With nine Tonys to his credit and a secure niche in the Theater Hall of Fame, master showman Tommy Tune has long since proved his mettle as a stellar dancer, director and choreographer.
Now, however, the perennially popular performer is putting his considerable talents to the test once again in a complicated role that he considers to be the best and toughest of his career. Tune stars as an aging street musician - or busker - in the new Broadway-bound musical "Busker Alley." The 56-year-old performer, best known for bright, tap-happy musicals, had to acquire a cockney accent and learn to play the ukelele to play the part, which he called "my first grown-up role.""I've always played younger because I look younger," Tune said whimsically. "In this role I don't have to lop off a decade or two; I can use all of my life experience."
Tune talked about his challenging new role by telephone from his Manhattan penthouse, his Yorki terrier Opie barking in the background.
The showman and the "Busker Alley" company were back in rehearsals in New York, after four months on the road, to "doctor, restructure and fine-tune" the show, which opens on Broadway Nov. 16 at the St. James Theater. Previews start Oct. 19.
"This is really complicated work," said Tune, sounding typically energetic and wide awake at 9 a.m. "But it is such a heartful show. If we can just get it focused . . . if we can just make it a hit."
The setting for "Busker Alley" is the West End theater district of pre-World War II London. Tune's character plays for tuppence to the crowds queued up outside the tony theaters. But his easy-going lifestyle is shattered when his much younger protege and lover -played by dynamic newcomer Darcie Roberts - deserts him for a legitimate stage career.
"Busker Alley" - this is the show's third and final title - is directed and choreographed by Tune's protege Jeff Calhoun with a book by A.J. Carothers and delightful music and lyrics by brothers Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman of "Mary Poppins" fame.
While Tune and Roberts have received consistently high marks from critics during the extended pre-Broadway tour, the overall show has taken a bit of a drubbing.
"These days, with so few new shows coming along, people forget that you don't start out with a perfect show," Tune pointed out. "You have to keep working and working toward perfection. Maybe you don't achieve that, but hopefully you create something fulfilling."
Tune's ambitions for "Busker Alley" go beyond his personal role. He wants the show to introduce new material to Broadway's dwindling supply of original musicals.
"I keep getting offers to do revivals, but I don't think I should spend my precious time on this planet redoing something," Tune said. "I feel very strongly that I should do new shows so there will be something to revive in the future."
Tune said "Busker Alley" is in the tradition of the original American-style book musical.
"I'm not doing an opera here," he said in an obvious reference to the British pop operas of Andrew Lloyd Webber. "Those are wonderful shows, but that's not what I'm doing. And of course the element of dance is missing in those shows."
Tune is an amazingly graceful 6-foot 6-inch-tall Texas-born showman with a likeable, "gee whiz" personality who punctuates his conversation with expressions like "boy howdy" and "wow."
Born in Wichita Falls and reared in Houston, Thomas James Tune (yes, that's his real name) began taking tap, tumbling and ballet lessons at age 5. At the University of Texas in Austin, where he majored in drama, Tune decided his life would be fulfilled if he could dance in a Broadway chorus.
He got that opportunity in 1965 when he landed a part in "Baker Street," a musical about the exploits of Sherlock Holmes. In 1967, he danced in the chorus of "A Joyful Noise," and in 1968 he landed a solo number as a dancing waiter in "How Now Dow Jones."
Tune spent some years in Hollywood where, among other roles, he played Ambrose Kemper in the film version of "Hello Dolly!" (1969) and co-starred with Twiggy, the attenuated model, in the MGM musical "The Boy Friend" (1971).
But it was back on Broadway in the early 1970s where Tune began to build his reputation as the actor, singer, dancer, choreographer and director who could add sparkle to the most lackluster show.
He won the first of his unprecedented nine Tonys in 1973 for his exuberant dancing in Michael Bennett's "Seesaw." "The Will Rogers Follies" brought Tune his eighth and ninth Tony awards for best choreography and direction of a musical in 1991.
Tune dismisses the predictions of Broadway's demise, which crop up periodically.
"Don't tell me the lights are dimming," he said. "I can't be bothered with that cynicism. I just got here. I'm just getting started. I have so much more to do."