Theater News

Choreographer and Performer Margery Beddow Dies in New York City

Margery Beddow
Margery Beddow

Broadway veteran Margery Beddow died on Sunday, January 3 at her home in New York City.

Beddow began her career as a Prima Ballerina of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. On Broadway, she was one of Bob Fosse’s dancers and appeared in such Fosse-choreographed shows as Redhead and Little Me. She was also the author of Bob Fosse’s Broadway, now in it’s fourth printing.

Other Broadway performing credits included Ulysses in Night Town, The Conquering Hero, and Two on the Aisle. She danced in the original Mel Brooks movie The Producers and also in Brooks’ musical film version, adapted from the Broadway musical of the same name.

Her choreography credits included the Broadway shows Wind in the Willows and Dear Oscar, and touring companies of Can-Can, Pajama Game, The Olympiad, Damn Yankees, and the Cole Porter revue Cole. Most recently, in New York, she directed and staged an installment of Broadway By the Year at Town Hall and Noel Coward and His Ladies for Lyrics and Lyricists. In December of 2009, Beddow received the Legacy Award for Lifetime Achievement from Dancers Over Forty.

Beddow is survived by her daughter, Pamela Jeanette Saunders, nieces Laura Parry and Margery Parry Colucci, and her sons A.J. and Chris Colucci, nephews David and Daniel Parry and his sons Joseph, Samuel and Austin.

In lieu of flowers, it is requested that donations be sent to Dancers Over Forty at P.O. Box 237098, New York, New York, 10023.