- Slaughter on Tenth Avenue
Slaughter on Tenth Avenue is a ballet with music by
Richard Rodgers and choreography byGeorge Balanchine . It occurs near the end ofRodgers and Hart 's1936 Broadwaymusical comedy "On Your Toes ". "Slaughter" is the story of ahoofer who falls in love with adance hall girl who is then shot and killed by her jealous boyfriend. The hoofer then shoots the boyfriend.The ballet is integrated into the plot of the musical by the device of having two gangsters watching it from box seats in the theatre in which it is staged. They have orders to shoot the leading dancer (played by
Ray Bolger in the original production). The dancer, who has been warned just in time, evades them by suddenly dancing at full speed even after the ballet actually ends, and finally two police officers enter and arrest the gangsters."Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" was danced by
Ray Bolger andTamara Geva in the original stage production of "On Your Toes", and byEddie Albert andVera Zorina in the film version. In "Words and Music", the 1948Technicolor film biography of Rodgers and Hart, the ballet was danced byGene Kelly andVera-Ellen , with a somewhat revised storyline and new choreography by Kelly."Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" entered the repertoire of The
New York City Ballet in 1968, first danced bySuzanne Farrell and Arthur Mitchell. [ [http://www.nycballet.com/company/rep.html?rep=166 Repertory Index - New York City Ballet ] ]Adaptations
One of
The Ventures ' greatest hits was theirinstrumental version of "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue", which was based on the score of the ballet. It was released in 1964.The British instrumental pop group
The Shadows released their version in November 1969 (b/w "Midnight Cowboy " (John Barry) Columbia DB8628)."Synergy", the 1975 album by synthesizer pioneer
Larry Fast , featured the song.James Last recorded the song on his 1975 album Well Kept Secret, featuring Larry Carlton on lead guitar.
Mick Ronson chose the song as title track to his debut solo recording Slaughter on 10th Avenue. Ronson was lead guitarist of David Bowie's legendary band, "The Spiders From Mars", and knew and liked the music from his childhood piano training. Ronson continued to play the song live the rest of his career.Film
"Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" is also the title of a
1957 film noir starringRichard Egan ,Jan Sterling andDan Duryea . The story had nothing to do with the ballet, butRichard Rodgers 's music for it was featured in the film.Notes
External links
* [http://www.nycballet.com NYCB website]
* [http://www.balanchine.com George Balanchine Trust website]
* [http://www.balanchine.org George Balanchine Foundation website]
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