Ann Reinking, the Tony Award-winning choreographer, actress and Bob Fosse collaborator who helped spread a cool, muscular hybrid of jazz and burlesque movement to Broadway and beyond, has died. She was 71.
Reinking died Saturday while visiting family in Seattle, said her manager, Lee Gross.
Tributes poured in from the Broadway community, including from Tony Yazbeck, who called her "an absolute inspiration" and Leslie Odom, Jr., who thanked Reinking for being a mentor: "She honored the calling for real. RIP to a legend." Billy Eichner said she was "one of the most mesmerizing people I've ever seen on stage. A singular genius."
Trained as a ballet dancer, Reinking was known for her bold style of dance epitomized by her work in the revival of the musical "Chicago," complete with net stockings, chair dancing and plenty of pelvic thrusts. Reinking co-starred as Roxie Hart along with Bebe Neuwirth's Velma, and created the choreography "in the style of Bob Fosse," the show's original director and choreographer who died in 1987. She and Fosse — who once called her "one of the finest dancers in the jazz-modern idiom" — worked together for 15 years. Her work on "Chicago" earned her a 1997 Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards. Reinking replicated its choreography in productions throughout the world.
Highwomen win Americana Honors
The Highwomen won three awards, including album, song and duo/group of the year, at the Americana Honors and Awards. The late John Prine was given artist of the year honors. Prine, who died in April due to complications from COVID-19, was a titan among the Americana music community, having won artist of the year three times previously and received a lifetime achievement award in 2003. The Highwomen, a supergroup made up of Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby, Maren Morris and Amanda Shires, won for their self-titled debut record and song of the year for "Crowded Table," which was written by Carlile, Hemby and Lori McKenna. Black Pumas, a rock band based out of Texas, won emerging act of the year. The band is also nominated for three Grammys this year.
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Arbitration: A federal appeals court ruled that a lawsuit filed by the Michael Jackson estate over the HBO documentary "Leaving Neverland," about two of the late pop star's sex abuse accusers, can go forward in private arbitration. Unless there are further appeals, the case will go to a private arbitrator, which the Jackson estate argued was required by the 1992 contract at the center of the lawsuit. Jackson's estate and family have said the documentary's allegations are false.
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