Celebrating Tony Stevens

Dancer, director and choreographer Tony Stevens died in July this year of Hodgkin's lymphoma and today his friends and colleagues paid tribute at the NY Society of Ethical Culture on W 64th St. The lights came up on a stage full of more than 40 performers standing in three lines. The front row, "The Tony Stevens Dancers" all described him in one word: Tony Stevens is passion...love...fabulous....sexy...here. The next row comprised the cast of the national tour of DREAMGIRLS which Tony directed and choreographed. The last row, friends and colleagues such as Chita Rivera, Harvey Evans, Andy G. Bew, Debbie Gravitte, simply stated a year. The year they met Tony Stevens. Then came the stories. Harvey Evans was cast opposite Sandy Duncan in the 1970 revival of THE BOYFRIEND but was unable to attend rehearsals until the third day. He arrived to find that his big Charleston number had already been choreographed on Sandy and his understudy, Tony Stevens whom he had never met. The whole cast watched the duo perform the number and they raised the roof it was so exciting. Harvey said he knew he would never be able to dance the number as well as Tony. And so " he must never be allowed to go on." They lived together for the next twelve years. Tony adored all things Disney and so Woody Shelp, Broadway's premier hatmaker, made Tony a gift of Mickey's Sorcerer hat from FANTASIA. Harvey wore it at the podium. Tony's protege Dante Puleio danced while Bob Cuccioli sang "In My Life" . Best friend Michon Peacock who first met TS when he was 18 in a production of  WEST SIDE STORYcalled Tony a genius and a master of relationships. Together they initiated the taped "rap" sessions that became the basis for A CHORUS LINE. Debbie Gravitte was in the Debbie Reynolds ANNIE GET YOUR GUN in L.A. with TS assisting director Gower Champion and later she appeared with TS in PERFECTLY FRANK. Today she sang her hit number from that show, "Junkman". Carol Schuberg met TS in 1994 when he finally directed A CHORUS LINE and cast her as Sheila. She became his assistant for the next 16 years. She said Tony taught her about living viscerally and full-out, fairness, kindness, loyalty. He changed people's lives because he believed in them, saw who they were, instilled joy. That was one of his watchwords about how to dance onstage..."Joy trumps all." For 20 years he used the same music as his warm up when he taught, George Michael's "Faith", so then 27 of his dancers including Dana Moore, Angie Schworer, Michael Cusumano & Steven Sofia, performed a tribute based on TS's choreography called "The Church of George Michael" and we repaid them with a cheering ovation. Nathan Sampson, TS's partner of the last 12 years, spoke emotionally and most movingly and Laura Kenyon sang "Something I Dreamed Last Night". Gerry McIntire told of being hired as TS's assistant on DREAMGIRLS and TS telling him there would be no pre-production meetings. Gerry turned up on the first day to be told that TS had "injured his leg and would not be back for several days. What did he want to do for the first day of rehearsal..?" The cast of DREAMGIRLS then sang the title song with new lyrics: "Tony Stevens...boy, you made us happy". Cue tears and another standing ovation. Beth Glover sang a gorgeous song by Stephen Cole and Jeffrey Saver called "One More Star". Cue gushing torrents of tears. We heard stories of TS's staging genius. An out-of-town flop called SPOTLIGHT was written for Dan Dailey but eventually cast with Gene Barry who couldn't dance. TS solved the problem of the big number by putting Barry in a white tux centre stage and the male chorus in black tuxes upstage "tapping" with their canes. He revitalised "No Business Like Show Business" in ANNIE GET YOUR GUN by eliminating the traditional chorus and peopling the company with the troupe depicted on the real Buffalo Bill's posters...Chinese cooks, a Wagnerian soprano, etc. For the "Show Business" number a giant clown hand came out of the wings bearing a red nose which Annie put on. When she pulled the hand the entire company followed it dressed in white spangled versions of their costumes and literally created a three ring circus. They exited as they had entered with the clown hand the last to go. Only then did Debbie Reynolds sing her verse, "There's no people like show people" as the sound of a train could be heard approaching. Frank Butler & Buffalo Bill dressed her in a travelling outfit, the train appeared, Annie boarded it and they all rode off as the curtain fell. A brilliant revision of a classic and all Tony Stevens.

  Chita Rivera walked on to a standing ovation. TS was Fosse's assistant on the original CHICAGO and dancer/choreographer of her nightclub act Chita Plus Two. She reminisced about shared lunches in Las Vegas where they sported whipped cream on their noses for the hell of it, performing monkey impressions in front of Gregory Peck (unwittingly) and dancing for Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire and Baryshnikov. She then performed "Me and My Baby" from her act with a selection of her "Plus Twos" from over the years...Wayne Cilento, Lloyd Culbreath, Robert Montano, Richard Montoya and Leland Schwantes (complete with monkey impression). Another standing ovation. Friend of 42 years Andy Bew met TS on the Broadway flop "Jimmy" and together they worked for Fosse, Bennett, Peter Gennaro (who would say "You're never too tired to dance!" in his endearing lisp), Alan Johnston, Gower Champion et al. "We even found a way to have fun with Ron Field", he added. From 1998 they worked on industrial shows for State Farm Insurance: TS died before rehearsals started for the most recent one. Sam Harris told of TS directing him in a production of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR ("I played Jesus, he played God") and deciding that they needed to deconstruct Jesus. If he had all those people following him, then Jesus has to be sexy and "have a sense of humour. That way the ending will have a real impact!" Sam then performed a dazzling "Over the Rainbow" which TS asked him to sing at his SUPERSTAR audition. Harvey Evans (in the Sorcerer's hat) closed the proceedings by introducing a clip from a documentary about TS produced by George Fairfield, and we saw the man himself in action dancing up a storm with Chita in grainy colour footage. It was all very inspiring and tonight as I struggled through "Colour My World" I found myself thinking...Joy trumps all. You're never too tired to dance. And it worked.