BILLING for a Broadway show is often bitterly contested, but most people who angle for a prominent spot in the Playbill are alive.Jerome Robbins isn’t, but his estate is locked in a battle with hotshot Hollywood wunderkind Sam Mendes over billing on the upcoming revival of “Gypsy,” starring Bernadette Peters.
Robbins, the great director and choreographer, staged the original Broadway production, which is considered one of his finest achievements.
But Mendes, director of the highly anticipated revival, is reluctant to acknowledge Robbins’ contributions, say production sources.
Lawyers for Robbins’ estate were rebuffed when they requested that Robbins be billed as “director and choreographer of the original Broadway production” – as he was on two previous Broadway revivals of “Gypsy.”
A source close to the Robbins estate says Mendes “wants to put his own stamp on the show and doesn’t want Jerry’s ghost hovering over him.”
A “Gypsy” production source says the estate is living in the past and does not realize that Robbins, as great as he was, does not mean that much to Broadway audiences today.
“In terms of marketing and advertising, we’re going to get a lot more mileage out of Sam Mendes than Jerome Robbins,” said the source.
“Gypsy” book writer Arthur Laurents entered the fray at one point to impress upon Mendes the significance of Robbins’ work on the show.
He told the young director that if he fiddled too much with the way Robbins structured the staging, “the whole thing would unravel,” says a source.
“He also told Sam that if he wanted to put his own stamp on the show, he should do it through Bernadette’s performance.”
But Mendes and his producers, Robert Fox and Ron Kastner, are standing their ground.
The most they’ll give Robbins credit for is “original choreographer” – only because they are using a couple of his dances.
Jerry Mitchell, whose credits include “Hairspray” and “The Full Monty,” is supplying the rest.
“We have total respect for Jerome Robbins, a giant of musical theater, and have agreed . . . on the appropriate billing for the new production,” the revival’s producers say.
Floria Laskey, the lawyer who oversees the Robbins estate, declined comment.
But sources say she has no choice but to accept the downgraded billing.
That’s because Robbins never held a copyright on “Gypsy,” as he did on his other shows – “West Side Story,” “On the Town,” “Peter Pan” and “Fiddler on the Roof.”
EN passant (as they might have said in “Amour”): Add Anthony Mackie, fresh from the hit movie “8 Mile,” to the cast of “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” He joins Whoopi Goldberg and Charles Dutton in the eagerly awaited revival . . The Shuberts will unveil their latest theater – the 499-seat Little Shubert Theater on West 42nd Street – Dec. 12 at noon. Tommy Tune is the first tenant, with his show “Tommy Tune Tonite.” . . . Check out my interview with A.R. Gurney, author of “The Fourth Wall,” on Theater Talk tonight at midnight on Channel 13.
