Before the Parade Passes By: Gower Champion and the Glorious American Musical

by John Anthony Gilvey

During the Golden Age of the Broadway musical, few director-choreographers could infuse a new musical with dance and movement in quite the way Gower Champion could. From his earliest Broadway success with Bye Bye Birdie to his triumphant and bittersweet valedictory, 42nd Street, musicals directed by Champion filled the proscenium with life. At their best, they touched the heart and stirred the soul with a skillful blend of elegance and American showmanship.

He began his career as one-half of "America's Youngest Dance Team" with Jeanne Tyler and later teamed with his wife, dance partner, and longtime collaborator, Marge Champion. This romantic ballroom duo danced across America in the smartest clubs and onto the television screen, performing story dances that captivated the country. They ultimately took their talent to Hollywood, where they starred in the 1951 remake of Show Boat, Lovely to Look At, and other films. But Broadway always called to Champion, and in 1959 he was tapped to direct Bye Bye Birdie. The rest is history.

In shows like Birdie, Carnival, Hello, Dolly!, I Do! I Do!, Sugar, and 42nd Street, luminaries such as Chita Rivera, Dick Van Dyke, Carol Channing, Mary Martin, Robert Preston, Tony Roberts, Robert Morse, Tammy Grimes, and Jerry Orbach brought Champion's creative vision to life. Working with composers and writers like Jerry Herman, Michael Stewart, Charles Strouse, Lee Adams, and Bob Merrill, he streamlined the musical making it flow effortlessly with song and dance from start to finish.

John Gilvey has spoken with many of the people who worked with Champion, and in Before the Parade Passes By he tells the life story of this most American of Broadway musical director-choreographers from his early days dancing with Marge to his final days spent meticulously honing the visual magic of 42nd Street. Before the Parade Passes By is the life story of one man who personified the glory of the Broadway musical right up until the moment of his untimely death. When the curtain fell to thunderous applause on the opening night of 42nd Street, August 25, 1980, legendary impresario David Merrick came forward, silenced the audience, and announced that Champion had died that morning. As eminent theatre critic Ethan Mordden has firmly put it, "the Golden Age was over."

Though the Golden Age of the Broadway musical is over, John Gilvey brings it to life again by telling the story of Gower Champion, one of its most passionate and creative legends.

Genres: Biography, Theatre, Nonfiction, Musicals

384 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2005

About the author

John Anthony Gilvey is an educator, stage director, and author of Before the Parade Passes By: Gower Champion and the Glorious American Musical. A graduate of New York Universitys doctoral program in Educational Theatre, he is a noted authority on the Broadway musical."

Reviews

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fosse, Robbins, and Bennett all get their due. Here is Gower Champion's. This book strikes a perfect balance between detailed examinations of his work and insight into his personal life, all ending in what is perhaps the most show business moment in Broadway history, the death of the man himself on opening night. Champion was a singular talent and this should be required reading for Broadway fans. Pair this book with YouTube clips of his work, and you'll begin to see where everything came from.

[Daniel Krolik · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exhaustive (and sometimes exhausting) account of a man who, despite some massive hits, has never really received his due. The descriptions of numbers lost to time are amazing, and lots of first hand accounts paint a very vivid picture.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

LOVED this book because it is the fullest treatment to date of Champion's life, work & contributions to the American musical. It is helped tremendously by interviews &memorabilia from Marge Champion, Jess Gregg & many, many co-workers & friends such as Carol Channing, Debbie Reynolds, Jerry Orbach, just to pick three. It helps if you REALLY enjoy behind-the-scenes theatre stories b/c the author goes into deliciously excruciating detail of processes, changes, try-outs, experiments that failed as well as succeeded -all so important to Champion's life story. The final scene of his death & 42nd Street's opening night was/remains a Broadway legend. The author provides an appropriate balance between the public & private aspects of it all. So glad I found & read this book. I was sad when it ended. Found quite a few of the interviews on YouTube along w/clips of some favorite GC performances.

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whenever I think of Gower Champion I think of the Champion-like character in All That Jazz played by Jon Lithgow. Because of this portrayal [among other things], in terms of the great director-choreographers Champion is remembered as just not being of the same caliber as Bob Fosse or Michael Bennett.

This very detailed biography really champions Champion [sorry i couldn't help it]. It's a great story and covers Champions years as a dancer with wife and partner Marge Champion - they're days of dancing in nightclubs and eventually big flashy MGM musicals like Show Boat. I really loved Gilvey's reconstruction of the opening of Carnival.

If you like musical theater or film biographys this is a great read.

[Gary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dry.....dry.....dry....The book started off fine but the details of virtually every rehearsal the man conducted were too much. I ended up reading only the first sentence of a lot of paragraphs. Endless descriptions of musical numbers cut from shows I have never had the opportunity to see weren't very interesting. By the time I got to 42nd Street, a show I had seen I no longer cared.
By the end of the book you still don't feel like you got to know Gower very well. It was way to technical.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the better theater bios I've read, particularly in the descriptions of the actual process and product of the subject. If you want great descriptions of certain numbers for The Happy Time, Dolly, 42nd Street, etc., this is a good resource.