Hullabaloo Dancers 01 Introduction

Meet the dancers of Hullabaloo! If anyone can identify any of the dancers I missed, please let me know. Popular song and dance used to be so much fun. It seems like most of what we see now is about how seriously great someone can sing, or how seriously sexy they look when they dance, or how seriously little they are wearing. I kinda miss just having fun. I've been researching the life of Broadway legend Michael Bennett for an upcoming project, and wanted to know more about the time in 1965/1966 when he danced on the variety show, Hullabaloo. I wasn't happy with the limited footage of the show on youtube, since it mostly focuses on the big name musical acts (The Supremes, The Rolling Stones, etc) that appeared on the show. So, I bought the available 44 episodes on DVD from a guy on eBay, and spent the past month editing them all down to six short videos (with a combined running time of about one hour.) The primary focus of these videos is the dancers of the show. The quality of the footage is not ideal – although the series was shot in color, most of what is left was saved on black and white and is not great. Even so, it's still entirely engaging to watch! Although Michael Bennett was the priority, I ended up broadening my scope to all the dancers of the show – they were such a diverse and talented group and it seemed like they deserved it! Plus, as you will see, it's hard to not fall in love with Donna McKechnie all over again when you watch her dance her way through these videos! The more time I spent on this project, the more I began to appreciate how cool – and dare I say, sophisticated - this show actually was. From the bold and inventive choreography of David Winters, the always impressive arrangements and conducting by Peter Matz, the wonderful minimalist/pop art set design of Gene McAvoy, the inventive direction by Bill Davis, and the ahead-of-its-time inclusivity of producer Gary Smith., Hullabaloo is a great and groovy chapter in entertainment history. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Hullabaloo was a tv variety show that ran for two seasons from January 1965 to April of 1966, and was considered a sophisticated rival to “Shindig." The show was taped mostly in New York (NBC Brooklyn and 8H at Rockefeller Center) as well as NBC Burbank. Hullabaloo aired in color, but was archived mostly in black and white. Hullabaloo Dancers include: APRIL NEVINS BARBARA ALSTON BARBARA MONTE CHARLENE MELL DONNA MCKECHNIE GENE CASTLE LADA EDMUND JR MICHAEL BENNETT MIGUEL GODREAU PATRICK ADIARTE SHEILA FORBES SUZANNE CHARNEY THOMAS CAHILL Produced by GARY SMITH Music arranged and conducted by PETER MATZ Directed by BILL DAVIS Choreographed by DAVID WINTERS Assistant Choreographer JAIMIE ROGERS Sets Designed by GENE MCAVOY Costumes Designed by JOHN BOXER

Added 5 Aug 2026