TOMMY TUNE
AND MANHATTAN RHYTHM KINGS
On November 12, 2003, Tommy Tune was presented with the nation’s highest honor in artistic achievement, The National Medal of Arts. He added this honor to his already unprecedented nine Tony Awards, eight Drama Desk Awards, The Drama League Award and the George Abbott Award for Lifetime Achievement.
In the beginning, of his career, Mr. Tune danced in the chorus line of three Broadway show, was discovered by a Twentieth Century Fox talent scout and cast as Ambrose in the movie Hello Dolly, starring Barbara Streisand, played in The Boyfriend film starring Twiggy and returned to Broadway in Michael Bennett’s musical Seesaw, winning his first Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical, singing “Its Not Where You Start It’s Where You Finish.” Tunes New York debut as a director was for the groundbreaking Off Broadway hit The Club, for which he was honored with the Obie Award. On Broadway he debuted as Choreographer/Co-Director of The Best Little Whore House In Texas, followed by A Day In Hollywood/A Night In The Ukraine, which he directed and won his first Tony Award for Choreography.
Returning to Off Broadway he directed the highly controversial Drama Desk Award winning Cloud Nine and also was awarded his third Tony and a first as a Director Of a Musical for Nine, which also won for best Musical that year.
A double Tony Award win followed Mr. Tune as Best Actor in a Musical and Best Choreography for the new Gershwin musical My One and Only. Grand Hotel, the Musical was next 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 awards back to back for the Will Rogers Follies.
Tune once again returned to the other side of Broadway footlights with his revue Tommy Tune Tonight, subsequently touring that show and later a brand new production of Bye Bye Birdie, co-starring Ann Reinking and directed by Gene Saks.
Of his unique talents as Director Choreographer, Dancer, Singer, Actor, The New York Times proclaimed “Mr. Tune has reshuffled the elements of the old style musical into state of art”. Andy Warhol once said that Tommy Tune “exuded a cultivated serenity and a genuine love of life.”
Tune wrote a published a memoir, Footnotes, recorded a CD Slow Dancin’ and starred for two years in a ninety million dollar Las Vegas spectacular, EFX at the MGM Grand. Mr. Tunes latest production Dr. Doolittle, in which he played the title role, toured the country in 2006.
Mr. Tune is a graduate of the University of Texas, paints in his art studio in Tribeca, and is currently preparing two original Broadway musicals for the near future.