FLASH SPECIAL: Thirteen Tip-Topmost Tommy Tune Moments To Treasure

As a super-special companion column to this week's extensive InDepth InterView with nine-time Tony Award-winning performer/choreographer/director Tommy Tune (available here), please enjoy this selection of the most pertinent and eye-popping moments from Tune's tremendous career, covering many of his best-loved and most fondly remembered properties to date - among them: THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS, NINE, A DAY IN HOLLYWOOD/A NIGHT IN THE UKRAINE, GRAND HOTEL, MY ONE & ONLY, THE Will Rogers FOLLIES, SEESAW and BUSKER ALLEY, plus the film adaptations of THE BOYFRIEND and HELLO, DOLLY! and even more!

After all, from the top of his top hat to the tip of his white tails and cap of his matching cane, Tommy Tune is Broadway royalty and old school elegance at its finest.

Also, more information on Tommy Tune's TAPS, TUNES & TALL TALES at Feinstein's At Loews Regency, with performances starting this Sunday, is available here.

The Tommy Tune Thirteen

SEESAW

First up, check out a mod, shaggy-styled Tommy Tune accepting his Tony Award for Best Featured Actor In A Musical for his work in Michael Bennett's SEESAW. "It's Not Where You Start, It's Where You Finish", indeed!



MY ONE & ONLY

Sample one of the most marvelous of moments from MY ONE & ONLY in this 1983 live performance of "S'Wonderful" featuring Tune alongside his original co-star, none other than his THE BOYFRIEND leading lady, fashion icon and stage star Twiggy.

Tommy Tune and Sandy Duncan enact the jaw-dropping "S'Wonderful" from MY ONE & ONLY in this spellbinding TV performance of the spectacular production number the next year.



Tommy Tune and his choreographic collaborator on MY ONE & ONLY, Thommie Walsh, accept the Tony Award for their high-kicking efforts on the hit 1983 Gershwin revue in the clip below.

THE BOYFRIEND

Following that, take in the dazzling trailer for Ken Russell's stupendous one-of-a-kind family-friendly musical film THE BOYFRIEND, featuring Tune in an attention-grabbing supporting role.



HELLO, DOLLY!

While we are perusing Tommy Tune's most famous film roles, here is the trailer for Gene Kelly's adaptation of Jerry Herman's HELLO, DOLLY! starring Barbra Streisand, from 1969.



THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS

His first breakthrough Broadway hit as a director/choreographer, here is a glimpse of THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS from the 1979 Tony Awards with the unforgettable Carol Hall earworm "The Aggie Song", featuring some of Tune's characteristic choreographic brilliance on full display.



A DAY IN HOLLYWOOD / A NIGHT IN THE UKRAINE

Enjoy "The Production Code" from the two-shows-in-one curiosity piece A DAY IN HOLLYWOOD / A NIGHT IN THE UKRAINE as performed by the original cast led by Priscilla Lopez on the 1980 Tony Awards.



NINE

Now, see what all of Broadway was buzzing about in 1982 - well, besides DREAMGIRLS, that is - the eventual winner of that year's top prize, Best Musical; the surrealistic, Fellini-inspired NINE (from his 8 1/2), starring Raul Julia and a vast assortment of dynamic divas belting big.



GRAND HOTEL

Next, enjoy one of the most treasured Tony Awards moments ever captured - Tony Award winner Michael Jeter leading of cast of GRAND HOTEL in the showstopping "We'll Take A Glass Together". A knockout!



THE Will Rogers FOLLIES

Tommy Tune crafted his next Tony Award-winning Best Musical by telling the story of American icon Will Rogers with the help of Cy Coleman, Betty Comden and Adolph Green in THE Will Rogers FOLLIES. Here is the original cast's audience-pleasing performance from the 1991 Tony Awards.



BUSKER ALLEY

In his last Tony Awards performance to date, enjoy this preview of the troubled BUSKER ALLEY, which unfortunately did not ultimately make it to New York - but, what a routine!

Lastly, seemingly living and breathing the very sentiment of the song itself as he enacts it, Tommy Tune takes on this MACK & MABEL mega-melody coming courtesy of Jerry Herman's criminally underrated score for the silent movie-themed 70s fast flop, "Tap Your Troubles Away", giving it his all as only he can do - and does. Wow!



So, what Tommy Tune moment do you love more than all the rest? With a resume as diverse as this one, encompassing everyone from Texas hookers to Italian filmmakers to cowboys to Weimar vacation spots and Ukranian slapstick musical comedy, as well as a whole heck of a lot of lifestyles in between, it is anyone's guess what Tommy Tune will take on next and if we will see a new Broadway show with him involved. Yet, Studio 54 seems a likely choice - and a perfect fit for him. Tune is the tops in taps - and how - as well as a whole lot more, too!

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