Ballroom, 1978

The run closed March 24, 1979

Opened

December 14, 1978

Closed

March 24, 1979

Performances

116

Previews

Unknown

Theatre

Majestic Theatre

Of the 589 productions we hold that opened in the 1970s and carry a performance count, this is the 154th longest. That is a rank within what we hold, not within everything that was staged.

Who was in it37 named

Danny Carroll
Dick Corrigan
Dorothy Danner
Patricia Drylie
David Evans
Bud Fleming
Carol Flemming
Peter Gladke
Victor Griffin
Svetlana Mclee Grody
Mickey Gunnerson
John Hallow
Roberta Haze
Alfred Karl
Adriana Keathley
Gene Kelton
Dorothy D Lister
John J Martin
Joe Milan
Mary Ann Niles
Howard Parker
Frank Pietri
Mavis Ray
Jayne Turner
Terry Violino
Janet Stewart White

11 of these 37 names have a person record behind them and link to one. The other 26 are set from the identifier in the cast list, which is a slug of the name, so hyphens and full stops are lost and a few come out wrong. We hold nothing else about them. Nobody here is matched to a character: the cast list records who was in the company and not what they played.

Characters14 roles held

Dorothy Loudon Bea Asher
Vincent Gardenia Alfred Rossi
Bernie Knee Nathan Bricker
Lynn Roberts Marlene
Liz Sheridan Shirley
Marilyn Cooper Natalie
Sally-Jane Heit Helen
Peter Alzado David Asher
Dorothy Danner Diane Asher
Howard Parker Johnny "Lightfeet"
Patricia Drylie Angie
Barbara Erwin Martha
Mary Ann Niles Emily
John Hallow Jack

These came out of a wiki table. The names arrived with the table's own cell markup on them and have been stripped back. They are not linked to person records because the identifiers in that table do not resolve to ours.

Creative team

Director

Michael Bennett

Choreographer

Michael Bennett, Bob Avian

Orchestrations

Jonathan Tunick 8

A producer is one string on this record, however many people or companies it names. Directors and choreographers are held both as text and as identifiers; where an identifier exists the name links to a page.

Tony Awards 1 from 8 nominations

Best Musical

Nominated

Recordings 1 held for the work

None of these is attributed to this staging. They are filed against Ballroom, and nothing says which production any of them documents. Closing that join is the point of this catalogue and it is not closed yet.

Around this production

Ballroom is a stage musical with a book by Jerome Kass and music by Billy Goldenberg and lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman. Debuting on Broadway in 1978, it was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical. Based on Kass's teleplay for the 1975 Emmy Award-winning television drama Queen of the Stardust Ballroom starring Maureen Stapleton, the plot focuses on lonely widow Bea Asher, who becomes romantically involved with Alfred Rossi, a mail carrier she meets at the local dance hall. Her dream of a happily-ever-after relationship is shattered when she discovers Alfred hasn't been as honest about his personal life as she thought.

• Michael Bennett directed and choreographed Ballroom (1978). At This Theatre 100 Years of Broadway Shows Stories and Botto Louis Viagas Rober, p. 273
• Ballroom (12/14/78; 116 performances) was Michael Bennett’s first musical following the remarkable success of A Chorus Line, but the material was third-rate and even Bennett couldn’t make Ballroom come alive. Broadway Its History People and Places An Encyclopedia Bloom Ken 1949 2nd Ed New, p. 352
• After Annie, she returned to the world of shows whose ledgers ended on the debit side, albeit this time in a classy failure with her performance as widow Bea Asher in Michael Bennett’s Ballroom. Broadway Musicals the 101 Greatest Shows of All Time Bloom Ken 1949 Vlastnik Fra, p. 18
• That show, Ballroom, contained some classic Bennett touches, but it was ultimately let down by a weak score and lack of conflict. Broadway Musicals the 101 Greatest Shows of All Time Bloom Ken 1949 Vlastnik Fra, p. 279
• She was a replacement Mrs. Lovett in the original production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979), succeeding Angela Lansbury. Historical Dictionary of the Broadway Musical Volume 22 William A Everett Paul R, p. 241

Passages naming this production, found by keyword across 178 books. Where it turns up in the literature, not curated notes about it.

What this page does not know

• No photograph of this staging.
• Which of the 1 recordings of Ballroom document this run, if any.
• Reviews, box office, running order, understudies and designers: none of it is held for any production.