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Last week, PBS premiered a new documentary on one of the greatest choreographers of all-time, Jerome Robbins. Entitled Jerome Robbins: Something to Dance About, the film was directed and produced by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Judy Kinberg and penned by Robbins biographer Amanda Vaill. The two-hour film features interviews with Robbins (who passed away in 1998), and dance legends like Mikhail Baryshnikov and Suzanne Farrell. It also has interviews with Stephen Sondheim, who Robbins worked with on West Side Story, and all the original Fiddler on the Roof creators (Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick, Joseph Stein.)
I had the good fortune of working with Mr. Robbins when I worked for Leonard Bernstein’s Estate. Before Bernstein died, he and Robbins and Sondheim and John Guare (Six Degrees of Separation) were working for years on a musical adaptation of some Bertolt Brecht material. Part of my job was to comb through cassette tapes that Bernstein had made of some of the meetings between him and Robbins where they were working out some of the material at the piano. On a couple occasions, I had to stop in at Mr. Robbins’ Upper East Side townhouse and he was always very pleasant and even chatty, once asking me seemingly off-topic questions, like “Was it hard growing up with the last name Israel?”
That’s a hard question to answer when you’re 24 and standing in the foyer of one of your idols. Especially when you know he’d changed his own last name from Rabinowitz to Robbins. I replied that, at times, it was, but that it was good because people never forgot me once they met me.
Curiously, some years later, the next time I saw Jerry (that’s what we called him), he didn’t remember me in the slightest. I had a meeting with Broadway directory Hal Prince about an opera I was working on and Jerry happened to have the meeting slot just before me. When Hal introduced us (”This is David Israel”), Jerry shot me a half-smile, turned, and walked out of the office. There were places to go, more interesting people to see.
So much for my forget-me-not theory.
To honor Jerry (even though he didn’t remember me – j/k), we’re giving away a copy of the PBS DVD. But you’re going to have to earn it. Here’s what to do:
Drop a comment below with your favorite song from one of the musicals Jerome Robbins worked on (in any capacity). We’ll pick one random winner and mail you the DVD. That’s all there is to it. May the luckiest song win. In the meantime, check your local PBS station for the next air-date of the new doc – it’s pretty wonderful.
Comments (46)
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“Gee Officer Krupke” from West Side Story
posted by Sue on 2-23-2009 at 8:42 am
My fav has to be America in West Side Story. It was the first time I remember being excited by dance.
posted by Karen Labenz on 2-23-2009 at 8:42 am
“Mambo” will forever and ever and ever stick out in my mind as a work of genius on so many lines.
Thanks for the article!
posted by Kristen on 2-23-2009 at 8:56 am
Matchmaker from Fiddler!
posted by Becca on 2-23-2009 at 9:24 am
“If I Were a Rich Man” from Fiddler on the Roof. Love love love.
posted by Allison on 2-23-2009 at 9:29 am
“Tradition!” from Fiddler on the Roof. Far and away my favorite musical of all time. In fact, I sometimes answer my phone by singing in a very loud tone “THE PAPA!!” when my dad calls :)
posted by Megan on 2-23-2009 at 9:33 am
America from West side story. I can sit here at work and close my eyes and still see everything that happens in that…Mambo is a close second.
posted by Tim on 2-23-2009 at 9:44 am
“New York, New York” from On the Town.
posted by Jill on 2-23-2009 at 9:58 am
‘From from the Home I Love’ from FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. A beautiful, heartbreaking song… much better in the Orig Bway cast recording, which had an opera singer – Julia Migenes performing it.
posted by Amy on 2-23-2009 at 10:02 am
CORRECTION, should read:
‘FAR From from the Home I Love’ from FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. A beautiful, heartbreaking song… much better in the Orig Bway cast recording, which had an opera singer – Julia Migenes performing it.
posted by Amy on 2-23-2009 at 10:04 am
I as extremely familiar with the West side story dances for I work on the recent award winning West End revival. I think that piece of theater in untouchable. The best show ever written. What’s interesting is that America, and parts of Mambo, were actually choreographed by Peter Gennaro, though Robbins collaborated of course. My favorite dance in that show would have to be the Scherzo/Pas deux six. They I believe are not in the movie. Pas is danced to “Somewhere” and both those dances represent a color blind world where children can be children and lovers can be lovers. When danced well, it is so beautiful.
posted by Tracy on 2-23-2009 at 10:22 am
Shall We Dance.
“One two three and” :-)
posted by karen on 2-23-2009 at 10:35 am
My favorite has to be “Cool” from West Side Story. “You wanna live in this lousy world? You play it cool.”
posted by Rebecca on 2-23-2009 at 11:12 am
“Everything’s Coming up Roses !” from Gypsy
posted by Jim on 2-23-2009 at 11:13 am
Mine’s not officially a song, but it’s the part of West Side Story when the Sharks and the Jets are walking down the street, dancing. I wish gangs in real life would dance on their way to a rumble.
posted by Meghan on 2-23-2009 at 11:20 am
“Somewhere” from West Side Story. I have watched this musical over and over again, and “Somewhere” still chokes me up.
posted by Meg on 2-23-2009 at 11:43 am
I’m a musical freak, so it’s tough to pick a favorite, but the song “New York, New York” from On the Town is forever popping into my head.
posted by Brandy on 2-23-2009 at 11:57 am
“Miracle of Miracles” (Fiddler on the Roof)
posted by Janelle on 2-23-2009 at 12:07 pm
Somewhere from West Side Story, definitely.
posted by amandastretch on 2-23-2009 at 12:16 pm
Cool from West Side Story. Now I’m going to be humming it for the rest of the day…
posted by Rachel on 2-23-2009 at 12:57 pm
Gotta be either “Steam Heat” or 7 1/2 Cents” from The Pajama Game
posted by Jonathan on 2-23-2009 at 1:14 pm
the “Cool” fugue from West Side Story.
we’re playing the West Side Story dance suite in Wind Ensemble, so i’m getting a healthy dose of that song lately.
posted by the creature on 2-23-2009 at 1:58 pm
Everything’s Coming Up Roses…
But I have to say “Dances at a Gathering” is my favorite ballet.
posted by Kevin on 2-23-2009 at 2:12 pm
“Comedy Tonite” from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
Without that number the show would not have been the same.
posted by Beth on 2-23-2009 at 2:13 pm
Hernando’s Hideaway hands down
posted by Alessandra Dreyer on 2-23-2009 at 2:14 pm
“Everything’s Coming Up Roses” from Gypsy
posted by Justen on 2-23-2009 at 2:22 pm
Gee, Officer Krupke from West Side Story
posted by Jessica on 2-23-2009 at 2:28 pm
“Shall We Dance” from “The King & I”
posted by Tiffany on 2-23-2009 at 2:44 pm
“Steam Heat” from “The Pajama Game”
posted by Brian Utterback on 2-23-2009 at 3:39 pm
Fiddler on the Roof – To Life
That was my solo senior year of high school. I even got to do the bottle dance.
posted by NateJ on 2-23-2009 at 4:40 pm
“Let Me Entertain You” from “Gypsy.”
I love this song because it works so well both as an innocent song for the kids’ show and as Louise’s burlesque numbers later in the musical.
posted by Terri on 2-23-2009 at 4:52 pm
“Sunrise, Sunset” from “Fiddelr on the roof.
posted by Sara on 2-23-2009 at 5:08 pm
“Don’t Rain on my Parade”
Funny Girl
posted by Carole on 2-23-2009 at 5:16 pm
“When you’re a Jet you’re a Jet all the way/From your first cigarette to your last dying day…”
LOVE that one!
PS did you know that the guy who played the leader of the Jets in the movie is the father of the actress who originated the role of Emily Quartermaine on General Hospital? (I believe she was in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants as well)?
posted by Amanda on 2-23-2009 at 5:48 pm
SO many favorites… The score from On The Town simply sounds like New York. Or at least the way New York should sound… The overture from Candide defies you not to smile. And Simple Song from Mass just shimmers.
I suppose if I were forced to choose a favorite, it’d be A Quiet Girl from Wonderful Town. It always struck me as such an honest musical moment.
posted by David on 2-23-2009 at 6:53 pm
“I Feel Pretty”. I mean, almost every American at least knows the opening line.
posted by Jillian on 2-23-2009 at 10:26 pm
“Neverland” from “Peter Pan”. Seeing that musical live when I was a pre-teen sealed my decision to work in theater when I grew up (a little ironic, I know)–and working on a production of the same musical nearly 10 years later as the ASM and fight choreographer was a dream come true!
posted by Mary on 2-23-2009 at 10:58 pm
America from West Side Story. I play it in the car and it makes me drive faster. I love it.
posted by Shawnna on 2-24-2009 at 12:07 am
I’m going with ‘Tevye’s Dream’ as my favorite that hasn’t already been mentioned. It’s definitely a fun one!
posted by Howie on 2-24-2009 at 1:04 am
“cool”: not only does the music swing but the choreography is a total bit-h to master.
posted by haddie on 2-24-2009 at 10:45 am
Tonight (Reprise) from just before the rumble in West Side Story – The choreography/music/lyrics are married so perfectly in this, building throughout the song in an incredible tension that leads wonderfully into the action that follows.
posted by Christina on 2-24-2009 at 2:14 pm
Sunrise, Sunset from Fiddler on the Roof
posted by Peggy on 2-25-2009 at 3:04 am
I love all of the music from “West Side Story,” but I must say I’ve been a big fan of “Somewhere” ever since I heard the cover version by Tom Waits. Barbra Streisand also does a very memorable version of that tune.
posted by Kyle on 2-25-2009 at 11:17 am
As much as I love “Lonely Town” from On the Town, I gotta go with the “Tonight” quintet (NOT the duet) from West Side Story, which bring tears to my eyes every single time.
(My dad’s got an acknowledgment credit in that PBS thing, by the way. Friends of his control the Jerome Robbins estate.)
posted by Liz on 2-25-2009 at 10:17 pm
What was the subject of the opera you were discussing with Hal Prince? I checked out your website, and it seems you were more interested in musicals and ballet……
posted by Amy on 3-3-2009 at 12:55 am
I received the dvd, and it’s fantastic! Thank you!
posted by Brandy on 3-12-2009 at 9:52 am