Original 'DWTS' Bandleader Dies at 82

[Mark Jeffries]

Starting out working for Burt Bacharach, Harold Wheeler plied his trade as an arranger and conductor on Broadway for over 50 years, starting with Bacharach's "Promises Promises" in 1968 and receiving seven Tony nominations and a ifetime achievement award in 2019--among his television work was the first seventeen cycles of "Dancing with the Stars," where he got criticism from some fans for what is the franchise's basic modus operandi of having the contestants rehearse to an edit of a recording, with Mr. Wheeler's contribution being grafting a big band on top of the original arrangement (same thing the UK bandleader on "Strictly Come Dancing" does)--he left "DWTS" in 2014 as part of a music cutback--June 24, survived by actress wife Hattie Winston ("Becker," "The Electric Company"), two daughters and grandchildren:

https://www.theatermania.com/news/broadway-orchestrator-harold-wheeler-dies-at-the-age-of-82_1843516/