It Takes Two -- Broadway Superstars Tommy Tune And Sandy Duncan Share The Stage In A Musical Revue

Striding into an upscale Seattle hotel restaurant one recent afternoon, the Broadway song-and-dance veterans Tommy Tune and Sandy Duncan make a strikingly asymmetrical couple.

At 6-foot-6 1/2-inches, he's a redwood tree to her 5-foot-4 1/2-inch bonsai pine. He's dark-haired and bronze-tanned; she's pale and blond. He's a cool drink of water garbed in black leather; she's a sprite in fuzzy sweater and wire-rimmed specs.

But when the two dance together, Tune noted, something mysterious happens "that makes Sandy and me seem very well-suited. It's amazing, because we're the most unlikely pair. But we suddenly seem to be in proportion. Maybe it's because our bodies are built the same way - both short-waisted, and chiefly legs."

Those legs first danced on the same stage back in Tyler, Texas, when Duncan was a 12-year old dance student and Tune was (briefly) her 19-year old partner.

"Didn't we dance on the back of a truck once?" Duncan queries Tune, over coffee.

"Yes!" Tune exclaims, in his honeyed Houston drawl. "It was that number we did for the Watermelon Festival. We had on cowboy boots and hats, little vests . . ."

Minus the truck, the vests and the watermelons, the legs of Tune and Duncan are on graceful display once again at the 5th Avenue Theatre, in "Two for the Show," a revue that is their first joint effort since co-starring on Broadway in "My One and Only" in the 1980s.

"Two for the Show," as any 5th Avenue subscriber can inform you, is something of an impromptu duet. Originally scheduled at the 5th Avenue for December was a full-blown, Broadway-bound musical: "Easter Parade," a new, live version based on the 1948 movie and its popular songs by Irving Berlin.

Tune and Duncan were all set to play a pair of aspiring vaudevillians, roles originated on film by Fred Astaire and Judy Garland.

So whither "Easter Parade"?

"Here's the bottom line," confided Tune, at 59 a still-youthful Broadway legend. "We did workshops in New York and Australia, and what we had so far was pretty miraculous. But the daughters of Irving Berlin felt we needed to fix the book."

Why? "They objected to the language, which they didn't think was in period. But we'd been very careful to match it to Berlin's songs. His lyrics had a popular brashness. And we were playing vaudevillians, so we didn't want to be talking hoity-toity."

According to Tune, the Berlin sisters (who control the rights to their father's songs) insisted that noted librettist Peter Stone revamp the book Phil Osterman had already crafted for the show. But Stone had a prior job to finish first: reworking another Berlin musical, "Annie Get Your Gun," for an upcoming Broadway revival with Bernadette Peters.

Ironically, once "Easter Parade" was put on hold, the 5th Avenue tried to book "Annie Get Your Gun." But a deal wasn't struck, so 5th Avenue director Frank M. Young asked Tune and Duncan to assemble a variety-style show.

What 5th Avenue patrons will get in "Two for the Show" is really a three-part show with a cast of 20-plus. One segment stars Tune, the agile dancer and vocal smoothie, in an act he's polished in nightclubs and symphony dates that also features the vocal-instrumental trio, The Rhythm Kings.

"My act is mostly songs my parents liked," Tune explains, "tunes by Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin. My parents loved to ballroom dance together, and our real name was Tune, so there was always a lot of singing and dancing at our place when I was growing up."

Duncan's act is newer and "so different," she reports. "Tommy's image is sophisticated, polished. I'm just all over the place because that's who I am - a little free-wheely."

Joining Duncan onstage for a round of musical numbers will be her husband, dancer-choreographer Don Correia, and a cohort, Guy Stroman. They devised the act about a year and a half ago, so Duncan and Correia could go off on shorter work jaunts and spend more time at home in New York with their teenage sons, Jeffrey and Michael.

But the "Two for the Show" finale may be the show's prime bait: Tune and Duncan a deux in a medley of numbers from "Easter Parade," backed by a chorus of 16 singers and dancers.

"The material was already choreographed for the workshop, but we've just spent a couple of weeks putting it back together in an artful way," explains Tune.

Other show biz pros were also called in to lend a hand - including orchestrator Peter Matz and lighting designer David Neville.

But is the full-blown "Easter Parade" musical still on tap?

Tune nods yes: "This just allows us to take our time, and get it right."

Duncan isn't so sure. "Tommy and I are committed to working together. But in this business, you just throw a bunch of balloons in the air and hope one flies."

Don't bet the ranch on when "Easter Parade" will re-emerge. It won't happen for at least a year; its stars will be occupied elsewhere. Duncan soon steps into the role of the slinky murderess Roxie, in Broadway's "Chicago." And Tune will spend a year headlining at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas.

But Tune, who hasn't had a Broadway hit since directing "The Will Rogers Follies" back in 1991, is overdue for one.

His Midas touch with musicals dimmed after the sequel to "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" that he staged flopped. And a few years ago, Tune broke his leg during a try-out of "Stage Door Charley," ending the show's tour and future prospects.

One of the few great Broadway director-choreographers with clout left, Tune has focused recently on his solo act, a new album ("Slow Dancin' "), and his folksy (and unrevealing) memoir, "Footnotes."

But the Great White Way still beckons. "There's some very inferior work on Broadway right now," Tune asserts. "I don't want to be an old fogy and complain, but some of it is just unacceptable.

"With `Easter Parade,' Sandy and I wanted to make a personable show that gets the audience involved with what's going to happen to the characters. That's what's missing now from all those Broadway pageants." ------------------------------- GUIDE TO THE STARS

"Two for the Show," a revue with Tommy Tune and Sandy Duncan, previews tonight and opens tomorrowat 8 p.m. It plays Tuesday-Sunday through Dec. 20 at the 5th Avenue Theatre, Seattle; $19-$55, 206-292-ARTS.

TOMMY TUNE

Tommy Tune is the only artist to win Tony Awards (nine of them) for Broadway excellence in four different categories: as a director, choreographer and for supporting and starring roles in musical productions.

Here are some selected Tommy Tune career highlights:

1973 - "Seesaw" (Won Tony Award for best featured actor in a musical)

1979 - "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" - (Tony Award for best choreography)

1980 - "Nine" - (Tony Award for best direction of a musical)

1981 - "A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine" (Tune directed and choreographed)

1983 -"My One and Only" (Tony Awards for best choreography and best actor)

1991 - "The Will Rogers Follies" (Tony Awards for best choreography and best direction")

1991 - Starred in a touring production of "Bye Bye Birdie" with Ann Reinking, which played Seattle's Paramount Theatre

SANDY DUNCAN

Known for her perky persona on various TV series ("Funny Face," "The Hogan Family"), Sandy Duncan is also a confirmed Broadway baby, whose list of musical-theater credits is lengthy.

She starred in Broadway mountings of "The Boyfriend" and "Canterbury Tales" (both earned her Tony Award nominations and other citations), and flew through a successful revival of "Peter Pan," a Radio City Music Hall extravaganza, and a stint as the female lead opposite Tommy Tune in "My One and Only."

Duncan's recent film work includes the TV movies "My Boyfriend's Back" and the upcoming "Interstate 880."