THE LULLABY OF BROADWAY! A DANCE HALL CABARET

Dean Diggins photo by: David Murray ClearEye Photo

Celebrated local performers join forces to create an enchanting evening of song and dance.

Kittery, Maine - On Saturday Nov. 8 at 7:30pm and Sunday Nov. 9 at 2pm The Dance Hall will present a special production The Lullaby of Broadway! A Dance Hall Cabaret featuring celebrated local performers Linette Miles and Steve Small with national treasure Dean Diggins. After receiving a standing ovation as an act in a recent Vaudeville show at the Hall, The Lullaby of Broadway, with Linette Miles accompanied by Dean Diggins, has been expanded into a full show, with the addition of performer Steve Small.  

"Linette and Dean's performance was so enchanting and the audience was so moved that I urged them to create a full length show." said Dance Hall director Drika Overton.

Both Miles and Small are multi-talented singers actors, dancers, and directors who have been seen in
many productions, including shows at Hackmatack Playhouse in Berwick, ME and Rochester Opera House.  With Dean Diggins as emcee and pianist, Miles and Small present songs from well-known Broadway shows tied together by a story with surprising twists.

Linette Miles, originally from Plaistow, NH, and a UNH graduate, has performed all over the US, Canada, Europe and the high seas. Recent roles include Fantine in Les Miserables, Diana in Next to Normal, and Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors.

Steve Small has been performing in the Seacoast for over 30 years. He just finished working at Hackmatack Playhouse as Sir Robin in SPAMALOT.

Dean Diggins, pianist, painter, author and the elegant dancer who combined a fastidious style of rhythm tap with ballet, was born in Hampton, Iowa, the son of a music teacher.  He began dance lessons at an early age, and by his teenaged years was giving dance lessons and operating two dance studios. During a stint in the army,jdcxcvbj`uuj9[ he performed for Special Services. After his discharge, he moved to Chicago to study at the prestigious Stone-Camryn School of Ballet. From Chicago he moved to New York to study with the tap classicist Paul Draper. In 1957, Diggins formed the Mattison Trio with Guy Tanno and Dorothy Matthews, a balletic tap ensemble; over the next ten years, the group performed regularly on television, and in nightclubs and summer theaters.
In the late 1960s, Diggins made a career change, earning a doctorate in Psychology, later teaching at Brooklyn College. Though he retired from teaching to Kittery, Maine, he did not retire from dancing. In 1989 he performed Morton Gould’s Concerto for Tap Dancer and Orchestra at the Houston Symphony’s 75th Anniversary Concert.  He continued to perform, broadening his repertoire by applying balletic tap choreography to classical works by Bach, Handel, Haydn and others. He also wrote a tap dance manual for teachers titled Tap Technique: Graded Exercises from Beginning to Advanced Levels (1988), which ended with exercises taught to him by his mentor, Paul Draper.

In Kittery, Maine, Diggins became an active member of the tap scene, working with Drika Overton on various projects that included Clara’s Dream, a jazz tap version of the Nutcracker ballet. He has participated annually in the Portsmouth Percussive Dance Festival, performing with such dancers as Josh Hilberman, Gay Nardone, and Brenda Bufalino.

In 2005, Diggins received the Tapestry Award for Life Achievement in Tap at the National Heritage Museum in Lexington,  Massachusetts. An Inventory of Dean Diggins Papers, 1956-1995, containing material on Diggins’s career as a dancer and teacher, class notes while studying with Paul Draper, clippings, photographs, programs, scrapbooks, and choreographic notes for tap routines composed to classical music are in Special Collections Division of the Newberry Library in Chicago, Illinois. In 2013 he was recognized Hoofer Award from the American Tap Dance Foundation.

Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door and can be purchased at www.thedancehallkittery.org and brownpapertickets.com.