| As the curtain came down on opening night everyone¡ªcast, crew, audience¡ªknew that they had just experienced theater magic. Gower Champion¡¯s new production, 42ND STREET, was a smash hit. As the audience cheered, producer David Merrick stepped to the front of the stage, raising his hands to quiet the applause. There was an announcement: the show¡¯s director and choreographer, Gower Champion had died that afternoon. Succumbing, at last, to a rare cancer of the blood. True to the spirit of 42ND STREET, the quintessential backstage drama, Champion had fought to the end: ¡°The show must go on!¡± And it did, to become one of Broadway¡¯s longest running musicals of all time, earning Gower Champion a Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award for Best Choreography.
Gower Champion was born in Geneva, Illinois but moved with his mother to Los Angeles following his parent¡¯s divorce. He began dancing professionally at fifteen when he and his high school dance partner, Jeanne Tyler, won a dance contest at the Coconut Grove. Following a thirteen-week engagement at the Grove, Champion and his partner went on the New York where they performed at the Waldorf-Astoria and Radio City Music Hall. By eighteen, he was dancing in Broadway revues. When World War II broke out, Champion entered the Coast Guard and performed in USO shows. Returning from war duty, he found that Jeanne Tyler had given up dancing. On the advice of Ernest Belcher, one Hollywood¡¯s top ballet teachers, Champion teamed up with Belcher¡¯s daughter, Marge. Marge Belcher and Gower Champion formed a professional partnership, and in 1947, a personal one when they married.
Marge and Gower Champion became immensely popular as a husband-and-wife dance team, starring in films, on television, and on stage. Believing that dance scenes should tell a story that fit the plot and be fully integrated into the storyline, the Champions created some of the most memorable dance sequences in movie musicals of the 1950s. They appeared in such films as: Mr. Music (1950), Showboat (1951), Lovely to Look At (1952), and Jupiter¡¯s Darling (1955). Their last screen appearance was in Columbia¡¯s Three for the Show (1955). Gower also served as choreographer on such films as: Mr. Music, Everything I Have Is Yours (1952), Give a Girl a Break (1953), The Girl Most Likely (1957). By the 1950s, work in the movies was becoming increasingly scarce as fewer and fewer musicals were produced every year. The Champions found work in television, appearing on The Bell Telephone Hour and the Admiral Broadway Review; and they starred in their own sitcom, The Marge and Gower Champion Show, in 1957. The couple divorced in 1973. Champion occasionally returned to film, but by the end of the 1950s, he began concentrating on Broadway productions.
As a director-choreographer, he was famous on Broadway for his intense concentration and demanding rehearsals. Just as in his film work, Champion made his mark with a style of staging that set every prop, performer, and set piece into a seamless flow of song, dance, and dialogue, all in the service of the story. His earliest assignments included serving as the director-choreographer for the revues Lend an Ear (1948) and Small Wonder (1948), and the book musical Make a Wish (1951). Even with occasional stumbles¡ªThe Happy Time, Mack and Mabel, Rockabye Hamlet¡ªhe earned a reputation as a hit-maker. His name is synonymous with some of Broadway¡¯s greatest musicals: Bye, Bye Birdie (1960), Carnival (1961), Hello Dolly! (1964), I Do! I Do! (1966), and, of course, 42ND STREET.
Gower Champion
Principle Credits: Film, Television, and Stage
1946 Till the Clouds Roll By (F)
1948 Words and Music (F)
Lend an Ear (S, choreographer)
Small Wonder (S, choreographer)
1949 Admiral Broadway Review (T)
1950 Mr. Music (F, choreographer)
1951 Show Boat (F, ¡°Frank Schulz¡±)
Make a Wish (S, choreographer)
1952 Lovely to Look At (F, ¡°Jerry Ralby¡±)
Everything I Have Is Yours (F, choreographer, ¡°Chuck Hubbard¡±)
1953 Give a Girl a Break (F, musical numbers staging, ¡°Ted Sturgis¡±)
1955 Three for the Show (F, ¡°Vernon Lowndes¡±)
Jupiter¡¯s Darling (F, ¡°Varius¡±)
1956 Once Upon a Honeymoon (F, director)
1957 The Marge and Gower Champion Show (T)
The Girl Most Likely (F, choreographer)
1959¨C68 The Bell Telephone Hour (T)
1960 Bye Bye Birdie (S, director-choreographer)
1961 Carnival (S, director-choreographer)
1963 My Six Loves (F, director)
1964 Hello Dolly! (S, director-choreographer)
1966 I Do! I Do! (S, director-choreographer)
1968 The Happy Time (S, director-choreographer)
1972 Sugar (S, director-choreographer)
1973 Irene (S, director-choreographer)
1974 Mack and Mabel (S, director-choreographer), Bank Shot (F, director)
1976 Rockabye Hamlet (S, director-choreographer)
1980 42ND STREET (S, director-choreographer)
2001 42ND STREET [revival] (S, original direction and dances) |
