Diva/Mensch pair for Dec 3, 2025

I'm starting a new long-term series today - - I've gone through the Oscars and the Grammys, next up is the Tonys. I hope you enjoy it.

I'll start with the very first year, 1947. There were two winners for Best Choreography:

Diva: Michael Kidd, Finian's Rainbow

Mensch: Agnes de Mille, Brigadoon

Kidd's choreography was vigorous, athletic, showy, exciting. De Mille's had elements of all of those but it was rooted in the storytelling, the supported the show rather than became a show of itself.

I couldn't find a clip of Kidd's work in Finian's Rainbow so I'll give a great clip from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

Similarly we have no YouTube-able record of de Mille's dances for Brigadoon so I'll steal from Oklahoma. Here's de Mille explaining the origins of the ballet.

And this is the finale of the sequence in the movie.