Research Catalog

Title

Interview with Lee Roy Reams [sound recording].

Author

Reams, Lee Roy

Publication

2008.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Gennaro, Liza.
• National Endowment for the Arts, 2007-2008.
• New York State Council on the Arts, 2007-2008.

Description

3 sound discs (ca. 163 min.): digital; 4 3/4 in. +

Summary

• Disc 1 (ca. 62 min.). Lee Roy Reams speaks with Liza Gennaro about his first dance classes and performing experiences; his first professional opportunity, at the Cincinnati Zoo Opera; meeting and becoming friends there with Suzanne Farrell [then Suzanne Ficker]; her assistance in his gaining scholarships to study with Marianne Le Coeur and Tatiana Grantzeva; the importance of ballet training; developing his own voice technique; more on early professional and performing experiences during college and his developing connection to musical theatre; more on his college years and the important mentorship he received from Paul Rutledge; auditioning for a Juliet Prowse nightclub act, which was his first Equity [Actors' Equity Association] job; his early life in New York, including auditioning for Bob Fosse; dancing again with Juliet Prowse; meeting choreographer Tony Charmoli and going with him to California to dance on television; working with Bob Fosse on the film of the musical comedy Sweet Charity; other experiences dancing on television; returning to New York and working with Peter Gennaro; other great choreographers of that time period, including Gower Champion.
• Disc 2 (ca. 62 min.). Lee Roy Reams speaks with Liza Gennaro about the musical comedy Gypsy, including as compared to more recent choreography and how dance is used in the theater now; discusses issues faced when acting as both choreographer and director; his own directing, the difficulties of coming in as a replacement in a show; his role in the musical comedy 42nd Street, directing Chita Rivera in the musical comedy Anything goes; working with Ron [Ronald] Field on a variety of projects, particularly Applause; working with Lauren Bacall; auditioning for Richard Rodgers for a revival of Oklahoma! and his admiration for the choreography of Agnes de Mille and the place she made for dance in American musical theatre.
• Disc 3 (ca. 39 min.). Lee Roy Reams speaks with Liza Gennaro about current musical theater; his impressions of and experiences with Suzanne Farrell and George Balanchine during the period she married Paul Mejia; dancing with Farrell at the University of Cincinnati after her hip replacement; his many creative ideas that have not been produced,specifically an idea for 42nd Street; his concert with Jerry Herman; working on Lorelei, his professional life now and how the structure of hiring for the theater has changed.

Alternative Title

• Dance Oral History Project.
• Dance Audio Archive.

Subjects

• Herman, Jerry, 1931-2019
• Prowse, Juliet, 1936-1996
• Audiotapes > Reams, L
• Charmoli, Tony
• Champion, Gower, 1919-1980
• De Mille, Agnes
• Field, Ronald, 1934-1989
• Fosse, Bob, 1927-1987
• Rivera, Chita
• Musicals > Gypsy
• Gennaro, Peter
• Reams, Lee Roy
• Musicals > Applause
• Musicals > Lorelei
• Musical comdies > Anything goes

Note

• Interview with Lee Roy Reams conducted by Liza Gennaro on May 22, 2008 at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in New York City as part of the Oral History Project.
• For transcript see: *MGZMT 3-2582.

Access (note)

• Transcripts may not be photographed or reproduced without permission.

Funding (note)

• The assistance of the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts is gratefully acknowledged.

Call Number

*MGZTL 4-2582

OCLC

503302648

Author

Reams, Lee Roy, interviewee.

Title

Interview with Lee Roy Reams [sound recording].

Imprint

2008.

Funding

The assistance of the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts is gratefully acknowledged.

Restricted Access

Transcripts may not be photographed or reproduced without permission.

Local Subject

Musical comdies. Anything goes.

Added Author

Gennaro, Liza. Interviewer

National Endowment for the Arts, 2007-2008.

New York State Council on the Arts, 2007-2008.

Research Call Number

*MGZTL 4-2582

*MGZMT 3-2582