Tommy Tune

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Tommy Tune and Darcie Roberts in Busker Alley, 1995
Tommy Tune and Darcie Roberts in Busker Alley, 1995

Tommy Tune (born February 28, 1939) is an award-winning American actor, dancer, singer, director, producer, and choreographer.

Born Thomas James Tune in Wichita Falls, Texas, he attended Lamar High School in Houston.

In 1965, Tune made his Broadway debut as a performer in the musical Baker Street. His first Broadway directing and choreography credits were for the original production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas in 1978.

Off-Broadway, Tune has directed The Club and Cloud Nine. Tune toured the United States in the Sherman Brothers musical Busker Alley in 1994-1995 and in the stage adaptation of the film Dr. Doolittle in 2006.

Tune's film credits include Hello, Dolly! and The Boy Friend.

Tune is the only individual to win Tony Awards in the same categories (Best Choreography and Best Direction of a Musical) in consecutive years (1990 and 1991), and the first to win in four different categories.

In 1997, Tune published Footnotes, a memoir. Despite the disjointed nature of the autobiography, Tune offers an insightful look into his then thirty-year career. It is here that he writes intimately about what drives him as a performer, choreographer and director. His obsession and desire to find everlasting love is prominent in the memoir, offering many personal stories about being openly gay and being hurt by other lovers. Ultimately though, it is his passion for theatre, dance, and people that carry him through a fruitful career full of many successful projects. Winning numerous Tony Awards and Drama Desk Awards, Tune writes mostly about his days with Twiggy in My One and Only, in which he played the part of Billy Buck Chandler for more than 1,000 performances, the struggles in directing Grand Hotel and Cloud Nine, as well as meeting and working with his many idols.

In the same year, Tune released his first album, Slow Dancing, which featured a collection of his favorite romantic ballads.

Two years later, he made his Las Vegas debut as the star of EFX at the MGM Grand Hotel.

In 2003, Tune was presented with the nation's highest honor for artistic achievement, the National Medal of Arts.

The Tommy Tune Awards are awarded for outstanding work in high school theatre in Houston.

Tune staged an elaborate musical entitled Paparazzi for the Holland America Line cruise ship the Oosterdam. He currently is touring with the Manhattan Rhythm Kings in a Big Band revue entitled Song and Dance Man, and is parodied in Martin Short's Broadway show Fame Becomes Me by an actor wearing stilts.

At 6'6½" (1.99 m), Tune is unusually tall for a dancer. When not performing, he runs an art gallery in Tribeca that features his own work. [1].

[edit] Additional Broadway credits

[edit] Awards and nominations

  • 2003 Drama Desk Award for Oustanding Choreography (Tommy Tune: White Tie and Tails, nominee)
  • 1991 Tony Award for Best Choreography (The Will Rogers Follies, winner)
  • 1991 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical (The Will Rogers Follies, winner)
  • 1991 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography (The Will Rogers Follies, winner)
  • 1990 Tony Award for Best Choreography (Grand Hotel, winner)
  • 1990 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical (Grand Hotel, winner)
  • 1990 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography (Grand Hotel, winner)
  • 1990 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical (Grand Hotel, winner)
  • 1983 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical (My One And Only, winner)
  • 1983 Tony Award for Best Choreography (My One And Only, co-winner with Thommie Walsh)
  • 1983 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical (My One And Only, co-nominee with Walsh)
  • 1983 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography (My One And Only, co-winner with Walsh)
  • 1982 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical (Nine, winner)
  • 1982 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical (Nine, winner)
  • 1982 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play (Cloud Nine, winner)
  • 1980 Tony Award for Best Choreography (A Day in Hollywood / A Night in the Ukraine, winner)
  • 1980 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical (A Day in Hollywood / A Night in the Ukraine, nominee)
  • 1980 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography (A Day in Hollywood / A Night in the Ukraine, winner)
  • 1979 Tony Award for Best Choreography (The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, nominee)
  • 1979 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical (The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, nominee)
  • 1978 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography (The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, nominee)
  • 1978 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical (The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, winner)
  • 1977 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical (The Club, nominee)
  • 1974 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Seesaw, winner)


Preceded by
Ben Harney
for Dreamgirls		 Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical
1983
for My One and Only		 Succeeded by
George Hearn
for La Cage Aux Folles

[edit] External links

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