Frank DiFilia Interview


*Remembering Michael Bennett*
		MICHAEL BENNETT – HIS BACKGROUND AND SOME SHARED MEMORIES By Merete Muenter with Frank DiFilia Before moving to New York City, Michael Bennett, born April 8, 1943, to parents Salvatore and Helen DiFiglia, spent his childhood growing up in Buffalo, New York. His family background was a combination of Russian/German/Jewish on his mother’s side, and Sicilian on his father’s side. His family had a house on East Delevan Avenue and his grandparents lived downstairs. Michael’s grandfather also had his shoemaker shop in their backyard. Back then, Michael was known simply as Mickey DiFiglia. Michael’s brother, Frank, shared some family facts and memories with me for this webpage. As early as the age of two, Michael would dance to the radio in his family’s home. His aunt noticed his talent and got him enrolled in weekly dance classes. As he grew older, he studied diligently with numerous teachers in the Buffalo area, including Lillian D’Agostino, Beverly Fletcher, and Marie Flynn.

	Sketch © Sam Norkin Studios
Frank: “A Miss Lillian also taught us both when I was 4 or 5, I think…the recitals were held at Kleinhan’s Music Hall.” Michael’s constant training resulted in his ability to earn extra money by performing at Italian weddings for relatives. His parents took him to movies and theaters to expose him to dancers and choreographers like Agnes DeMille, Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse, Michael Kidd and Gwen Verdon. He held a real admiration for Fred Astaire, and particularly Gene Kelly, and he tried emulating their styles as well as developing his own. Michael was also heavily influenced by TV Variety shows like Ed Sullivan, and as a teenager, he danced in a local TV show called “TV Party Time”. Even as a child, he knew he wanted to be a choreographer. He used to pretend to stage musicals by using marbles on the floor as dancers! Frank: “Yes, he did use marbles to plot out patterns for dancers. They were my marbles! And boy was he good at moving dancers in patterns across the stage.” Michael formed his own dance company in high school, and he also staged and choreographed the high school musicals. During the summer months, he would study dance in New York City with illustrious teachers like Matt Mattox. Eventually, he became an apprentice at Buffalo’s Melody Fair Theater, and was cast as “Baby John” in one of the first stock productions of *West Side Story. This was the show that really got his career rolling. It was his first professional dancing job, and it also confirmed Michael’s determination to become a director and choreographer. Not only did he wind up performing in West Side Story* at Melody Fair, where he was previously an apprentice, but he was also offered the European Tour at the tender age of 17. He dropped out of high school to accept the job and he never looked back. It was after the completion of this tour that Michael settled in New York City. He felt his last name was too ethnic, so he changed it from DiFiglia to Bennett. There is a notion that Michael took the name of “Bennett” from Bennett High School in Buffalo. He attended classes there for two years as a teenager. However, Frank informed me of the true source of his professional last name. Frank: “Here’s the question that I can answer and hopefully finally set the record straight. When Michael was born, he was named Michael Bennett DiFiglia. Bennett was a variation on the Hebrew name Benzion, my mother’s father’s first name, who had died a few years before. Mother says she felt that this child was special and would need another name to use as his last name in the future. Interesting, huh! That was a time when people in the theater and movies didn’t use ethnic names. Was she having some kind of precognition of the future, or was it something that she wished would happen? Maybe both. Michael did attend Hutchinson Central Technical School for two years, because Mom wanted him to not just be involved with dancing, and he showed some interest in architecture. All he did there was put on two great variety shows, and his grades suffered, so he transferred to Bennett High for his junior and senior years.” When Michael moved to New York, he began his career by teaching dance classes at the June Taylor Studios, and hitting auditions as often as he could. It wasn’t long before he was cast in the ensemble of his first Broadway show called *Subways Are For Sleeping, directed and choreographed by Michael Kidd. The stage manager for Subways,* Joe Calvan, was also the stage manager for the *West Side Story* tour that Michael had just completed. When Kidd fired a chorus dancer, Joe Calvan recommended Michael Bennett immediately. *Subways Are For Sleeping* was Bennett’s Broadway debut. It opened in December 1961. This marked the beginning of Michael’s life and contributions to Broadway Theater history… Sources: A great debt of thanks to Frank DiFilia, Michael’s brother “A Chorus Line and the Musicals of Michael Bennett”, by Ken Mandelbaum Many thanks to Mrs. Joyce Irving, from the Joyce Irving School of Dance in Williamsville, New York