Thomas James Tune (born February 28, 1939) is an American actor, dancer, singer, theatre director, producer, and choreographer. Over the course of his career, he has won ten Tony Awards, the National Medal of Arts, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Contents
Life and career
Early years and education
Tune was born in Wichita Falls, Texas, to oil rig worker, horse trainer, and restaurateur Jim Tune and Eva Mae Clark along with his sister, Gracey. He attended Mirabeau B. Lamar High School, Houston, and the Methodist-affiliated Lon Morris College in Jacksonville, Texas. He studied dance under Patsy Swayze in Houston. He also studied dance with Kit Andree in Boulder, Colorado. He went on to earn his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama from the University of Texas at Austin in 1962 and his Master of Fine Arts in Directing from the University of Houston. Tune later moved to New York to start his career.
Career
Tune stands a lanky 6 feet 6+1⁄2 inches (199.4 cm) tall, and at first he found his height to be a disadvantage when auditioning for roles, as he would tower over potential co-stars. He wore horizontally striped shirts to auditions, dipped extra low when he did pliés and learned to dance upstage ("I'd look shorter that way. It's a law of perspective") to try to overcome it.
In 1965, Tune made his Broadway debut as a performer in the musical Baker Street. He gained national attention in 1969 when TV producer Greg Garrison hired him as a specialty dancer and assistant choreographer for The Dean Martin Show and its summer replacement series, Dean Martin Presents The Golddiggers.
Tommy Tune became well known behind the scenes as a reliable dance expert. In 1978, when the musical-comedy revue Hellzapoppin starring Jerry Lewis and Lynn Redgrave was having an out-of-town tryout, Tune was called in three weeks before the show's Broadway bow: he arrived in Boston on a Saturday to debut in a dance number on the following Monday. Tune's contribution came too late to save the show, which closed less than a week later when a plan to televise Hellzapoppin suddenly fell through.
Tune's first Broadway directing and choreography credits were for the original production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas in 1978. His direction of Maury Yeston's Nine in 1982, which also won the Tony for Best Musical, garnered him his first Tony for direction of a musical. He has gone on to direct and/or choreograph eight Broadway musicals. He directed a new musical titled Turn of the Century, which premiered at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago on September 19, 2008, and closed on November 2, 2008.
Off-Broadway, Tune has directed The Club and Cloud 9. Tune toured the United States in the Sherman Brothers musical Busker Alley in 1994–1995, and in the stage adaptation of the film Dr. Dolittle in 2006.
Tune is the only person to win Tony Awards in the same categories (Best Choreography and Best Direction of a Musical) in consecutive years (1990 and 1991), and the first to win in four categories. He has won ten Tony Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.
Personal life
Before leaving Texas in the 1960s for a Broadway career in New York, Tune worked with Mary Highsmith (mother of novelist Patricia Highsmith) at the Point Summer Theatre. In a letter to her daughter, Highsmith referred to Tune as her "adopted boy" whom she called "Romano." Tune later praised Highsmith for helping him develop his talents: "She was an opening for me; she opened a little bit of my tight fabric so that I might peer through." When not performing, he used to run an art gallery in Tribeca that featured his own work. As of 2014, it is no longer open.
In 1997, Tune's memoir, Footnotes, was published. In it, he wrote about what drives him as a performer, choreographer, and director and reminisced about his days with Twiggy in My One and Only; as well as meeting and working with his many idols. He further wrote about being openly gay in the world of theater; about losing his partner, choreographer David Steiger Wolfe, to AIDS in 1994, and about the unhappy ending of his relationship with A Chorus Line actor Michel Stuart. He also described a woman whom he did not name but who he said was the "love of [his] life," and some media speculated that the description he gave appeared to fit Twiggy.
In September 2021, Tommy Tune was elected the honorary president of the American Guild of Variety Artists, the labor union for non-actor stage performers.
Broadway productions
Baker Street (1965) (performer)
A Joyful Noise (1966) (performer)
How Now, Dow Jones (1967) (performer)
Seesaw (1973) (performer, associate choreographer)
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1978) (director, choreographer)
A Day in Hollywood / A Night in the Ukraine (1980) (director, choreographer)
Nine (1982) (director)
My One and Only (1983) (performer, choreographer)
Stepping Out (1987) (director)
Grand Hotel (1989) (director, choreographer)
The Will Rogers Follies (1991) (director, choreographer)
Tommy Tune Tonite! (1992) (performer)
Bye Bye Birdie (1992) touring production (performer)
The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public (1994) (director, choreographer)
Grease (1994 revival) (production supervisor)
Awards and nominations
Other recognition
1994 – Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement
2009 – National Museum of Dance and Hall of Fame
In other media
Tune is a common reference in the 2022 Netflix original Murderville.
Tune is mentioned in the Seinfeld episode "The Non-Fat Yogurt" by Frank Costanza.