Dancing with the SENIOR Stars – Gotta Dance!
Who would pay money to see old ladies’ legs? That was the question posed by a skeptical critic when producer Riff Markowitz started “The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies” 16 years ago. The answer, as it turns out, is over two and a half million people from around the world!
“Gotta Dance!” is the title of the Follies sixteenth birthday edition, which runs until May 20, 2007. The Las Vegas-style extravaganza is a celebration of the music, dance, and comedy of the 30s and 40s, starring performers who have actually lived it! Guest starring in this edition of the Follies will be three legendary lady singers: Gogi Grant, Gloria Loring, and Mimi Hines.
Audiences are wowed by the Follies’ legendary Long-Legged Lovelies and Dapper Dandies, who, this season, range in age from 57 to 82! Their talent and showmanship prove that biological age is irrelevant when it comes to crowd-pleasing entertainment. Singers & dancers must be over 55 to audition, unlike Hollywood, where it seems they have to be under 25!
The music, choreography, and costumes are sensational. One of the most charming
segments is when the dancers—first the men, then the chorus girls—wearing magnificent sequined costumes with 10-foot-high feathered headdresses, introduce themselves and tell their ages! It’s endearing to “get to know them” and then watch in amazement as they dance gloriously across the stage. Collectively, the cast of 20 has quite an impressive background; they’ve danced on Broadway, in Paris and Tokyo; on stage, in television and movies; in the Folies Bergere, June Taylor Dancers, and Alvin Alley; and from 1924-2006!
Hank Brunjes, 74, trained at New York’s High School of Performing Arts, and appeared in the original Broadway productions of “West Side Story,” “Mame,” and “Chicago.”
Dick France, 77, was in the Mary Martin touring company of “Annie Get Your Gun” in 1948, and on Broadway with Shirley Jones in “Oklahoma!” He returns to the Follies for his fourth season after an absence of a year. Dick says, “I hated to miss the Follies last season, but quadruple coronary by-pass surgery got in the way… but now, I’m back!”
Glenda Guilfoyle, 73, is a single mother of seven children and grandmother of eight. She started dancing professionally at age 17 as a Radio City Music Hall Rockette.
Now in her eleventh season, the Follies’ oldest performer, Dorothy Kloss, is 82. She began dancing at three and throughout her career, starred in shows with a young Bob Fosse, Eddie Duchin, Liberace, Howard Keel, Mel Torme, and Frankie Lane.
But just because the performers are seniors, don’t think they “take it easy.” They do shows twice a day, 5 nights a week! And this is no laid-back, slow-paced show! There are three high-energy acts of fabulously costumed splendid singing and dancing, ending with a rousing patriotic finale. Interspersed between music numbers are various guest headliners. The show is produced and emceed by impresario Riff Markowitz, who recounts witty jokes and social commentary with a suave, charismatic style.
The Fabulous Palm Spring Follies is performed at the historic Plaza Theatre in downtown
Palm Springs. Built in 1936, the former movie theater was home to Bob Hope radio broadcasts, The Jack Benny Radio Show and live performances by Frank Sinatra and Gordon McCrae. Today you can go there and spend a marvelous evening of pure fun and enjoyment that will leave you smiling for days. So no matter how old—or young—you are, kick up your heels and dance your way over!
Fabulous Palm Springs Follies
128 South Palm Canyon Drive
Palm Springs, CA 92262
760-327-0225
www.psfollies.com
Written by Marilyn Anderson
