Marge Champion Discusses Gower at Drama Book Shop

Gower Champion’s genius underwent some serious and some light-hearted analysis at the Drama Book Shop last evening as Marge Champion, the director-choreographer’s first wife and second dancing partner, joined biographer John Anthony Gilvey in a discussion of stage musicals, film musicals, and television variety shows of the past. The occasion marked the publication of Gilvey’s comprehensive and compassionate book Before the Parade Passes By: Gower Champion and the Glorious American Musical.

The 90-minute interview was conducted by this reporter and was introduced by Gilvey with choice clips — “Before the Parade Passes By” as separately performed by Carol Channing, the original star of Hello, Dolly!, and replacement Pearl Bailey, plus some breathtaking Marge and Gower movie footage. The biographer, a professor of theater and speech at St. Joseph’s College, also read an introductory appreciation of Champion in which he noted — as he stresses in his book — that Champion “pioneered continuous choreographed staging in which the entire show and every element within it dances constantly from start to finish.”

Commenting on how Champion put a stage number together, Marge said, “He was very methodical about the way he worked. He knew exactly how he wanted it rhythmically, musically. He knew when he wanted a light to hit [and so on] from having staged our night club acts without any help whatsoever — except suggestions from me.”

In his biography, Gilvey notes that Champion, who always referred to Dolly! producer David Merrick as “Mister Mustache,” never quite attained the same exalted reputation as that achieved by his contemporaries Jerome Robbins and Bob Fosse. He attributed this situation partially to the fact that Champion’s work was more ephemeral, noting that Robbins and Fosse “had the chance to direct the film versions of the stage shows they had success with.” Marge Champion added, “Gower never had that opportunity. He was offered [the movie of] Bye Bye Birdie but didn’t have the clout to cast it as he wanted to cast it.”

Among those who attended the talk and contributed some off-the-cuff commentary were dancer Sondra Lee (Hello, Dolly!) , librettist-lyricist Tom Jones (I Do! I Do!), and conductor Jack Lee (Irene) . Jones, who with his partner Harvey Schmidt tailored I Do! I Do! to the talents of Mary Martin and Robert Preston, recalled Champion saying, “I want to know everything. I don’t want them to ask me a question I don’t have the answer to.”