Theatre Register

James Starbuck

Shows · James Starbuck

Choreographer 1912–1997 On stage 19431948

James Starbuck (March 13, 1912, Albuquerque, New Mexico – August 13, 1997, Beverly Hills, California) was an American choreographer, ballet dancer, musical theatre actor, and stage and television director. He studied modern dance with Martha Graham and ballet with Adolph Bolm, Edward Caton, Vera Nemtchinova, and Anatole Oboukhov. He was a principal dancer with first the San Francisco Opera Ballet from 1935-1938 and then the Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo from 1938-1944. He was notably the first American man to dance with the latter company. He portrayed roles in the original productions of several Broadway musicals, including both Freddy and Tito in Song of Norway (1944), Ivan Petrofski in Musi…

On stage 6 productions, 5 years

1943 The Merry Widow Majestic Theatre · Revival · directed by Felix Brentano 322 perf.
1944 Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo City Center · Revival · directed by Sergei J. Denham 27 perf.
1944 Song of Norway Imperial Theatre · Original · directed by Edwin Lester, Charles K. Freeman 860 perf.
1946 The Winter's Tale Cort Theatre · Revival · directed by B. Iden Payne 39 perf.
1947 Music in My Heart Adelphi Theatre · Original · directed by Hassard Short 124 perf.
1948 Sleepy Hollow St James Theatre · Original · directed by John O'Shaughnessy 12 perf.

Each row is a staging this name appears in the cast list of, read from the production record rather than from the person record. The person record names works instead, and a work cannot say which run somebody was in — that is how Elaine Stritch ends up filed under Show Boat 1927 when she was in the 1994 revival. No row here says what part was played, because no cast list records it.

Worked with more than once12 names

Pauline Goddard 2 productions
Olga Suarez 2 productions
Nina Popova 2 productions
Maria Tallchief 2 productions
Margaret Ritter 2 productions
Jean Handzlik 2 productions
Dorothy Etheridge 2 productions
Barbara Cole 2 productions
Audrey Dearden 2 productions
Alexandra Danilova 2 productions
Alexander Goudovitch 2 productions
Alan Banks 2 productions

Both names in the same cast list, more than once. It is not evidence of a partnership — a long-running company puts the same forty people together every night — but it is where one would start looking. 8 of these names are not links because we hold no record behind them; the name is set from the identifier and its punctuation may be wrong.

Also credited on1 work

Oh Captain!

These come off the person record, which names a work and not a production. So we can say this name is attached to the work and we cannot say which staging, or in what capacity. For a composer or a writer that is the whole career we hold; there is no cast list to find them in.

In the literature2 passages

  • Direction : “Staged” by Hassard Short (“scenes directed” by Mr. Robert Edwin Clark, Esq. [Bobby Clark]); Producer : Michael Todd; Choreography : James Starbuck; Scenery : Howard Bay; Costumes : Irene Sharaff; Lighting : Hassard Short; Musical Direction : Clay Warnickebooks/Dietz, Dan/Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals, The - Dan Dietz.txt
  • Direction : Jose Ferrer; Producers : Howard Merrill and Theatre Corporation of America; Choreography : James Starbuck; Scenery and Lighting : Jo Mielziner; Costumes : Miles White; Musical Direction : Jay Blacktonebooks/Dietz, Dan/Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals, The - Dan Dietz.txt

Passages naming this person, found by keyword across 178 books. A keyword match is not a biography, and a common name will pull in the wrong one.

What this page does not know

  • What this person played. No cast list we hold records a character against a performer.
  • Any portrait. 1,626 of 7,139 people have one, so this is the usual case rather than the exception.
  • Which of the credits above the roles on this record — choreographer — apply to. The roles sit on the person and never on a credit, so a director who also acted looks the same here as one who did not.

Something wrong here? Correct a field or report the problem. Every change is recorded in public under the contributor licence.