Chita Rivera Awards for Dance and Choreography

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Chita Rivera Awards for Dance and Choreography
Ambox current red.svg 33rd Chita Rivera Awards for Dance and Choreography
Chita Rivera 2008.jpg
Chita Rivera in 2008
Awarded forOutstanding Dance and Choreography on Broadway and Film
CountryUnited States
First awarded1982
Website www.chitariveraawards.com

The Chita Rivera Awards for Dance and Choreography (previously titled the Fred and Adele Astaire Awards) celebrate outstanding dance and choreography in theatre, both on Broadway and Off-Broadway and in film at an annual ceremony in New York City at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. Now carrying the namesake of two-time Tony-winning dance icon Chita Rivera, The Rivera Awards will be presented under the auspices of American Dance Machine, an organization dedicated to the preservation of great musical-theater choreography.

Broadway theatre class of professional theater presented in New York City, New York, USA

Broadway theatre, also known simply as Broadway, refers to the theatrical performances presented in the 41 professional theatres, each with 500 or more seats located in the Theater District and Lincoln Center along Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Along with London's West End theatre, Broadway theatre is widely considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world.

An Off-Broadway theatre is any professional venue in Manhattan in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than Off-Off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer than 100.

Skirball Center for the Performing Arts

The Jack H. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts is an 850-seat theater at 566 LaGuardia Place in Manhattan, New York, owned by New York University. It was named after philanthropist Jack H. Skirball. The theatre was completed in October 2003 and cost approximately $40 million. The architect was Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo and Associates.

Contents

The awards

The awards are given for theatre and film productions and performances for each season they fall in. Several discretionary non-competitive awards are also given, including a Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient and an Outstanding Contribution to Musical Theatre and Film award. [1] The awards were named after Fred Astaire and Adele Astaire. [2] [3] The awards for Off-Broadway performances and productions were first presented with the 2016 awards. [4] [5]

Fred Astaire American dancer, singer, actor, choreographer and television presenter

Fred Astaire was an American dancer, singer, actor, choreographer, and television presenter. He is widely considered the most influential dancer in the history of film.

Adele Astaire American dancer and entertainer

Adele Astaire, was an American dancer, stage actress and singer. After beginning work as a dancer and vaudeville performer at the age of nine, Astaire built a successful performance career with her younger brother, Fred Astaire.

Now named The Chita Rivera Awards for Dance and Choreography, The Fred and Adele Astaire Awards were established in 1982. It was initially known as simply The Astaire Awards. The award was established with the cooperation of Fred Astaire to honor him and his sister, Adele, who starred with her brother in ten Broadway musicals between 1917 and 1931. [2] The awards previously honored the "best dance on Broadway in the categories of best choreographer, best female dancer and best male dancer." [6]

The first Douglas Watt Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Tommy Tune in 2008. [7] [8] The awards were expanded to include dance in and choreography for film in 2008. [9] Stanley Donen received the Douglas Watt Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009. [10] Other Douglas Watt Lifetime Achievement Award recipients include Kenny Ortega in 2010, and Jacques D’Amboise in 2011. Liza Minnelli received the Douglas Watt Lifetime Achievement Award for 2012, [11] Marge Champion was the Lifetime Achievement Award recipient in 2013, [12] and Patricia Birch received the award in 2014. [13] Joel Grey received the 2015 Watt Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as film producer Harvey Weinstein (Outstanding Contribution to Musical Theatre & Film). [14] [15] The Douglas Watt Lifetime Achievement Award for 2016 was given to Judith Jamison, and Maurice Hines was given a special recognition award for Outstanding Body of Work in Dance. [5]

Tommy Tune American actor, dancer, singer, theater director, producer, and choreographer

Thomas James "Tommy" Tune is an American actor, dancer, singer, theatre director, producer, and choreographer. Over the course of his career, he has won ten Tony Awards and the National Medal of Arts.

Stanley Donen American film director and choreographer

Stanley Donen was an American film director and choreographer whose most celebrated works are On the Town (1949) and Singin' in the Rain (1952), both of which starred Gene Kelly who co-directed. His other films include Royal Wedding (1951), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), Funny Face (1957), Indiscreet (1958), and Charade (1963). He began his career in the chorus line on Broadway for director George Abbott, where he befriended Kelly. From 1943, he was in Hollywood and worked as a choreographer before beginning to collaborate with Kelly. After On the Town, Donen worked as a contract director for MGM under producer Arthur Freed producing critically well-received box-office hits. Donen and Kelly co-directed the musical Singin' in the Rain, released in April 1952, which has appeared on lists of the best films ever made. Donen's relationship with Kelly deteriorated during their final collaboration, It's Always Fair Weather (1955). He then broke his contract with MGM to become an independent producer in 1957. He continued making films throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, often financial successes that gained positive attention. His film output became less frequent in the early 1980s and he briefly returned to the stage as a director in the 1990s and again in 2002.

Kenny Ortega American television and film director, producer, choreographer

Kenneth John Ortega is an American producer, director and choreographer. He directed the films Newsies (1992), Hocus Pocus (1993), the High School Musical trilogy (2006–2008), Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009) and the Descendants trilogy (2015–2019). Ortega has choreographed films including St. Elmo's Fire (1985), Pretty in Pink (1986), Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) and Dirty Dancing (1987). He has also directed multiple concert tours, including tours for Cher, Gloria Estefan and Michael Jackson. In 2019, Ortega was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

On March 30, 2017, it was announced that the Astaire Awards were "rebranded" as the Chita Rivera Awards for Dance and Choreography. The awards will be presented by the American Dance Machine for the 21st Century, with the first awards presented on September 11, 2017 at the Hirschfeld Theatre in New York City. The show was directed by Randy Skinner and hosted by Bebe Neuwirth. [16] Nominations for the Chita Rivera Awards for Dance and Choreography were announced on May 1, 2017, and included the first Lifetime Achievement Award to Tommy Tune and the Award for Outstanding Contribution to Musical Theater as Director to Diane Paulus. The new musical Bandstand received 5 nominations, and the Off-Broadway production of Sweet Charity received 6 nominations. [17] Bandstand won the award for Outstanding Choreography in a Broadway Show and Sweet Charity won the award for Outstanding Choreography In An Off-Broadway Show. [18]

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.

Bebe Neuwirth American actress

Beatrice J. "Bebe" Neuwirth is an American actress, singer and dancer. On television, she played Lilith Sternin, Frasier Crane's wife, on both the TV sitcom Cheers and its spin-off Frasier. The role won her two Emmy Awards. On stage she played the Tony Award–winning roles of Nickie in the revival of Sweet Charity (1986) and Velma Kelly in the revival of Chicago (1996). Other Broadway musical roles include Morticia Addams in The Addams Family (2010). From 2014 to 2017, she starred as Nadine Tolliver in the CBS political drama Madam Secretary.

The award nominations for 2018 were presented on May 20, 2018. The Broadway revival of Carousel received the most nominations, with seven. Carmen De Lavallade (Lifetime Achievement Award), John Kander (Outstanding Contribution to Musical Theater Award) and Harold Prince (SDC Director Award for Exemplary Collaboration with Choreographers) received special awards. [19] [20] Steven Hoggett, on Broadway this season with Angels in America and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, received the inaugural Douglas and Ethel Watt Critics' Choice Award. Sergio Trujillo, won the award for Outstanding Choreography in a Broadway Show for Summer: The Donna Summer Musical; Zach Morris and Jennine Willet won the award for Outstanding Choreography in an Off-Broadway Show for Ghost Light; the award for Outstanding Ensemble in a Broadway Show was a tie between Carousel and Mean Girls. [21]

<i>Carousel</i> (musical) musical

Carousel is the second musical by the team of Richard Rodgers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II. The 1945 work was adapted from Ferenc Molnár's 1909 play Liliom, transplanting its Budapest setting to the Maine coastline. The story revolves around carousel barker Billy Bigelow, whose romance with millworker Julie Jordan comes at the price of both their jobs. He participates in a robbery to provide for Julie and their unborn child; after it goes tragically wrong, he is given a chance to make things right. A secondary plot line deals with millworker Carrie Pipperidge and her romance with ambitious fisherman Enoch Snow. The show includes the well-known songs "If I Loved You", "June Is Bustin' Out All Over" and "You'll Never Walk Alone". Richard Rodgers later wrote that Carousel was his favorite of all his musicals.

John Kander American composer

John Harold Kander is the American composer of a number of musicals as part of the songwriting team of Kander and Ebb. His best-known stage musicals as composer are Cabaret and Chicago, both of which were later adapted into films.

Harold Prince American theatre producer and director

Harold Smith Prince, commonly known as Hal Prince, was an American theatrical producer and director associated with many of the best-known Broadway musical productions of the 20th century.

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References

  1. ↑ "The Astaire Awards". The Astaire Awards.
  2. 1 2 "The Astaire Awards". The Astaire Awards.
  3. ↑ Viagas, Robert. "Savion Glover and Ana Villafañe Among 2016 Astaire Award Nominees Today" Playbill, May 16, 2016
  4. ↑ Smart, Jack. "Fred and Adele Astaire Awards Announce 2016 Nominees" Backstage, May 3, 2016
  5. 1 2 " Shuffle Along, She Loves Me 's Jane Krakowski Top 2016 Astaire Awards; All the Winners!" broadwayworld.com, May 16, 2016
  6. ↑ McBride, Murdoch. "Stroman, Yates and Alves Win 2000 Astaire Award" Playbill, May 18, 2000
  7. ↑ Simonson, Robert. "Playbill.Com's Brief Encounter With Tommy Tune" Playbill, April 29, 2008
  8. ↑ Hetrick, Adam (May 6, 2008). "Shields to Present Tune with Watt Lifetime Acheivement [sic] Award". Playbill. Retrieved October 28, 2016.
  9. ↑ "Tommy Tune to Receive 2008 Fred & Adele Astaire Award" broadwayworld.com, February 15, 2008
  10. ↑ "Minnelli, Rush & Cumming Announce 2009 Astaire Award Nominations 5/4" broadwayworld.com, April 30, 2009
  11. ↑ "Liza Minnelli to Receive Douglas Watt Lifetime Achievement Award at 30th Annual Astaire Awards" broadway.com, April 1, 2012
  12. ↑ Martins, Tyler. "'Pippin,' 'Motown' Lead Astaire Award Winners" Backstage, June 4, 2013
  13. ↑ Sheward, David. " After Midnight Dances Off with the Astaire Awards" newyork.com, June 3, 2014
  14. ↑ Editorial Staff (4 May 2015). "2015 Fred and Adele Astaire Award Nominations Announced". TheaterMania.com.
  15. ↑ Hetrick, Adam and Viagas, Robert. "A Pair of Ties at the Astaire Awards, Honoring Season's Best in Dance" Playbill, June 2, 2015
  16. ↑ McPhee, Ryan. ":The Astaire Awards, Honoring the Best in Dance, Are Now the Chita Rivera Awards" Playbill, March 30, 2017
  17. ↑ McPheee, Ryan. " 'Bandstand', 'Sweet Charity' and More Earn Chita Rivera Award Nominations" Playbill, May 1, 2017
  18. ↑ " 'Great Comet', 'Bandstand' and More Take Home 2017 Chita Rivera Awards" broadwayworld.com, September 11, 2017
  19. ↑ McPhee, Ryan. " 'Carousel', 'Once On This Island' Among 2018 Chita Rivera Award Nominations" Playbill, April 27, 2018
  20. ↑ Gans, Andrew. "Carmen De Lavallade, John Kander, and Harold Prince Will Be Honored at Chita Rivera Awards" Playbill, April 8, 2018
  21. ↑ Clement, Olivia. "Ariana DeBose, Tony Yazbeck, and More Recipients of 2018 Chita Rivera Awards" playbill.com, May 20, 2018
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