Baayork Lee | |
|---|---|
 Lee in 2014 | |
| Born | December 5, 1946 New York City |
| Occupation(s) | Actress, singer, dancer, choreographer, theatre director, author |
| Years active | 1951–present |
| Awards | 2003 Lifetime Achievement Asian Woman Warrior Award, 2014 Paul Robeson Citation Award |
Baayork Lee (born December 5, 1946) is an American actress, singer, dancer, choreographer, theatre director, and author.
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Lee was born in New York City's Chinatown, to an Indian mother and Chinese father. She started dancing at an early age, and she made her Broadway debut at the age of five as Princess Ying Yawolak in the original production of The King and I in 1951. In a 2004 interview, she stated that Yul Brynner, the original king, was like a second father to her. After she outgrew her role in The King and I, she continued to study in ballet, modern, and afro-Cuban dance. She appeared in George Balanchine's original production of The Nutcracker, where she met ballerina Maria Tallchief, whom she idolized. [1]
While attending the High School for Performing Arts, she met fellow student Michael Bennett. Around the same time, she appeared in Flower Drum Song . Although Lee aspired to become a professional ballerina, she was rejected from companies because of her height; she is 4 feet 10 inches (1.47 m) tall. [1] Though she was offered a scholarship to Juilliard, Lee instead pursued her career in theatre. Her Broadway appearances included Mr. President , Golden Boy , and Here's Love .
Her next three shows were all choreographed by Bennett: A Joyful Noise , Henry, Sweet Henry , and Promises, Promises . In the last, she performed the dance number "Turkey Lurkey Time" (with Donna McKechnie and Margo Sappington). Lee was the dance captain for Promises, Promises and recreated the choreography for subsequent touring productions, starting her future path as a choreographer. In 1973, she travelled to Israel to film Norman Jewison's version of Jesus Christ Superstar .
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In 1973, she appeared in Bennett's Seesaw , assisted with choreography, and was featured opposite Tommy Tune.
In 1975, Lee was invited by Bennett to participate in the workshops from which A Chorus Line was developed. The character of Connie Wong was, in large part, based upon her life. [1] Along with the cast, she won the 1976 Theatre World Award for Ensemble Performance for the show. Fifteen years later, along with cast member Thommie Walsh and Robert Viagas, she documented the evolution of A Chorus Line in the book On the Line: The Creation of A Chorus Line, published in 1990.
In the decades following the original Broadway production, she has directed or choreographed many productions of the musical, including the most recent Broadway revival in 2006. The 2008 feature documentary Every Little Step chronicles the casting process of the 2006 revival.
Lee became one of Bennett's closest collaborators, and she helped to develop the choreography in many of his subsequent shows.
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Starting in the 1970s, Lee began to focus on choreographing, first with a production of Where's Charley? in New Jersey.
Since then, she has directed national and international tours of The King & I, Carmen Jones , Bombay Dreams , Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella , Porgy and Bess , Jesus Christ Superstar , and Barnum . She was the associate choreographer for Tommy Tune for a time. She has choreographed several productions for the Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center. She also choreographed the troubled production of Marilyn: An American Fable .
Other projects include becoming a talent scout for Tokyo Disneyland, opening a musical theater school in Seoul, South Korea, and producing various shows. In 2018, she choreographed New York City Center's Gala production of A Chorus Line. [2]
She directed and choreographed South Pacific for City Springs Theatre Company in Sandy Springs, Georgia in 2019. [3]
Columbia College Chicago honored Lee during their 2003 Women Warrior Festival presented by the College's Center for Asian Arts and Media. Lee gave a keynote address and was a 2003 Woman Warrior Honoree. [4] The Actors’ Equity Foundation gave her the Paul Robeson Citation Award in 2014. [5]
In 2017, Lee received the Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award, which honors members of the theater industry for their significant contributions to charitable causes. She was honored for her longstanding commitment to future generations of artists through her work with the National Asian Artists Project (NAAP) and theatre education programs around the world. Lee is a co-founder of NAAP, a non-profit that showcases the work of Asian-American theatre artists through performance, outreach, and educational programming. [6] [7] [8]
A Chorus Line is a 1975 musical with music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Edward Kleban, and a book by James Kirkwood Jr. and Nicholas Dante.
Promises, Promises is a musical with music by Burt Bacharach, lyrics by Hal David and a book by Neil Simon. It is based on the 1960 film The Apartment written by Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond. The story concerns a junior executive at an insurance company who seeks to climb the corporate ladder by allowing his apartment to be used by his married superiors for trysts.
Michael Bennett was an American musical theatre director, writer, choreographer, and dancer. He won seven Tony Awards for his choreography and direction of Broadway shows and was nominated for an additional eleven.
Donna McKechnie is an American musical theater dancer, singer, actress, and choreographer. She is known for her professional and personal relationship with choreographer Michael Bennett, with whom she collaborated on her most noted role, the character of Cassie in the musical A Chorus Line. She earned the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for this performance in 1976. She is also known for playing Amanda Harris/Olivia Corey on the Gothic soap opera, Dark Shadows from 1969 to 1970.
Susan P. Stroman is an American theatre director, choreographer, film director and performer. Her notable theater productions include Oklahoma!, The Music Man, Crazy for You, Contact, The Producers, The Frogs, The Scottsboro Boys, Bullets Over Broadway, POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, and New York, New York.
Thomas Joseph "Thommie" Walsh III was an American dancer, choreographer, director, and author.
Wayne Louis Cilento is an American director, choreographer, actor and dancer. He is best known for originating the role of Mike in the Broadway show A Chorus Line, and later becoming one of Broadway's most prolific choreographers.
Henry, Sweet Henry is a musical with a book by Nunnally Johnson and music and lyrics by Bob Merrill.
Graciela Daniele is an Argentine-American dancer, choreographer, and theatre director.
Rob Ashford is an American stage director and choreographer. He is a Tony Award, Olivier Award, Emmy Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award winner.
Robert Avedisian, professionally known as Bob Avian, was an American choreographer, theatrical producer and director.
Scott Wise is an American theatre actor and dancer. He is known for his performances in the 1989 musical Jerome Robbins' Broadway, which earned him a Tony Award, and in the 2002 film Chicago.
Pamela Blair, known as Pam, is an American actress, singer, and dancer best known for originating the role of "Val" in the musical A Chorus Line and several appearances on American soap operas.
Samuel Joseph Williams was an American actor of stage and film. He was best known for his role as Paul in the musical A Chorus Line, for which he won Broadway's 1976 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical.
Andy Blankenbuehler is an American dancer, choreographer and director primarily for stage and concerts. He has been nominated for the Tony Award for Best Choreography five times, and has won three times: for In the Heights (2008), Hamilton (2016), and Bandstand (2017). Blankenbuehler's other Broadway choreography work includes 9 to 5, Bring it On: The Musical, and the 2016 Cats revival. Blankenbuehler was awarded the Kennedy Center Honor in 2018 for his work on Hamilton. He also choreographed the movie adaptation of Cats. Most recently he choreographed, directed and co-wrote Only Gold - a new musical with Music by Kate Nash at MCC Theater.
"Turkey Lurkey Time" is a song-and-dance number from Act 1 of Promises, Promises, the Burt Bacharach/Hal David musical, with a book by Neil Simon. It was originally choreographed for the 1968 Broadway production by Michael Bennett. The dance takes place as part of an office Christmas party scene.
Randy Skinner is an American dancer, director and choreographer, primarily for the stage. He has been nominated four times for Tony Awards, three times for Drama Desk Awards, and four times for Outer Critics Circle Awards for choreography.
The Isabelle Stevenson Award is a non-competitive philanthropic award presented as part of the Tony Awards to "recognize an individual from the theatre community who has made a substantial contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of one or more humanitarian, social service or charitable organizations, regardless of whether such organizations relate to the theatre." It is named for Isabelle Stevenson, a dancer who performed for audiences all round the world and was president and later chairperson of the board of the American Theatre Wing until her death in 2003. A single recipient is chosen by the Tony Award Administration Committee and may not be presented at every ceremony. The international press regards the Tony Awards as America's most prestigious theater awards.
Tony Stevens, born Anthony Pusateri, was an American choreographer, dancer, and director who worked with, danced with, and directed many of Broadway and Hollywood's theatre-centric actors and actresses, including Chita Rivera, Martin Short, Robert Redford, and Gene Kelly.
National Asian Artists Project, Inc. (NAAP) is non-profit 501 (c)(3) company who seeks to showcase the work of artists of Asian descent, primarily in the American theater. It was founded in 2004 by Baayork Lee, Steven Eng, and Nina Zoie Lam.
