Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 17, 1992 TAG: 9202150239
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY CAMPBELL ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
CYD CHARISSE GETS HER CHANCE ON BROADWAY
Moviegoers of another generation remember Cyd Charisse as the brunette with the great legs hoofing it with Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly.On the nightclub circuit she was husband Tony Martin's partner in a traveling act.
In a career spanning more than 50 years, she also worked as a ballerina and an actress. What she hadn't done, until recently, was appear in a Broadway show.
This New Year's Eve, Cyd Charisse made her Broadway debut as a fading Russian ballerina, Elizaveta Grushinskaya, in "Grand Hotel, the Musical." It's playing at the Gershwin Theater.
"I've done about everything in show business except to play on Broadway," Charisse says. "I always hoped that I would one day. It's the World Series of show business. If anybody tells you they're not intimidated, they're lying.
"But the group working for [director-choreographer] Tommy Tune keeps that show sharp. You're in good hands. You feel protected and comfortable."
The hardest thing she has to do, she says, is sit on the floor and - in 12 seconds - lace up her toe shoes. She always hopes she has done it right because she then stands and goes up on pointe. If she has made a mistake, the audience will know. She'll probably be right back on the floor. So far she has remained upright.
"The first night was very exciting, very nervous and wonderful," she says. "It's a beautiful, brilliant show. You appreciate it more when you're in it awhile. It grows on you.
"Tony says, `You're really enjoying this, aren't you?' "
In 1989 Charisse danced in Janet Jackson's video "Alright." She has done theater, "Illya Darling," "Bell, Book and Candle," "Once More with Feeling." She was in "Charlie Girl" for eight months in London four years ago.
That's about the time singer Tony Martin decided to drop her dance numbers, which included backup dancers, from the nightclub act.
She and Martin have been married since 1948. She was married from 1939 to 1947 to her ballet teacher, Nico Charisse, and has two sons, Nico Charisse Jr. and Tony Martin Jr.
Born Tula Ellice Finklea in Amarillo, Texas, she got a nickname as a result of her little brother calling her Sid instead of Sis. MGM decreed that Cyd was a more elegant spelling.
At home in Los Angeles she has, through the years, continued to attend a daily ballet class conducted by a Russian ballerina. "If I'm not in shape, I'm not happy and I don't feel well," she says. "I go at 9 in the morning. It's part of my life, always has been."
The ballet classes also have preserved her slim figure and lovely legs.
The first time she danced in a movie with Fred Astaire she danced around him, not with him, in "Ziegfeld Follies" in 1945. She danced with him only in "The Band Wagon" and "Silk Stockings," but Astaire told reporters she was his favorite dancing partner.
"He felt `Band Wagon' was the best picture he ever did," Charisse says. "I like to think so, too, because I was in it with him. There was a lovely number we did together that was one of his favorites, `Dancing in the Dark,' lovely, simple and beautiful."
Gene Kelly was her partner in "Singin' in the Rain," "Invitation to the Dance,' "Brigadoon" and "It's Always Fair Weather."
She missed being in "An American in Paris" with Kelly because she was pregnant and was not in "Easter Parade" with Astaire because she broke a leg. "Gene Kelly was doing `Les Girls' and he wanted me to be in it," she says, "but at the same time Fred Astaire was making `Silk Stockings.' " Both had Cole Porter songs. She decided to go with "Silk Stockings."
Her career began with the Ballet Russe. "I traveled with them a short time," she recalls. "My father suffered a stroke. They put me on a plane and flew me back to see my father. He passed away. When they came through California, they picked me up again.
"I worked with them across the country and in London. We were going to go into Berlin. They gave us two weeks vacation and I went to Paris and got married. I was 16; it was 1939. We got word we had to leave immediately. Poland had been invaded by Hitler. We disbanded and came back home."