Did anyone here ever see Twiggy on Broadway? - with Tommy Tine or whatever he was called?

Very little talent in the sense we like to think of it but a genuine star.

Kind of like Ruby Keeler. Only prettier.

Tommy Tune is his name -- Broadway legend and winner of many Tony Awards. Twiggy was charming in the show, though I wish I had seen Sandy Ducan, who replaced her later in the run. Twiggy is really very good in the film "The Boy Friend", co-starring Tune, which is where they first acted together.

[quote]Very little talent in the sense we like to think of it but a genuine star.

Little talent, but a star. Hmmm...

I saw it, with both of them in the cast (and awesomely unlikable former SNL star Denny Dillon as Tune's comic relief)--also with the guy who played D-Day in "Animal House"). Twiggy is a fine dancer, and has a nice loose-limbed way of dancing that Tommy Tune just loved (when they put together the show, she was his first choice for a partner because he loved dancing with her in the movie of "The Boyfriend").

She has a surprisingly penetrating voice--I was 16 so I didn't know at that age whether she was miked or not (I assumed she was) but it really was memorable, especially for "He Loves and She Loves" (during a showing onstage of a silent-film-within-the-musical called "White Baggage of the Casbah"). She croons her songs with quite a vibrato--it fit nicely for the Art Deco style of the show, although her voice isn't conventionally pretty. She had a very appealing style of underacting that worked quite well too.

Tommy Tune is a fine dancer, but I didn't care for either his annoying voice or for his comic acting. He seemed like he was consciously trying to channel Eb from "Green Acres," but I've heard that's what he's like in real life.

One of the interesting things about the show was that Twiggy had grown out her hair for years since her days as a model and told Tune she would do the show on the one condition she did not have to cut it. She has fairly fine hair, so they tied it in a tightly bound ponytail, which she coiled under wigs or cloche hats for most of the show but then left uncoiled for the title number (which she danced in a tuxedo).

As a friend said, Twiggy had to work so hard on stage that it gave her a strong presence that made her compelling. More compelling than Tune who was more skilled (and maybe more talented).

I did, on my 9th-grade drama field trip. Don't remember very much.

R3 thinks Ruby Keeler was a dynamo of talent.

R3 doesn't know who the fuck Ruby Keeler was, in fact.

I agree whole-heartedly that Twiggy's stage presence was considerable. Her voice was somewhat limited but she made the most of it; her phrasing had a crispness and gentle vibrato that made her more than adequate.

R3 think of someone today who is very famous and you think has no talent.

I bet you could think of quite a few

Poor Little Pierrette....

[quote][R3] think of someone today who is very famous and you think has no talent.

But that's not what R1 said. He said:

[quote]Very little talent in the sense we like to think of it but a genuine star.

Quite different.

[quote]Tommy Tine or whatever he was called?

Turn in your Gay Card

Gurl, I've turned it in so many times I've given up going to collect it.

They were exceptionally charming together. I went in with low expectations and really loved the show.

Tommy Tine liked to get forked.

R15 give up your Coherent Sentence Card, too.

Met Tune in 1973 or 74 [ yes, I Am old ;-0 ] Very nice man and good sense of humor. I'm not that tall and I actually ran Under his legs; we were laughing about the height difference.

[quote][R15] give up your Coherent Sentence Card, too.

Are you Swiss?

My sentence was perfectly coherent.

[quote]I'm not that tall and I actually ran Under his legs; we were laughing about the height difference.

Why, when people make up stories about encounters famous people, do they always include laughter?

I had a Twiggy doll.....

That doesn't look like Twiggy at all.

And I look like Anne Francis, r23?

I saw the show and liked it so much that I saw it again. Both times with Tune and Twiggy.

Twiggy perfectly captured the 1920s. She performed the role without an ounce of irony which made her charming and believable. There was nothing slick about her.

Her voice sounded as if it was being heard on an old Victrola. It was perfect for the material.

The Gershwin songs used for the show were not particularly well known, so it was interesting to hear them. They were perfectly woven into the story.

[quote] Why, when people make up stories about encounters famous people, do they always include laughter?

Tommy Tune autographed my program after a performance of SEESAW in San Jose in the mid 1970s.

No laughter was involved.

The show had a brilliant casting move: the girl dancers were white and the boy dancers were black.

In other words the show was "multiracial" but segregated...in keeping with the era.

Watch the above and then watch this: "Gold Diggers of Broadway" (1929) start at around 2:30

You can see how MOAO was a valentine to the era.

I had a pair of these....

I've always loved that final musical number from Gold Diggers of Broadway. Not much more remains of the film. I like the way the stage continually fills with more and more girls, how people keep marching up and down the stairs and how one terrific dance or acrobatic number follows right on the heels of another. And that set is wonderful.

The two young dancing acrobats who come in at 3:55 are so perfectly in sync it's amazing. And they are very cute.

I first saw it at Film Forum and the print and color were so much better. Here the 2 color print has turned soft and sickly looking. People today have no idea how good these films originally looked.

It opened at the Winter Garden. Yes it did show movies.

I saw My One and Only when I was a child.

[quote]The two young dancing acrobats who come in at 3:55 are so perfectly in sync it's amazing. And they are very cute.

The one on the right is James Cagney

It took 30 responses until someone mentioned the name of the Broadway musical they starred in together.

I saw "My One and Only" with Tommy Tune and Twiggy. He was terrific, and she was very good. I remember the number where they danced in a wading pool on stage.

I saw it in Boston while they were still working on it, and changing directors. It was rather clumsy, but I couldn't stop watching. I think I saw it before Twiggy made it her own. She was very uncomfortable, couldn't dance or sing. Great ensemble cast. Tune was wonderful. Tune took over direction along with Thommie Walsh. Finally, Mike Nichols and Michael Bennett were brought in. And then it became a wonderful show.

After Twiggy there was Sandy Duncan, Lucie Arnaz, and even Stephanie Zimbalist playing Edythe Herbert in MY ONE AND ONLY either on Broadway or in its national tours. Tune worked with all of them, though Duncan also did the show at some point with her husband.

It's odd that the show doesn't get done more, though there are THREE Gershwin compilation shows out there: this one by Peter Stone, CRAZY FOR YOU by Ken Ludwig (which ran longer) and NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT by Joe DiPietro.

[quote]Sandy Duncan, Lucie Arnaz, and even Stephanie Zimbalist

I couldn't imagine them doing that role. Maybe Sandy Duncan, but Lucie Arnaz?

Twiggy sure looked the part. Like one of those John Held illustrations.

I saw it and enjoyed it immensely. I don't remember a lot of specifics, except that she was delightful.

The original director was Peter Sellers (no, not the Dr Strangelove actor). His vision was this very modern, abstract set, but all of the dances had to be absolutely period correct. It seems that his "vision" was all in his head and never really worked. I was not aware the Bennett and Nicholas were brought in to replace Tommy Tune.

Saw the show twice and enjoyed it immensely. Of the three Gershwin "new" musicals, it was the one that most resembled those original Gershwin 1920s musicals, like Lady Be Good and Oh, Kay! A loose, somewhat insane plot as an excuse for lots of excellent numbers. It is one of the few shows that really was able to turn it around after a disastrous tryout. But then again, when you have Tommy Tune, Mike Nichols and Michael Bennett to fix a show...

Here's Tune and Twiggy performing S'Wonderful.

She had a bizarre singing voice

And Sandy Duncan and Don Correia (at his hottest) in a bootleg performing "He Loves and She Loves." There's also a video on YouTube of Tune and Duncan performing the number on a TV program, but this one is a little more exciting.

A recent production at Stage St. Louis.

Saw her in this.

Meh.

R27

I love that clip. A very young Nana Visitor is in that.

Watched The Boyfriend on Amazon a couple of weeks ago. Very strange and wonderful. Twiggy was remarkably good.

The voice and her look really capture what the 20s seem like to me. That crazy vibrato especially sounds straight out of the 20s.

And who is Nana Visitor?

A Trekkie who is also somehow related to Cyd Charisse. Her niece, I think. She was on DS9.

I saw Twiggy in "My One and Only". She was utterly gorgeous, and her performance was almost a period performance, as she acted and sang like an actual woman from the 1920s. She was sweet not brash, just incandescent, especially in the finale "Kicking the Clouds Away" (which I think was even longer than the version you might see online from the Tonys that year), which showed how marvelous she was.

The show had a troubled out of town preview period in Boston where not only the original director Peter Sellars, but the sets too were scrapped and the whole thing reconfigured by Tommy Tune. Mr. Tune gave a curtain speech after each preview performance asking for the audiences' indulgence while the new version gelled and sets were rebuilt. He was so charming and wonderful, asking the already dazzled audience to love the show, he kept doing it well after the show was "set". Tommy Tune alone turned "My One and Only" into a sizable hit.

She was wonderful. One of the worst books for a musical, however.