Born On This Day- October 11th... Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz

There is the famous anecdote, I hear it 1st when I was in high school. He was well know for dressing down actors in rehearsal, & was not kind. Jerome Robbins had tantrum while directing West Side Story in preview in Washington DC, in a fit of pique, Robbins backed up & fell into the orchestra pit leaving the cast with big smiles on their faces.

 

Choreographer & director, Jerome Robbins was both a great choreographer of classical ballet & a Broadway innovator. He was so afraid that he might be outed as gay, & his reputation tarnished, that during the height of McCarthyism, he "named names" during a meeting of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Many major figures in the arts never forgave him.


Dance & Theatre critic Clive Barnes: “Jerome Robbins was an extremely demanding man, not always popular with his dancers, although always respected. He was a perfectionist who sometimes, very quietly, reached perfection."


Between 1944 & 1997, Robbins choreographed 66 ballets & choreographed &/or directed 15 Broadway musicals. During his extraordinarily prolific career he not only excelled in 2 different fields, but he also worked with uncommon versatility. In the 1950s, Robbins began to direct as well as choreograph, creating masterpieces: The King & I (1951), Bells Are Ringing (1956), Gypsy (1959), Fiddler on the Roof (1964), & West Side Story (1957). Unlike other directors of musicals, Robbins demanded that his actors dance as well as sing. His high expectations of the cast of West Side Story, for example, created what we now earmark as the triple-threat performer: actor/singer/dancer.


The extraordinary West Side Story was influenced by the fact that 7 members of the creative team were gay: Robbins, Laurents, composer Leonard Bernstein, lyricist Stephen Sondheim, set designer Oliver Smith, lighting designer Jean Rosenthal, & costume designer Irene Sharaff, plus to the original actor to play Tony- Larry Kert.

Bea Arthur: “Talk about a gift from God!" But he really wasn't a very nice person … Actually, he was the only director who ever made me cry. He was a really dreadful human being. Everybody hated him. I was friends with a dancer called Swen who raised Yorkshire terriers to do dog tricks. Whenever Swen had a party, he always left the door open. And at some point in the evening, he'd go to the doorway & look out & say, 'Oh my God, here comes Jerry Robbins!' & the little dog would fling himself against the door and slam it shut."



Jerome Robbin suffered a massive stroke & died at his home in New York on July 29, 1998. On the evening of his death, the lights of Broadway were dimmed for a moment in tribute. Among his many lovers is Montgomery Cliff.

Check PBS’s Great Masters- Jerome Robbins: Something to Dance About.