God Of Dance

I should have handed this post off to my dear friend WCK3, who is a professional dancer, a dance historian & a Professor of Dance at The University of Oregon. WCK3 was briefly my boyfriend in college, but we have stayed excellent friends for 37+ years. Because of this supremely talented man, I know more about dance than most civilians.

Vaslav Fomich Nijinsky was born on this day in 1890, in Kiev to Polish parents, but for his lifetime he considered himself a Pole. He grew up poor, but by the time he was in his late teens, he had already had heady affairs with several much older men: Prince Pavel Dimitrievitch, Lvov & Count Tishkievitch, who each lavished with him luxurious libations. Soon after, Nijinsky started his rapturous romantic & professional partnership with Sergei Diaghilev. Diaghilev, a renowned & highly innovative producer of art exhibits, ballet & opera, who concentrated on promoting Russian visual & musical art abroad, groomed the young Nijinsky to be known as the God of Dance.


Nijinsky was the rare male ballet stars to perform en pointe, & his fame in Russia & Paris grew with each new dancing role: Cleopatra, The Sleeping Beauty, & Giselle. Diaghilev advanced Nijinsky’s work as a choreographer of his own works & the radical results were remarkable. The dancer was just 22 years old when he created a piece set to Debussy's Afternoon of a Faun which ended with him masturbating. The next year his ballet collaboration with Igor Stravinsky- The Rite of Spring ended in riotous reaction at the Théâtre de Champs-Élysées when they premiered it in Paris. His work was judged as obscene, but was defended by such artists as Auguste Rodin & Marcel Proust.


While on tour in South America, Nijinsky, in an act rash, reckless & ruinous, he married a Romanian countess- Romola Pulsky, who had taken up ballet in order to pursue the young dancer across Europe & the Atlantic Ocean. The incensed & injurious Diaghilev fired him.

Nijinsky tried to start his own dance company. But, bad choices & ill-conceived projects, brought the celebrated star from luster, laurels, & lavish gifts, to needing to support a wife & child with no funds & no dance company.


Nijinsky went to Hungary to recover from nervous exhaustion. When WW I broke out, he was considered an enemy because he was a Russian citizen & he was jailed. In 1916, Diaghilev rescued him & took the family to NYC, so that Nijinsky could re-join his Ballets Russes. Diaghilev & Nijinsky rekindled their love affair, but the wife did all she could to come between the pair.


Nijinsky's mental state declined. The dancer became paranoid & obsessive, & worse; he was frightened of performing on stage. With Diaghilev back in Europe; Nijinsky was left in charge of the company. However, it was around this time in his life that signs of his schizophrenia were becoming apparent to members of the company. He suffered a nervous breakdown in 1919, & his career effectively ended. The depressed Nijinsky was diagnosed with schizophrenia & taken to Switzerland by his wife. Later Diaghilev attempted to reconcile, & again his wife kept her husband from him, preventing any more reunions. Nijinsky he was just 29 years old. For the next 3 decades he was in & out of institutions until his death in London in 1950.


Nijinsky left a diary with appeals for compassion toward the less fortunate, & for vegetarianism & animal rights. He also wrote of his love for Diaghilev.


In 1970, a long planned film of his life was to start filming. With a screenplay by Edward Albee (with whom he shares a birthday today), The film was to be directed by Tony Richardson, starring Rudolf Nureyev as Nijinsky, & Paul Scofield as Diaghilev, but producers scrapped the project.


A decade later a film was finally made. Nijinski was directed by Herbert Ross, starring dancers- George de la Peña as Nijinsky &  Leslie Browne as Romola, & with Alan Bates as Diaghilev. Romola Nijinsky had a writing credit for the film. The film makers got the attitude right, but the history all wrong. The film is available on something called VHS, I have no idea what this is. I think the story is ripe for the right filmmaker to take another shot at it. My suggestion: John Cameron Mitchell writing & directing, with Daniel Radcliffe as Nijinsky, Natalie Portman as Romola & me as Diaghilev.

The Oak Room Closes

WCK3 texted me: "I can't believe you have not posted about the Oak Room closing". I must admit, up to the minute as I attempt to be, I can't be on the Internet or watching TV 24 hours of the day. This scoop slipped past me. I immediately searched for an account of this announcement.

Oak Room at The Plaza

WCK3 most likely felt a special sentiment for this NYC spot. On December 24, 1976, we had attended the theatre & after a rousing good time seeing The Royal Family (Rosemary Harris, George Grizzard & Eva Le Gallienne), as we came out of the theatre we treated to big fat, perfect, magic, stage worthy snowflakes that had been falling as we had witnessed theatre magic. It was like stepping on to a stage set of NYC at Christmas. The streets were mostly empty & the city grinned at us like it had been lit by a baby pink spotlight.

Some guy I picked up at The Oak Room at The Plaza

We decided to walk home to the Upper West Side & as we crossed Central Park South, I suggested ducking into The Oak Room at the Plaza Hotel. We prolonged the evening with cocktails & nibbles at the famed dining room.

A warm glow has fallen over you readers... but, WCK3 was a bit confused. The Oak Room at the Plaza (now condos) still exists. The Oak Room that is being shuttered is the bar & cabaret space at my beloved Algonquin Hotel. Part of the room’s history includes a link to the famed Round Table whose acerbic members included Dorothy Parker & Robert Benchley. The literary salon first met there is 1919.

Andrea Marcovicci at the Oak Room at The Algonquin... known to steal my material

The ghost of Dorothy Parker is still sipping her martini, but the space that has been the toast of the Cabaret world for 35 years, with regular gigs by: Harry Connick Jr., Diana Krall, KT Sullivan, & Karen Akers, is finished. Andrea Marcovicci sang her last sad song on the tiny stage. This only leaves The Carlyle as a top notch, A list cabaret in NYC. Is this style of music, great singers swinging the Great Standards, ready to be boarded up also?

I have a special place in my heart for the room that goes beyond the Algonquin Round Table Gang. I had planned on shocking the show biz world with the resurrection of my act: Steve Sings Sad Songs for the Soused
Sweethearts. Here was my abandoned Set List for the much anticipated return of my Supper Club Show:
1. Whip My Hair
2. Sister Morphine
3. The Crane's Wife (Decemberists cover)
4. Back In Baby's Arms
5. As Tears Go By
6. A Wonderful Guy
7.Straight To The Top
8. Do Do Do
9. I Enjoy Being A Girl
10. Mean To Me
11. Prisoner Of Love (Kitty Wells cover)
12. Alone When It Rains
13. A Small Day Tomorrow
Encore Medley:
Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses?
Wild Horses
Horse With No Name
One Trick Pony
Black Horse & The Cherry Tree
Bring On The Dancing Horses
(featuring the cast of War Horse)
Final Encore:
Let's Stay Together in a duet with surprise special star: Barack Obama

The Encore for Steve Sings Sad Songs For The Soused Sweethearts

Born On This Day- August 8th... Rudi Gernreich

Do I have your attention boys & girls? This story is important. This story is fabulous, & this story is true. A little Viennese gay baby boy- Rudi Gernreich was born on this day in 1922. Jewish Rudi fled Austria at age 16 to escape the Nazis.

Following the 1938 Anschluss, the Gernreichs, mother & son migrated to L.A.. They survived on the pastries that his mother baked & he sold door to door.

Gernreich’s first job was washing cadavers for autopsy. Gernreich: “I grew up overnight, I do smile sometimes when people tell me my clothes are so body-conscious I must have studied anatomy. You bet I studied anatomy.”

Gernreich was enamored of Martha Graham. He became a dancer with the Lester Horton company. In 1974, Gernreich danced with Bella Lewitzky, with whom he had danced in Salome 30 years before, when both were members of Horton's troupe. His remarkable costumes for the Lewitzky presentation of Inscape were part of the set & part of the plot. His "Siamese twins" were joined at the skull in stretchable hoods that kept the dancers connected both literally & figuratively. Gernreich continued to collaborate with Lewitzky, designing sets & costumes for Pas de Bach in 1977, Rituals in 1979, Changes & Choices in 1981, & Confines in 1982, all danced by by my college boyfriend & still good pal, the beautiful Walter Kennedy in his dancing prime.

Walter Kennedy in Gerneich

60 years ago in L.A., Gernreich, with his lover at the time- Harry Hay & others, formed the Mattachine Society, the first gay rights group in the country. Some later criticized the designer for not coming out after taking those amazingly brave early steps, but most of us now could barely imagine how difficult & dangerous it was to do so: you could lose your job, your friends & family, even your life. Gernreich did not come out until after his death, when the estate of he & his partner of 31 years- Oreste Pucciani, provided an endowment for ACLU in their names. Oreste Pucciani, chairman of the U.C.L.A. French department was instrumental in bringing Sartre to the attention of Americans.He was a pivotal figure in the gay rights movement.

Early Mattachine Society

Hay & Gernreich, are the main characters of the play The Temperamentals by Jon Marans, with Thomas Jay Ryan playing Hay & out & proud actor Michael Urie (with whom he shares this birthday) as Gernreich; after workshop performances in 2009 the play opened to rave reviews off Broadway in spring 2010.

Rudi Gernreich was the first to use cutouts in clothes. He was the first to use vinyl & plastic in clothes. He Introduced androgyny: men's suits & hats on women. He designed the first see-through clothes. Gernreich designed the first soft transparent bra the "no bra" bra that torpedoed the torpedos. He invented body clothes based on leotards & tights. He used hardware such as zippers, & dog leash clasps as decoration. He did the first designer jeans. He designed the 1st thong bathing suit. He was the first to design men's underwear for women.

Rudi Gernreich spent most of his productive life entirely aware that clothes were ideas in material form. His innovations embraced the new concept of lifestyle & in his soft bathing suits ,thongs, body clothes & tube dresses, in his unisex looks & signature, playful witty look, celebrated the removal of restriction & conformity.

Gernreich seemed to understand that a piece of clothing could embody a larger sense of freedom and liberation. It had to have something to do with his being gay, & of course being a dancer must have informed his vision of how a dressed body should float with naked ease in & around every situation.

I love 1960s conceptualist fashion. High Art fashion. Its not just fashion; it is a way of life. Life as theatre. Today in the stereotypical gay lifestyle & queer fashion is being appropriated by straight culture. Gay S&M fashion once an underground subculture, has gone mainstream. Slings are a home decor accessory. Rudi Gernreich was cutting edge, but today would he be cutting edge? The real queens of the past: Rudi Gernreich, Quentin Crisp, Joe Orton, Jean Genet, Truman Capote, Jean Cocteau were so brilliant, they defied fashion convention, they were not subservient to it. I hope that Rudi’s friend Walter kennedy is lounging around his digs, enjoying his coffee in a purple thong or one of those famous unitards.

Born To Dance

I saw her on Broadway several times, at least 3 time in the musical- Chicago alone, & she is a long time favorite of mine. Gwenyth Evelyn Verdon was one of Broadway's biggest stars of the Golden Era & beyond. She was an actress & dancer who won 4 Tony awards. With flaming red hair & an endearing quaver in her voice, Gwen Verdon was a critically acclaimed dancer & occasionally an actor in films in the 1950s,1960s & 1970s... & into the 1980s with terrific work in the films Cocoon & Marvin's Room.




Verdon is strongly associated with the work of her husband, director/choreographer Bob Fosse. She was his primary dancer/collaborator & muse for whom he choreographed much of his work. She was the guardian of his legacy after his death. Because of his extramarital affairs, in 1971 Verdon filed a legal separation from Fosse, but never divorced him. She held him in her arms as he suffered a fatal heart attack on the sidewalk outside the theatre where  his musical- Sweet Charity was being revived.

Verdon & her daughter with Fosse- Nicole collaborated to create the Broadway show- Fosse. She continued to teach dance & musical theatre until 1999. Best known for her verve, vim & vivacity. On the day she died in 2000, the lights on Broadway were dimmed in honor of the passing of one of its brightest stars. Gwen Verdon would have been 84 years old today.

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I caught Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake on PBS a few years ago & I was blown away. His production turned tradition upside down & took both the theater & dance worlds by storm when it arrived on Broadway in 1998. Swan Lake to the unlikely step of playing Broadway, instead of a concert hall or opera house. It went on to win 3 Tony Awards. Acclaimed as a landmark achievement on the international stage, it has become the longest running ballet in London’s West End & on Broadway. I was revived this season on Broadway, & has had hugely successful tours in Britain.



Bourne was the Artistic Director of his first company- Adventures in Motion Pictures (1987-2002). His new company is named- New Adventures.

His best know productions include Nutcracker!, Swan Lake, The Car Man ( A modern dance version of the opera- Carmen) & Play Without Words. Bourne is a Resident Artist at Sadlers Wells Theatre & has created the choreography & direction for several major revivals of classic musicals: Oliver!, My Fair Lady, South Pacific & the hit West End & Broadway musical Mary Poppins for which he won an Olivier Award & A Tony. His production of Swan Lake is featured in Stephen Daldry’s film- Billy Elliot.

Bourne started training to be a dancer at the rather late age of 22 .He's grateful he came to it late: "If I hadn't had my experience of all those things, I don't think my work now would connect with a much wider audience than the dance world. If I'd started young as a choreographer, as a dancer, the subject of my work would be movement, much more choreography as such, because I wouldn't have all those other influences".

He danced professionally for 14 years creating many roles in his own work. In 1999 he gave his final performance playing The Private Secretary in the Broadway production of Swan Lake. His other ballets include Edward Scissorhands & Dorian Gray. I am a bit smitten. I had a lover who was a professional dancer. He was very flexable. Bourne turns 51 today.

New Year's Eve

It was really a sweet way to end a crummy year.

WCK3, who had flown out of Portland to spend the holiday with his family, spent the holiday with us. We had a very gay New Year's Eve. We ate some very special cookies, sipped Champagne, & watched my boyfriend- Anderson Cooper with Kathy Griffin bring in the New Year in NYC, then we had a blast (the cookies kicked in) watching Bette Midler's Vegas show on HBO. She is the last of the great entertainers: singing, dancing & telling jokes. Bette isthe end of a line of the greatest of entertainers. She gives & gives. We then watched my other boyfriend- Andy Cohen on the Bravo New Year's Eve with all my favorites from the USA's most gay network.

I actually made it to midnight. No easy task, having been up at 4am & working a full day, then meeting my best friend in my company- ES, a hot, sexy lesbian with an alter-ego- Mr. E. Yes, I am good friends with a drag king! ES & I had a glass of bubbly & a piece of chocolate at as hot Portland dessert spot. I love her/him!

What did you do to bring in the New Year? I want to know. Do you have hopes for a better year, or was 2010 perfect for you. Please know, the greatest pleasures I experienced in 2010 was writing posts for this blog thing, reading the 50+blogs that I follow every day, & getting to know fellow bloggers. As Vincent Youmans & Irving Caesar said in 1925: "Life is really worth living, when you are mirth giving, why don't I give some for you."

Isn't It Good, Isn't It Grand, Isn't It Great, Isn't It Swell, Isn't It Fun, Isn't It... Nowadays. Born On This Day- Bebe Neuwirth!

When I lived in NYC in the mid-1970s,  & I was studying at HB Studios, I was living with my sorta boyfriend- WCK3 ( who was studying at Julliard) & I working at ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers). This was a fabulous job as a “music monitor”. I had a small cubicle in the ASCAP building, with a huge window that looked out at Lincoln Center & a smack on view of the Chagall tapestries at the Metropolitan Opera House. It remains one of my favorite jobs of all time, & one of the perks was frequent house seats for Broadway musicals.


The big musical of the moment was a little thing called- A Chorus Line, but my own favorite was the somewhat less popular- Chicago. I loved this show, directed & choreographed by Bob Fosse & I saw it when ever I got a chance. It starred Chita Rivera, Jerry Orbach & Gwen Verdon. At some point,Gwen Verdon fell ill, the victim of swallowing a feather from her costume & she was replaced for 1 month by someone named Liza Minnelli. I was so excited to see Liza up close & personal. ASCAP secured, for me, 2 tickets for her 1st night in the role. WCK3 could not attend, but he suggested that I bring his friend & classmate at Julliard- Bebe.

I felt bad that I had been taunting Bebe, because she shared a name with the Seattle Zoo’s famous gorilla. Beebee & BoBo were a very famous gorilla couple at the Seattle Zoo, & WCK3’s friend had to suffer through my gorilla jokes. I was glad to have a date for Liza’s Chicago debut, & Bebe seemed to have forgiven my ribbing. We had a great date at the theatre, with drinks at Joe Allen’s after the show. I wish that I had been portentous at the time, about my date was Bebe Neuwirth. I would loved to have told her that she would someday go on to win a Tony Award as Velma Kelly, in the most successful revival in Broadway history- Chicago (She would also be the 2nd Sheila in that other show- A Chorus Line): “Hey Bebe… someday, you will win a Tony award for this show & you will go on to be a big Broadway & TV star (winning 2 Emmy awards for her take on Dr. Lilith Sternin on Cheers), how about a kiss? She was a swell date. I regret not trying to make out with her at the end of our evening.

Things turned out pretty well for Bebe. For the last year she has been starring with Nathan Lane in The Aadams Family on Broadway. Bebe never thanks me in her award speeches, although I was the perfect date, footing the cost of the tickets & the drinks, & every bit the gentleman. Today is Bebe Neuwirth’s birthday. I will never forget our date.

"I Can Do That!"

My good close personal friend- WCK3 has stories to tell. He once faced the choice of touring in A Chorus Line or becoming a company member of a very famous Modern Dance Company. James Kirkwood, co-author of A Chorus Line, said: "Michael would do anything...anything to get a show on. The cruelty was extensive. & not just in his professional life. He was amoral."

Born Michael Bennett DiFiglia, April 8th, 1943, in Buffalo NY, Michael Bennett performed in the chorus of Broadway musicals starting in 1961. In the mid-1960s he was a featured dancer on the NBC pop music series Hullabaloo, where he met fellow dancer Donna McKechnie.


In 1968, he choreographed the hit musical Promises, Promises on Broadway. With a pop score by Burt Bacharach, the show ran for 1,281 performances.As a director or choreographer, Bennett produced first class work & strong reviews for the play Twigs with Sada Thompson & the musical Coco with Katharine Hepburn. These were followed by groundbreaking work in 2 Stephen Sondheim shows-Company & Follies co-directed with Hal Prince.

 From 1968's Promises, Promises

In 1973, Bennett was asked by the producers to take over the troubled Cy Coleman-Dorothy Fields musical Seesaw. When he replaced director Ed Sherin & choreographer Grover Dale, he asked for absolute control over the production as director & choreographer & received credit as "having written, directed, & choreographed" the musical.


The process of taking over the troubled Seesaw on the road, convinced Bennett the usual way of developing musicals: rehearsals, out-of-town tryouts, previews, & then a Broadway opening was not efficient & he developed a better way of developing a show.


He devised a show about the lives of chorus boys & girls, but rather than commission a script, he let the story come together from a series of group therapy style workshops in which dancers shared their feelings & frustrations about their careers. Hours of audio tapes eventually led to the creation of his biggest & most personal triumph- A Chorus Line, which opened in July 1975 at Joseph Papp's Public Theatre. The reviews were over the top & the show transferred to the Shubert Theater Broadway, where it would play for 15 years. It won 9 Tony Awards, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, & the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

In the early 1980s, Bennett worked on various projects, but except for Dreamgirls, none of them reached the stage. His addictions to alcohol & drugs: cocaine & Quaaludes, affected his work & impacted his professional & personal relationships.

Donna McKechnie & Bennett were married in December 1976& divorced 4 months later. His relationships with men included long affairs with dancers Larry Fuller, Scott Pearson, Richard Christopher, & Gene Pruitt, his last lover. He retired to Arizona with Pruitt & died on July 2, 1987 at 44, of HIV related illness. Bennett left most of his estate to funding research to fight the AIDS epidemic.