Jerome Robbins is all over the place these days. New York City Ballet is presenting a month-long Robbins Celebration at Lincoln Center, while Patti LuPone is burning up the stage of the St. James Theatre in an Arthur Laurents-staged revival of Gypsy that incorporates the dances choreographed by Robbins for the show’s original 1959 production.
The coincidence of these two events struck me as a highly suitable occasion for a “Sightings” column in which I take a retrospective look at Jerome Robbins’ place in postwar American culture. During his lifetime, Robbins was America’s most famous choreographer–but ten years after his death, does the co-creator of Fancy Free, West Side Story, and Dances at a Gathering still matter? Or has the ever-changing Zeitgeist finally passed him by?
To find out, pick up a copy of Saturday’s Wall Street Journal, turn to the “Weekend Journal” section, and see what I have to say in “Sightings.”
UPDATE: Read the whole thing here.
Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City
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