The Actor's Studio

A Broadway legend-turned-artist fills his canvases—and his new home—with the colors of Miami.

(Photo: Troy Campbell)

Text by Lydia Degaris-Pursell

Where does a Tony Award® winning actor/singer/dancer/
choreographer/director/artist go when he's had enough of the Great White Way? If it's Tommy Tune, he heads to South Beach. "I fell in love with this place the first time I came here, in 1984, when I was doing a show at the Jackie Gleason Theater," he says. "I just started walking and ended up on Ocean Drive, where I saw all these longtime residents sitting on the balconies of colorful Art Deco buildings, just looking out to sea. I thought they had landed in high cotton."

Years later, on a return visit, he found quite a transformation. "The buildings were the same, but now there were bistros and all these beautiful people," Tommy says. "The place was really hopping."

Although he had a spacious apartment on New York's Upper East Side, an art studio, and a busy Manhattan-based career, Tommy found himself thinking more and more about Florida. In 2000, a friend mentioned a spot for sale in South Beach. "I bought it sight unseen. It was right on the ocean beside a lovely park," he says. "It was small, but I didn't need a lot of space, because I had the outdoors."

Later, Tommy bought the adjacent condo, doubling the size of his home. He then asked his friend Paul Ziotas to collaborate on the interiors. The two had just one disagreement: Paul envisioned white walls for the living space, but Tommy was set on pink. "Paul tried to talk me out of it, but he couldn't," Tommy says. The main room (painted the perfect shade of pale pink) functions as living room, kitchen, and master bedroom. Paul and Tommy designed a waist-high wall and hung floor-to-ceiling sheer drapes around the bedroom area. In the living space, they slipcovered furniture in white canvas that can be whisked off and thrown in the washer. "Every item is usable in this house, and every inch is used," Tommy says. "I don't worry about anything when I'm here." Most of the furniture is lightweight or on wheels, which makes reordering spaces easy. (Stainless steel knobs lining the walls allow him to rehang his artwork as well.) "I like to change things up a bit. It's more fun that way," Tommy explains.

In the newly acquired condo, accessible through a single opening, he and Paul created a light-filled art studio. Other than a guest bed tucked neatly into one corner, the room remains wide open. White walls make an ideal backdrop for Tommy's brightly colored canvases, which he hangs directly on the walls while painting. (A trough built into the floor catches drips.) "By doing a room in white, you get every color," Tommy says. "As the sunlight changes, so does the sky, and the ocean, and the colors in this room. The light just bounces off the walls."

While many flee South Beach's intense summer heat, Tommy can't stay away. "To me, it's the best time to be here. The ocean is so warm—it's good for your whole system." He often spends hours on the balcony overlooking the city, sketching and reading. "I love sitting here and looking out at the ocean," he says. "I'm just drawn to it."

Slide Show: Bright Ideas