Jerome Robbins Broadway

Tony Roberts is having trouble with his shoes. They're custom-made dance slippers--"terrific," Roberts describes them as--except that he hasn't found his balance in them yet. Maybe that's why his soft-shoe shuffle is a little rusty. Or maybe it's the unfamiliar floor of the Shubert Theater, where Roberts will star in "Jerome Robbins' Broadway," fresh from its run in New York, with previews beginning Tuesday.

Jerome Robbins, the brilliant and bravura creator of pioneering American ballets and Broadway hits, died Wednesday in his Manhattan, N.Y., home. The master choreographer of the New York City Ballet and Tony and Oscar winner for "West Side Story" was 79. Steve Miller, a spokesman for the ballet company, said Robbins had suffered a stroke Saturday.

Tony Roberts and two actors who won Tonys for their roles in "Jerome Robbins' Broadway" will head the cast of the Los Angeles production, due to open Oct. 10 at the Shubert. Roberts, best known for his performances in Woody Allen movies, will narrate the show and step into a series of roles in the show's excerpts from the Robbins oeuvre. He has done this on Broadway since January. Jason Alexander won a Tony, as best leading actor in a musical, for creating these roles in 1989.

Have you bought tickets to see "Jerome Robbins' Broadway" at the Performing Arts Center? Well, you might give a thought to lingering over dinner and not showing up till Act II starts--about 9:40 p.m. by my watch on Tuesday. Sure, you'll miss the half-hour suite of dances from "West Side Story," but you could always rent the movie (Robbins choreographed and directed the dance sequences there, too).

Notes from all over. . . . Reports that "Jerome Robbins' Broadway" might bow in October at the Shubert Theatre in Los Angeles have generated interest among Orange County Performing Arts Center programmers. But don't count on this season's hottest musical playing the Center in its Broadway Series next season. Gerald Schoenfeld, chairman of the Shubert Organization in New York, said Monday that when the show opens in Los Angeles it will have an open-ended engagement. Given the show's critical and box-office acclaim on Broadway, that means it could sit for 6 months to a year at the Shubert, which would rule out a Center date in the near future.

Chris Sircello inhabited a world where sorcerers turn spellbound women into large white birds and velvet-vested princes get bows and arrows for their birthdays. In other words, as a classical ballet dancer, the Irvine native danced "Swan Lake" a lot--and didn't like it much. He recently traded in the 19th Century, however, for something he finds a lot more stimulating, realistic and "a lot of fun." "Jerome Robbins' Broadway," at the Orange County Performing Arts Center through Aug.

Have you bought tickets to see "Jerome Robbins' Broadway" at the Performing Arts Center? Well, you might give a thought to lingering over dinner and not showing up till Act II starts--about 9:40 p.m. by my watch on Tuesday. Sure, you'll miss the half-hour suite of dances from "West Side Story," but you could always rent the movie (Robbins choreographed and directed the dance sequences there, too).

R evivals of Stephen Sondheim's "A Little Night Music," with Lee Remick , and Noel Coward's "The Vortex" will play the Doolittle Theatre next year, joining three previously reported shows--"Jerome Robbins' Broadway," "The Heidi Chronicles" and "Henceforward . . . "--to make up the Center Theatre Group's 1990-91 Ahmanson-at-the-Doolittle season.

"Jerome Robbins' Broadway" may be the next attraction at the Shubert Theatre in Century City, following "Les Miserables." That's the word from a highly placed source at the Shubert Organization in New York, who declined to speculate on possible opening dates. "Les Miserables" is scheduled to close July 23. Daily Variety reported Friday that "Jerome Robbins' Broadway," a compendium of choreographer-director Robbins' work for Broadway between 1944 and 1964, will "apparently open" at the Shubert in November after previews beginning in late October.

The musical "Jerome Robbins' Broadway" and the comedy "The Heidi Chronicles" received Tony nominations today as the best of Broadway 1988-89. "Jerome Robbins' Broadway," a collection of numbers from some of the biggest hits by the famed director and choreographer, was nominated for best musical along with "Black and Blue" and "Starmites." "The Heidi Chronicles," Wendy Wasserstein's comedy about the tribulations of an art historian from the late 1960s to the present, received a best-play nomination.

Chris Sircello inhabited a world where sorcerers turn spellbound women into large white birds and velvet-vested princes get bows and arrows for their birthdays. In other words, as a classical ballet dancer, the Irvine native danced "Swan Lake" a lot--and didn't like it much. He recently traded in the 19th Century, however, for something he finds a lot more stimulating, realistic and "a lot of fun." "Jerome Robbins' Broadway," at the Orange County Performing Arts Center through Aug.

"Let me put it this way: Perfection isn't good enough," says Cynthia Onrubia, candidly discussing Jerome Robbins' well-known reputation as a relentless taskmaster. Onrubia is an assistant to the choreographer on "Jerome Robbins' Broadway," which Robbins choreographed and directed and which is running through Aug. 4 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

'Robbins' Encore: The company of "Jerome Robbins' Broadway" at the Shubert Theatre has added a special performance on Monday, Jan. 28 at 8 p.m. with proceeds going to benefit the Actors Fund. Monday nights are traditionally "dark" nights. No one connected with the show will be paid for the extra performance, enabling all of the box-office receipts that night to go to the Actors Fund, a 109-year-old charitable organization that aids sick or needy members of the theatrical community.

The Scene: Opening night for "Jerome Robbins' Broadway" Wednesday at the Shubert Theatre. The performance was followed by a party for 600 at the nearby Century Plaza Tower. The musical re-creates scenes from productions Robbins staged in the '40s, '50s and '60s, including "West Side Story," "Peter Pan," "Gypsy" and "The King and I." It seemed as though Robbins had choreographed everything on Broadway except the rush-hour traffic.

Yes, there is an inevitable thread of nostalgia that insinuates itself into the "Jerome Robbins' Broadway" that opened Wednesday at the Century City Shubert, but not because director/choreographer Robbins put it there. Robbins, who mined his own lifetime achievement on Broadway to re-create some of his best numbers for this all-singing, all-dancing archival collage of his work, is not averse to sentimentality.

Up on the Shubert Theatre stage, Grover Dale leads a clutch of young dancers through scenes from "West Side Story." Over and over again, the Jets strut across the stage, snapping their fingers, leaping, snarling at the Sharks. Rehearsals were winding down for "Jerome Robbins' Broadway," set to open Wednesday in Century City.

Tony Roberts is having trouble with his shoes. They're custom-made dance slippers--"terrific," Roberts describes them as--except that he hasn't found his balance in them yet. Maybe that's why his soft-shoe shuffle is a little rusty. Or maybe it's the unfamiliar floor of the Shubert Theater, where Roberts will star in "Jerome Robbins' Broadway," fresh from its run in New York, with previews beginning Tuesday.

Tony Roberts and two actors who won Tonys for their roles in "Jerome Robbins' Broadway" will head the cast of the Los Angeles production, due to open Oct. 10 at the Shubert. Roberts, best known for his performances in Woody Allen movies, will narrate the show and step into a series of roles in the show's excerpts from the Robbins oeuvre. He has done this on Broadway since January. Jason Alexander won a Tony, as best leading actor in a musical, for creating these roles in 1989.