Jerome Robbins (with Liz Rosenfeld)

Bad Gays

Huw Lemmey & Ben Miller

History

4.6 • 842 Ratings

🗓️ 25 August 2024

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today, special guest Liz Rosenfeld discusses the choreographer Jerome Robbins. Born in New York to Jewish immigrants, Robbins pursued dance and radical politics––until, under the threat of being blacklisted and exposed for his sexuality, reporting on his former comrades to the House Committee on Unamerican Activities. As one of Broadway's star choreographers, he helped define Broadway's Golden Age with striking dance theatre that integrated ballet technique into storytelling. His charisma, abuses of power, and boundary-obliterating working methods helped define an idea of choreographer-as-genius that still disfigures dance today. Support our show by subscribing to our monthly podcast EXTRA BAD GAYS by clicking this link and visiting our Patreon or directly through Apple Podcasts. ----more---- SOURCES: https://www.npr.org/2011/02/24/97274711/the-real-life-drama-behind-west-side-story https://www.dummies.com/article/academics-the-arts/performing-arts/what-was-the-golden-age-of-broadway-297863/ https://www.commentary.org/articles/terry-teachout/what-jerome-robbins-knew-that-leonard-bernstein-didnt/ https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/brexit-news-jerome-robbins-west-side-story-un-american-activities-committee-32460/ https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/19/happy-hundredth-jerome-robbins Jerome Robbins: By Himself: Selections from his letters, journals, drawings, photographs, and an Unfinished Memoir (ed. Amanda Vaill) Wendy Lesser: Jerome Robbins: A Life in Dance Jerome Robbins - Something to Dance About, dir. Judy Kinberg Our intro is Arpeggia Colorix by Yann Terrien. Our outro music is by DJ Michaeloswell Graphicsdesigner.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to a special episode of Bad Gaze, a podcast about evil and complicated queer
0:05.4	people in history. My name is Ben Miller. I am a writer and historian, and today we have a special
0:12.1	guest, which I can introduce yourself. Hi, I'm Liz Rosenfeld, an artist, writer, and I guess a sort
0:19.6	of nerdy researcher of sorts.
0:22.7	Liz and I share many interests, but one of them is the American musical theater.
0:28.0	And with Hugh safely out of the building in London doing his work, we can finally queen out a little bit.
0:34.4	So today's episode is best explained by a little radio drama that Liz has
0:40.9	written for us and Liz is now going to give us the setting. I should say this is a collaborative
0:47.9	role play written between me and chat GPT. Oh, amazing. Picture it.
0:56.0	A lavish Hampton's estate belonging to Arthur Lorenz, who was a prominent playwright,
1:03.0	librettis, screenwriter, and director, famous for writing Broadway sensations such as West Side Story
1:08.0	and Gypsy, amongst others. A sophisticated yet uninhibited orgy
1:13.6	during the golden age of Broadway is taking place.
1:17.5	It is the 1950s, and writers, actors, musicians,
1:21.0	basically the closeted and fabulous homosexual stars
1:23.9	of the stage and screen, are present
1:25.9	and getting down and dirty on a bearskin rug
1:29.1	situated in the middle of a Bauhaus style meets New England Beach Home. The atmosphere is relaxed.
1:38.6	With music, laughter, and an air of carefree indulgence, Stephen Sondheim and Jerome Robbins find a quiet corner to catch up.
1:48.8	Each holding a drink, Stephen is in slacks and a casual button down, open maybe one button
1:54.9	more than usual, exposing a little tuft of chest hair.
2:00.1	He's definitely the one with the most clothes on at the party.
	...

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