Tom Jones to Interview Legendary Dancer Marge Champion at NYPL, 3/15

On Monday, March 15th at 6pm Tom Jones, creator of the The Fantasticks, will interview dancer and choreographer Marge Champion. Marge and her husband Gower Champion were legendary in the 1950s for their dancing in nightclubs, MGM musicals and on television. More recently, she appeared with her current dance partner, Donald Saddler, in a six-month run in the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies in 2001. In 2007 Ms. Champion, who began her dance career with Walt Disney as the live action model for Snow White, was honored with the Disney Legends Award. Following the interview, there will be a question and answer period.

The League of Professional Theatre Women (LPTW), a non-profit organization committed to promoting visibility and increasing opportunities for women in the professional theatre, is pleased to present this interview as an installment of the Edith Meiser Oral History Project, which chronicles and documents the contributions of significant theatre women in many disciplines. Interviews with outstanding women are videotaped and housed in the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.

Admission is free, however reservations are recommended and may be made by emailing oralhistory@theatrewomen.org or by calling (888) 297-3117, ext. 1.

The program begins at 6:00 p.m. in the Bruno Walter Auditorium at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, entrance on 65th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.

This program is made possible through the generous support of the Edith Meiser Foundation.
Please check the LPTW website for more information: www.TheatreWomen.org.

Marge Champion
Marge and Gower Champion were legendary in the '50s for their dancing in nightclubs, MGM musicals and on television. Born in Hollywood, Marge grew up in the center of the dance and movie world. Her father, Ernest Belcher, was the "dean" of the West Coast dance masters and staged many dance sequences for the movies. He trained Shirley Temple, Cyd Charisse, Gwen Verdon... and Marge.

Marge Champion began her dance career with Walt Disney as the live action model for Snow White, the Blue Fairy in Pinocchio, and the Hippopotamus ballerina in Fantasia. She appeared in The Castles with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, on Broadway as the Fair Witch in Dark of the Moon, and in Beggar's Holiday.

During their collaboration, Marge and Gower Champion staged the dances for the Broadway musical revues Lend an Ear and Make a Wish. Their film appearances included Mr. Music with Bing Crosby, Show Boat, Lovely to Look At, That's Dancin', and That's Entertainment, Part II, and on the television shows Toast of the Town, The Dinah Shore Show, and The Marge and Gower Champion Show. The Champions were awarded the 2002 Career Achievement Award of the 8th Annual American Choreography Awards. Ms. Champion was also the choreographer for Whose Life is it Anyway?, The Day of the Locust, and Queen of the Stardust Ballroom, for which she received an Emmy Award.

Marge appeared with her current dance partner, Donald Saddler, in a six-month run in the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies in 2001. They also performed a show-stopping duet at Carnegie Hall Celebrates the Glorious MGM Musicals and began the 2006 New Year with Diane Sawyer, dancing live on Good Morning America. In 2007 Marge was honored with the Disney Legends Award and appeared in a collection of essays by New York Times columnist Dan Barry entitled City Lights as well as 80: Our Most Famous Eighty Year Olds Reveal Why They Never Felt So Young! She was featured in The Dancer Within: Intimate Conversations with Great Dancers by photographer Rose Eichenbaum and Hippo in a Tutu: Dancing in Disney Animation by Mindy Aloff.
In 2009, Marge made numerous appearances in California and London to promote the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in its restored Diamond Edition of Blu-ray and DVD formats from Walt Disney Home Entertainment. Most recently, a short documentary about nonagenarians Marge Champion and Donald Saddler by Gregory Vander Veer and produced by Douglas B.Turnbaugh (co-producer of the film Ballets Russes), entitled Keep Dancing, was screened at The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Dance Films Association's 2010 Dance on Camera Festival in New York.

Tom Jones
Along with composer Harvey Schmidt, Tom Jones wrote THE FANTASTICKS for a summer theatre at Barnard College. After its Off-Broadway opening in May 1960, it went on to become the longest running production in the history of the American stage and one of the most frequently produced musicals in the world. Their first Broadway show, 110 IN THE SHADE, was nominated for a Tony Award and was revived a year ago in a highly acclaimed production starring Audra MacDonald. I DO! I DO!, their two character musical starring Mary Martin and Robert Preston, was a success on Broadway and is frequently done around the country and the world. (One production, in Minneapolis, played for twenty-two continuous years with the same two actors in the leading roles.)

For several years Jones and Schmidt worked privately at their theatre workshop, concentrating on small-scale musicals in new and often un-tried forms. The most notable of these efforts were CELEBRATION, which moved to Broadway, and PHILEMON, which won an Outer Critics Circle Award. Later works include COLETTE COLLAGE, THE SHOWS GOES ON, a musical revue featuring their songs and starring Jones and Schmidt, and MIRETTE, their musical based on the award-winning children's book. In addition to an Obie Award and the 1992 Special Tony Award for THE FANTASTICKS, in 1999 Jones and Schmidt were inducted into the Broadway Hall of Fame at the Gershwin Theatre and last April they were the recipients of the prestigious William Inge Award.
After the retirement of Mr. Schmidt in 2001, Tom Jones, along with the talented young composer, Joseph Thalken, wrote and produced a musical version of the cult film HAROLD & MAUDE. At the moment, he is hard at work on LA TEMPESTA, based on the play by William Shakespeare and a famous production by the Picolo Teatro di Milano.