Transcripts For WJZ Up To The Minute 20130101

I can perform, i can choreograph, i can assist you. And i got a note back saying come on. [ laughs ] jerry was making money hand over fist and balanchine had although he had done good work on broadway had never been terribly successful, the way jerry was being. I mean, jerry was really the king of broadway. Jerry was connected to a different audience and had a popular point of view that he felt would be useful. And remember in those days new York City Ballet was considered very, very elite. It was high tone. Sometimes on a matinee thered be more dancers onstage than in the audience and we were like 40 people in the company. The whole idea of him choosing to work with balanchine, somebody whom he clearly admired and somebody whom he thought was better than him, that said a lot about jerry. Mikhail baryshnikov he made this really extraordinary choice and he changed his life. He just admired a man who sometimes treated him roughly, too, you know, in front of a lot of people, you know. But he, in many instances, swallowed pride and learned from him. Narrator balanchine put him to work immediately, both as a dancer and choreographer. Robbins won audiences with his performances in ballets such as prodigal son, tyl ulenspiegel, and Bouree Fantasque with tanaquil le clercq. Damboise it was adorable. Tall, skinny praying mantis, and Jerry Robbins, with a little beret, like the Little French kind of street guy. They were so close personally, which added to the fun of it. They knew each other inside out and upside down. Narrator robbins stopped dancing in 1952 to concentrate on choreography. By then, he had created provocative and dramatic works like the guests, a ballet about prejudice and age of anxiety, an exploration of midcentury angst which gave a new dimension to new York City Ballets repertory. In the cage, a controversial portrait of a deadly mating rite, he found a new instrument in an old friend the ballerina nora kaye. But the piece began with stravinskys music. Robbins i played the record and i thought, wow, theres something going on here. What the hell did he have in mind . So i Read Everything i could. I could get no cues from it. But i kept playing it. And i thought, its a very odd ballet. But i know theres a dramatic line in it somewhere or other. And then i read a story about the amazons and i thought, why dont i do it about the amazons . So i started it, and i got about halfway through the First Movement and i looked at it and i thought, this is terrible. This is, this is everyone prancing around like this. And i thought, ive gotta do better than that. I ive just got to find. So then i kept reading. And then i stumbled on the material about insects and their prey. And i thought, ooh, now that, i think i can handle. Theres a its a little twist, its a little offbeat. So i started that way and bang it just went like a dream. Gottlieb its just a brilliant piece of theater. And this is something that is very important to understand about robbins, i think. He never gave up a broadway mentality. He was interested in being seen as a hit maker. Narrator robbins was a hit maker, but so far none of his broadway choreography had made it to hollywood. Then came the king and i, the story of a victorian english governess at the court of the king of siam. Woman it was very interesting to watch jerry in his First Experience at hollywood movie making. They thought they could kind of guide him through in other words their way, their way. Whereas jerry had his way. Jerry was absolutely the final arbiter of what shots were going to be used. He staged every single musical number. Run from simon poor eliza running and run into a rainstorm narrator the climax of the film was a play within a play in which Siamese Court dancers perform an adaptation of the antislavery novel, uncle toms cabin. Poor Eliza Robbins fused eastern style with western substance to tell the story of the fugitive slave, eliza. Forgot to tell you name of miracle snow. Of a sudden she can see wicked simon of legree sliding cross the river fast with his bloodhounds and his slaves what has happened to the river . Buddha has called out the sun narrator eliza reached her safe haven but robbins was not so lucky. Just when his career seemed to be traveling in an everupward trajectory he became the luctant star in a different kind of theater. Laurents people became political really in the 30s because of the depression. The communist party was the only outlet that was against antisemitism and for the working man. Woman Jerry Robbins joined the communist party because he believed that it was dedicated to the poor and to good causes. He discovered that the communist party was totalitarian. What was important is that he joined the party for the right reasons and he quit the party for the right reasons. Whitfield by 1950 china is communist. The soviet Union Remains communist. The american atomic bomb monopoly had been lost a year earlier. And it looked as though the United States was in some ways losing its domination. Narrator to investigate the perceived threat to american democracy through communist infiltration the house of representatives established the committee on unamerican activities. Whitfield huac, as it was popularly known, was investigating communist activities after the Second World War primarily in the arts, beginning with hollywood largely, its fair to say, for purposes of publicity. Narrator robbins troubles had begun in 1950, when the columnist and television host, ed sullivan, learned of his prior communist associations and cancelled robbins appearance from his popular variety show. For three years, sullivan and his friends at the fbi pressured robbins to name his associates in the party, and for three years, robbins resisted. Finally huac subpoenaed him. If youre subpoenaed you testify. You believe in the law you testify. He was not a particularly political person. What ensnared him was basically that he, by 1953, was famous. Ed sullivan said to him, if you dont name names i will have it in the papers that youre whatever the term for a homosexual in those years was. And he panicked. At that moment, he wanted very much to be in movies and thats why he did it. I think he was scared sless. Theyre going to ruin my career. I, who have worked for this the son of the corset manufacturer from weehawken, new jersey. I am the choreographer. I am Jerome Robbins. Narrator it was my homosexuality i was afraid would be exposed, robbins wrote in his journal my career would be taken away. The facade of Jerry Robbins would be cracked open, and behind, everyone would finally see Jerome Wilson rabinowitz. On may 5, 1953 robbins appeared before a special session of the House Unamerican Activities Committee in new york and named eight people. Someone called me and said put on your radio Jerry Robbins is naming you. And our phone didnt ring for three months after that. Thats how scared people were, figuring the fbi had my phone tapped. And we did not have any tv or film work and we managed on, mostly on unemployment insurance. And i remember he said to me ill never know for years, whether i did the right thing. And i said, no, i can tell you now, you were a s. Whitfield no one who has not been through what robbins went through can sit in easy judgment on that decision. Narrator for the next four decades, robbins refused to speak about his huac testimony. I understand that Jerome Robbins was deviled by his naming names till the day he died. And, of course, i hope so. Narrator robbins found refuge and renewal in the ballet studio the setting he chose for his reinterpretation of debussys afternoon of a faun. How i love the ballet how dancing with tanny oh, my god what a great, great among the greatest ballets that he ever did. Narrator robbins said the ballet was inspired by tanaquil le clercq, the dancer who had become his muse. Damboise she was so long and extremely elegant, very musical and a wonderful dancer. She had a brilliant wit and a dramatic beauty. I mean, tanny was great. Narrator where do i stand, anyway, with you, robbins asked her. And she replied, i just love you, to talk to to play games with, and laugh like hell. However, im in love with george. Maybe its a case of he got here first. On new years eve, 1952, Tanaquil Leclercq and George Balanchine were married. But she remained robbins lodestar. All of the ballets i ever did for the company, he said, it was always for tanny. Robbins her talent could take in almost anything. And when you think of the parts that i created for her theyre all danced by five or six different women. No one can do them all. Narrator the concert featured le clercq as a daffy musiclover and also included the aptly named mistake waltz. [ laughter ] woman in 1956 the new York City Ballet was about to complete a european tour. We were informed that tanny had polio. It happened in copenhagen. At first, no one knew whether she would live or die. She survived wonderfully. But she did lose the use of her legs from the waist down. Jerry loved her. Jerry loved her. And i think he just, like all of us didnt know what to do. It was the greatest tragedy in the history of ballet. Narrator with the loss of le clercq, robbins said city ballet wasnt the same. I couldnt go back to it. There was a man who loved a woman Stephen Sondheim jerry was not only a wonderful choreographer. He was the best stager of numbers. One of the most thrilling numbers i ever saw in the theater was there once was a man in pajama game, and it was sung by two people who couldnt move, and they did nothing but hand and foot gestures. And i mean, i was cheering at the end of it. It was so brilliantly worked out. And ill bet it didnt take him five minutes. Narrator robbins was extending his reach to directing and even wrote the script for an adaptation of j. M. Barries tale of the boy who wouldnt grow up. Peter pan, starring mary martin opened on broadway in 1954. This time, robbins was choreographing in another dimension using the air as well as the floor, and reveling in the possibilities. You just think lovely, wonderful thoughts and up you go whee im flying lovelier thoughts, Michael Christmas narrator in other hands peter pan could easily have seemed sentimental. But, said robbins, i thought i could find a way of doing it less cutely, and more robustly. If children are the heroes in peter pan, the heavies are adults. I must think what tempo captain . A tarantella. Narrator chief among them one of robbins most delicious comic creations, captain hook. When was such a princely plot concocted by another to murder all the boys and keep the wendy for our mother narrator when robbins staged the show for Live Television an entire generation was spellbound by the power of his invention. Forever in never never land robbins a friend of mine, an actor was offered the role of romeo, and he said, it seems very passive to me. Would you read it and tell me what you think . So i tried to think of it in terms of today, and i thought, oh, theres a wonderful idea here. Narrator to realize it, robbins recruited two old friends, composer Leonard Bernstein and playwright Arthur Laurents who brought in the unknown Stephen Sondheim to write lyrics. I didnt like the idea that we had to separate ourselves in two halves one the commercial half and one the classical half longhaired half. And i thought, why cant we put them together in a kind of theater where it is viable for us to do our best, serious work within the popular theater . In the context of the time you have to understand that most Broadway Musicals were still extremely frothy. There was no blackboard jungle kind of gritty use of the musical theater at all. We could not get anyone to produce it. Took us about three years of peddling it around. And no one would touch it. No one would even touch it. They didnt like the score they didnt like the idea. They didnt like what it was about, they didnt like the death, they didnt like anything about it. What was new about west side story was the first act, ending with two dead bodies on the floor. Theres an attempted rape, theres bigotry. What it says is that anything can be used in musical theater. Woman we went through twelve auditions and on the twelfth one jerry said i want you to hide somewhere on the stage. Narrator the only hiding place was a tiny metal perch high above the bare stage. By giving lawrence no choice but to conceal herself there robbins gave the audition an authentic edge of desperation. That was typical of jerry, cause he kept always putting obstacles in front of you and seeing how quickly you would be able to surmount them. Tonight, tonight it all began tonight narrator robbins called larry kert in and told him to sing the song, and then if he could find lawrence they would have an opportunity to complete the audition. Lawrence he didnt see me because i was 15 feet up directly behind his head. And i said, tony he climbed onto the little perch, and we werent sure it could hold us. Together good night good night lawrence and it was perfect because it was absolutely the right feeling of what the balcony scene became. Dream of me tonight [ applause ] rivera west side rehearsals were a thrilling thing. I remember, one time coming through the door. Now, i know that someone has gone out that window i do an arabesque jump and i run to the window. [ laughs ] jerry said, chita, can you just stop for a second . I said, yeah. Sure, what . He said, dont dance to the window. Walk to the window. Run to the window. Crawl to the window. But be a person. Thats what jerry gave me, this inward look at myself to make sure that i was real. Man we all had to write our own bios about what our background was, what our life was, what our street was. Lawrence and youd better have a good story line prepared because when you didnt, you paid for it. It was my first show, and i went to the first day of rehearsal, and he wouldnt let me in. And but he wouldnt let arthur in and or lenny in, it wasnt just me. He didnt really like people seeing him work. So the first time he let us in i think i did cry it was just so glorious, even in a rehearsal hall to see what jerry does. Mordente when you walk in that door at 9 00 in the morning youre his. He is the commander. He is the president. He is the dictator. He is god. There were two gangs. We were told not to fraternize with each other. He wanted war. [ prologue playing ] robbins in the original, its a family feud. Yeah this has been paraphrased into two gangs one is the nativeborn american, the jets. And the other are the puerto ricans, the sharks. Sondheim he used movement not just choreography, but movement to tell the story. Man other choreographers make dances. Jerry expressed character through dance. Sondheim i think the very first opening we had was a scene where the jets were goofing off, bantering. And we spent about a month lenny and i, writing the whole thing out. And jerry, at the end of it, said you know, i think i could do it better in dance. [ yelling ] [ yelling ] he was a very good collaborator except when you tried to argue a point. He was an idea man, jerry. Jerry is the only genius ive ever met, my definition of genius being endless invention. The problem was, the invention also got in the way of writing because you would go home and write something and then youd bring it to him and hed say yeah, but supposing it was all backwards. Then youd have to go and do it again. For me it was one of the most extraordinary collaborations of my life, perhaps the most in that sense of our nourishing one another. Robbins one thing about lennys music which was so tremendously important was that there always was a kinetic motor. There was, there was a power in the rhythms of his work which had a need for it to be demonstrated by dance. Sondheim lenny was easily intimidated by jerry. The minute jerry would start doing that jerry stuff i watched lenny melt like a lemon drop. Leonard bernstein was afraid of two things god and Jerry Robbins. Sondheim there was one point where jerry, who was dissatisfied with the orchestration went down and with lenny sitting out front, just started to dictate, said, i dont want that instrument there, take that rhythm out, et cetera, right to the players in the orchestra. It was completely humiliating, and i expected there to be some kind of big fight, and there wasnt. Lenny left the theater. Difficult as he was to work with and you know he could be a really mean and and awful man i would work with him any time. Its just, its worth it. The end product is worth it. He does get not only the best out of you, he makes it some of his invention rubs off on you. You get more inventive when you work with Jerry Robbins. Dale Opening Night in new york. Leonard bernstein conducted. As the curtain went down there was nothing, and all the way down to the bottom, and there was nothing. Dale and the curtain went up, and it went up to silence, and the audience was stunned. They just looked at us. And then suddenly, there was this whoop of applause. It was like an explosion in the house. And the curtain went up and up and up and up and up. I think there were 16 curtain calls. We were all changed. The experience of working with jerry changes you forever. It changed everything [ laughs ] in musical theater. After west side story, someone in a musical could not just dance or sing or act. A performer had to have all three skills to even be considered. It consolidated this wave of change that would ultimately lead to the rise of offbroadway theater and the emergence on broadway of artists such as edward albee with whos afraid of virginia woolf, which never would have happened in the prewest side story broadway. It was as if for the first time something modern a new was crashing into the commercial broadway world. Pow narrator having made broadway history robbins took aim at the hollywood musical. Cool go crazy cool go crazy go moreno ive never seen dancers work so hard in my life. He had those kids in a frenzy. Yeah narrator robbins had the option to direct the film but the studio had taken out an insurance policy in the form of an experienced codirector. Robert wise was responsible for the dramatic scenes, robbins for the musical staging. Man jerry would make up versions of a little part of a dance, and youd have version 1 a, b, c and d and then version 2 a, b, c and d. I mean, it went on. And jerry would say, i want to see 2b, and wed go, 2b which one was that . Moreno jerry was unable to say, print it, for a very simple reason. Once you said, print it, the imperfection of something was there forever on record. Narrator perfection came at a price by the time robbins had finished shooting all but one of the musical numbers west side story was a month behind schedule and very over budget. We got to the gym set one morning and everybody was told that jerry had been fired. We were devastated. I mean, there were tears. It was just awful. Mordente the dynamics which we had in cool and in the prologue and in america, jerry was there to do this. In the dance hall, there was nobody there to do that. Mordente you just got lovely masters, nice closeups, but you didnt get the meaning of what was going on. [ dance at the gym playing ] mambo narrator after being fired, robbins screened a rough cut of the picture and dictated pages of notes to robert wise. Robbins most important is that each gang is taking the dance floor away from the other. And the way it has been cut now, this story point is not made at all. I do not care about the choreography as long as the story is clearly told. I think its the one n number that failed. And i think it needed jerry there. Narrator although robbins did not get to complete the film west side story won ten Academy Awards including one for robbins as codirector plus another special oscar for choreography. Announcer Jerome Robbins has always been on the move, at home and abroad dancing the works of others, creating new ballets of his own, choreographing and directing musical plays in everything he does, expressing the vigor and the freedom of modern ballet in america. 1, 2, 3,4, 5. Narrator in 1958, robbins formed ballets usa a company of dancers to appear first at the festival of two worlds in spoleto, italy, then throughout europe. Whitfield as a result of agreements signed between the soviet union and the United States, the cold war is going to take on a cultural dimension. Murrow tell us a little more about this tour youre going to take in europe. Well, the government is sending us on a fourmonth tour about 15 countries. Im sure it didnt escape jerry that the same government who had called him up before the House Unamerican Activities Committee for his brief stint in the communist party would now be sending him to represent america abroad. Here is the Jerome Robbins ballet that conquered the world and did so much good for america. Lets bring these youngsters on with a fine hand, would you . [ jazz playing ] murrow from the press reports ive seen, i gather that the reception given your ballets abroad is as great or greater than that given the bolshoi ballet here in new york, is that right . Well, we had a wonderful success last year, ed. Sondheim jerry had a very good instinct for the audience, and the high art part of him was always in gait with the part that said, thats too slow theyre not getting that we need a laugh there. He knew that musical theater is popular art. Rich gypsy is one of the Great American works of art, period. Wherever we go narrator with gypsy, robbins collaborators were at the top of their game. Were gonna go through it together and he staged their work with cinematic fluidity. The show starred the formidable ethel merman as the domineering stage mother, momma rose whose daughter, louise grows up to become the striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee after learning the ropes from a trio of burlesque performers. But take it from me, to be a stripper all you need to have is no talent. Youll pardon me, but to have no talent is not enough. What you need to have is an idea. Narrator robbins auditioned real strippers for the show and got an unexpected bonus. I was there the day that faith dane came in to audition and bent over and played taps. Sondheim and that was part of her act, and jerry appropriated it. Im electrifyin and i aint even tryin i never have to sweat to get paid cause if youve got a gimmick gypsy, girl youve got made narrator robbins pillaged his own background to differentiate the third stripper a wouldbe ballerina who had seen better days. [ drum bell tinkling ] [ drum, bell tinkling ] if you want to make it, twinkle while you shake it if you want to grind it wait till youve refined it if you want to bump it, bump it with a trumpet get yourself a gimmick and you too can be a star narrator robbins choreographed stage action to tell the story and had little patience for actors who forgot his directions, as the actress playing gypsys sister soon discovered. Woman Jerry Robbins was an icon. Hes got this beautiful, warm smile that just opens you up. And then, honey, he sticks that knife in so hard and twists it. Sondheim the scene in the Chinese Restaurant required her to be sitting at the table with rose and to move a teapot. Bradbury just get it out of the way so that she could sweep some silver into her bag and it was a joke. She forgot to do it for the first preview and jerry was furious and bawled her out. Bradbury i cant remember all the times, but i forgot it again. And i go back to my dressing room and he storms in and he takes a red lipstick and wrote, remember to remove the f teapot. [ whispering ] okay. They said, there will be a 4 00 teapot rehearsal for lane bradbury in the lobby. So for a half an hour, the stage manager would say the line and i would move the teapot. And then he would put the teapot back and he would say the line and i would move the teapot. I think i remembered it until Opening Night in new york. [ laughs ] sondheim i was standing in the back and jerry, i could see him just, his entire body got tense and he went backstage and i wondered what he was gonna do. And the end of the cow number requires her to take two struts out of the back of the train and use them as batons. And they were gone. They werent there. Jerry had gone backstage and told Ruth Mitchell the stage manager, to take the struts out. I went to him and i said where, where were my batons . And she was stuck in front of an audience of 1,500, 2,000 people with nothing to do for the finale. Ive heard from some former guests on this program like ethel merman and mary martin, that, as a director, you can be one of the toughest men theyve ever met in the theater. True or false . Guilty, guilty, guilty. Narrator the climax of mermans performance was a careerdefining moment in which rose confronts her hunger for recognition in a number robbins and sondheim concocted after rehearsal, late one night. Sondheim like mickey and judy here you are in a darkened auditorium with just a work light onstage. And so we started ad libbing. He said, give me some strip music. So i, i said, look, the whole idea, it seems to me of the number if you wanted to include all the people in roses life why dont we include all the songs that she has had anything to do with in the show . And he started to walk like a stripper back and forth across the stage. We must have worked about two hours and by the end of it i had a whole sketch of the whole piece. Merman here she is, boys here she is, world heres rose kander merman was belting it out, and she had tears streaming down her face. And i remember jerry and i looked at each other cause this was not a common occurrence, but it was bigtime emotion going on on that stage. The curtain came down, and she saw the two of us in the wings and she immediately said you see . Im acting. Im acting. Laurents he was a wonderful director for ethel. It was really 5, 6, 7, 8, do this, and she did it. He did it, she did it. And it worked. And she trusted him totally. Everyone still talks about it as the king lear for female performers. Laurents nobody could have gotten that performance out of ethel but jerry. Everythings coming up roses for me and for you narrator extending his ambition to straight plays, robbins took an offbeat comedy and turned it into an improbable success while facing a different directorial challenge. Man i stuttered. And so did the character. And it got worse and worse and worse. And i never knew what was going to happen on any given night. And i was, i would spend all day in great anxiety. And id said, you know i gotta quit this thing. I just cant do it. So i get this call from jerry saying, on, on your way to the theater tonight would you stop at my place . So i did. He said, i hear youre thinking of quitting. I said, i got to, jerry. I cant control it. And its terrible for the show. And he said, if you quit this first of all you probably wont get hired in the industry again, but even if they do you wont be able to go back on the stage. I said, well, i dont know what to do. He says, i dont either but youre gonna stay. I said, it says directed by Jerome Robbins [ laughs ] he says, ill take that risk. Because i want you to have a career as an actor. So i stayed. Im the greatest star i am by far but no one knows it narrator although the public was unaware of it, robbins ability as a show doctor was legendary. He turned funny girl into a starmaking vehicle for the young actress hed chosen for the lead, barbra streisand. A comedy tonight and made a hit out of a farce set in ancient rome featuring zero mostel and jack gilford. We were out of town and he came in to help us because the show was floundering. People in new haven had been running in groups of 20 and 30 from the theater. Sondheim he said, the trouble with the opening number is it doesnt prepare the audience for what the shows about. It doesnt say, this is gonna be low comedy, baggy pants comedy. he asked me to write that kind of a number. He said, steve, dont tell any jokes. Let me do the jokes. Walton he just developed these amazing sight gags from stuff that we had lying around. It was as if you had given jerry a pocket handkerchief and said, now do 25 astonishing things with this. [ laughs ] and he did. Sondheim he came up, in a week, with, oh, one of the two three best opening numbers in the history of the theater. Tragedy tomorrow comedy tonight you want to do a musical about a bunch of old jews in russia who are going through a pogrom . I mean, what are you out of your mind . Sondheim i heard the score of fiddler, i think, up at joe steins house in new rochelle, i think it was, and i called jerry, and i said theres a show, youve got to this is, i think right up your alley. Narrator when robbins was six years old, his mother took him to visit his fathers family in their village in poland. Robbins i remember the journey. It was to go to see grandpa, a figure with a long white beard who always sat me on his lap and who i loved a lot and who i knew loved me. And he sang many jewish songs at night, and i sang with him. And there was comfort there. And it was my home. It was what i belonged to. That was one of the reasons i wanted to do that show that was one of the reasons i wanted to do that show because of that background that i had. Wed never worked with a director who insisted on talking about the piece forever and ever. We had one meeting two meetings a week. Eventually the same question arose, what is the piece about . He kept hammering away at it. And ordinarily, we would say well, its about this dairyman who has five daughters, and we would describe the plot. And hed say, no, thats not what its about. Robbins had this idea of this bigger theme that would announce itself at the beginning of the show and would give it a greater emotional weight historical weight, and i think a universality. So it was months of these meetings. And at one of them, one of us said, you know, what this show may be about is the changing of a way of life. Tradition, tradition tradition narrator based on the work of the yiddish writer sholem aleichem, fiddler on the roof told the story of tevye the dairyman, whose daughters insistence on marrying for love threatens the traditions he cherishes. Stein jerry worked differently from any director ive ever worked with. He would take a scene and say, i like this scene very much can you change it . So that i frequently would take a scene and write it from a different point of view. And hed look at me, says, this is really very good. I liked the first one better. You worked much harder with jerry as a director than you ordinarily did. And, of course, it was worth it. Pendleton theres this little scene where the mom is telling all the daughters what to do to prepare for the sabbath. He restaged that scene completely and im not exaggerating 25 times. People were going crazy. No, wait, wait, now, wait. Do i put the fork on this or this . He was like a painter. Every time he staged it, i thought it was breathtaking. I mean, hed go, no, no, no, no. No, no. No. No, no wait, wait, wait, wait. And then hed restage it. Narrator to play the part of tevye, robbins wanted the largerthanlife zero mostel, but mostel, who had worked with robbins earlier was reluctant to repeat the experience. Bock i wont use the word hate, but zero did not like him for his revealing names to the House Unamerican Activities Committee. Pendleton people were saying, you cant work with zero, he is totally undisciplined. And jerry would say, yeah, but, i mean, hes a great artist. These directors today say, oh, i wont work with that person. Theyre a little they wont do exactly what i say. And here, here is jerry, the control freak, supposedly, the choreographer. No, he wants that. He knows a great artist. Narrator mostel did not disappoint his director. He gave a performance for the ages hailed by one critic as one of the most glowing creations in theistory of the musical theater. To life rich it was going to be one of the biggest hits ever. And yet, for the three weeks in washington before they came to the imperial theatre on broadway to open it up, robbins met with that cast every day to perfect it. He described my performance to me in a way that was very humiliating. He said, the thought of that wonderful young woman being stuck with you as a husband was so revolting to me, i had to go out into the lobby. [ laughs ] now, he had a point. I regret to say. In fact, i even knew as he said it that he had a point. But, boy, did that hurt. But i stopped being lazy. I stopped being sure of what i thought i was doing. He hated that. To prod someone from what they would do to what they could do thats when it gets very painful. And frightening. And ugly sometimes. But he would do it. Rich now, if he listened just to the audience and the reviews, he had to do nothing. He wouldnt take yes for an answer. But thats what great artists do. He tuned out the audience, tuned out the great reviews and said this may be great but we can make it 20 percent better, and he did. Narrator it was in washington that robbins added one of the shows most memorable scenes, though hed laid the groundwork well before. Pendleton i would get a call from him saying were going to a hasidic or orthodox wedding over in, over in williamsburg. Crowd mazel tov stein he was very taken by the wildness of the dancing. Harnick he said, to me, this is their communion with god, and they do it through movement. Pendleton the danger of it and risk of it was a tribute to the fact of the wedding itself. Not just on the part of the bride and the groom but of the father of the bride and her mother. The risk everyone was taking in having these two people become a couple was reflected in the da people dont think like that anore. Just think two or three steps further and thats what you get to. Thats what he did. Robbins my dads great pleasure was fiddler on the roof. I invited him to the opening. And he came to it, and he came through the stage door and he saw me and he just burst into tears. I was so touched by it. Harnick after fiddler, i said whats next for you . He said, musicals are so painful for me. I know what the show should look like. And i cant realize that image. And its so painful i dont think im going to do it anymore. Because he had the ability both to direct actors, to understand the deepest meaning of material, and, of course, was a terrific choreographer, he had all the abilities needed to take the step forward for the musical, and you see it in west side story and gypsy and fiddler on the roof. And then he was gone. Narrator robbins would not return to broadway for 25 years. But he continued to explore ideas about tradition and family in a ballet set to stravinskys cantata about a russian peasant wedding, les noces. Feld jerry was always interested in community, whether it was the community of a gang, the community of a shtetl, the community of this fictitious russian society. I think jerry was very concerned with belonging. Murrow you must have big plans for the future, huh . Well, someday, ed, i would like to have a Theater Company of my own thats devoted not just to dancing, but also to all the arts. Man it was the 60s, and all around us, things were changing. There was tremendous experimentation going on. People were looking for new ways of working as a collective that was one thing and looking for new ways to present theater. Narrator in 1965, with one of the first grants from the National Endowment for the arts robbins established the american Theatre Laboratory to work with material ranging from greek tragedy to japanese noh drama. But after two years, feeling sidetracked, he returned to new York City Ballet, because, he said the master choreographer was working there, and what more honor and pleasure and education could one have . City ballet would be his artistic home for the rest of his life. When i look back at my history that quite often when i havent been working in ballet itself, that when i come back to it, something good happens. Narrator the something was the seminal dances at a gathering, one of robbins most lyrical and expressive ballets in which classic dance steps arise from chopins piano music as naturally as breathing. He wanted it to look as natural as possible and, actually, he just let us be us. Robbins i started dances at a gathering as a pas de deux. I asked for two other dancers. And then i asked for two more dancers. And i thought, six is gonna be the most it gets to. And then i showed it to balanchine. And he looked at it and he said, more, more. Its gotta be like popcorn. Give em more. And then out came dances at a gathering. Woman i remember, when he did my solo, he was able to dance it so well and with such energy and wit and tenderness that i thought to myself, ill never be able to do this thing. I remember standing in the wings with mr. B. And he would be watching dances at a gathering, you know, and he thought it was a wonderful ballet. I think mr. B. Would have loved to have choreographed dances at a gathering. He was a little envious of that and he thought it was beautiful. Man i never saw a reaction of an audience they just went, bravo and i never heard that at city ballet. It was staggering. It was staggering. Martins Jerome Robbins was heralded as being the future. And balanchine was sort of okay, pack your bag, george its time. Narrator robbins triumphant return to city ballet coincided with a rare fallow period for George Balanchine. But robbins ambitious and distinctive new ballets provoked not only praise but criticism. [ bachs goldberg variations playing ] in the goldberg variations, he took on bachs monumental 80minute keyboard work a task he compared to trying to scale a beautiful marble wall. The whole idea of making a ballet to goldberg variations, i think, is unbelievably gutsy. It was glorious, in a way. You felt as if every aspect of ballet technique and what it meant to be a classical dancer had been laid out before you. For some people that was just ponderous. And for others it was a revelation. Narrator drawing on his exploration of japanese noh drama in the American Theater lab, robbins defied his theatrical instincts by creating an hourlong ballet in which time and motion seem suspended as a man looks back on his life. Man watermill was a very exciting and strange experiee. Never forget the audiences first reaction. It was total silence and then boo from this way, and then, bravo, from over here. Jowitt jerry aimed high. He wanted everything to be a little gem. And maybe to some people that comes across as pretentiousness. Narrator for city ballets dancers, accustomed to Balanchine Robbins was a taskmaster. You never go up i give the same correction every rehearsal for years that weve been doing this damboise there was a terrific sensitive man at work, afraid to allow that sensitivity to impinge in any way on what he saw as his vision of how something should be done. Martins in the night, i was first cast with violette. I have never spent so many hours rehearsing such a short little pas de deux, ever. It drove me crazy. I just said to myself, peter, be patient. You see, i was used to mr. B. I mean, balanchine would make a ballet in, in two rehearsals in the practice room. I was, like, for two months in the main hall with violette and please. Robbins every choreographer works differently. I get angry at people saying oh, hes so slow, he takes so much time. So what . Thats the way i work. We all cant be balanchine. Jerry would take what you are, twist and turn and end up enhancing it so that you were a glorified version of what you are. Balanchine would have you dance in ways that you didnt know you could. I would say balanchine was technically more difficult. But you were much more naked in a robbins ballet, in a sense to be yourself to be natural, and yet you still have to go out there and, and perform in front of 3,000 people. There was a very delicate balance between including the audience and not selling the dance. It was this balance that jerry was very interested in. You go too fast. Martins jerry liked when you marked a ballet. He didnt like you to dance full out. He said, easy, boy, easy, baby, easy, baby, easy, baby easy, easy, baby. Whereas mr. B. Would say why are you taking it easy . They were completely opposite, in every way. Jerrys rehearsals were physically easy, but mentally, hideous. And balanchines rehearsals were mentally delighul and physically nightmarish. Narrator 1972 marked a milestone in the history of the new York City Ballet the stravinsky festival, a oneweek marathon of 30 ballets, 21 of them premieres including two masterworks by balanchine. Robbins contributed five new ballets but only one, the charming trifle, circus polka, which reflected his love of children survived in the companys repertory. He and balanchine collaborated as both choreographers and performers for a knockabout commedia dellarte ballet to stravinskys pulcinella. Verdy on the first night both Jerry Robbins and mr. Balanchine performed the two beggars. And i think it was a little wink at some of the critics who had begun a rumor that maybe there was a little competition between the two of them. And so they said okay, well show them. They were that way also in life, in a way. They would confer together. They had continuous complicity. They were plotting together. Narrator the stravinsky festival had demolished any doubt that balanchine was the preeminent ballet choreographer of the 20th century. When i watch him work, robbins confessed in his journal its so extraordinary that i just want to give up. Martins i dont think ive ever met two people more different than Jerry Robbins and George Balanchine. Jerrys insecurity was astounding. Balanchines trust in himself was overwhelming. Verdy even with that incredible talent, jerry wasnt sure that it was ever good enough because it was all about love. We needed to love him a lot and he needed to love us and he wanted to be loved so badly. Narrator when balanchine decreed a festival of works to the music of maurice ravel, robbins set himself the task of making a neoclassical ballet using balanchines own muse, suzanne farrell, and her frequent partner Peter Martins. The effort of fitting himself into balanchines mold was costly. One is up for the knife on Opening Night, robbins wrote at the ballets premiere and i wish i were rabinowitz instead of robbins. Only once did i see somebody scream at jerry. It was the first and only time i saw balanchine lose his temper. I remember mr. B. Saying to him, you know, jerry i give you main hall, i give you choice of dancers i give you choice of music, i choreograph on whats left over in lower concourse, in opera studios with bad floors. I give you everything everything, everything everything, balanchine was red. And all you do is complain, complain, complain, complain complain, complain complain, complain, complain and mr. B. Went like this. Oh, yeah, he was like this and jerry was like this. And he said to him finally he said, you know if you dont like it here, get the hell out. Jerry, he shrunk and he ran. And i bet you, he went home and he went hes right, hes right. Robbins, in a sense, never entirely lost that sense of being an outsider, for all of the acclaim all of the glory that his talent was able to bring him. Robbins i see the rages and discontents deeply rooted inside of me. And it seems to me that the anguish has been caused by this wrenching away from my true cultural background and the constant modification to assimilate myself whoring myself to become an american. As i grew up judaism seemed to be taluses and beards and eyes watering and smells that i didnt know, a language i couldnt understand. It revolted me. And i laid my knife against it. Now im trying to get ba to the things that i embraced so deeply. Narrator a series of trips to israel, robbins said, made me proud to be a jew something i had always rejected. He had long wanted Leonard Bernstein to collaborate on a ballet based on the dybbuk by s. Ansky, a yiddish drama of starcrossed love in which a young girl is possessed by the soul of her dead beloved. Jowitt Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine were not interested in dybbuk, and they hurt his feelings quite badly by saying, youd better be doing that for a folk company. Narrator by the 1970s, however, balanchine and kirstein had warmed to the idea. But all did not go smoothly. Jerry and lenny were finding it very difficult to work together. By the mid70s i dont think he really could collaborate effectively. Ultimately he would analyze it to death and there would be nothing left. I think he got cold feet. Maybe he was afraid to be as jewish as he needed to be. Robbins i wanted to do a very hard diamond of a ballet and lenny wanted to do a big, dramatic thing. And we never got together on that. He was so under mr. Balanchines abstract shadow. Robbins i dont think it worked. I wish it had, but it didnt. Narrator audiences and critics felt the same, and robbins was hurt by the ballets reception. I go into being outside and alone and no good, he wrote in his journal. Increasingly unable to strike a balance between his identity and his artistic aspirations he spiraled into a suicidal depression and in july 1975, spent three weeks at a psychiatric hospital. Baryshnikov for jerry, dance is something so personal, every achievement is torturous. It was sometimes painful to see him suffer that much, practically, you know you want to kind of hug him or shake him you know. Too much. Narrator once again, work became robbins lifeline. He was helped in his recovery by his abiding love for the music of chopin and by the talents of two virtuoso dancers new to him, Natalia Makarova and mikhail baryshnikov. Turn back. There it is. Yes. Okay. Narrator sixty robbins wrote in his journal in october, 1978. How did i get here . If he felt old his productivity was that of a much younger man. Glass pieces, which used music and Stage Movement new to city ballet, was a kind of valentine to new york. My beautiful city, hed written, that chokes on its breath and sparkles with its false lights and sleeps restlessly at night. Some ballets are rituals, robbins wrote. And what appeals to me is the austerity and religious atmosphere, the paring away of inessentials. Woman i hadnt explored being more relaxed on the stage where you werent hitting things so hard. And he wanted it super relaxed. And this became absolutely impossible for me to achieve. Until the premiere date, he was not gonna let me do it. He threatened me he threatened me that last day before the premiere. Then, we danced it and something, you know, the magic happened finally i let go. Robbins it was only when i got near the end of that ballet that i realized one of the things that was haunting me were statues in the National Museum in naples, and that many, many years ago, id walked into a room and there were four or five bronze lifesized statues of women with enamel eyes and it was like walking into a mide of a ritual. Martins he had this gift of simplicity onstage, this sense of knowing when to do nothing this security in himself that he is not afraid to show that no activity. That takes guts, that takes understanding that takes a gift. He had that, big time. Narrator by the early 1980s George Balanchine was in fragile health, riding what robbins described in his journal as a slow elevator down. On april 30, 1983, balanchine died from a progressive brain disorder. The news of george, robbins wrote, breaks my heart. Although robbins and Peter Martins were jointly appointed ballet masters in chief of the new York City Ballet, it was martins who would run the company. Jerry had made it very clear with ballets usa, that running a company was not what he wanted to do. But he also didnt want to be left out in decision making. And i would say, for the most part, i deferred to jerry completely. I felt it was vitally important for the company, having just lost balanchine. Farrell and as long as jerry was doing something new, it was easier to go on. Shortly after mr. Balanchine died, jerry said suzanne, i have an idea about a ballet. Would you be interested in working with me . Narrator the ballet, whose centerpiece was a striking duet for a young girl and the figure of death, was set to alban bergs violin concerto. Robbins alban berg had a very deep affection for the daughter of friends of his and at 18 she, unfortunately contracted polio and after very severe suffering, died from it and he wrote this piece in memory of her. At one moment, you can hear something which appeals to you tremendously because whats going on in your life is ready for that to hit you. Maybe it was just something he had to let fall from him, that story, his own story, but he used this story to to let it fall away. Robbins i think, finally the ballet should not be connected to one person, but to the sense of losing people and the struggles that they go through when they are ill and die, and hopefully, arrive at a peace for themselves. Narrator robbins was trying to make peace with his own past, and to determine what legacy he would leave behind. For more than a year he struggled with an autobiographical theater piece that would explore his unresolved feelings about his father and include his testimony before the House Unamerican Activities Committee but got no further than a workshop production. Maybe i will never find a satisfying release from the guilt of it all, he wrote. He was more successful with Jerome Robbins broadway, an anthology of the best numbers from his career in musicals, which required the participation of more than 40 authors, composers, lyricists and designers from the original shows. The show cost in the neighborhood of 6 million. In those days it was a lot of money. Jerry demanded that we give 23 weeks of rehearsal. Now, 23 weeks of rehearsal is more than three times the ordinary rehearsal period. Jerry didnt miss a thing. There was nothing that was ever missed with him. There was nothing he was not gonna get to. That was such a great feeling, to have somebody thats taking care of you. Schoenfeld it was Leonard Bernstein who said hes a genius, and we have to cater to genius. It was all about focus all the notes you would get would be about focusing for one rose being moved from here to here. Thats why he was so good at comedy. The winner is. Im so nervous. Jerome robbins. [ cheers and applause ] [ band playing ] narrator robbins shared the benefits of his success with hundreds of artists and others through the Jerome Robbins foundation. And, with a perpetual share of his earnings from fiddler on the roof, he enabled the New York Public Library to develop the Worlds Largest archive for dance. In the mid1990s, the effects of a bicycle accident kept robbins from working for a year. Baryshnikov i said, when you are ready, just call me. Ill go in the studio with you. And a few weeks later he called. He liked to demonstrate. He was dancing till the very end. He wanted to really experience his thoughts through his body, and it was evident always that he was exceptional dancer himself. This piece its very internal. Its like looking at himself in the mirror and just marking it, and then music draws the dancer in. Choreographers are lonely people. And he was one of the most vulnerable which i ever met. Narrator despite openheart surgery in 1995 robbins kept making dances. But three years later, at the age of 79 he suffered a massive stroke. On july 29, 1998 robbins died at home surrounded by friends and family. Redpath he wanted his ashes scattered in the dunes in front of his house. And i remember everyone just in their own thoughts of missing jerry clusters of two someone sitting on the ground, someone just walking aimlessly around. All the friends and family that were gathering there in their own world of jerry, and i thought, you know what, he it would be something he would choreograph. Martins he is unmistakably the greatest americanborn ballet choreographer that ever lived. Rich he was a principal creator of three of the most enduring works in the history of the american musical theater. Jowitt no other choreographer was equally innovative and successful in both ballet and musical theater. Pendleton artists should have a healthy amount of selfloathing. He had that. [ laughing ] and he instilled it in others. Tipton deep inside of him was a great love for theater and for dance. And he imbued in me that love. Gottlieb one of the things that lasts with me about jerry is the disparity between the genuine goodness of the person and the impossibility of the person. Look at the institutions that he supported and the friendship he showed. And yet, he was hell to deal with. Schoenfeld talent and being nice are not handmaidens but he was worth it, cause he was a once in a lifetime. Lee he operated from a sense of truth whether it was dark or whether it was joyous but his vision was clear. And he told the truth. He just did. Baryshnikov he is an inspiration of course. Very complex and a wonderful man. I miss him. Narrator talent is really a gift from nowhere, robbins wrote, alighting on some poor slob in spite of himself. But if youve got it, it doesnt mean it will come out and be clear. That takes work and technique and in my case a hell of a lot of agony. But the older i grow, the more i appreciate what i manage to do, and that gives me great happiness in this world. Stay tuned for more Jerome Robbins on american masters. They knock our socks off and take our breath away. They go their own way, find their own voice. They show us a new way of seeing and believing. They intrigue us. Entertain us. Inspire us. They are american masters. To learn more about Jerome Robbins visit pbs. Org. Jerome robbins something to dance about is available on dvd for 29. 99 plus shipping. To order, call 18003361917 or write to the address on your screen. Jerome robbins something to dance about is made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the humanities because democracy demands wisdom. Funding for this program and for american masters is provided by the National Endowment for the arts because a great nation deserves great art. Additional funding for american masters is provided by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. We are pbs