Dancer, choreographer, and stage director and producer, born in Buffalo, New York, USA. By age three he had joined a dance school in Buffalo, by age 12 he had mastered all forms of dance, and at 16 he dropped out of school to join the chorus of a touring company of West Side Story, touring Europe for a year. Back in New York City, he danced in choruses until emerging as a choreographer, his first show being A Joyful Noise (1966). His first real success (with eight Tony Awards) was Promises, Promises (1968), and he went on to choreograph Company (1970) and Follies (1971).
His reputation was such that he was often called in as a show doctor to save struggling productions. Working with a group of so-called gypsies chorus dancers, he conceived of a show that would be based on their lives and careers; this became Chorus Line, which opened in 1975 and went on to become Broadway's longest running musical. He was hailed as having reinvented the American musical, and although some would claim he tended to take credit as well as control, he was undeniably an influential choreographer. The success of Chorus Line around the world brought him wealth, and he bought (1977) an eight-storey building on lower Broadway where he established offices and rehearsal spaces that he rented to other dance companies. (He sold the building in 1986.) He had another hit with Dreamgirls (1981), but in 1985 suddenly abandoned a new musical, Scandal, and two years later he died of AIDS.
For the NFL player, see Michael Bennett (American football). (also known as mental)Michael Bennett (April 8, 1943 - July 2, 1987) was an American musical theater director, choreographer, and dancer.
He was born Michael DiFiglia on April 8, 1943 in Buffalo, New York to a Roman Catholic father and a Jewish mother. When he moved to New York City after high school, he changed his name to honor his alma mater, Bennett High.
Bennett made his choreographic debut with A Joyful Noise (1966), which lasted only twelve performances, followed in 1967 by another failure, Henry, Sweet Henry (based on the Peter Sellers film The World of Henry Orient).
In the early 1970s, Bennett began conducting a series of group therapy-style workshops to which he invited "gypsies" - chorus boys and girls - inviting them to share their feelings and frustrations about their careers.
As its creator, choreographer and director, Bennett devoted the next several years of his life to the show, auditioning, rehearsing, and directing productions throughout the world. Realizing it was very much a theatrical piece intended to be played on a proscenium stage, he declined an offer to direct the screen version, although he agreed to join the project as a creative consultant, a position he left early on due to differences with the studio (Bennett believed the movie should be about the audition process for the filming of the stage play, rather than a movie version of the play itself). The movie even declined to use Bennett's original choreography, instead opting to use inferior choreography by Jeffrey Hornaday.
Although A Chorus Line was very much an ensemble piece, the original cast's standout star was Bennett's old friend McKechnie.
A Chorus Line was a tough act to follow. Bennett's next musical was the unsuccessful Ballroom (1978) starring Dorothy Loudon, but he found himself at the top again with Dreamgirls (1981), which revolved around an African-American singing girl group that strongly suggested the Supremes.
In the early 1980s, Bennett worked on various projects, but none of them reached the stage. In 1985, he signed to direct the London production of the musical Chess, but he had to withdraw in January 1986 due to his increasingly failing health, leaving Trevor Nunn to complete the production using Bennett's already commissioned sets.
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