I just finished a biography about Bob Fosse. Very good.

One of the many sources in the book was Tony Stevens.

Stevens, now dead, was a successful choreographer on Broadway and worked on many shows with many of the stars.

Long before all that, he was Tony Pusateri. A creative young man growing up in Herculaneum, Missouri and attending St. Pius High School in Festus.

This Festus boy (“Herky” was a neighbor) remembers a school play and the buzz about Pusateri doing some kind of a fire dance in a splashy production number. (I don’t remember the play, any other details).

Even then as a not worldly high school student, I knew Pusateri was good and it came as no surprise that he headed for Broadway as fast as he could on graduation.

One other note. Stevens was part of the core group that put together and contributed the interviews that led to “Chorus Line”. I even think I recall seeing some version of the play and hearing someone in the chorus identify himself as being from Herculaneum.

I will always remember the fire dance and I wish at some point I would have had the chance to visit with him about that, his roots and his career.