When Tommy Tune left his home state of Texas at the age of 25, he had only one dream: to dance in the chorus of a Broadway show. Astonishingly, he achieved that dream with his first audition on his very first day in New York, landing a chorus spot in the now-obscure Sherlock Holmes musical Baker Street, in which he danced beside a young Christopher Walken. So, as far as Tune is concerned, “The rest is just gravy.” Well, that’s a lot of gravy – 45 years’ worth, during which he has racked up nine Tony Awards, eight Drama Desk Awards, three Astaire Awards, a Texas Medal of Arts, and a National Medal of Arts. Now 71, the master hoofer and musical star has used all that gravy as the basis for the show Steps in Time, which explores his life through stories, music, and dance performed by Tune with the Manhattan Rhythm Kings. Prior to bringing Steps to the Long Center this weekend, Tune let the Chronicle sop up a little gravy with him.
Austin Chronicle: Was it difficult basing a show on your own life?
Tommy Tune: The hardest part was what to leave out. Because everything to me was an event, and I remember it clearly. I’m not good with the years, like, “In 1962, this happened,” but I have the order very, very clear in my head, because it’s all part of the creative process. “I learned that on this show. I made a mistake on that show. Oh, I really hit the button on that one, but now what am I gonna do?” So it was always analyzing what I’d done to know what to apply of my talents for the next one. It’s always the next one. People ask me, “What was your favorite show?” and I always say, “The next one.” Because that’s the one that has the accumulation of everything you’ve done.
AC: It strikes me that you’re also keeping alive the collaborators that you worked with, and I’m thinking specifically of Charles “Honi” Coles, who was such a tremendous influence on so many people.
TT: He was my all-time favorite tap-dancing partner, and I learned so much from him.
AC: Getting older must mean that your dancing changes. When I think of so many of those early tap dancers, they had such grace in their senior years.
TT: Especially Honi, because I worked with him when he was 76. He had refined. … You study great artists of the past, and what they do is refine their things. Like Matisse’s late works are my favorites – those great big shapes that he cut out from his bed and that his assistants placed on the canvas, The Bathers and all that. It’s not appropriate at my age to be kicking my leg over my head. I can do it, but I don’t want to see it. I look in the mirror, and I say, “You don’t need to do that anymore.” And then studying Fred Astaire, he never lifted his leg above his knee, ever. Ever. And Honi did even less than that when we worked together. And he kept after me; he kept saying, “Tommy, could you make it a little more nonchalant?” That was his word: “nonchalant.”
AC: Do you feel that nonchalance more as you get older? TT: I’m workin’ on it. [laughs] I’m encouraging the growth. I’m a very different creature than Charles “Honi” Coles, of course, but there were similarities. We looked really good together. He was like … well, he was just great. I treasure that time. We did over 1,000 performances of that show together, My One and Only.
AC: Remarkable.
TT: I know. I hold that in my dancer’s body. It’s there. It’s there.
AC: And now his legacy is living again onstage, as well as your own.
TT: It goes on.
Tommy Tune performs with the Manhattan Rhythm Kings on Sunday, Sept. 19, 7:30pm, in Dell Hall at the Long Center for the Performing Arts, 701 W. Riverside. For more information, call 474-5664, or visit www.thelongcenter.org.
This article appears in September 17 • 2010.