Tommy Tune Just Keeps On Dancing

Tommy Tune doesn't let his age slow him down as he continues to perform and make waves dancing on The Great White Way and all around America. 

On January 23 and 24 Tommy Tune performed 'Tommy Tune in Steps in Time: A Broadway Biography in Song and Dance' at the Strathmore. 

Tommy Tune in Steps in Time: A Broadway Biography in Song and Dance Featuring the Manhattan Rhythm Kings.

With an unprecedented nine Tony Awards in four categories, Tommy Tune's credentials are impressive, but it's his effortless charm that brings audiences back again and again. "The last genuine song-and-dance man" (Variety), Tune is top-hatted, white-tied, and tailed for this delicious evening of show standards, with the Manhattan Rhythm Kings trio providing impeccable accompaniment.

On November 12, 2003, The President of The United States presented Tommy Tune with the nations' 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 Carol 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.

Of his unique talents as a director, choreographer, singer, dancer and actor, the New York Times proclaimed, "Mr. Tune has reshuffled the elements of the old-style musical into state of the art." Andy Warhol once said that Tommy Tune "exudes a cultivated serenity and a genuine love of life."

Tommy has shied away from Hollywood moviemaking, appearing in only two films early in his illustrious career. He was featured in Hello, Dolly! starring Barbra Streisand and directed by Gene Kelly, and in Ken Russell's The Boy Friend where he first met Twiggy.
Tune has sung and danced for three U.S. Presidents, the Queen of England and the Royal Family of Monaco. In 1991, Gwen Verdon inducted him into Broadway's Theatre Hall of Fame, and Hollywood soon followed suit when three years later he was honored with his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame appropriately placed directly in front of the Capezio Dancewear shop.

In 1997 Tommy gave us Footnotes, his memoir about his extraordinary life in the theatre, and Slow Dancin', a CD compilation of his favorite romantic ballads. The end of the millennium was the beginning of a dream come true for Tommy Tune when he made his Las Vegas debut as the star of EFX, the ninety million dollar spectacular at the MGM Grand Hotel.

When he's not drawing crowds, Mr. Tune is painting canvases in his Manhattan studio. Not content to entertain audiences on land alone, Tommy has recently created an elaborate musical entitled Paparazzi for the Holland America Line.

Mr. Tune's latest production, Dr. Dolittle, in which he played the title role, toured the country in 2006.

He resides in New York City and is currently preparing two original musicals for the near future.

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