#tbt: Tommy Tune's 1982 Advice for Performers (That's Still True Today)

In the September 1982 issue of Dance Magazine, we reported on Tommy Tune’s unexpected role change from dancer to director. The then 43-year-old Tune confessed his struggle to make a living as a performer after his claim-to-fame performance in Seesaw (1973), and how his shift to directing got him back on his feet. His 1982 musical Nine won five Tony Awards and was one of the hottest Broadway shows of the ’80s. Though Tune admitted that he would always choose performing over directing, he added, “We should know that it’s not always a straight line from here to there…it’s the squiggles in life that make it interesting. Don’t you think?” Tune received a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre in 2015 and is touring with Chita Rivera in Chita and Tune: Just in Time, beginning this month.