Kevin Winkler is the author of a forthcoming book on the career of director-choreographer Bob Fosse to be published by Oxford University Press. A former professional dancer, he appeared on Broadway in the 1982 revival of Little Me and Wind in the Willows, and in the national tour of Cats. He is the Director of Library Sites and Services for the New York Public Library, and teaches a course in Performing Arts Librarianships for the Pratt Institute School of Library and Information Science.
BWW Special Report: PIPPIN's Motown Magic Returns to Broadway
April 3, 2013
April 3, 2013
As an undergraduate theater major in the early 1970s, I heard music everywhere. It seemed to pour out of every office and workspace around the department. (And in the LP era, if you wanted more than the radio, this meant schlepping a twenty pound record player and a dozen or so albums from your home to the campus, sometimes requiring back-and-forth trips from the car. If you go to that much trouble, you want to keep the music playing.) In the hushed costume shop with its quietly industrious all female staff, Broadway ruled, with Stephen Sondheim's recent Company and Follies in heavy rotation. It was 'men only' in the scene shop where I listened to male balladeers like James Taylor and Gordon Lightfoot while unhappily working off assigned crew hours. Jazz classes (my favorites) in the dance department were conducted to the pre-disco sounds of Isaac Hayes and the Temptations. And late night cast parties were never complete without spins of Bette Midler's first two albums.
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