Tommy Tune, the legendary Broadway dancer, choreographer and director who won nine Tony awards, said he was "totally heartbroken and literally broken up" over the death of director Mike Nichols.
Tune, who was in the Twin Cities to headline a benefit for the Lundstrum Center for the Performing Arts, fell on the ice in downtown Minneapolis around lunchtime on Thursday.
The sidewalk spill happened on First Av. near his hotel. He attributed the fall, which caused a concussion, to his feelings of loss.
"I was down about Mike, bereft and walking around, and then I was literally down on the ground," he said. "A woman from Boston, who seemed like an angel, came and helped me. She said, you're bleeding, and she gave me her glove to stop the blood."
Tune was rushed to the hospital, where the wound around his left eye was sutured. The medical emergency led to the cancellation of a class and a few other things that Tune had planned for the afternoon.
But he was able to recover enough to still headline Thursday night's gala.
Tune and Nichols worked together on "My One and Only." The show had a very difficult birth.
"It was a complete flop in out-of-town tryouts in Boston," he said. "The producers had fired the director, Peter Sellars, and much of the creative team. And they had asked me to direct it if was gonna have any shot at Broadway. I couldn't see how I could do it as I was already starring in the show and choreographing it. So I asked Mike to come in and put some eyes on it. He agreed to do it for a few days, and then he stayed." Tune won two Tonys for his work on that production — best leading actor in a musical and best choreography — and the show ran for two years on Broadway before closing in spring 1985.
