Ann Reinking

hello hello hello and welcome back to another musical theater mondays i am so [Laughter] i am so excited for this episode you have no idea we are going to be talking about anne ranking the most fabulous woman that has ever graced this world enough with the chit chat let's just like jump right into it anne reinking was born on november 10 1949 in seattle washington and she grew up in the suburb of bellevue now she started taking ballet lessons at the age of eight basically was on ballet life career goals and for her summers while in school she would go learn at the san francisco ballet she had quite a few mentors during this time including her aunt who was a singer as well as former ballet roos dancers pretty cool after entering high school she ended up taking a summer residency with joffrey ballet and tacoma washington and the story goes that joffrey heard her sing and he told her that he believes that she would be much happier if she went into the realm of musical theater instead of doing ballet and so that's what she did she got the blessing from her parents and she moved to new york city at the age of 18. her first job was being a part of the court of ballet at the radio city music hall but she soon got her first gig on the second national tour in the ensemble of fiddler on the roof she actually has a really funny audition story about it there are a couple of interviews i listen to and she tells the story in both of them so definitely check that story out she came back to new york and she made her broadway debut in cabaret and then in 1969 she did coco starring catherine hepburn in 1971 she did wild and wonderful it only ran for one performance that's it zilch not a done after that but if you think about it if it wasn't for that failure she may not have been able to get her next job which was pippen which was directed and choreographed by the one and only bob fosse at this point yes they do start their relationship they were together for six years in pippin she was in the ensemble she also understood the role of catherine and she was also one of the main dancers in the manson trio due to bob fosse's desire to showcase the ensemble and gives much thanks to bob fosse because this is kind of where her career really launched after this she landed her first role in a musical in over here she played the role of maggie and won a theater world award for it snaps to that in 1975 she was in good time charlie with our good pal joel gray she played the role of joan of arc and got a tony nom she then played cassie in a chorus line in both the broadway production and the touring production during that time she was also roxy in chicago on broadway in 1978 bob fosse wanted to make a whole dance show and so he created dancing and she was one of she was one of the performers she actually had a tony nomination for this to which i say like look at that look i'm showing you footage [Music] hello the same year she has her film debut and movie movie playing troubles moran which it's on amazon prime go watch it now her dance number in that movie i can't even show it to you it's just so bizarre but amazing at the same time and that wig that she wears is just oh that wig in 1979 you see her as kate jagger and all that jazz now some of you may know this some of you may not but all that jazz was basically a little blue based on bob fosse and she mentions in interviews that she wished that bob actually made himself look more kinder he was showing the negative sides of him when there were so many good sides of him in 1982 she was grace farrell and annie which is probably her most notable film role and of course who can forget that amazing dance member that they put in just for her for that movie like it's fun it's fabulous they got annie we got annie everyone got it in me in that moment in 1983 she did a movie called a night on the town it's really weird it's about this random photographer that somehow gets transported into the 1930s and i think she plays one of those people in that era if you look on youtube there's a clip of her singing de lovely in it and it's i mean what can i say it's just lovely in 1986 she replaced debbie allen in the sweet charity revival in 1991 she was in the touring production of bye bye birdie co-starring our favorite man tommy tune and this is kind of when she really steps back from performing and goes more into the choreography side of musical theater in 1992 she did some choreography contributions to tommy tune tonight which i'm assuming is a you know a review of something or something in 1995 she choreographed the tv movie of bye-bye birdies starring jason alexander and vanessa williams in 1996 she choreographed a touring production of applause and also that same year she was hired to choreograph a production of chicago that was going to be done at encore city center in new york city it was just going to be four nights she really wanted to make this show good in honor of bob fosse but then cut to a few days before they started rehearsals the woman who was going to play roxy she had to drop out and all eyes went to anne and initially she was like nah i ain't doing it but they convinced her to do it and thank freaking goodness because after those four nights people loved it so much that a few months later they made it into a broadway revival and now it's the longest running revival of a musical in history what due to her amazing work on this revival she won the tony award and the drama desk award for best choreography i mean duh why due to this success gwen verdin who is bob fosse's third wife she approached anne to ask for her help to create fosse which was basically just a showcase of all of fosse's fabulous work she helped create it she helped direct it and she helped to choreograph it and she even performed in it a few times she mentioned that before chicago she actually kind of went into early retirement and chicago brought her back for a hot minute and so you can see after fosse that she kind of dials back in 2013 she helped choreograph the look of love the songs of bert bacharach and hal david in 2011 she was a dance consultant for an evening with pedolupone amanda patinkin and in 2017 she officially retired and moved to paradise valley in arizona which oddly enough she fell in love with the state when she was on tour back when she was 18 doing fiddler on the roof like full circle isn't that so cool but of course during this entire time she was overseeing the various productions that was happening of chicago since she is the choreographer so here's like the craziest thing we just saw various clips of her dancing in this little video that i'm making for y'all don't forget to like and subscribe but here's the thing she said in an interview that she wasn't able to take as many dance classes because she had really bad fatigue and she just thought well i'm just tired katy when she started to retire she realized that she was having trouble breathing having really bad anxiety and also a back ache and so she got checked out and cut two she's told that she has a hole in her heart and it has been there since she was born what do you see that clip do you see that clip right there she has a hole in her heart while doing that don't don't worry she got surgery and everything but it's like isn't that insane her work ethic was ridiculous man she's a beast so besides performing and choreographing she was also teaching and you can kind of see it in interviews and in various classes that you can see on youtube that she really loves to teach and in 1991 she created the broadway theater project which is basically a three-week training program that is to further develop the key disciplines of musical theater including acting voice and dance as well as the critical life skills necessary to prepare students to work in the world of professional theater a couple of my friends have done the program and they swear by it like they wouldn't trade their experience for the world in terms of her personal life she was married four times her fourth husband peter talbert she's been married to him since the early 90s she had a son during her third marriage his name is christopher and he was diagnosed with marfan syndrome and due to that she's became a huge advocate for the marvin foundation and even helped produce a documentary called in my hands a story of marfan syndrome you see her working with these group of kids working on a dance number to help celebrate their bodies which is so beautiful and you can just see her light and her joy and her kindness just shine through this and also just in general like she was just such a kind person whenever i think of anne ranking you just think a kindness and her eyes and of course her legs but she was so quirky and so nice if you have an extra five minutes of your day after watching this i highly recommend just googling her on youtube and checking out more of her stuff because the way that she performs is just so stunning and so breathtaking and just she's one of a kind she's unique and it's absolutely heartbreaking that we lost her on december 12th of 2020. she died in her sleep at the age of 71 while visiting her family in seattle i just think it's really beautiful that she was able to see her family before she passed away especially during this time where not a lot of people are able to see their loved ones i think it was kind of in the cards for her to be with her family one last time before she passed away unexpectedly i'm not quite sure how to end this video since it is ending on such a down note um but i gotta say we owe a lot to this woman and i guess the way to end this is that just learn from example she was really such a kind loving person and so generous and i think she really set a good example for everyone performers or not on how to be a good person it's interesting she also said in an interview that she could have easily taken the path of fame and glory but she decided against that and you know learned how to properly give balance to her life i just think that's so inspiring and that's really what all of us really wants is just balance and for the pandemic to be over but mainly balance and so that's and ranking uh yeah i know that i'm missing things i could have been much more nitty gritty with what shows she was on like she made a guest appearance on the cosby show but then i hope you guys liked this i really had such a fun time getting to learn about her please please please go and check out more of her work movie movie is on amazon prime i'm sure there are random clips of the annie movie on youtube or rent the movie if you enjoyed this please give it a thumbs up subscribe if you want to see more musical theater mondays trying to get that algorithm going you know if you have anything that you would like me to talk about here any requests just please leave it in the comments below again don't be a fun ruiner we hate fun ruiners stop biting me may you be happy maybe healthy may you be safe and at ease and free from harm and i will see you guys very soon bye

Channel: morningswithemma

Views: 6,463

Rating: 4.9175258 out of 5

Keywords: Ann Reinking, Bob Fosse, Pippin, Annie, All that jazz, Chicago, Musical theatre

Id: -eWIZhx-yD8

Length: 11min 40sec (700 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 04 2021