Broadway Legend Ann Reinking Has Died At 71
This news is sad for everyone, especially the people who swear the original 1970’s Broadway production of Chicago is the only Chicago that matters. Variety reports that Ann Reinking, dancer, choreographer, actor, and Tony winner, has died unexpectedly at the age of 71.
Ann’s sister-in-law Dahrla King confirmed the sad news to Variety, saying that Ann was visiting her brother in Washington state when she went to sleep and didn’t wake up.
“The world and our family have lost a vibrant, amazing talent and beautiful soul. Ann was the heart of our family and the life of the party. She was visiting our brother in Washington state when she went to sleep and never woke up. We will miss her more than we can say. Heaven has the best choreographer available now. I’m sure they are dancing up a storm up there! Annie, we will love and miss you always!!!”
Ann Reinking leaves behind her husband, sportswriter Peter Talbert, her son Christopher, and Peter’s four children from a previous marriage.
If you’re a theater person, then I don’t even have to tell you who Ann Reinking was. She was born in Seattle in 1949 and began her career as a dancer at 18 after moving to NYC and getting a job as a ballet dancer at the Radio City Music Hall, which truly sounds like the beginning of every Broadway musical theater dream. Her big break came a year later when she was cast in Cabaret. She showed up in musicals like Coco, Goodtime Charlie (which landed her first Tony Award nomination, for Best Actress in a Musical), and Pippin, where she was introduced to Bob Fosse.
Eventually, Ann became Bob’s protégée and muse, and eventual girlfriend, despite the fact that Bob was 22 years older than her and legally married to Gwen Verdon at the time. For the theater uneducated like me, this is where my exposure to Ann Reinking starts. Well, technically it was through the 1979 masterpiece fever dream All That Jazz. Ann played a fictionalized version of herself in the movie, which was written by Bob Fosse and starred Roy Scheider.
Ann and Bob were together from 1972 to about 1978, but it didn’t end that dramatically, and they continued to work together, like on the dance revue Dancin’, for which she received her second Tony nomination, for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. And it wasn’t that messy with Gwen Verdon, either. In 1977, she took over the role of Roxie Hart in Chicago from Liza Minnelli, who stepped in for Gwen Verdon for about a month, after Gwen had to leave to get surgery on her vocal cords. Ann Reinking was portrayed in FX’s Fosse/Verdon by Margaret Qualley.
In 1997, Ann won her first and only Tony Award for Best Choreography, for the 1996 Broadway revival of Chicago (Ann reprised her role as Roxie, with Bebe Neuwirth as Velma Kelly). In 1999, she was nominated for her fourth Tony for Best Director, for Fosse.
Ann also had a handful of screen credits to her name, like an appearance on The Cosby Show. She also played Daddy Warbucks’ secretary/future wife Grace Farrell in the 1982 film adaptation of Annie.
Plenty of theater legends and Ann’s peers have jumped online to pay tribute to Ann’s career:
So Sad💔 ,,,, RIP ANNIE. https://t.co/6Yrew14X2T
— Bernadette Peters (@OfficialBPeters) December 14, 2020
Thank you #AnnReinking, Broadway’s Finest, for your BRILLIANCE!!! Those incredible Legs. We will forever speak your name. 🙏🏼 pic.twitter.com/Fc9mlQUYEr
— Debbie Allen (@msdebbieallen) December 15, 2020
https://www.facebook.com/thechristopherdean/posts/10163958390135538
There are so many clips to end on (because the woman had a career), but I’m obviously going with Ann’s appearance in All That Jazz because literally every scene she was in was iconic. Also, Ann appeared at the 1985 Academy Awards, when the Oscars were still really leaning into the 80s performance weirdness, and did a choreographed dance to the Oscar-nominated song “Against All Odds.” It had a lot of people scratching their heads at the time because Ann – a dancer – was lip-syncing along with the song. But it RULES.
https://twitter.com/LesNesman5/status/1338866178513461255
Rest in peace, Ann Reinking.
Pic: Wenn.com