VIDEOS: Celebrate Michael Bennett's Birthday With Peeks at His Early Career

Today would have been the 73rd birthday of one of musical theatre's short-lived, but brightly shining lights, Michael Bennett, who was lost to the AIDS epidemic at age 44.

A disciple of Jerome Robbins, Bennett's work as a director and choreographer was noted for its attention to character realism. The school kids of HENRY, SWEET HENRY danced like school kids. The married couples of COMPANY danced with unpolished enthusiasm. The former showgirls of FOLLIES urged their bodies to perform steps they danced with ease decades ago.

And, of course, the Broadway gypsies of A CHORUS LINE danced like trained professionals whose individual abilities to command a stage would be homogenized into an ensemble that showcased the billed star.

Though his last Broadway musical, the groundbreaking DREAMGIRLS, was an enormous achievement in kinetic storytelling, A CHORUS LINE's fluid combination of story, song and movement will always be considered his finest work. His staging seemed so intrinsic to James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante's book, Marvin Hamlisch's music and Edward Kleban's lyrics that he is the only director to ever be included with the authors when awarding the Pulitzer Prize For Drama.

As a celebration of his life and career, the three videos below offer glimpses of some of his early work.

After dancing for Michael Kidd in the choruses of SUBWAYS ARE FOR SLEEPING and HERE'S LOVE, Michael Bennett made his last appearance as a Broadway gypsy playing a gypsy for Peter Gennaro in BAJOUR.

Television called in 1965, by way of a pop music show called "Hullabaloo," where every week a different guest host would introduce stars like Petula Clark, Dionne Warwick, The Supremes and Herman's Hermits to sing their big hits. Bennett was hired by choreographer David Winters to be a member of The Hullabaloo Dancers.

Another dancer hired was Bennett's future muse, Donna McKechnie. Normally, the group would dance as backups to the stars, but occasionally they got a chance to be featured, as in this segment introduced by Dean Jones. That's McKechnie starting her solo at the two minute mark (note her patented head-pop), with Bennett soon joining her.

His success on Hullabaloo, and his fervent ambition, led to opportunities to choreograph for television. In 1966 he staged this performance of Petula Clark's new hit "A Sign Of The Times" for The Ed Sullivan Show. You can spot him as the bearded dancer who, doing a head-pop of his own at one point, loses his cap.

Later that year, Michael Bennett got his first shot at choreographing for Broadway. John Raitt starred in the short-lived bluegrass musical romance, A JOYFUL NOISE. The musical went through numerous changes on its way to opening night and lasted for only 12 performances, despite being featured on The Ed Sullivan Show. Click the graphic below for a look at Bennett's Clog Dance. The towering Tommy Tune can clearly be spotted in the ensemble, as well as the diminutive Baayork Lee.