Tommy Tune

Great Heights

Tony Award winner Tommy Tune will premiere a personal evening of songs and stories in Palm Springs

Jeremy Kinser Arts & Entertainment

Tommy Tune
Tony Award winner Tommy Tune brings new songs, more personal trip through his career to the Purple Room.
PHOTOS BY FRANCO LACOSTA

There are many performers who deserve to be referred to as theatrical giants, but few, if any, can reach the heights of Tommy Tune.

Since he departed small-town Wichita Falls, Texas for New York City more than five decades ago, the self-described “five feet-seventeen inch” tall song-and-dance man has garnered an incredible 10 Tony Awards, among many other honors, for his work in Broadway extravaganzas such as The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Grand Hotel and My One and Only, and starred in big-screen musicals including Hello Dolly! and The Boyfriend.

Now a still-sprightly 77, Tune will perform his personal renditions of songs by Burt Bacharach, Cole Porter, and even Green Day when he brings his autobiographical one-man show titled Here and Now! to the stage of The Purple Room for three nights beginning Sept. 1 in palm Springs.

Tune spoke with Palm Springs Life about his sensational career, his new show, and why he loves performing in Palm Springs.

Q: What can audiences expect from your show, Here and Now?

Tommy Tune: It’s my story. Steve Martin said telling your life onstage is the ego’s last stand. [Laughs] He’s right, but what do we have to share except the stories of our lives with each other? When you meet someone for dinner you sit across the table and tell each other stories about what’s happened. That’s what the show is. It’s mostly a Broadway autobiography. My life kind of started when I hit New York, but I go back and talk about how I got here and how I got my first job in New York. Then I sing songs that mean something to me or that mean something to the story or some of the songs from the shows I’ve done.

You have one of the most illustrious careers in American theater. Are these all songs you’ve sung before?

TT: I’m putting in a lot of new material. There’s a bushel of new songs I’m putting in. I’ve never sung It’s Not Where you Start It’s Where You Finish which is the song Cy Coleman wrote for me for Seesaw. I won my first Tony for that show. I’ve never performed that song because it was a big production number. I figured out a new way to do it. I have a new opener. I have a Cole Porter song that I haven’t sung before. I’m rehearsing like mad. I have a new suit for The Purple Room. I won’t tell you more than that. [Laughs]

You’ve performed in Palm Springs a few times over the years. What do you enjoy about the city?

TT: I love it. I feel like I’ll be living there when I hang up my tap shoes. I never grow weary looking at those mountains. Every time I look at them they’re different — the lighting of them is different, the pattern is different. They even change shape. They’re like shape shifters.

What is it you find special about Palm Springs audiences?

TT: They’re great. They’re mostly show people. They’re show business people and peripheral show business people that end up in Palm Springs. It’s one big, wonderful community. I love it. I’ve met a lot of people whenever I’m there. Of course, Carol Channing is my spiritual mother. I spend a lot of time with her. She’s so great. She really is my beacon.

Where do you stay when you visit?

TT: I stay at Carol’s house. I’m so taken care of there. We go to the Thunderbird Country Club. I don’t do a lot of nightlife in Palm Springs because the people I stay with don’t stay up late. Carol will be at my show. She’s already telling me to please wear my vermillion suit. I thought it was red, but she corrected me. She knows color. [Breaks into perfect Channing impression] “Oh no, Tommy Tune, that is vermillion.” I told her, “I know you love my vermillion suit, but I’m having something special made to wear at the Purple Room.”

The Purple Room has a rich association with certain members of the Rat Pack. I know that you worked with Dean Martin. What was that experience like?

TT: I worked with Dean Martin on The Dean Martin Show for three seasons. I was the associate choreographer and performer. I got to know him a little bit. He’s the greatest natural talent I ever encountered. He just never seemed to be working at it. It just came out. He was so good.

Did you have any encounters with Frank Sinatra?

TT: Sinatra turned me on to caviar. I was in London with Lucie Arnaz and we went to his show at the Royal Albert Hall. After the show he invited us backstage and poured us champagne and gave us caviar and it was delicious. He had a tin that had just come in from Russia. I sat across the aisle from Ava Gardner. Just as the lights were going down this woman came in and slid into her seat on the aisle, just opposite me. I looked and it was Ava Gardner. I kept looking at her looking at him. I think she still loved him.

What do you have planned after your Purple Room performance?

TT: After I play The Purple Room I’m going directly to Japan to direct a production of Grand Hotel in Japanese with an all-female cast. I don’t speak a word of Japanese except “ohayou gozaimasu.” That means “good morning.”

Tommy Tune at The Purple Room, 1900 E. Palm Canyon Way, Palm Springs, 760-322-4422; www.purpleroompalmsprings.com