a few years later, Ann's version would go down as the worst performance on the Oscars ever.

R108 is either Reinking herself or Marlee Matlin.

R114 makes some interesting and obvious observations, but I don't think you know much about dance. Sandahl Bergman is indeed lovely in your clip, made meaningless by the choreography, staging and partnering.

For a dancer, Donna McKechnie was a not a bad singer.

Reinking's dancing suits her body and she had the great gift of personal style and bent jazz timing. She's sultry, athletic rough AND her por de bras is gorgeous. You are quite wrong there. Oh, yeah and those legs and the most beautiful Fosse vocabulary and execution. She couldn't sing or act. Don't fault her dancing.

Chita Rivera shouldn't even know how to dance on stage....but then it's not all about body proportions, is it.

This number is silly but they each get a great flourish move and the costume change is everything...

R120, in his review of her one woman show "Music Moves Me", LA Times dance critic Lewis Segal: It is one of the most astute observations of her talents as a dancer and even as a performer:

" As a dancer, she can deliver kicks and hip action brilliantly: unlimited, effortless, perfectly controlled. Yet her arm positions are usually either rigid or slovenly, and tension in her back and upper torso curtails her flexibility. Johnson spotlights these problems in "Ballin' the Jack," at the end of Act I, where backup dancers Sara Miles and Christina Saffran do standard shoulder-shimmies comfortably while Reinking looks positively clenched.

Once again, Reinking is presented here as if she can do anything--and she can't. Nobody can. Yes, within her range she is a star, but out of it, she can be something of a pain. "Music" moves her out of it far too frequently."

*Thank* you, R120. I think it's the Fosse-like jazz choreography that fools some people into thinking it's not graceful. Movements are deliberately "awkward," I guess, oppositional, insouciant, off-kilter, and often sexual, not classically "beautiful" like ballet. But she was very graceful, and you're right, her port de bras is beautiful. She's not the best dancer of all time, but her style was terrific in that genre.

Sometimes I wonder about modern choreography, the kind that pop singers do in their stage shows. It seems wacky to me, like a series of random pops, poses, and gestures that have nothing to do with the music, let alone tell any kind of "story." What is that all about? Can anyone explain?

I wonder how could she sing "Music and the Mirrors" number when she was in ACL.

This clip of her doing her own choreography to Music and the Mirror encapsulates everything good and bad about her dancing. Indeed, that attacking style can be exciting but it does lack grace and elegance. Her kicking and footwork is good but again, she has no flexibility or amplitude in her upper body, which is mainly the result of her build, although her fractured vertebrae early in her career didn't help. Segal correctly notes that she has terrible arm movement. She's stiff and just flails her arms around wildly. There's just too much to watch and it looks messy. Combine that with her unkempt hair and Raquel Welch-esque outfit and this is just not good.

Luckily, we don't have to hear her sing.

I always will love her cheesy overacting in songs.

I remember my boyfriend at the time saying, "After she first turns the corner, it's like she's orgasming!"

Reinking came close to being a modern dancing movie star. Not many have ever done that. She was certainly pretty enough and her singing voice wasn't any worse than Maclaine's but man, she couldn't act. She could however dance much better and more beautifully than R124 KEEPS saying. Ann was kind of thrilling to watch. Not many said that about Juliet Prowse or Donna McKechnie....

When your legs and feet and hips are this fleek, a little lack of flexibility in the upper back is nothing. Not everyone needs to dance Jerome Robbins.

I remember Sandahl Bergman in that dance on "Moonlighting", R114 -- it was stunning then, and still holds up beautifully today. More recently, I've seen some of Fred Astaire's legendary TV specials with Barrie Chase, and Chase's sinuous style reminds me of Bergman in that "Moonlighting" clip.

The horrible reputation of Reinking's Oscars performance is well-deserved.

She sounded like a trained coloratura compared to Lucy in [italic]Mame[/italic].

I thought Reinking dubbed Lucy in "Mame". Wheeeere's that boy with the bugle. Take a look at me noooooow. They sound identical.

They lowered the keys in [italic]Annie[/italic] partly for her benefit, but she still had to talk sing parts of "I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here." Aileen Quinn had to scoop to hit those low notes but she could still reach them. Ann couldn't, so they gave her two songs she could sing.

[quote]She couldn't sing or act.

Actually, yeah, she could. I saw her in "Goodtime Charley" playing Joan of Arc. The musical was iffy, but acting-wise, she was the best Joan I've ever seen. I've heard that she was off-and-on with her performances, but I clearly got her on an "on" night.

Also saw her in "A Chorus Line" - she was fine, but lacked the emotional connection with the part that McKechnie had. And she had to sing everything down an octave from where McKechnie sang it. The "Am I your friend, am I your friend, am I your favorite friend?" part of "Hello Twelve" sounded especially weird being sung by a female baritone.

[quote]After she first turns the corner, it's like she's orgasming!

To be fair, that's probably the exact direction old letch John Huston gave her. "Now turn this corner, honey, and then give me your best orgasm. Bigger, bigger, I want to really see you cum!" I'm sure Aileen Quinn still dines out on her "Annie" horror stories.

Watching that "We Got Annie" clip is a hoot. There's cute little Roger "Arthur in the Afternoon" Minami, and jolly, fat Lu Leonard plunking away at the piano. And giant Geoffrey Holder.

Ann Reinking actually looks beautiful in the dancing in this one. It's a stupid number - it made no sense with all the lyrics dropped - but it's fairly well done.

This was part of the [italic]Annie[/italic] promo tour, then 5 years later Ann was on his show as Robert Culp's wife. Yet the [italic]Annie[/italic] movie girl who "went bad" was the one with the most prolific career after it: Amanda Peterson.

Donna McKechnie was always a disappointment in "Music and the Mirror," and it was Michael Bennett's fault. He just couldn't top the choreography that he had given her for "Company," and the number never peaked. Most of the reviews mentioned this and compared it unfavorably to "Tick Tock." The best part of "MATM" was actually the dialogue breaks, which McKechnie acted beautifully.

Reinking's choreography for that part of the dance - I don't know if she did it herself - is actually better than what McKechnie was stuck with.

John Huston (or possibly Joe Layton) appeared to put more thought into staging the new songs than the old ones, which they expected to sell themselves. There's a trailer on DVD and Blu-ray that has a really short clip of the originally conceived version of "Never Fully Dressed"; it looked like it was more coordinated but showed off a little much for a PG-rated film. Keep in mind though that a woman did the choreography, and a woman designed the costumes.

I'd like to see the original version of "Easy Street" that they filmed. For a while, there was a quick clip of it in the trailer. I never thought that number worked as they had it in the final print.

After the acting jobs dried up, Aileen Quinn turned to streetwalking.

A sassy 45-year-old Aileen working the autograph show circuit.

Aileen Quinn should have had a much bigger career.

Aileen Quinn, Sandahl Bergman, Jasmine Guy....humpphhh!

I thought this was a thread about ME!

Take a look at me nooow!

Did anyone notice that Reinking's voice on the Chicago revival CD sounds almost exactly like Gwen Verdon's voice on the OCR?

R135, it wasn't Bennett's choreography, it was McKechnie's. Bennett was busy with other aspects of the show and they were still struggling with Donna's number so she sort of put steps to it and it stuck. Bennett claimed he wanted to "fix it" when they went to Broadway but it never happened. Bennett's original staging, somewhat recreated in the Record Breaking performance, was to have Cassie joined by four of the male dancers and the number would turn into Cassie remembering the numbers she did that stopped the shows. All of a sudden, the mirrors would turn, the male dancers would head to the wings and Cassie would be back alone onstage. Reality crashes her act, the same as Ben in his Follies number. The guys were very upset at being taken out of the number at McKechnie's request.

The scene in All That Jazz, where Anne Reinking dances the routine with the 12 year movie-daughter (Erszebet Foldi) of Fosse (Roy Scheider) really demonstrated Reinking's legs to be unlike those of other dancers Her legs were specialized for Fosse routines. She had enormous thigh muscles spanning the hip joint (unlike most other dancers where the muscles are more evenly developed. These would be the sartorius and the portions of the quadripceps that control flexion from the hip and knee simultaneously ----- a very Fosse move. Anne Reinking's body was trained for Fosse dance and after a while, really somewhat weird in all other dances. Her legs are not striking, they are weird. It is why she always wore such high cuts in her costumes. (I believe someone here was looking for underpants?) If she didn't she looked hippy. So instead she looks like she has no waist.

All of this merely suggesting that perhaps she was controlled by the mentor she was with and I don't think she really ever fully adapted to anything after Fosse. Her voice was CLEARLY not her gift, but her phrasing, her delivery of anything she has ever sung, merely suggests she is just not the brightest bulb in the strand. She just comes off as so stupid. I feel sorry for her for having such tremendous drive and ambition, but not the intelligence or real talent to support either.

R131, the line is "A diaphragm, a diaphragm, I thought a diaphragm was up here where you breathe."

Anyone anywhere suggesting that Reinking was the best Fosse interpreter is an idiot. Gwen Verdon has that all sewn up. Always has. Probably always will. Reinking sounded like Verdon when she replaced her in the show's original run, but she can't dance like her. She lacks fluidity, in large part because she's all arms and legs. No torso. Nothing with which to be fluid. The broad shoulders make it more pronounced. The back injury during "Over, Here!" may have made it worse. Watching Verdon dance is like watching a thoroughbred horse as it goes through its paces. Reinking more resembles a clumsy foal that is all legs.

Reinking dances well. She always did. But she was never great. Donna McKechnie was a ten times better dancer, a hundred times better singer, and a thousand times better actress.

And what the fuck, R120? That 'costume change' is a video edit. The actual change doesn't happen in the video and it didn't happen during performance, either.

If you watch Carol Haney, even in the Kiss Me Kate duet with Fosse, she's also better at the style than Reinking. Reinking has an athleticism that is exciting to watch because you can see the effort she's putting into it, which is the opposite of what dancing is supposed to be about, which is ease of movement. In this brief clip from 'Sweet Charity", you can see that McKechnie performs the same moves with far more fluidity and grace than Reinking. And she builds the character through her movement.

When Debbie Allen went on vacation, Bebe Neuwirth stepped up from the role of Nickie and played Charity.

She was also better at the Fosse style than Reinking.

And why the holy fuck did Reinking make all those changes to Fosse's choreography for CHICAGO? I undestand that "All That Jazz" was staged differently. But Reinking's changes throughout the Hot Honey Rag are intolerable.

I smell miss warwick. answering his own posts again. lonely old man.

Hot Honey Rag was allegedly the only number in the revival that used Fosse's original choreography. There was credit to Fosse in the program and there was some publicity about it. The rest of the choreography was credited to Reinking "in the style of" Fosse.Any changes probably occurred later in the Broadway run to accommodate some of those replacements who could barely dance.

Bruce Vilanch was a writer for the 1989 Oscars, and describes the Rob Lowe/Snow White debacle firsthand:

The choreography on HHR is the choreography that Fosse re-did for Reinking. He made other changes for her like Me and My Baby and completely redid Roxie adding tambourines. Verdon did new Roxie number on tour but kept the original HHR which exists on YouTube.

Verdon and Rivera did Hot Honey Rag TWICE on TV, once very early on, well before Reinking went into it, and it's pretty much the same as the one in the Encores/revival version (the version linked above is a month or two before Rivera left the show)..

Reinking did "The Strut" version of "Me and My Baby." So did Penny Worth. Kander and Ebb wouldn't let it be done for Encores, and it's permanently in mothballs.

There's one of those "Dancers Over 40" things on YouTube, and Penny and Carolyn Kirsch do Hot Honey Rag (it's just in a rehearsal studio with piano) - and it's the same. Only Penny is able to do the cartwheel at the end, though.

Indeed, it is "pretty much" the same. But the changes are not as good as what was replaced.

Penny Worth talking about her audition for the tour. It rolls over automatically to "Nowadays/Hot Honey Rag" - Penny Worth, who must be in her 50s in this video, has a rocking body. She looks fantastic. Noteworthy since both Reinking and McKechnie have gotten "thick" with age.

Of course, these girls offer the definitive "Hot Honey Rag."

I always wondered why Travolta and Patricia Birch didn't get Ann to play Cha Cha in "Grease". Travolta knew her from "Over Here" and the revamped "Born to Hand Jive" is quite similar to "Charlie's Place", also choreographed by Birch.

I don't know what that is at R156, but it's underwhelming, isn't it? We don't need a male Roxie and Velma, the energy is low, and the lighting is awful anyway, making it look like a pair of dancing shirts. You can't even see their legs.

[quote] I smell

You should have stopped there, R149.

TAKE A LOOK AT ME NOW!!!

for anyone interetsed in what happened to ray parker jr.

More Oscar madness, truly horrible/mortifying staging of Sheena's "For Your Eyes Only". Even at the time they must have known it stank.

[quote] Except for the end, where she overdid it just a tad,

That's like saying, "Chrissy Metz is a tad overweight."

One of the weirdest for me was when it began with Tim Curry, Kathy Najimy and the little girl from "Matilda" (who cannot sing) performing "Make 'Em Laugh," but it rarely gets mentioned. Why were those three particular performers chosen, of all people?

I guess what was even weirder was for years I had twisted it in my mind and thought that instead of Tim Curry it was F. Murray Abraham, which would have been even crazier.

Wow! Was everyone in ShowBiz in the 80s so coked out that they had no ability to reject horrible ideas in preproduction?