Tommy Tune to Receive 2008 Fred & Adele Astaire Award

The 2008 Fred & Adele Astaire Awards recognizing excellence in dance on both stage and film have announced that nine time Tony Award & two time Astaire Award winner Tommy Tune will receive the 2008 Fred & Adele Astaire Lifetime Achievement at the awards gala slate for June 2, 2008 at the Grand Ballroom, Manhattan Center Studios, 311 West 34th Street & 8th Avenue,  New York City.

The Nominating committee is comprised of: Clive Barnes, Senior Theater & Dance Critic New York Post; Anna Kisselgoff, former Chief Dance Critic, New York Times; Wendy Perron, Editor in Chief, Dance Magazine; Sylviane Gold, Theater Columnist, Dance Magazine; Linda Winer,  Chief Theater Critic, Newsday and Jacques D'Amboise, Dancer, Choreographer, Director & Founder of The National Dance Institute. Chairman Emeritus of the Nominating Committee is Douglas Watt, former Senior Drama Critic, New York Daily News. Award winners will be announced in May. 

Honorary Chairs of the event are Fred Astaire's daughter Ava Astaire McKenzie & her husband artist Richard McKenzie.

The Fred & Adele Astaire Awards (formerly known as The Astaire Awards established in 1982 by the Anglo-American Contemporary Dance Foundation and administered by Theatre Development Fund since 1991) recognize outstanding achievement in dance on Broadway each season. The award was established with the cooperation of Fred Astaire to honor him and his sister, Adele, who starred with her brother in 10 Broadway musicals between 1917 and 1931. This year the Awards will be expanded to include dance in and choreography for film as this was the métier that brought Fred Astaire to international fame and a permanent slot on every list of the top movie stars of the century.

The gala evening will begin with cocktails and a seated dinner followed by electrifying performances and the Awards presentation. Sponsorship packages are available at $15,000, $10,000, $5,000 and $3,500. Tickets are $500 (for prime seating) and $350. A limited number of seats are available at $50 for balcony seating for the awards and performance and an invitation to stay for dessert and dancing.  

For tickets and information, contact Jennifer Dumas, Executive Producer, at 212-655-9377 or jd@auditoryoral.org

In 2003, The President of The United States presented Tommy Tune with the nation's highest honor for Artistic Achievement, The National Medal of Arts In a private ceremony in the oval office of the White House, Mr. Tune received this honor to add to his already unprecedented nine Tony Awards in four different categories plus, among other accolades, eight Drama Desk Awards, two Obie Awards, two Astaire Awards, the American Dance Award, the Drama League Award and the George Abbott Award for Lifetime Achievement.

It was back in 1965 when Tommy Tune first danced onto the Great White Way and into the chorus of Baker Street. Next up was A Joyful Noise in 1967 and How Now Dow Jones in 1968. Five years and countless raves later Tommy garnered his first Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical in Michael Bennett's Seesaw.

Tune's first foray into directing was the groundbreaking Off-Broadway hit The Club in 1976. Back on Broadway, but this time as choreographer and co-director Tune gave us The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas followed by A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine, for which he won his second Tony Award, this time for Best Choreography.

Tommy returned to Off-Broadway in 1981 to direct the highly controversial production of Caryl Churchill's Cloud 9. The next year Tommy brought us Nine, The Musical for which he won his third Tony, and his first for directing a Broadway Musical.

A double Tony Award win followed for Mr. Tune as Best Actor in a Musical and Best Choreography for the Broadway hit My One and Only co-starring Twiggy. Grand Hotel, The Musical followed with Tony wins for Best Choreography and Best Direction and the following year Mr. Tune did what no artist had done before when he won the same two prestigious honors back to back this time for The Will Rogers Follies.

Tommy once again returned to the other side of the Broadway footlights in his one-man song and dance show, Tommy Tune Tonight!, later touring with it throughout the country and around the world.

Tommy Tune