Gene Kelly’s joyful on-screen dancing comes to Seattle’s Benaroya Hall

When we think of Gene Kelly, we think of joy. Specifically, of his trademark performance of “Singin’ in the Rain” in the 1952 movie of the same title, an endlessly rewatchable expression of happiness in song-and-dance form. You could never tire of seeing the impossible lightness with which he leaps onto a lamppost, the way his tap steps seem to float on the water, how his irresistible smile brings sunshine to a scene drenched in gray.

This Friday through Sunday at Benaroya Hall, we can watch Kelly in “Singin’ in the Rain,” and numerous other numbers from his film and television career, in a different and remarkable way: with live musical accompaniment. “Gene Kelly: A Life in Music,” hosted by Kelly’s widow Patricia Ward Kelly, will feature 18 clips, ranging from well-known classics to more obscure performances, with Seattle Symphony playing the music of George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Hoagy Carmichael, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, Andre Previn and other popular midcentury composers. Neil Thomson, principal conductor and artistic director of the Orquestra Filarmônica de Goiás, Brazil, will conduct.

“It’s a lovely blend of ballads and really fun dynamic jazz,” said Ward Kelly in a phone interview earlier this month. “I think people will come away with a better understanding of Gene.” (The dance legend’s third wife, she met him in the mid-1980s when working as a writer for a television special he was hosting. They were married from 1990 until his death in 1996.) She noted that while we tend to think of Gene Kelly as primarily a dancer, he was also a choreographer and frequently a director. “That’s how he really truly wanted to be remembered — not as a performer, but as the guy behind the camera, and the guy who created what you’re seeing.”  

Some of the numbers shown in “Gene Kelly: A Life in Music,” such as the glorious ballet from “An American in Paris,” will demonstrate how Kelly changed the look of American dance in film. “It reminds people how far ahead of his time he was,” Ward Kelly said. “He created a particularly American style of dance, and an American costume as well — you didn’t see people dancing in khaki pants and T-shirts and loafers before that. He was determined to make the dance something that was for the American male: How does the American male move, how does the American male dress when he dances? He really changed things, and it’s kind of nice to be able to remind people of that.”

It’s been a years-in-the-making project for Ward Kelly, who had to commission new musical arrangements mirroring the originals — MGM, she said, destroyed its musical archives decades ago, which meant the original arrangements were lost and had to be recreated from recordings. “Gene Kelly: A Life in Music” premiered in 2018 in Edinburgh and Glasgow with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. That premiere led to a Seattle connection: Krishna Thiagarajan, now Seattle Symphony’s president and CEO, was then chief executive of the RSNO. “He just right away said yes to bringing it to Seattle, once he made that transition,” Ward Kelly said. “I really feel honored that he believes in it so much.”

The evening’s selections mostly date from the 1940s and ’50s (though there’s a clip from his “Muppet Show” appearance in 1980); Kelly did most of his well-known work midcentury, in a string of classic MGM musicals. Among those included in “Gene Kelly: A Life in Music” are “Singin’ in the Rain,” “An American in Paris,” “Summer Stock,” “Anchors Aweigh,” “Brigadoon,” “It’s Always Fair Weather,” “Les Girls” and “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” represented by Kelly’s performance of “The Hat My Dear Old Father Wore.” The latter, Ward Kelly said, is one of the few numbers in the show that uses an existing original arrangement.

“The reason I have it is that Gene performed the number for John Kennedy’s inauguration gala and he didn’t return the music to the MGM library as he was supposed to, so it escaped destruction.” It’s a song, she said, that’s perfect for St. Patrick’s Day, with Kelly (a proud Irish American who was granted Irish citizenship late in his life) performing an Irish dance.  

In choosing what to include, she said, “I tried to select things that would show not only the breadth of Gene’s dancing styles but also the breadth of his choreography.” The evening includes everything from elegant ballet numbers like “The Heather on the Hill” from “Brigadoon,” danced with Cyd Charisse, to tap-dancing on roller skates in a scene from “It’s Always Fair Weather.” Ward Kelly will be present to introduce the clips and tell some behind-the-scenes stories.

“I try to make it feel like we are just sitting in the living room having a chat,” she said of the evening. “It’s just a really joyful experience, and I think that’s something people are kind of yearning for right now.”