biography
| name: |
Bennett, Michael
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originally Michael Bennet Difiglia
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1943–87)
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| biography:
| Dancer, choreographer, and stage director and producer, born in Buffalo, New York, USA. By age three he had joined a dance school in Buffalo, by age 12 he had mastered all forms of dance, and at 16 he dropped out of school to join the chorus of a touring company of West Side Story, touring Europe for a year. Back in New York City, he danced in choruses until emerging as a choreographer, his first show being A Joyful Noise (1966). His first real success (with eight Tony Awards) was Promises, Promises (1968), and he went on to choreograph Company (1970) and Follies (1971). His reputation was such that he was often called in as a ‘show doctor’ to save struggling productions. Working with a group of so-called ‘gypsies’ chorus dancers, he conceived of a show that would be based on their lives and careers; this became Chorus Line, which opened in 1975 and went on to become Broadway's longest running musical. He was hailed as having ‘reinvented’ the American musical, and although some would claim he tended to take credit as well as control, he was undeniably an influential choreographer. The success of Chorus Line around the world brought him wealth, and he bought (1977) an eight-storey building on lower Broadway where he established offices and rehearsal spaces that he rented to other dance companies. (He sold the building in 1986.) He had another hit with Dreamgirls (1981), but in 1985 suddenly abandoned a new musical, Scandal, and two years later he died of AIDS. |
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