It was great to see Justin Peck accepting his second Tony (the first was in 2018, for Carousel) back on the stage of Lincoln Center’s Koch Theater, home first to his dancing and then to his choreography for New York City Ballet. It was a reminder of how much nourishment today’s Broadway musicals get from other fields of dance. This year’s Tony-nominated choreographers—Brown, the Kupermans, Peck, Robb and Carroll, and Annie-B Parson, who rearranged her surging choreography for the downtown hit Here Lies Love when it briefly reopened on Broadway—came with experience not just in ballet but in contemporary concert dance, circus arts, and martial arts, all moving Broadway musicals in new directions.

For the old ways, there was the Tonys’ traditional In Memoriam section, accompanied by a mournful rendition of “What I Did for Love,” from A Chorus Line, sung by Nicole Scherzinger (her Olivier-winning performance in Sunset Boulevard arrives on Broadway this fall). Thankfully, the Tony producers ignored the dreadful precedent set by this year’s Oscars broadcast, which featured 20 dancers sweeping across the stage as photos and illegible names flashed on overhead screens—simultaneously insulting both the departed and the dance, neither of which was allowed to actually register. By contrast, the heartfelt tributes to the late, lamented Chita Rivera—from Brian Stokes Mitchell, Bebe Neuwirth, and Audra McDonald—incorporated dance snippets that distilled the essence of her most memorable roles. And when DeBose arrived in a lilac dress to lead the company of dancers in “America,” from West Side Story, you had to wish that the snippets had been longer.

It’s possible that the segment was truncated when the broadcast added a number from Stereophonic to the show. David Adjmi’s play about a ’70s rock band recording an album earned a record 13 nominations—aided by the fact that most plays don’t compete in categories like Best Orchestrations and Best Score. When one of the show’s five Tonys went to Adjmi for Best Play, he closed his acceptance speech with a remark that surely resonated with an audience full of art makers. Calling for government funding of the arts, he said, “It’s the hallmark of a civilized society.” Wonder if any candidates were watching.

The post 2024 Tony Awards Recap: Sampling Broadway’s Dance Banquet appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Ubeda’s performance snagged one of those Chita nominations; another went to Rachel Lockhart, making her Broadway debut as Morgan after joining the show before its January run at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater and its sold-out stop at New York City’s Park Avenue Armory in March.

Despite the differences in their backgrounds—he’s the first artist in his Miami family, she started training “fresh out of the womb” in her mother’s Birmingham dance studio—and their career tracks—his began in a Broadway ensemble, she’d always expected to join a company—they talk about Illinoise in similar terms. He sees his younger self in the role of Henry, “a young queer man who is coming of age,” and she finds echoes of her own questions about ancestry and identity in Morgan’s searching solo to “Jacksonville.”

Peck’s history is reflected in the show as well. “Most people know me from ballet,” he says. “But I really got my start from musicals.” Inspired by regular family trips to New York City to see shows (Bring in ’da Noise, Bring in ’da Funk was the standout), he was a tap dancer for years before “broadening out.” “Ballet came last,” he says, and when he began choreographing, he “was always a little bit restless about staying in one particular lane.”

With its wide-ranging styles and stories, both on and off the stage, Illinoise travels in multiple lanes that crisscross in surprising (and unsurprising) ways. Tyrone Reese, one of the understudies, was a year behind Lockhart at the Alabama School of Fine Arts and followed her to Juilliard; Lockhart didn’t know cast member Kara Chan, but soon discovered she was also a Juilliard alum. Ubeda and Gaby Diaz have known each other since they were 10, and Ubeda and Ahmad Simmons, who plays his lover in Illinoise, have done four Broadway shows together. Lockhart and Byron Tittle, whose tapping augments her “Jacksonville” number, have both danced with Doja Cat. And Ubeda, Diaz, and Lockhart were also memorable contestants on “So You Think You Can Dance”; Ubeda won Season 11.

Among Ubeda’s “SYTYCD” prizes was a contract for On the Town. He’d never seen a show, much less envisioned a Broadway career. “I had to learn it in three days,” he recalls. He credits that experience for the “sense of community” Lockhart says she felt when she first walked into an Illinoise rehearsal. “What we do onstage has to do with a group of friends who are warm with each other,” Ubeda says. “And we’ve all been in those shoes, where we are the youngest and newest person. At On the Town, they made me feel so at home. We all make it a point to make sure newcomers have what they need to succeed, and with these, it wasn’t hard—they bring something new to our campfire.” And to the ecosystem.

The post Inside the Creation of <i>Illinoise</i>’s Onstage—and Offstage—Community appeared first on Dance Magazine.

The choreography steps up to the challenge, of course. Shows like Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (2016), Here Lies Love (2023), and this month’s new revival of Cabaret made avant-garde stages their own.

Letting the Movement Evolve

Choreographer Sam Pinkleton joined the Great Comet creative team during its second off-Broadway iteration, in 2013. That version was performed in a small custom tent—a naturally intimate environment. Its 2015 American Repertory Theater run was in a more traditional space, where it began experimenting with some of the elements featured in the 2016 Broadway production at the Imperial Theatre. Pinkleton found himself with onstage audience members to involve, a series of cascading staircases to navigate, and a cast of 30 (up from 16 in 2013) at his choreographic disposal.

What saved Great Comet from getting lost in its new digs, he says, was the creative team’s focus on its original intention. Scenic designer Mimi Lien “was really fierce about maintaining a level of intimacy,” Pinkleton says. “She wanted every person in the room to have a personalized, specific experience to this show that is only theirs.” The entire creative team, led by director Rachel Chavkin, was aligned on this mission. Pinkleton used the staircases Lien designed to connect the main and upper levels of the theater as tiny stage spaces for individual performers to interact personally with theatergoers.

Julia Cheng, choreographer of the 2021 West End version and current Broadway revival of Cabaret—which eliminates some of the orchestra seating to create a small stage space in the round—met spatial challenges by focusing on choreographic authenticity. Cheng’s movement training is in street styles, like hip hop and waacking, and she wanted to capitalize on the way those genres naturally lend themselves to an up-close audience experience.

“Those styles are about holding space, and that requires a different skill set,” she says. She created what she refers to as the prologue to the show, when arriving audience members encounter a small group of dancers and musicians “already vibing,” as if the theatergoers have walked into a club. “The prologue ended up becoming a show in itself,” she says. She let her dancers’ particular strengths shine, too. “I wanted to draw out their fortes, their specialisms from the underground and subculture—forms not usually represented on the musical theater stage.”

Sometimes choreographers even help shape transformative theater designs. When working with choreographer Annie-B Parson on Here Lies Love, scenic designer David Korins knew there needed to be give-and-take between the show’s unusual, immersive playing space—one long catwalk, with the audience below on either side, plus smaller spaces throughout the theater with room for a performer or two—and its movement vocabulary. “I think Annie is an extraordinary visual storyteller,” he says. “There were tentpole moments we wanted to accomplish, and in those, she really held her ground—‘If we’re going to do this, then we need to do that.’ When she had a sense of that, you listened.”

Rising to the Challenge

In revamped theater spaces, changes that might at first seem like challenges can actually offer opportunities for innovative thinking. Pinkleton found that to be true on Great Comet, where he had to convey a sense of closeness in a large house without a central meeting place where the entire cast could fit. Eventually, he landed on placing dancers throughout the house—on the staircases, in the aisles, on platforms, in an audience member’s lap—and choreographing intentional eye contact. “It was, ‘I am looking at you in the sixth row and waving at you and saying I’m glad you’re here,’ ” he says. “That became more important than asking people to kick their leg on five.”

From Korins’ perspective, the disparate stage spaces of Here Lies Love allowed Parson to create a different kind of Broadway dynamic. “Annie could stage these beautiful, isolated islands of dance and movement,” he says. “You might be looking at two people dancing in unison, but they’re doing it 150 feet away from each other. That tension and connectivity between the bodies in space was really effective.”

For Cheng, the task of choreographing in the round was a welcome one, not a thorn in her side. “When I’m in the club cyphering, that’s my comfort zone: You’re in the circle, there’s a community around you,” she says. “It’s sometimes difficult to get that in a really big space.” She saw typical theater choreographic taboos—turning one’s back to the audience, for example—as a chance to offer unexpected perspectives. “I don’t mind having a back to the audience,” she says. “I think that’s interesting.”

Overhauled theaters, with their myriad challenges, require a special kind of mind-meld between the members of the creative team. When all of a show’s leaders are invested in the same idea, however out-there it might seem—what Pinkleton calls “everybody working on the same show”—that’s when the real magic happens. When it does come together, Pinkleton says, “it doesn’t feel insane. It feels inevitable.”

Broadway Theater Revamps of the Past

Most revolutionary staging choices in Broadway’s history have had the same aim: to get the audience closer to the action than a proscenium stage can.

✦ Before transferring to what’s now known as the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, Man of La Mancha (1965) opened at the ANTA Washington Square Theatre in Greenwich Village, which boasted an experimental stage with the audience seated on three sides. Jazz dance pioneer Jack Cole was nominated for a Tony Award for his Latin-influenced choreography, described as “blistering” and “orgiastic” by one critic.
✦ The 1974 Broadway production of Leonard Bernstein’s often-revised Candide ripped out much of the Broadway Theatre’s orchestra seating. This meant that many audience members had an immersive experience with Patricia Birch’s choreography, which New York Times theater critic Clive Barnes likened to a rocket booster.
✦ For its 1998 revival, Cabaret transformed the former disco nightclub Studio 54 into a Broadway house—but with a small thrust stage surrounded by tables and chairs, to lend an authentic­ Kit Kat Klub vibe. Choreographer and co-director Rob Marshall used the audience’s nearness to highlight his raw, rough-edged choreography.

The post How Three Broadway Choreographers Create in Nontraditional Theater Spaces appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Though musicals and plays can come to Broadway via many different routes, the majority of them transfer from regional theaters, off-Broadway, the West End, or national tours. In this 2023–24 season, there are 20 musicals premiering on Broadway, including brand-new shows and revivals. Every single one of those productions was previously staged somewhere else.

This tactic has become even more common in the wake of pandemic shutdowns, as the financial risks of mounting a show have increased. The producing and creative teams can get a feel for how their show works in an environment that has less pressure and requires less money. They can take time to gauge audience reactions to the work, read reviews, and analyze public interest and ticket sales. And the process can ultimately lead to big career opportunities for the dancers and actors involved.

Theater Matchmaking

Pre-Broadway runs of a show can help more experimental, outside-the-box productions find financial investors and Broadway theater owners who are interested in helping them have a future life. Mandy Hackett, the associate artistic director of The Public Theater in downtown Manhattan, has helped shepherd 15 shows from the famous off-Broadway venue onto Broadway, including Hamilton and this month’s Hell’s Kitchen.

“Broadway has expanded a lot over the past 20 years,” she says. “More diverse work is coming from the nonprofit world, and producers are getting more comfortable taking risks with putting up a wider range of adventurous work. But that means there are so many shows vying for theaters, and theater owners are getting pitched from all different places day in and day out.” Previous runs give everyone a better sense of which shows and theaters might be good matches—aligning what’s right artistically for the show with what’s smart for the business of the theater.

A Feat of Logistics—and Creativity

Once a theater gets officially locked in, the real heavy lifting of the transfer begins. It’s a massive undertaking that, among other things, includes the public relations team finalizing the show’s artwork for marketing and advertising, the box office setting ticket prices and rolling out a calendar for announcements and sales, and the production team planning when their load-in can start and what the company’s rehearsal schedule will look like.

While all of this is going on behind the scenes, the show’s creative team is also hard at work. Initially putting up a full-scale version of their show somewhere other than Broadway gives them a chance to see what doesn’t translate effectively from the page to the stage. This information is then used to make changes to the piece in another workshop or during their Broadway rehearsal process. These could be small tweaks, like script and choreography edits or a costume redesign, or there could be bigger restructuring involving cutting, adding, or rearranging entire scenes, songs, or characters. Sometimes creative-team members can also change—a new set designer is brought in to shift the aesthetic, or a different choreographer is brought in to adjust the movement style.

The new Broadway revival of The Wiz toured 13 cities over the past seven months before it sat down on Broadway this month. Matthew Sims Jr. is a swing in the company, and he’s glad their show had an opportunity for a test drive. “Since COVID, it feels like a lot of shows are hanging on by a thread. Closing notices come quickly, it’s more expensive to put up a show and harder to get audiences to come,” he said. “But with touring, we’ve gotten to see what speaks to people from different places and from different demographics before putting it all together on Broadway.”

Choreography, especially, often undergoes significant revisions during the transfer process. I’ve had the pleasure of working on the choreography team of two shows that transferred to Broadway from out of town: How to Dance in Ohio, which premiered in September 2022 at Syracuse Stage and transferred to Broadway this past fall, and The Who’s TOMMY, a revival that we staged at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago last summer and is opening on Broadway this spring. While preparing for these transfers, there were a few things we needed to consider: What are the dimensions of the new stage and how will that affect the spacing and movement we created in the regional versions? Were there any parts of our choreography that we weren’t fully satisfied with last time that we now want to update? If we have new set pieces, new dancers, or new costumes, what changes do we need to make to accommodate the updates being made by other departments? For both shows, our dance teams did a lot of work in the studio to revisit what we initially created and brainstorm new ideas we wanted to implement for the next iteration.

Casting Variations

Changes may also be made to a show’s cast between a preliminary run and Broadway. Sometimes cast members need to be replaced for various reasons—the director or choreographer may feel that a performer wasn’t properly suited to the show, or maybe the dancer has booked another job that’s happening at the same time. Frequently, auditions are also held to add additional swings and understudies to bulk up coverage for a longer run. In the case of a transfer from London, using international talent can get complicated and expensive with visas, unions, and housing relocation fees, so often almost an entirely new company of American workers is needed.

Claire Burke, a casting director with Tara Rubin Casting, helped usher in last summer’s hit show Back to the Future from the West End. “While casting a transfer, there is already existing choreography and a set of skills that have been determined,” she says. “So instead of building a brand-new piece in collaboration with whoever we choose, we have to cast people who are able to do exactly what has been previously established. There can still be creative freedom and different interpretations, but it’s a balance between finding someone unique and still honoring the original piece.”

The Broadway Boost

The cast of a Broadway transfer will often, however, include many of the artists who have been attached since its early stages. The original dancers, specifically, tend to be integral to the creation of the show’s movement, and a lot of times the choreographer prefers to keep their ensemble intact.

And while a transfer is certainly not the goal for every show, being in a Broadway house brings with it the perk of potential widespread success, which can ultimately trickle down to all the hands that touched the production. Sims, who is making his Broadway debut with The Wiz, says he’s proudly enjoying the feeling of reaching the pinnacle of the industry and is excited for where it will all lead him.

The sense of community that can come from a big Broadway audience is also a boon for many artists. “I remember being in the Broadway house of one of the earliest transfers I worked on, and feeling how many more people were there laughing and applauding,” said Hackett. “Of course it’s equally as magical downtown at The Public, but there is something so cool about the increased scale of people gathering in that theater, on that day, to share in that moment together. It sticks with you.”

The post The Whys and Hows of Broadway Transfers appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Broadway choreography has long been an amalgam of different social dances and forms like jazz, tap, and ballet. But today’s shows are increasingly using movement makers from genres outside the musical theater world altogether, like experimental dance (David Neumann, Annie-B Parson, Raja Feather Kelly), commercial dance (Sonya Tayeh, JaQuel Knight, Keone and Mari Madrid), modern dance (Camille A. Brown), and physical theater (Steven Hoggett).

“There’s a whole cadre now of choreographers who never were in a Broadway show, who never danced in A Chorus Line,” says veteran Broadway journalist Sylviane Gold. “And they’re bringing something different.”

Traditionally, musical theater dance had “artistic aspirations but with popular appeal,” says Appalachian State University professor Ray Miller, author of Dance on the American Musical Theatre Stage. Broadway is, after all, a for-profit business. While today’s musical theater choreographers still face pressure to sell tickets, those coming to Broadway from other traditions are sometimes less oriented toward popularity. And that can lead to more risk-taking.

For instance, when Neumann choreographed Hadestown, he brought the narrative to life by leaning into abstraction and subtlety, creating simple movements—like loose, rhythmic walking—that had a magnetic pull. “I don’t want to dictate the audience’s entire experience,” Neumann says. “I want them to lean in and become curious.”

It’s not just the steps that have changed. The role dance plays in musicals has also shifted. “Theater choreography used to be more about literal storytelling,” says longtime Broadway choreographer and director Susan Stroman. “Today the choreography is more about atmosphere, capturing the essence of the emotion that’s happening onstage, whether it’s tension or romance.” She credits Andy Blankenbuehler’s work on Hamilton and Camille A. Brown’s Choir Boy in particular for spurring this development.

This more abstract approach has meant less choreography featuring characters dancing as individuals and more collective ensemble movement, says Stroman. When someone does break out for a solo, “the choreography today has unbelievably interesting and very intricate steps,” Stroman says—a trend that might reflect the distinctive showmanship of social media dance. “Younger choreographers are able to tap into video and TikTok and Instagram, where steps are mostly the stars,” Stroman says.

The 2020 sea change also had an impact. Since COVID-19, older audience members—who got used to safer and more convenient entertainment options—have become less-dependable ticket buyers, says Stroman. That means producers are sometimes willing to take a chance on something different, hoping to draw in younger audiences. And following big pushes from social justice movements, producers are also hiring directors from a variety of backgrounds, who are in turn seeking out choreographers from different genres—which is changing the type of movement that ends up onstage.

“We’re telling more diverse stories,” says Ellenore Scott, who choreographed Broadway’s Funny Girl and Mr. Saturday Night in 2022. “We’re using voices that were not heard back in the 1940s, 1950s.”

And a wider array of creative perspectives—both on Broadway and well beyond it—is part of the path to progress. As Neumann says, “An art form is only as strong as the number of voices able to tell stories and speak through their particular weird proclivities.”

What About Tap Dance?

Tap dance has been an essential component of Broadway dance since the 19th century, and as far back as the late 1700s dancer John Durang brought soft-shoe–style elements to the Great White Way, says historian Ray Miller. By the 1930s, musicals like Anything Goes and the original film version of 42nd Street were chock-full of crowd-pleasing tap numbers. But the iconic genre is no longer an expected staple of new musicals.

“Tap’s role kept changing as musicals changed,” says arts writer Sylviane Gold. “Today, tap can be a specialty number that is thrown into a show with a wink, as a little gift to the audience, even though it’s clearly out of place—as in Aladdin. It can be used as a dramatic element—as when the Irish and Black characters in Paradise Square stage a tap challenge.”

Choreographer Susan Stroman points out that there are fewer big ensemble tap numbers today: “It’s more about the strength of an individual tap dancer coming out and starring in a moment.”

The style of tap has also evolved. The traditional up-on-your-toes choreography is being replaced not only by grounded, hip-hop–inspired hoofing, but also by more complex steps and rhythms. “I think people are starving for more interesting rhythms, a new way to do something that’s old, trying to take something we’re familiar with and flip it on its head,” says Stroman.
Tap dance isn’t going away anytime soon. “As long as there are Broadway musicals, there will be some kind of tap,” predicts Gold. “But it won’t necessarily be performed by an ensemble doing time-steps in dazzling unison.”

Where Could (or Should) Broadway Choreography Go Next?

“I get excited by things like American Utopia that are really off the beaten path. I want choreography to be more inclusive and to say, ‘This can work, and this,’ looking for different ways to share what we think about our experience being alive on the planet.”
—David Neumann,
choreographer

“I would love Broadway to take a chance on the dance narrative, like it did at one time when I was able to do Contact or Twyla Tharp was able to do Movin’ Out.”
—Susan Stroman,
director and choreographer

“Just show me something I haven’t seen before. That’s what excites me. And that’s not to say that it isn’t absolutely wonderful to see something familiar brought to a new level of execution or excellence. But theater is about sitting in the audience and being surprised.”
—Sylviane Gold, arts writer

“I hope that Broadway creative teams take chances on different styles of movement as a way to tell a story. You can have one script and tell it 1,000 different ways depending on how that show is choreographed and staged and directed.”
—Ellenore Scott, choreographer

“Straight plays are beginning to pay attention to ecology, and I’m sure that it will happen on the musical stage, too. We now have the talents and the tools to create musicals that address climate and other environmental concerns. We need more stories to help us to conceive more sustainable ways of being.”
—Ray Miller, historian

The post What Does “Broadway Choreography” Mean Today? appeared first on Dance Magazine.

But there’s no doubting the rigor and penetration of his eye as he asks a dancer with a paintbrush to tackle his easel with “more velocity,” urges a couple to make a lift “sharp,” and encourages a leg into a clearer diagonal as the bustling number evokes kaleidoscopic images of the City of Light.

Later, in separate interviews, Kelly and Chavkin talk about Lempicka the show, Lempicka the artist—Chavkin knows many audiences likely won’t recognize Lempicka’s name, but suspects they will recognize her art—and their own collaboration on the musical. At times, they’re like he-said, she-said accounts of the same happy marriage. Below are a few excerpts from those conversations, edited for length and clarity.

On Lempicka’s Paintings

Kelly: There is so much movement—the way that curves move forward and backward, how diagonals are made in the body. And I think any dance person could see the épaulement in the paintings. I told them [Chavkin, Kreitzer, and Gould] that épaulement is the central movement language to begin any choreography for this work.

Chavkin: He explained to us what “épaulement” meant, and it was, “Oh, my god, that’s it—we were meant for you, and you were meant for us!”

On Storytelling With the Body

Kelly: I’m a postmodernist, and I am a contemporary dancer. I have to use everything I’ve learned to find a new language—I have to use postmodernism, I have to use lyrical, I have to use jazz. And I’m always going to tell a story, no matter what.

Chavkin: When I first encountered [the theatrical training technique] the Viewpoints in college, I was like, “Oh! I get how to do this!” I get that story is communicated through the body, through the physical state of the performer, through the physical state of the stage, and tension and line—all of the things that are absolutely principles of dance but that are also principles of staging.

On Working Together

Kelly: What’s exciting for me is that now, in 2024, she really does trust me. We’ve been doing it for almost eight years, and I think she trusts my understanding of the show. I tend to take care of the ensemble, and she leaves me to do that. Then we come together, and we note each other. Sometimes I’m offering her behavior for scenes, because I love for it to blend—so that the show doesn’t go from scene to dance. So that the whole show is alive with the same behavior. It can’t happen unless we’re working both in tandem and also separately, because we might have a different point of view on something. I’m certainly not a choreographer that just makes dances.

Chavkin: There’s a dance that every single director-choreographer team does once they get to know each other. Raja and I had the necessary luxury of many years and multiple incarnations of this project to figure out whose territory is whose. What’s been so exciting and so helpful is I tend to think in large movement of bodies and energy in the space—where do we need chaos, where does it need to be more stable, et cetera, et cetera. And Raja is so exquisite on human specificity and detail. It’s a big-picture/intimate-picture kind of dialogue between us. He gives it more shape, more line, further articulation. It’s so satisfying when you meet someone who can pick up what you’re putting down.

The post Raja Feather Kelly and Rachel Chavkin on <i>Lempicka</i> the Show and Lempicka the Artist appeared first on Dance Magazine.

What code have these dancers cracked to achieve viral fame? Is it true that being big on TikTok is the key to getting cast in a sought-after show these days? And are there any downsides to having hundreds of thousands—maybe even millions—of people watch your videos? Five #BroadwayTok stars break it down.

Big Theater Energy

Every dancer has heard some version of the same advice: Perform for the person sitting in the very last row, all the way up in the balcony. Paula Leggett Chase, who goes by @antiqueshowgirl, thinks that charisma and enthusiasm are what’s drawing people to Broadway performers in the very different environment of TikTok. “You see the energy coming out of their pores,” she says. “They’re storytellers, and I think that speaks to people.” JJ Niemann, who with his one million followers is one of #BroadwayTok’s biggest stars, agrees: “We know how to sell it to an audience,” he says.

In 2023, Niemann happened to become a member of the original Broadway cast of Back to the Future alongside another TikTok phenom, Amber Ardolino. Like a lot of other Broadway performers, Niemann and Ardolino share funny glimpses behind the scenes of their show, like backstage shenanigans and jokes about the grueling reality of an eight-show-per-week lifestyle. “I often get comments like, ‘Oh, so being on Broadway is just like grownup theater camp?’ ” says Ardolino. “For me to show people that live theater is chaotic and fun and a mess—I love that people are getting to see that.”

Musical theater performers have also created their own TikTok-specific trends to appeal to a niche but enthusiastic audience of current and aspiring performers. Series like “roles I auditioned for versus roles I got,” or “soprano line versus alto line” have helped make TikTok a theater nerd’s paradise.

And #BroadwayTok performers give their audiences a chance to see parts of the business they don’t typically know as much about. Take Gerianne Pérez, who is currently starring as Catherine of Aragon in the national tour of SIX. She peppers in tour-specific content for her followers, like mini-vlogs about travel days and recaps of the tour’s stops in different cities. Niemann, who is a member of the ensemble in Back to the Future as well as a cover for two lead roles, gives his followers a look at what it’s like to play that kind of pivotal but under-recognized role in a show.

Fun or Career?

So is TikTok a career stepping-stone or just for fun? That depends. Niemann says he and Ardolino sometimes get more attention at the stage door than the show’s leads, and Ardolino notes that TikTok has given her the opportunity to meet other artists she admires and collaborate with them. “But I still have to go in for the same auditions as everyone else,” she says with a laugh. “Broadway is hard enough. If I didn’t love doing this, I wouldn’t add it to my plate.”

For veteran dancer Brian Ust, known as @theatredancebrian, TikTok did bring at least one unexpected opportunity to audition for a popular TV series. “TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube have become my stage,” he says. Chase, a Broadway veteran whose credits include A Chorus Line, Bye Bye Birdie, and Tootsie, says that her TikTok presence hasn’t earned her opportunities, but it has made younger performers “more open” to her. At 62, “my age group is a little invisible,” she says. “But now when I walk into something with a young cast, they know me.”

Though Niemann agrees that TikTok hasn’t really changed his stage career, it has become a business for him. And in the feast-or-famine life of a performer, that’s a gift. “TikTok genuinely is just as fruitful for me financially as my acting career and Broadway career,” he says. “And it’s really nice to have another creative outlet and passion.”

Building Community

TikTok does have a dark side: nasty comments, which aren’t unique to TikTok but which Gerianne Pérez, of SIX, says can be “outlandishly mean.” Dancer Brian Ust, for example, experienced a barrage of negative comments after a celebrity reposted one of his videos. “That was one of the worst experiences I have had,” he says.

Pérez likes to remember that trolls are often reacting to theater performers’ quirkiness—which is also what makes them good at what they do. “We have always been a little strange. It’s because we are something special,” she says. And despite Ust’s negative experiences, he still refers to his followers as a “family.” His good experiences on the platform outweigh the bad, he says.

Other #BroadwayTok performers echo that sentiment. Some of performer Paula Leggett Chase’s followers have told her that her videos inspired them to go back to dance class—or to try dancing for the first time. Amber Ardolino, of Back to the Future, adds that she meets people at the stage door who say they came to the show because they learned about it from her TikTok.
“They feel like they know us, like they’re watching a friend onstage,” she says. “It’s such a strong and special connection.”

The post Why Broadway Dancers Are Taking Over TikTok appeared first on Dance Magazine.

This year, 14 new Rockettes were welcomed from nine states—New York, New Jersey, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah—through the Rockettes Conservatory, the company’s no-fee, week-long intensive training program that serves as an inclusive talent pipeline for the group.

From now through January 1, 2024, you can watch the Rockettes live in action at the beloved Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

The post Here’s What It Takes to Be Rockette-Ready appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Do you recall when you first encountered Betty Boop?
I saw her when I was a kid. My aunts had Betty Boop this and Betty Boop that. I did see a lot of the shorts, not when I was young but when I was in college.

Are you borrowing any movement from the original cartoons?
Not really. The opening number is a gigantic tap routine. It starts as if you’re watching a black-and-white short, and then you go from watching it to being on the set where the short is being made. So it comes to life, so to speak, but it stays in a black-and-white world and it stays kind of two-dimensional.

I noticed BOOP! is being marketed as a family-friendly show, which surprised me. The promotional images suggest the early-1930s, pre–Hays Code Betty, with the garter belt and the hoop earrings. Is she the blueprint for this show’s Betty?
That, in my opinion, is the Betty. Betty was always the strong, sexy girl. She was never afraid of that.

Dozens of performers have portrayed Betty Boop in voice or image since she first appeared. Does the show nod to the many artists who are part of her lineage?
Though I think people will make those connections and find those reference points, none specifically were intended. I went looking for the character in the story that was written, and finding out how best to portray that character was how I came up with what’s in the show.

BOOP! also features a marionette by Phillip Huber, whose work on Being John Malkovich is extraordinary. What can we expect from the puppetry?
You can expect to see [Betty Boop’s dog,] Pudgy. [Laughs] Phillip and I have known each other for quite a long time. When BOOP! came along I thought, Do I call [theatrical animal trainer] Bill Berloni and get a real dog? And then I thought, No—I call Phillip and get a marionette.

I think of most choreography as some balance of attention to steps and to movement qualities. My impression, based on shows I’ve seen and interviews you’ve given, is that you want the choreography to serve the storytelling.
It’s almost always that way for me: story first, steps and style second and equally. I worked with Jerry Robbins and Michael Bennett: two great examples, right? There aren’t many similarities between the steps in West Side Story and the steps in Fiddler on the Roof, or the steps in The King and I, other than the fact that they were done by the same choreographer. Style is the last thing Jerry thought of, story was the first thing he thought of, and humor was right up there at the top, too. Michael? Same thing. Fosse was quite the opposite. Everything had his distinct style.

You’re experienced in historic dance reconstruction, through your work on Jerome Robbins’ Broadway and other projects. Has BOOP! been an opportunity to tap into those skills?
Those skills never leave me. They’re in the room with me every time I work on a show. I go home after every rehearsal and I go, What would Michael [Bennett] have thought? What would Jerry [Robbins] have thought? What would Ron Field have thought? What would Onna White have done? Right? I mean, these are all people I worked with and collaborated with and assisted when I was a dancer myself.

Is there anything else that you’d like to share about the show?
Rachelle Rak and Jon Rua are my associate choreographers who are laying it down fast and thick. We have some of the greatest dancers in a musical that I’ve had in a long time, which is important because there’s a lot of dance, particularly in the first act. It’s gonna be fun.

The post Jerry Mitchell on Bringing Betty Boop From the Past to the Present appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Here Lies Love, the immersive, groundbreaking musical from David Byrne and Fatboy Slim, is transforming the Broadway Theatre into a discotheque, making audience members both clubgoers—dancing encouraged—and active participants in the story of the former First Lady and President, whose rise to power and epic fall from it are told through disco-inspired songs and Byrne’s signature wit.

Choreographing both the performers and the audience members—who continuously move throughout the space and occasionally learn a few moves themselves—is a big job, but one that Annie-B Parson is ready for. “It’s not intimidating,” says the choreographer, who has worked with Byrne for over a decade, including on his American Utopia. “My experience with audiences is that they do very well with whatever you give them if you’re clear.”

Though Here Lies Love has had four runs in the past decade—two at The Public Theater, where it premiered in 2013, one in London, and one in Seattle—none were at the scale of the Broadway production, which has been designed to put even more audience members up close and personal on the dance floor. It also has additional seating options for a more traditional theatrical experience—an added challenge for Parson and director Alex Timbers. “We’ve always been very aware of what it looks like from different angles,” says Parson. “Alex is very good at understanding how the space can come alive from all these different points of observation.”

Though Parson researched disco when creating the movement for the show, and built movement from her years of working with Byrne,­ Here Lies Love’s dance vocabulary brings a distinctly postmodern aesthetic to the Broadway stage, not dissimilar from the movement Parson has created for many years with her company, Big Dance Theater. “Bringing that to Broadway?” says Parson. “Well, we’ll see how they like it.”

Dance Magazine’s Lauren Wingenroth spoke to Annie-B Parson as Here Lies Love was readying for Broadway, and Rachel Papo photographed the first day of dance rehearsals in May.

How does it feel to be reimmersing yourself in the world of Here Lies Love after all these years?

It’s been a dream of ours to bring it back at a larger scale with a larger audience. I always have felt that you need to really make this piece as dynamic as it can be; you need sort of a crisis of people on the dance floor. And because we’ve always been in smaller venues, we were limited to 100 or so people. Now, the relationship between the audience and the piece will feel perfect. I’m very interested in co-proximate, co-temporal bodies in space.

It will feel different for the bodies that are watching, too. It’s just crazy to see that many people doing what they’re told. The motif of the disco becomes more intense with more people. In the past, we’ve had very few people in the observer seats, but now I think it’s just as many as on the floor.

What else can we expect to see that will be different in the Broadway production?

It’s essentially the same show but updated, since it’s now and not then politically. Because of Bongbong [the current President of the Philippines and the son of Imelda and Ferdinand], we’re looking to highlight the complicity of the U.S. government with the dictatorship in the Philippines. It’s not one of those pieces that I did it and it’s over. It’s about Filipino history. So it’s never going to be over.

Are there any challenges you’re anticipating as you bring the show to Broadway?

Well, we have a new cast, essentially—not 100 percent, but pretty much—so of course that always feels unknown, like “How do these people execute my movement?” And, in this very small period of time, how do I transmit the tonality and the muscularity of my particular movement vocabulary? It will be unfamiliar to them because they come from a different tradition.

I think of Broadway as very wet material. I think of it as hot and I think of David’s early material as cool. So when you’re dealing with cool–dry instead of hot–wet, it’s very different for a dancer. We’re talking about tonality, muscularity, isolation. It’s not just musical theater dancers, it would be any dancer that wasn’t trained in more postmodern tradition.

Having said that, I’ve had very good luck with the casts that I’ve worked with on this show. So I wouldn’t say I’m worried about it.

We don’t see immersive shows on Broadway often. Are you grappling with any expectations of what a Broadway show is supposed to look like?

Look, I just did American Utopia. And that’s the only Broadway thing I’ve done. I don’t have any knowledge of Broadway, I don’t tend to see Broadway shows. And aesthetically I’m very, very far away from what you would think of as a Broadway choreographer. So I don’t go in with any knowledge of what that audience is like.

The audience for American Utopia was there to see David Byrne. And they saw him, and it was his vision. So I essentially feel like it’s his vision again, and this is just as amazing. What we’re bringing musically is as groundbreaking as Bernstein when he was on Broadway; as Cole Porter when he was on Broadway; as George Gershwin when he was on Broadway. [Byrne] is accepting no tropes—no Broadway tropes are in that show. I don’t know if that’s conscious or unconscious. He’s just telling a story through his music. And to me, it will change how people think about music on Broadway, as much as Gershwin changed it and Porter changed it and Bernstein changed it. I think it will feel super-exciting to hear storytelling in a different musical voice.

What is the storytelling role of dance in the show?

Well, story is not my middle name; I am pretty narratively challenged. I would say more that I’m creating a movement logic. I think in any piece that is made by a choreographer who’s not in a tradition of musical theater, you teach the audience the vocabulary over time. So when they first see the material, it’s not going to be familiar. There’s a diagonal slant on what’s happening in the song. So I can’t say that there’s much storytelling—I would say there’s more music-telling.

You’ve made so much more work with David since Here Lies Love first premiered. How has your collaboration grown since then?

I feel like we’ve almost created a folk dance of our own, in that there’s a world of movement that has amassed coming from my body, into the music, into the dancers. It’s like one long piece for me. And I had a lot of cues from him about what he likes and where he’s coming from through references that we share. We both really love ceremony—we share videos back and forth of coronations across the world, these ancient rituals. So that is the way I understand what interests him.

So now that you have this larger pool of references and material, will there be more layers as you build the movement? Or are you going to be true to the original movement?

I want to do more layers, but I think they really want me to keep it the same. I’m not the lead author of the piece, Alex and David are. I love being in that position. I consider myself in service to David’s music, and to the director Alex Timbers. It’s a really interesting position, because choreographers, we love limits. And then when I’m in my own room, I have the opportunity to make anything I want, and have the burden and joy of being the sole author.

Anything else you want to mention?

This time, the thing that seems very, very cool to me is that we have Filipino producers. And they are brilliant. I don’t use that word loosely. That I have conversations with Jose [Antonio] Vargas is just insane. He’s so incredible and generous and deep. I just finished his book, Dear America, and I really recommend it. I think about all the things I could have done in my life, and it seems insane that I ended up doing this. How would I have ever met someone like Jose? He’s in a completely different universe. Those interactions are really deepening for me and anything that deepens for me deepens for the dancers through osmosis.

The post Behind the Scenes with Choreographer Annie-B Parson as <i>Here Lies Love</i> Moves to Broadway appeared first on Dance Magazine.

That said: We need to talk about Kolton Krouse. Specifically, we need to talk about Kolton Krouse in the Trumpet Solo.

The solo arrived in the middle of “Sing, Sing, Sing,” DANCIN’s second-act opener, set to music made famous by Benny Goodman. A virtuosic three-minute wiggle originally created for Ann Reinking, it requires a finely calibrated combination of introspection and extroversion—“like you’re in a back room dancing for yourself in the mirror,” Krouse says. In the wrong hands (and, especially, legs), it can wilt. But Krouse teased and tickled and va-va-voomed it into full flower. By the solo’s climax, the audience was eating from the palms of Krouse’s impeccably manicured hands.

“Trumpet Solo needs an artist who can play outside of the boundaries of the steps,” says DANCIN’ cast member Dylis Croman, a Fosse veteran who memorably performed the number in the 2002 recording of Fosse. “You immediately feel that Kolton has that freedom and joy, that sense of fun, like a tiger getting ready to pounce. And let me just say: Their kick layouts are outlandishly good.”

The list of artists who’ve tackled the Trumpet Solo is short—and before Krouse, it featured only cisgender women. In DANCIN’, 27-year-old Krouse, who is nonbinary, performed the routine as part of a track that included roles in both heels and flats. (Their other big solo, “Spring Chicken,” used some of the “Mein Herr” choreography immortalized by Liza Minnelli­ in Cabaret.) It was a significant step toward inclusivity that also felt natural. Fosse asked dancers to be themselves onstage; DANCIN’ simply showed Krouse as Krouse.

“The thing about Kolton is that they are truly comfortable in their skin, which is what Bob always wanted,” says DANCIN’ director Wayne Cilento, who performed in the original 1978 production. “And that actually made it really easy to figure out the tracking. Like the Trumpet Solo: The question was, who was the best person in the room to do it? Kolton was the one.”

Krouse’s secure sense of self has been evident from a young age, bolstered by well-founded confidence in their own talent. A star of the dance competition and convention circuit, they became the first four-time National Outstanding Dancer at New York City Dance Alliance, winning the Mini title in 2007, Junior in 2009, Teen in 2012, and Senior in 2014. There were bullies in their conservative Arizona hometown, but Krouse largely shrugged them off. “My feeling was, this is such a small chunk of our lives,” they say. “Sure, you can yell at me. But pretty soon, I’m going to get out of here, and you’re probably going to stay in Arizona, and, you know—bye.”

As a student Krouse felt the pull of New York City, which had “an energy that made me feel like I belonged,” they say. Looking for ways to channel that energy, they enrolled at The Juilliard School. 

They admired the abstract concert dance repertory that shaped much of Juilliard’s­ curriculum. But soon they realized that what they really wanted to do was tell stories. “I started to focus on the idea of Broadway because it brought all the pieces together—the acting, the movement, everything I loved best,” Krouse says. They also had a difficult time with the school’s culture. “I got this sense that in order to become­ an artist, they had to break you down and then build you back up, which was not it for me.”

So Krouse was ready to leap when they heard that Andy Blankenbuehler, an acquaintance through NYCDA, was choreographing a Broadway revival of CATS. Though Krouse initially asked to audition just for the experience, they ended up booking the show. They spent their sophomore year doing double duty: full-time Juilliard student by day, Broadway feline by night. 

The show—and the (ill-starred) 2019 film, which Krouse booked some months later—marked both a professional and a personal turning point for Krouse. Wearing the full-face CATS makeup every day opened the door to further play with cosmetics, nail art, and fashion; playing a creature rather than a person allowed them freedom to explore the feminine qualities that had always been part of their dancing. 

“I started to think about, Who is Kolton Krouse?” they say. “After a lot of experimenting, everything morphed into this androgynous situation—the masculine and the feminine all bled into each other, in my dancing and offstage, too. And that’s when I found Kolton.”

Krouse dropped out of Juilliard in their senior year, after they were denied a deferral to accommodate the CATS film’s production schedule. They landed a few more high-profile commercial dance jobs—including, in a bit of foreshadowing, the FX series “Fosse/Verdon.” Finding another­ ­Broadway role proved more dif­­fi­cult. “It was really hard to get into the room as me,” Krouse says. “There were a couple projects where they said, ‘No, you can’t show up in makeup and heels.’ It felt like a constant battle.” Frustrated, they switched agencies in search of better support.

When COVID-19 shut the world down, Krouse moved back to Arizona and drifted—not not intentionally—away from dance. “I just figured I’d take the time to work on other things I’d always been curious about,” they say. They explored voice training and songwriting with the musician Mario Spinetti, a longtime friend, recording covers and filming music videos for fun. Watching Nathan Chen and Yuzuru Hanyu compete at the 2021 World Figure Skating Championships re-sparked Krouse’s childhood figure-skating dream, previously snuffed out by dance commitments. They started taking classes; a teacher channeled them toward ice dancing, where, unsurprisingly, they excelled. (You can see skating’s influence in their dancing today: the way they throw themselves up into a saut de basque as if it were an axel, the way they wrap their foot in coupé to increase their turning speed.)

In the fall of 2021, as theaters began to reopen, Krouse got the call for the DANCIN’ audition. “I was like, Bob Fosse? Yes. Immediately, yes,” they say. They’d grown up watching Cabaret, and had loved learning the nuances of Fosse style on “Fosse/Verdon.” “With Fosse, the intention is always so clear,” they say. “Even in more abstract pieces, it’s almost like a silent movie—the audience understands what the people they’re watching are feeling or thinking, and sees them as humans instead of characters.”

That emphasis on the humanity of the performers feels consistent with a more flexible approach to gender. “Bob was very forward-thinking in that way,” says Corinne McFadden Herrera, DANCIN’s associate director and musical stager, who also helped with choreographic reconstruction. “Already in Cabaret, in the ’60s and ’70s, he was creating characters with an androgynous fluidity.” The DANCIN’ team didn’t seek out gender-nonconforming performers or plan to cast roles against gender “type,” but they embraced the fullness of Krouse’s identity—and skill set. 

“If Bob had had a Kolton in his life, he would’ve loved it,” Cilento says. “He would never have hidden that talent.”

Though the show made little fanfare about its casting choices, it sat at the middle of a conversation unfolding across Broadway about how the industry can better include nonbinary performers. Onstage celebrations of artists like Some Like It Hot’s J. Harrison Ghee and & Juliet’s Justin David Sullivan belie ongoing concerns about gendered awards-show categories and casting processes. 

“I think change could be coming, and I think it’s definitely getting better with certain directors and choreographers, but it’s still really tricky,” Krouse says. They’ve been unsure, for example, about how to navigate recent calls for “female-presenting” and “male-presenting” performers. Usually they end up essentially auditioning twice. 

“If it feels right, you can show them the combo in a heel and then the second time do it in a flat,” they say. “It’s hard. But if they’re not allowing space for you, you have to make space for yourself.”

Eventually, Krouse hopes to carve out space in other fields, too. They’re still studying voice, and plan to return to skating at some point. You might see them onscreen someday, acting in a horror film (“Wouldn’t that be incredibly fun?”) or a superhero movie (“I could do all the stunts”). And they hope to walk in fashion week—a dream that, for a person seemingly born to wear heels, feels eminently attainable. 

The DANCIN’ cast included some of the best movers on Broadway, yet Krouse was repeatedly singled out by critics. (The New York Times review called them “the one with the face-slapping kicks,” an epithet since featured in Krouse’s Instagram bio.) That attention, Krouse says, was a nice surprise. But they were more excited about the visibility than the praise. 

“Honestly, I wouldn’t even have cared if everyone hated it, as long as I could connect with that one person who hadn’t seen themselves onstage before,” they say. “What I really want for my art is for people to come away from it saying, ‘That makes me want to be more me.’ ”

The post Kolton Krouse Blazes Their Own Trail On Broadway and Beyond appeared first on Dance Magazine.

As a fellow scribe and a one-time member of the Writers Guild of America, I fully support the strike. I must admit, however, that I didn’t miss the missing words; and, apart from a brief moment where DeBose lost the thread, neither did anyone on the stage. There were multiple shout-outs in support of the writers, and gratitude for the last-minute agreement that allowed the show to proceed. But the eloquence and emotion of these affairs come from the acceptance speeches, not scripted introductions and banter—whose absence allowed time for more snippets from nominated performances, and for efficiencies that facilitated an on-time close. The large onstage projections identifying who was who and what was what kept it all legible.

What made it fun was the joy—verging on delirium—that greeted all the performers filing offstage after their numbers, past those waiting to go on next. The Tonys are a competition, but you wouldn’t have known it from the backstage vibe captured in the show. The history-making Tonys won by two nonbinary actors—J. Harrison Ghee, the blossoming Jerry/Daphne of Some Like It Hot, and Alex Newell, the showstopping Lulu of Shucked—left the other nominees cheering.

The warmth and familial admiration pervading so much of the evening came through when Nicholaw accepted the choreography prize for Some Like It Hot. He started out thanking his 90-year-old mother and segued into heartfelt appreciation for the contribution of Glen Kelly, who did the show’s dance arrangements—a crucial element of musical theater that lacks a Tony category of its own. Unfortunately, Nicholaw’s prize, and Jeanine Tesori and David Lindsay-Abaire’s for scoring Kimberly Akimbo, were awarded before the CBS broadcast, in the streamed segment called “The Tony Awards: Act One”—so the television audience entirely missed the awards for the very things that make musicals musical.

Which prompts another observation. Dance is indisputably one half of what makes musicals musical. With five Tonys, the most of the evening, Kimberly Akimbo was the clear favorite of the Tony voters, who seem irresistibly drawn to what the New York Times theater critic Jesse Green calls “nerdicals”—serious shows with small casts and minimal opportunities for what we normally think of when we picture Broadway dance. This leaves gorgeous extravaganzas like New York, New York and Some Like It Hot at something of a disadvantage in the all-important Best Musical category. Shouldn’t there be an additional Tony honoring simple showmanship? A play might win it now and again, but I’ll bet that most of the time, the winner would have a kick line.

The post Tony Awards Recap: Writer-Less, Dance-Filled appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Though that might sound a little risky, it also offered an opportunity, in the words of choreographer Karla Puno Garcia, “to lift dance in a really big way.” Garcia isn’t new to the Tonys; she was associate choreographer and a dancer for Sergio Trujillo’s opening number in 2021, and has performed in the show with the casts of Gigi and Hamilton. Now, as choreographer, she gets to help create the vision for a broadcast in which dance will definitely be taking on some main-character energy.

Although she couldn’t share details on exactly what that will look like (“You’ll just have to tune in!” she says), Garcia was able to offer the scoop on how the opportunity came together, and what it was like to collaborate with triple-threat host Ariana DeBose.

How did you find out that you’d be choreographing this year’s Tonys?
Ariana DeBose called me and asked if I was interested and available. I said yes and yes! [Laughs]

That was a few weeks ago. I was in tech rehearsal for Days of Wine and Roses at the Atlantic Theater when she called. (I’m co-choreographer with Sergio Trujillo.) That just opened Monday night. I also just started a new immersive show called Tipsy Whispers on Monday. So I am not sleeping, but I’m so grateful, and my mind has just been creating content like wild.

What’s your history with Ariana? Did your time in Hamilton overlap?
Very briefly. She was on her way out while I was still learning the show. But that was one of many crossovers we’ve had. We’ve been in the trenches with each other as dancers, as performers, trying to book our slots in Broadway shows. We’ve performed in gigs together. And she has always been a supporter of my choreography. So we have a mutual respect for each other, and it was really cool to see a peer—now turned Oscar winner!—recognized in such a big way. She is a force!

Why do you think she chose you?
I think our tastes align. We both love musicality. We love dynamics and spicing things up in a similar way. Ari is an incredible dancer, an amazing showman, and, on top of that, she’s really funky. We both like kind of bringing the old and the new together, a classic vibe with a modern twist.

Is dance taking on a more prominent role this year because the show is unscripted?
I think in our industry, it’s easy to overlook a dance ensemble or just the element of dance. And this year, it’s really cool to bring light upon dance in a big way because of the circumstances. The opening number is just a huge celebration of dance. And, without giving too much away, I did get to choreograph another moment later in the show. And that’s all I’ll say. [Laughs]

Why do you think dancers typically get overlooked?
We tell stories through our bodies, and there are no words. Our bodies are the words. But I think we are at a point when we’re gonna start to see a huge wave of telling stories through dance, especially onstage. There’s a new generation of choreographers and creatives and directors that have different perspectives, and I think this diverse group is going to mix it up.

What does it mean to you to be able to work on something that reaches so many people?
I remember watching the Tony Awards with my family when I was 9 years old—seeing Broadway shows on my TV—and getting excited to not only watch them live but, eventually, hopefully get to be in them. To be a part of creating the vision that does that is super-super-special.

The post Karla Puno Garcia on Choreographing an Unusual Tony Awards appeared first on Dance Magazine.

I began acting in college while in the depths of my illness. At the time my body was barely functioning well enough to accomplish basic tasks, let alone sustain grand allégro. But my heart yearned for performance and creative expression, so I decided to try my hand at something dance adjacent—acting.

I was terrified on my first day of class. I had no idea what to expect or how to prepare. I wanted to be respectful of the customs of an acting class, and I didn’t want to look silly. (Spoiler alert, there is no way to avoid looking silly, so just lean into it.) I wanted a play-by-play of what to expect, but instead, I had to jump in blind and hope everything went okay. (It did, but I could have done without the added anxiety.)

So for those of you who are looking to improve your dancing through acting, I caught up with my teacher, Andrew Polk, who leads the class I’m taking on on-camera technique at The Freeman Studio. You may recognize him from films like Armageddon Time and television shows like Billions, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, House of Cards, and more. Here, he shares what to expect, how to prepare, and what he thinks dancers could take away from a class like his.

What to Expect

First, it’s important to know that every acting class is going to be a little bit different. Each teacher will have a unique approach, and the medium (theater or on-camera) will change the experience entirely. For example, Polk wants dancers to know that they are not at a disadvantage in an on-camera class because they don’t have heavy theater training as actors. “Working on camera is like another art form. It’s like you were playing basketball your whole life and then someone asked you to play the violin.”

That said, you can likely plan on a few things regardless of the teacher or medium. First, you will likely perform a scene at the front of the room with your teacher and class watching. Then the teacher will provide feedback for you to apply to your work (just like in a dance class). You will then have the opportunity to watch other class members perform their respective scenes, as well.

How to Prepare

For Polk’s class, scene assignments are sent out a few days before the first day of class and we are expected to have done text analysis and be off-book (memorized) by the time class begins. Each subsequent week follows this same pattern. In other courses I’ve taken in college or at The Freeman Studio, the first day of class has been more of an introduction to the course while the teacher outlines their expectations, and then we’re expected to be off-book by the next class. If your instructor doesn’t send out an email ahead of time to let you know what to prepare, I recommend reaching out and politely asking what their expectations are for your first day.

You can prepare by reading the scene, digging into the given circumstances, and familiarizing yourself with your character (and, of course, your lines). “Preparation is necessary—you need that kind of discipline,” Polk says.” Even more important than that, he wants you to bring your instincts. “A lot of what I teach is to trust your instinctual response to the material,” he says. “Often that is hard. A lot of people want to approach things the right way, but there is no ‘right way.’ Dancers are really in touch with their instincts and their bodies, and I think that would be very helpful.”

Classroom Rules

Each acting teacher will have different expectations for classroom etiquette, but for Polk, he wants students to be prepared, on time, and void of judgment. “Don’t judge your character or other actors,” he says. “In my class you spend a lot of time watching others. We are not there to perform for each other, we are there to work. So when you see other people work, you shouldn’t judge them, you should imagine you are them. It’s a really great way to learn.”

How Polk Believes Dancers Can Benefit From Acting

When students finish a cycle of his class, Polk hopes they know what it feels like to successfully act for the camera. “I want them to have progressed,” he says. For dancers specifically, he would hope that a class like his would expand their performance. “Can you tell a story that is not technical? Can you let go of your technical ability and lean into the story and into the character and be messy? If you are creating life, if you are creating a moment, that is what you are aiming for. That is the main challenge and reward for a dancer who is not used to that.”

Curious about what an acting class actually looks like? Head on over to Dance Magazine’s YouTube channel. There I share a day in my life as I prepare for, and attend, one of Polk’s “On Camera Technique” classes.

The post Begin Again: Acting for Dancers appeared first on Dance Magazine.

I lied about my height on my résumé the entire time I was a dancer, though in truth I don’t think the extra inch ever actually made a difference. In the United States, 5’6″ still reads as short for a man no matter how you slice it. The reason for my deception was that height was frequently the reason I was disqualified: choreographers often wanted taller male dancers for the ensemble and listed a minimum height requirement (usually 5’11” and up) in the casting breakdown. More than once, I was disqualified before I could even set foot in the audition because I possessed an unchangeable physical characteristic that frequently made me unemployable in the industry.

I was learning an object lesson in Broadway’s body politics—and, of course, had I not been a white cisgender non-disabled man, the barriers to employment would have been compounded even further. I wasn’t alone in feeling stuck in a catch-22. Not being cast because of your appearance, or “type” in industry lingo, is casting’s status quo. The casting process openly discriminates on the basis of appearance. This truism even made its way into a song cut from A Chorus Line (1975) called “Broadway Boogie Woogie,” which comically lists all the reasons one might not be cast: “I’m much too tall, much too short, much too thin/Much too fat, much too young for the role/I sing too high, sing too low, sing too loud.” Funny Girl (1964) put it even more bluntly: “If a Girl isn’t pretty/Like a Miss Atlantic City/She should dump the stage/And try another route.” Broadway profoundly ties an actor’s employability to their appearance; when an actor enters the audition room they put their body on the line: do they have a Broadway Body or not? A Chorus Line’s “Dance: Ten, Looks: Three” memorably musicalizes this moment when the character Val relates how her appearance prevented her from booking jobs until she had plastic surgery.

The dominance of what I call the Broadway Body—the hyper-fit, muscular, tall, conventionally attractive, exceptionally able triple-threat performer (one highly skilled in acting, dancing, and singing)—became Broadway’s ideal body as the result of a confluence of aesthetic, economic, and sociocultural factors. The Broadway Body is akin to the ballet body since it too contains the paradox of remaining an unattainable ideal since even those who come close to the ideal must still strive for it, too. Dancers internalize this quest for perfection and know it well.

In theatre, the Broadway Body ideal sets unrealistic standards enforced by industry gatekeepers—from agents and casting directors to producers and college professors. That appearance matters for performers is old news (the Ziegfeld girls were not all chosen for their dance talent back in the 1910s), but Broadway’s pervasive body-shaming is only beginning to be openly discussed in the industry itself. A 2019 study found that two-thirds of performers had been asked to change their appearance, and that 33% of those had been told to lose weight. As a result of the pressure to look a certain way, a small industry of Broadway-focused fitness companies like Built for the Stage and Mark Fisher Fitness sprang up in response.

Backstage noted that Mark Fisher Fitness “is particularly popular among those in the performing arts community looking to get a ‘Broadway Body.’” Other theatrical press picked up on the idea; an article in Playbill asked, “Who doesn’t want a Broadway body?” The Broadway Body is not merely a marketing ploy but a concept grounded in an appearance-based hierarchy. Even some notable Broadway stars capitalized on the connection of Broadway and fitness: in the 1980s, original West Side Story star Carol Lawrence released a workout video titled Carol Lawrence’s Broadway Body Workout, Broadway dancer Ann Reinking wrote a book called The Dancer’s Workout, and even six-time Tony Award winner Angela Lansbury got in on the game by releasing a workout video called Angela Lansbury’s Positive Moves.

The ever-increasing demands of performing a Broadway musical eight times a week necessitate some of the changes seen in Broadway Bodies, from notably higher technical demands placed on dancers to challenging vocal tracks. Artistic choices carry economic implications in commercial entertainment. The wear and tear on the body caused by the repetitive nature of performing a musical eight times a week increases the financial pressure and the physical toll for performers; life offstage becomes about staying fit to prevent injury and staying ready for the next job. Performers must pay more attention than ever to their bodies to remain competitive and employable.

Because the number of spots in the chorus typically outnumber speaking roles, Broadway’s bodily norms most often adhere to the body fascism of the dance and fitness worlds, which strictly regulates and disciplines the appearance and behaviors of the performer’s body into thinness. But these norms do not only impact those in the ensemble: the New York Times reported how Dreamgirls (1981) star Jennifer “Holliday’s weight fluctuations were often the subject of tabloid fodder, but much of the cast felt the pressure to be unrealistically thin,” including Holliday’s co-star Sheryl Lee Ralph, who “realized she was wasting away” due to this pressure. The emphasis on thinness comes at a cost to performers. On Broadway, casting is the site where these concerns come to a head. Even though there is a newfound awareness around the dangers of promoting thinness at all costs, it remains all-too-common for performers, especially dancers, to be told they are somehow inferior because of their appearance.

The post The Body Politics of Broadway: An Excerpt From the Recently Released Book <i>Broadway Bodies: A Critical History of Conformity</i> Sheds Light on Musical Theater’s Longtime Fixation on Physique appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Much like the concept of Martin and David West Read’s madcap show, which pairs pop hits with an imagined future for Shakespeare’s Juliet, Nicholas’ role is a mash-up: She’s a swing, the show’s dance captain and an understudy. As dance captain, she’s responsible for knowing the 12 ensemble tracks and all of the dancing for eight principals. She also acts as an extension of the choreographic team, maintaining the choreography and integrity of the show, taking notes, leading rehearsals and a daily warm-up, and teaching new cast members their parts.

Like many of musical theater’s unsung heroes, Nicholas, 33, has built a career around her ability to hold the intricacies of an entire show in her head. Nicholas credits this skill set with growing up on a competition team at the Academy of Dance and Gymnastics in Newport News, Virginia. “From age 10, I would be in seven routines total, and I’d learn them all in one week,” she says. At the urging of a competition judge, Nicholas started auditioning for musical theater in New York City during her senior year of high school. “I went in for a little show called Billy Elliot,” jokes Nicholas. “I didn’t know what a swing was at all, but they clearly saw something in me.” Nicholas was also the dance captain of Billy Elliot’s Toronto production. “That credit has now opened the door for all these other swing and dance captain contracts,” she says, highlights of which include the Broadway run of Mean Girls and the national tour of Matilda.

Nicholas’ experience was recognized during & Juliet’s opening night last November. As the ensemble member with the most Broadway credits, she was awarded the Legacy Robe, a decades-long Actors’ Equity tradition. “I’ve been able to check off so many bucket-list things here,” Nicholas says of her time in & Juliet.

Earlier this year Dance Magazine went backstage with Nicholas, following her from rehearsal to warm-up to backstage preparation as she juggled the roles of swing, dance captain and understudy.

A Childhood Dream

“When I was 10 years old, Britney Spears’ first album came out, and I wanted to be a backup dancer for her. Max Martin wrote so much of her music, so this musical is full circle for me. Obviously I’m not a pop star—that never happened for me—but I can pretend to be one here, and sing all my favorite songs. Meeting and working with Max is an amazing thing.”

Managing the Details

“Being a dance captain is unique because you are an extension of the creative team, and you’re also on the ground with the company. I work closely with the choreographer, Jen, and her associate, Esosa. Day-to-day I am responsible for our voluntary warm-up and also spacing onstage if an understudy is going on last minute. I help run rehearsals, and I help teach new tracks. I work with the stage managers, as well, staying up to date with the spike marks and what’s happening with the crew. On some really crazy days when we don’t have enough people, we do split-tracking, where one person might be doing more than one track at a time. I come up with the puzzle pieces of how the show will run smoothly—without the audience knowing we don’t have enough people.”

Getting to Work

“If we have rehearsal at 12:30 or a 1:00 call time, I try to be up by 9:30. I put my coffee on and then get in the shower and start vocally warming up. I have a gym in my building, but if I can’t make it down there, I always try to do some Pilates or yoga, just something to get my body going. I live in Harrison, New Jersey, so I take the PATH train and transfer to the subway at World Trade Center. I like the commute, because the show is very full-throttle. I’ll listen to my favorite jams, and get myself ready for the day.”

Before Showtime

“We get an hour and a half between rehearsal and the show, and I try to eat dinner right away so I can digest. When I show up to the theater, I like to have a bit of downtime, then I normally run warm-up and then will pop around and give notes. Then if I’m on, at half-hour I get into hair and makeup. If I’m not on, I’ll still sit on standby and figure out if I need to take notes or hang out in the wings.”

Tidying Up

“Dance clean-up days are always exciting. We’ve been busy putting in our understudies, so we haven’t had a chance to go through each number and remind ourselves of the pictures in the choreography and our intention. It’s nice to get time to really clean things up.”

Celebrating Differences

“& Juliet is different because we have people who specialize in breaking and people who have sung pop and R&B all of their lives, and now we’re in this melting pot of a musical theater show. Everybody gets to express themselves how they want onstage; we’re all dressed based on our personalities. It’s the first show where I feel like we are all different for a reason, and it’s celebrated.”

Staying Focused

“I’ve been doing the show so long now that I can be completely involved in the track I’m doing, but also keep an eye out, just because as a swing, we have so many moving parts. A sign’s flying out, or someone’s coming past you with a chair, that you always have to be aware of your surroundings. But depending on the role I’m doing, when I do have scene work, I will focus more on my intentions and lines and connecting with my scene partner.”

Life as a Swing

“Swinging is such a rewarding job because you’re really important. You have a pretty big job knowing the tracks and helping the show run and staying calm under pressure. The downfall is that you’re not in a track every night, so it’s hard for people to come and see you. You want to go on and blend in, which is the whole point. But when you’re not recognized for it, sometimes it’ll make you forget how special you are. Swings are now getting more recognition. I do love it, but I also know that I would love to be an onstage track, or move up and be an associate, meaning I would work even more closely with the choreographer.”

On the Right Track

“I take a lot of notes. The tech process was so fast, you would catch me in the wings writing down stuff frantically, because the more information I have, the better. Once I learn the show, I go track by track and have a notebook with a sheet for each track. Now that I know the show with my eyes closed, I can use process of elimination to figure out who’s around me. But it’s a lot of studying and quizzing myself. And knowing when I’m at capacity, and being like, ‘Okay, maybe don’t do anything extra tonight.’”

Going Onstage

“I actually go on a lot, just because doing eight shows a week is really hard. When one of the leads calls out, like Juliet or Anne [Hathaway, Shakespeare’s wife], one of the understudies in the ensemble is bumped up, so then as a swing I’ll go into that track. There are six swings total, and different variables depending on if people are sick or injured. It’s fun, because I feel like it’s always something new. It’s never the same show.”

The post Behind the Scenes with Brittany Nicholas, Dance Captain and Swing in Broadway’s <i>& Juliet</i> appeared first on Dance Magazine.

In between, the work grew from an idea into a two-act musical; its main character evolved from a maharaja juggling three wives to a king coping with one; and its author progressed from Broadway newcomer (albeit one with a Tony for In the Heights) to celebrated choreographer (add two Tonys—Hamilton and Bandstand—and other honors, including a Dance Magazine Award). Naturally, just about everyone involved assumed that MCC was step one on the way to Only Gold’s Broadway opening.

I thought so too—I’ve admired Blankenbuehler since the original, unheralded, off-Broadway production of In the Heights, with its Robbins-like flow of totally integrated dance. That’s now his signature, and with Only Gold, he upped his already expert game, weaving dance into every aspect—texture, plot, the very essence of character.

Reporting for Dance Magazine over the years, I’ve watched Blankenbuehler push choreography further and further to the forefront of his musicals, following the path laid by Jerome Robbins, Susan Stroman and Twyla Tharp. He told me about Only Gold some 10 years ago, when he was working with a handful of dancers on choreography for Bring It On, the 2012 show that was his first Broadway musical as a director. He was brimming with excitement about another new piece: Paris in the 1920s! What could be more vibrant? And did I know the work of the British singer-songwriter Kate Nash?

He was a fan, and she’d agreed to let him use her quirky, rhythmic music for a show based on Bhupinder Singh, Maharaja­ of Patiala, who set 1920s Europe agog when he arrived from India with fabulous wealth, immense charisma, multiple wives and a trunkful of gemstones for Cartier to mount. The eye-popping necklace that resulted, and the sad ending of its owner, who died at 46, inspired Blankenbuehler’s story, about someone who has everything, but nothing that makes him happy.

Shortly before Only Gold closed, he phoned from London—he was on one of his regular working visits to Europe’s Hamiltons—to look back at the show’s “tumultuous life,” and ahead to its unknown future. Because the carping reviews had turned its Broadway ambitions to dust.

“My brain has been upside-down these past few weeks,” he admits. “In some ways the reviews surprised me, and in some ways they didn’t. I know there are tremendous moments—moments­ I’m extraordinarily proud of. At the same time, I’m aware how the audience is reacting. So I knew that there were still a lot of things that we had to work on—I was game for that.” What he wasn’t ready for was the overall negativity: “Even though a lot said really nice things, they still pointed up the problems more than the pros. So [pause]…that was just a little hard.”

No wonder, given that Blankenbuehler is the musical’s conceiver, co-author (with Ted Malawer), director and choreographer. “Trying to figure out the way a story grasps an audience is difficult,” he says. “I’m really good at it as a choreographer. But when I’m looking at a wider swath, a much wider picture, then it’s a complicated thing. I guess that’s the trouble you get into when you wear a lot of hats.”

It doesn’t help that with seven productions of Hamilton to oversee, that show’s achievements are always in his face. “It’s so good, so well-built, that it just messes you up—it’s really hard to figure out what kind of work to do next. Hamilton is so clean, so efficiently made—that’s one of the things that’s most intimidating. Efficiency is difficult.”

If Only Gold meanders a bit, it’s not because of the choreography. There was general agreement that the dances are superb and the dancers astounding—Tharp favorite Karine Plantadit, “So You Think You Can Dance” sensation Gaby Diaz, West Side Story veteran Ryan Steele, frequent Blankenbuehler collaborator Ryan VanDenBoom. But each of the 13 ensemble members was also a standout. Blankenbuehler himself couldn’t get over them.

“When you make a show,” he says, “you try to get different skill sets. Within an ensemble of, say, five men, one will be a very experienced partner, one does extraordinary things on the floor, one is eccentric and goofy—they do different things. So blocking is really hard. Figuring out who goes where, it’s ‘I have to get him stage right, because he sings this high note and then he has to do this lift.’ It’s a lot of work. But I didn’t have to worry, because they could all do everything.”

Naturally, he gave the ensemble wondrous things to do, which goes back to his experience dancing in Broadway choruses. He loved it, he says, but he longed to be something you can’t be in most Broadway ensembles: an individual. He wanted Only Gold to offer each an opportunity to “step forward” as a specific human being.

They play Parisians in the street when King Belenus (the majestic Terrence Mann) and his entourage arrive from their mythical homeland, and then become servants and jewelers and partygoers as the King, his lonely queen (Plantadit, riveting) and their headstrong daughter (Diaz, dazzling) contend over whom she will marry; the family becomes enmeshed with a talented watchmaker (VanDenBoom) and his musician wife (Hannah Cruz), who struggle with thwarted artistic ambitions. Nash, as the singing Narrator, announces the theme at the outset: “listening to your heart.” But making musicals also means listening to your head.

Blankenbuehler’s initial pitch to Nash was a black-and-white “mini-film” with swirling dancers in berets and such pairing off into flirty, French-flavored duets. When Nash agreed, he began the tinkering that would fill his downtime for the next decade and expand four minutes of dance to evening length.

“For, like, 10 years, it was really just a therapy project, me exercising my impulses,” he says. “When you’re making a new show, you’re problem-solving—not often using impulses that you dream about your whole life. All these years you’re learning this amazing tap rhythm over there, you have this amazing hip-hop class over here—things that create fires in you. But we’re hardly able to employ those things when we’re working.”

Teaching helped. “I was using my classes at Broadway Dance Center, each 45-second combination, as opportunities to experiment. My writing projects became the next step—me writing down the balletic ideas that I had in my head.” When a job came up, he’d stop, resuming after a show opened. “I’d teach a couple of the Only Gold dances in a class, and spend nights working on the script. It was a way to recharge my batteries.”

By 2013, it was ready for a lab, which he used to figure out if Only Gold was a ballet or a musical, and to learn that the songs needed more specificity if it was to be a musical. “And then the piece went away,” he says, “because of Hamilton, Cats, everything.” It stayed gone until 2018, when he did a four-week workshop of it that never got past the first act. But in a tantalizing showing, that first act had gorgeous, impassioned dancing from Seán Martin Hingston as the Maharaja and Alessandra Ferri as his first love, now the senior wife in a household that included Georgina Pazcoguin and Justice Moore as the younger wives. “Again, I continued to learn about it in different ways,” Blankenbuehler says, “and I was actually planning to stay focused on it.” But the Cats movie and the COVID-19 pandemic intervened, “and it really lost momentum,” he says.

In any case, he’d decided that the story needed to be clarified and the number of characters pared down. “The story I wanted to tell actually had nothing to do with polygamy,” he says. “It was about a person who simply had followed everything society and culture had told him would make him content and powerful. And he stopped listening to what would make himself happy.” So the Maharaja gave way to King Belenus and the wise eldest wife to Queen Roksana, while the wild youngest wife became Princess Tooba. The Parisians involved in various subplots remained, and in several cases, so did their casting, with Steele and VanDenBoom reprising their roles from the workshop.

The two months Blankenbuehler spent getting the piece onstage at MCC were the toughest of his career, he says, describing frantic, ridiculously long days and nights that nevertheless left him smiling. “I was so happy because I was getting to do the gutsy work I always wanted to do, but also, I was telling a story about heart. You know me—I have a real life, my family, my wife and my kids, and I want to tell a story that keeps going back to the heart.”

Then the critics arrived. He says he’d stopped reading reviews­ 12 years ago, but started again after the glowing notices for Hamilton. “That’s not smart; that’s not good,” he maintains. “This time around, I decided to not read the reviews.” But when everyone around him said, “You need to read the reviews,” he relented. Not surprisingly, he’s thought about them in the deep way he thinks about everything.

“The difficulty,” he notes, “is there’s lots of different things to be reviewed. There is emotional impact. There is the idea of using vocabulary in new ways. And the bottom line is people have a hard time talking about dance. So if I’m trying to do something where dance is integral to the storytelling, I have to know that most people who talk about it won’t be able to in a way that really does it justice.” His way of dealing? “You’ve got to take the good with the bad.”

Also, he adds, “I have my own criticism, so I keep working. I keep working until I can’t work anymore.” Even across the Atlantic, he’s pondering “the road map” to making Only Gold successful. “It’s not so much ‘Let’s change this scene.’ It’s bigger ideas, about how the audience should feel as they progress into the story.” And he’s also thinking about what a successful Only Gold would actually mean.

“There’s a line in the show about how you define success,” he says. “So I’m like, ‘Okay, Andy how do you define success?’ You wrote a show that was produced, and people said, ‘These are some of the best dances I’ve ever seen.’ And I also look at them with such pride. That should all be success. Unfortunately, I’m also the maker of the show, so figuring out how to define success is a big deal. For me, success isn’t: You run the show for four weeks and it goes into people’s hearts and minds and dies. It’s gone—that’s not success to me. Success to me is it keeps going.”

To that end, he thinks Only Gold might be perfected with a pickup cast and tour to venues like Sadler’s Wells, following Matthew Bourne’s example. What won’t change is that distinctive mix of music, dance and dialogue that characterizes even dance-driven musicals, though the reviews did prompt some soul-searching. “I went through several weeks of really asking myself questions, like ‘Do I need to forsake this goal of experimenting with this fusion of dance and theater?’ I don’t like dance theater—I like when people talk,” he says.

Still, he says he’s open to working with existing dance companies on new story ballets. “I have to tell a story,” he says. “An idea that has a beginning, a middle and an end.” And there are other limits: “I have to decide how much I’m willing to not dance. My ideas are only getting bigger. But my dancing’s not. I’m still dancing hard, but 10 years from now I’m not gonna be dancing that hard. So my ideas will still be detailed and specific, but my ability to envision that choreography won’t be.”

I remind him that many choreographers work well into their 80s, but he reminds me that they’re basically doing the same type of work year after year. “The difficulty is every show is different from the one before,” he notes. “I’m doing swing dancing one day and cheerleading the next.”

And Paris in the ’20s the next. “Now,” he says, “my job is to be really honest with myself: Can I make Only Gold really a great show? I don’t want to make a good show; I want to make a great show. What’s so interesting with a piece like this is when something works really well, you have to go into surgery saying, ‘Okay, how can I not touch that organ?’ ”

An earlier version of this article appeared on dancemagazine.com on November 23, 2022. 

The post Andy Blankenbuehler Opens Up About <i>Only Gold</i> and the Road Ahead appeared first on Dance Magazine.

I also recall the frenzied anticipation that attended its arrival­ in 1988—it was A Chorus Line all over again, Hamilton before Hamilton. When someone asked, “Have you seen it yet?” there was only one show they could be talking about—it seemed you just hadn’t lived if you hadn’t experienced that swooping chandelier, that magical boat ride on a candlelit underground lake and Michael Crawford’s diabolically seductive singing of “The Music of the Night.” When the season ended, Phantom snagged 10 Tony nominations and won seven awards, including Best Musical.

I don’t know if the show feels quite as sensational to the people lining up outside the theater these days—some for the umpteenth time. They are part of a worldwide audience that now comes to more than 145 million who’ve bought tickets to productions in 17 languages to watch Christine swoon for the Phantom while Raoul swoons for her. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical is a proven commodity, a theatrical sure thing, and it’s not just the most-seen show in Broadway’s history. It has also made more money and employed more New Yorkers—about 6,500 in all, some 400 on the stage, many of them ex-bunheads dancing the late Gillian Lynne’s choreography.

One of them was Carly Blake Sebouhian, who was finishing up at School of American Ballet but couldn’t see herself fitting into a ballet company. So she took singing lessons and auditioned for theater, joining the Phantom cast in 2003. She had just turned 19 and was by far its youngest dancer. Now, nearly 20 years later, she reckons she’s the oldest. She’s left the show to do other projects—“It’s a unique thing to be able to expand your creative muscles and do something brand-new,” she says—but only briefly. “They always let people return, which is really cool. So even though there are people in and out all the time, it’s sort of always the same people—like this big, giant family.” In an industry where most jobs are short-lived, the myriad ballet dancers who’ve cycled in and out of its casts—whether in London, New York or the 181 other cities it’s played—have come, like the audience, to rely on The Phantom of the Opera.

It may be difficult to wrap our brains around its absence, but it’s no trouble to envision the art of the musical if it had never come along—which is not what you would say about other landmark shows. There’s a through line running from Oklahoma! to West Side Story to A Chorus Line that traces the growing importance of a musical’s choreography to its storytelling. With Contact and Movin’ Out, Susan Stroman and Twyla Tharp took that model even further, entrusting those shows’ narratives entirely to the dance. For me, that line has always represented progress, and despite the quantity and quality of Lynne’s work, Phantom stands firmly—proudly, even—outside it.

The story could hardly be told without a ballet chorus. Gaston Leroux’s lurid 1910 novel begins backstage with terrified young dancers fleeing the ghost they’ve heard rumors about, and when the Phantom finally shows up, his first words are “The ballet-girls are right.” At the start of the renowned 1925 silent film starring Lon Chaney, the curtain of the Paris Opéra rises on nearly four dozen dancers in Romantic­ tutus waltzing on pointe. Despite this ballet-centric­ setting, the musical’s choreography turns out to be quite extraneous—it provides lavish entertainment, along with the late Maria Björnson’s opulent sets and costumes and the sure-handed direction of the late Harold Prince. But Phantom’s dance numbers recall those in old-style musicals and, indeed, in the 19th-century operas that are part of the plot.

It’s peculiar, but not really surprising. For all their talent and decades of experience, Prince and Lloyd Webber were never among the theater artists who saw dance as the primary driver of musicals—although, ironically enough, as a fledgling producer, Prince was instrumental in bringing West Side Story to the stage. Working together and separately, on shows large and small, Prince and Lloyd Webber made work that focused on what a veteran of Broadway ensembles once described to me as “park and bark”—musicals where the dances are decorative interludes between songs and book scenes. And with Prince’s history-making “concept” musicals, like Company and Sweeney Todd, and Lloyd Webber’s history-making spectacles, like Cats and Phantom, that work has been vastly influential.

So you have to wonder, looking at a Phantom-less Broadway, what the next record-shattering behemoth will look like. The last 10 years of Tony winners run the gamut—they are romantic extravaganzas (Moulin Rouge!) and serious chamber pieces (The Band’s Visit); they use choreography in ways traditional (Kinky Boots) and bold (A Strange Loop); they are dance-heavy (Hamilton) and dance-light (Fun Home). For some of the nearly 20 million theatergoers who have seen Phantom at the Majestic, it’s been the thrill of a lifetime, their one exposure to a ravishing art form that New Yorkers often take for granted. For others, it’s been an obsession, a regular injection of an essential drug. And, of course, there are the haters, who see its success as proof that tourists are just too ignorant to appreciate Sondheim. For me, it’s been a constant reminder that when it comes to Broadway musicals, the work is never finished—Phantom was neither the apogee of the form nor a trashy entertainment for the masses. And I hope all of the above are eager to see what comes next. For Lloyd Webber, what comes next is Bad Cinderella, an updated, sardonic version of the fairy tale with choreography by JoAnn M. Hunter (School of Rock—The Musical). Its first preview is the day before Phantom closes. Fingers crossed. .

The post What Has <i>The Phantom of the Opera</i> Meant for Dance and Dancers on Broadway? appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Walker’s Broadway debut was in On the Town at age 16; he went on to dance in Ambassador and Lorelei as well as in Fosse’s The Pajama Game, Pippin and Dancin’ before moving to Los Angeles to teach and perform in commercials. He returned to Broadway to perform in the 1986 revival of Sweet Charity, Fosse’s final production before his death. In 1998, Walker co-conceived and recreated choreography for the tribute musical Fosse, which won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1999. In 2013, he was nominated for a Tony for his choreography for the revival of Pippin. 

Walker choreographed and taught Fosse style jazz all over the world, including spending nearly 20 years directing the musical theater program at Jacob’s Pillow. At the time of his death, Walker was at work on two new musicals: Feelin’ in the Mood, The Glenn Miller Musical and Jack Cole, The Musical. (Walker also worked to codify Cole’s work.) 

A public memorial will be held at a later date.

Header photo by Nathan Johnson, courtesy Michael Moore Agency.

The post Honoring Chet Walker (1954-2022) appeared first on Dance Magazine.

As part of the ensemble cast of seven Black women, Miller barely leaves the stage for the full 90-minute run time. Directed and choreographed by Camille A. Brown (nominated for two Tony Awards for her direction and choreography), the play is athletic and rigorous—jumping, skipping, stomping, drumming on bodies, rolling on the floor, pushing out breath to communicate through sound in addition to speech. As Lady in Red, Miller goes through the emotional wringer, delivering one of the most tragic poems of the piece, “Beau Willie Brown,” about an abusive relationship and a woman who watches her children die at the hands of their father, her ex-lover. Managing all this is impressive enough, but (as of publication) Miller is also just over 38 weeks pregnant.

“My doctor was like, ‘We’ll wait to the 30th [of May], but right now where you are, she’s viable, so she can come whenever she wants,’ ” says Miller. “Getting ready for the show I’m like, ‘Little girl, do not come onstage, do not make your entrance onstage.’ ”

Miller wants to give herself over to every last performance of this work (which was set to close early, on May 22, but has been given an extension until June 5—thanks to the boost from a Twitter campaign and seven Tony nominations, including one for Miller). Still, she says that listening to her doctors and her body is the priority.

“I wanted to be a part of this production for a long time, and my husband and I have wanted a child for a very long time,” says Miller. “It’s just so many dreams coming true. I don’t take it for granted at all. The nomination is a huge gift, but she’s the prize.”

Miller and her husband have been married 17 years and had “given up” on conceiving a child, but her community and cast have carried her through this moment of great surprise. “I’m so grateful, and to have such a tribe of women that every day—from day one—they have lifted me up, made me feel really strong and supported.” Brown leads that tribe.

Miller and Brown worked together on the Broadway revival of Once On This Island, and Brown asked Miller to do a workshop of for colored girls before casting the production. That’s when Miller found out she was pregnant.

Miller discreetly shared the news with Brown, who said they’d take it one step at a time. “I still had to audition for it. It really came down to the ability to tell the narrative as well as do the physicality. But from the beginning, she expressed her belief in me.”

“I had never been pregnant before, and she’d never worked with a pregnant woman before,” Miller continues. “But she said, ‘As long as your doctors say it’s okay, if you’re safe, then let’s [go].’ ”

This exchange in and of itself is an anomaly in theater—certainly on Broadway. “I had a woman come up to me after the show and she said, ‘You don’t know what seeing you up there pregnant did for me, because I stopped performing because I got pregnant, because I didn’t think I could do it and I didn’t think I would be hired,’ ” Miller recalls. “You have in your mind: You’re pregnant; you got to sit down at this point. But she said, ‘To see you up there just made me like ‘Wow.’ That was really special to me.”

Miller’s presence on the stage of Broadway’s Booth Theatre, with her visible nine-month pregnant belly, declares: Artists do not have to “sit down” while their bodies change. They do not have to surrender their artistry to pregnancy and motherhood. Miller is proof that creative teams, and mothers themselves, must reconceptualize what is possible.

Since the early rehearsal process, Miller hasn’t modified her choreography beyond making minor adjustments to accommodate the baby bump. Her body, even while changing, is used to it. In fact, movement has been beneficial to Miller and her baby. “Before I started this job [and early in pregnancy], I was not doing anything and my body felt awful. I felt stiff. I didn’t feel connected to my physicality at all,” Miller says. Now, “I feel like I have more energy. I feel like I’m listening to my body more closely than ever, which makes me feel closer to my baby. Even talking to my doctors and staying in communication with them so much, they’re always asking ‘How active is she? Is she moving?’ And I’m like, ‘Yes, she moves a lot.’ ”

It’s a different take on for colored girls for audiences, too, as no major production has featured a visibly pregnant woman. “I don’t know the show any other way, except to think that these are archetypes of women and there’s so many different types of us and that me being pregnant is just a representation of another side of a woman,” Miller says. “That’s a beautiful thing about the colors of the rainbow—even the primary colors have different hues.”

These hues add nuance and stakes; a pregnant woman crying out for the loss of her children lands with profundity. The image shakes viewers into noticing the process of creating life as we talk about losing it. The end of the monologue—a ritual known as the “laying on of hands,” where all the women of the rainbow touch Miller to heal and empower her—reads with new sacredness.

“She’s a little human being who’s going to not just experience joy, but she will experience pain,” Miller says of her baby. “But it is the resilience and the strength…It’s about how we pick ourselves up or how we, innately as women, always find a way to lift another woman up. That’s what I’m hoping she absorbs. That’s what affects me.”

The post This Broadway Star Dances 8 Shows a Week—While 38 Weeks Pregnant appeared first on Dance Magazine.

What does it actually involve to be a swing in a musical? These performers cover up to a dozen ensemble parts (and sometimes principal characters) in a musical, and take the stage whenever one of those cast members cannot perform because of illness, injury or vacation. Standard swings are required to be at the theater each night, prepared to fill in at any point, while vacation swings are contracted to fill in for predetermined amounts of time for things like vacations, personal days and family leave. How often swings take the stage varies widely depending on the production’s cast size, the number of swings the show has hired, the number of vacation days written into the performers’ contracts, etc.—though some swings who had been performing two or three shows a week pre-pandemic report going on more like five or six times a week once the Omicron variant hit.

For this challenging job, swings earn weekly compensation above the ensemble minimum salary, per Actors’ Equity union guidelines. It’s a niche skill that some performers choose to hone over their entire careers, while others bounce between swing and non-swing opportunities.

The Good, the Bad and the Crazy

For many swings, the most appealing part of their job is the constant change. “Getting to play so many different characters and parts, the work can’t get stale,” says Colby Lindeman, who was recently a vacation swing and dance captain for Wicked and had previously performed as an ensemble member.

“The shows that I do are never the same,” adds Hamilton swing Gabriella Sorrentino. “I am always standing somewhere new, looking at different peoples’ faces. Each performance is unique and special.”

But those exciting benefits also come with the stress of living in a constant state of surprise. “You don’t always know if or when you will be performing,” says Lindeman, who has also been a swing in tours of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular and An American in Paris. “You have to get comfortable with the uncertainty, and be prepared for whatever happens.”

Though there are times where swings have advance notice,­ they often learn they will be taking the stage just hours before—or mid-show without any warning at all. In 2016, when Sorrentino was a new swing for Broadway’s On Your Feet!, she once heard her name echo over the loudspeaker of her dressing room during intermission: A dancer had been injured and she needed to cover them, despite never having done a full run of the part in rehearsal. The other cast members quickly rallied around, helping her with hair and makeup so she could review, while the dance captains gave her guidance and support. “The stakes felt so high and I was terrified,” Sorrentino says.

“It’s tricky to know how to take care of your body in those moments,” says Tilly Evans-Krueger, who is a swing for Moulin Rouge!. “It’s like, ‘I guess I’ll do a couple push-ups before I get onstage and start kicking my face?’ ”

Sometimes, it gets even more complicated. Once, Sorrentino­ was onstage for Hamilton and midway through the performance a different performer onstage started feeling sick, and she had to change tracks. After a few minutes that dancer was ready to return, and Sorrentino had to once again switch back to the original track she was swinging for that night. “I have to know the show so completely that I can compartmentalize the various tracks, and not get confused when I flip in and out of them,” she says.

With the pandemic raging on, these extreme experiences have been happening more often. “We have been down so many people that we don’t have enough swings to cover all of the roles,” Evans-Krueger says. “We have had to split tracks up and rush to change choreography so the lifts and things work with less people. It’s been a lot.”

Getting Comfortable With Mistakes

The whirlwind of swinging is bound to come with mishaps. “There have been many times where I’ve gone on for a track that I haven’t done in a while, forgot how large the hat was that I wore, and smacked it so hard with my hand that it went flying across the stage,” Lindeman says. So when it comes to job qualifications, flexibility and a sense of humor are key.

“As dancers, we want to be perfect and do everything right, but there is so much that you can’t control as a swing that you have to be able to move on from mistakes quickly,” Lindeman says. “Most directors, choreographers, dance captains and stage managers understand that it takes a certain kind of person to be able to memorize all of this information and perform under pressure. It’s reasonable to expect mistakes from time to time. Just do your best, and take the time to look back and fix your corrections so you can make improvements going forward.”

For Sorrentino, the secret to being comfortable with occasional imperfection is positive self-talk. “The minute you start to doubt and spiral, those feelings can consume you,” she says. “So I try to stay calm and remember that this is part of the fun of live theater. If I accidentally exit the wrong way, I simply note it so that the next time I do this track, I remember,” she says.

A Different Kind of Essential

To swings who feel isolated by the inconsistent nature of the job, Lindeman encourages a shift in perspective. “Each time I am called onstage is an opportunity to create new bonds,” he says. When Sorrentino isn’t performing, she likes to sit in a space under the stage where the other cast members cross between scenes and say hello, as she watches the show from a monitor there. “I just try to interact with people as much as I can,” she says.

Still, Evans-Krueger says she doesn’t mind being on the periphery from time to time. “Whenever I’m not performing I get to watch and learn from the most incredible artists,” she says. “What happens on Broadway is magnificent—and I know that I’m an important part of that.”

Choreography Retention How-Tos:

It can be difficult to retain choreography that you haven’t done in weeks. Veteran swings suggest running the show offstage to develop your muscle memory. “When I’m not onstage, I will go through the whole track top to bottom either in the dressing room, rehearsal space or even in the lobby of the theater,” swing Colby Lindeman says. “All the swings will band together for this and it becomes an unofficial swing rehearsal.” Wicked is held in a theater with monitors in each of those locations, making it easy to follow the flow of the show.

Must-Have Memorization Tips

There are often subtle differences in choreography and staging between tracks in a show, and one of the best ways to learn them is through tracking sheets (think flash cards) with shorthand descriptions of each performer you cover. Here are some pointers for using them effectively:

• Use a tracking-sheet medium that works for you and your learning style, whether it’s writing your notes down as bullet points, typing them up on your iPad or using photos of the stage to orient yourself.
• Review your tracking sheets before each show you’re performing in, as well as in the wings between scenes.
• Study your tracking sheets one at a time. “I got super mixed-up trying to learn everything as fast as possible,” swing Tilly Evans-Krueger says. “So I switched to just focusing on one track, and once I went on for it, all the others that I had been passively tracking in my mind came together like a puzzle.”

The post A Salute to Swings: Inside Broadway’s Most Underrated Role appeared first on Dance Magazine.

But not only does Skeleton Crew have dance, it opens with dance, and dance is the thread that weaves the fabric of the show together. The man doing the weaving: Bessie winner and Broadway veteran Adesola Osakalumi, who joins the elite ranks of artists (like Savion Glover and Tommy Tune) double-billed on Broadway as both performers and choreographers. 

Osakalumi, who previously appeared on Broadway in Fela! and Equus, has been with Skeleton Crew since its 2016 Atlantic Theater production and has a host of other credits, from Across the Universe to the Drama Desk–winning Jam on the Groove. He blends popping, locking and other hip-hop styles to dance us through each of Skeleton Crew’s six transitions, embodying the spirit of the factory and of the city of Detroit itself, almost like a silent narrator. Dance Magazine spoke to him about his unique role and what it means to be using hip hop to tell stories on Broadway.

How did you get involved in Skeleton Crew?

I was introduced to Ruben through a friend, another choreographer, Darrell Grand Moultrie. He explained what he wanted to do and how he envisioned it. And I was like, “I can do it. I’m the guy.” So, it was not your normal audition process. And then he called me back five years later and was like, “Hey, so, the show is going to go to Broadway, and I want you to come back.”

How do you conceive of your role?

It’s only alluded to in stage directions. It’s like, “the factory hums contentedly.” Or “the workers continue to move as the machinery starts to slowly break down.” That’s all. And Ruben envisioned bringing that spirit of the factory to life, but also showing the actual physical work that is done, because the play is set in the break room. And work is alluded to, but you never see anybody work. So Ruben was like, “Let’s show the dancing body, the Black body, at work.” He wanted something sharp and clean that expressed the power and specificity of the workers. He always talks about Detroit at one point being the center of America and by extension almost the center of the universe, because of the output of work and cars and factories, but also the music and culture that came out of Detroit. So he wanted a nod to both the auto industry and the musical legacy of Detroit.

What was your process for developing the movement like?

We had a creative team that was Jimmy Keys, who is Dominique’s husband, who did all the original music, Rob Kaplowitz, who did sound, and Chesney Snow, who did beatboxing. We would go in our own room and they would create music. It was really collaborative—I was able to request certain sounds. My own process was to use each transition as a storytelling element, either illuminating what just happened in the scene or leading us into a scene. My intention in the prologue is to tell the story of the whole two hours in two minutes. I give little physicalizations of what each character does. I think when people hear “hip hop,” they are like, “How can this be used as storytelling?” And I totally disagree. This shows that there are a variety of styles of dance that are worthy of the Broadway stage.

Why do you think those stories needed to be told through movement specifically?   

Two reasons: The energy of the piece—it’s set in Detroit, it’s a natural extension of the music, culture, spirit. And, the rote, repetitive nature of a stamping plant. There are parallels between the rote, repetitive nature of people studying dance and training. It’s been one of the most-produced plays in the last three or four years, and not all of the productions have used dance, but a lot of them have, and I think that speaks to the validity of what Ruben and I set forth.

The post This Double-Billed Performer/Choreographer Is Bringing a Surprising Amount of Dance to Broadway’s Newest Play appeared first on Dance Magazine.

But, to the surprise of many, he didn’t stay in show business, despite winning a Tony for Best Actor in a Musical, along with his two fellow Billys. Instead, he disappeared from view, finished high school and then joined the army. “I wanted to be part of something bigger than myself,” he said recently of his decision to join up. “It was, no doubt, the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” He still wears his dog tags. Though he didn’t see combat, he says that the experience—the physical and mental training—changed him.

In 2015, at 20, he briefly resurfaced as a swing in the Broadway revival of On the Town. Only to disappear once again, this time winding up at Case Western University, where he majored in philosophy.

The post From Billy Elliot to Bernardo: David Alvarez’s Journey to “West Side Story” appeared first on Dance Magazine.

It’s a small gesture, but like all the movement in the show, it says a lot. “It’s a moment of such confidence and prowess,” says director Danya Taymor. “It lets the audience know, ‘You’re good. I got you. I’m the leader and I’m telling this story. So you can keep your eyes on me if you want to know what’s going on.'”

Equally in conversation with the Book of Exodus and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, Pass Over, the first play on Broadway post-pandemic, reimagines Beckett’s “tramps,” Vladimir and Estragon, as young Black men (Moses and Kitch) living in a police state. And it does so with an economical, poetic script by Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu, and with movement that’s tempting to call dance but is certainly not choreography, according to Taymor.

“There’s not even blocking,” she says. “I mean, there’s a little blocking.” The movement, which is partially improvised and changes from night to night, was created by Taymor and the actors, Hill, Namir Smallwood and Gabriel Ebert, and a special guest—clown and Beckett expert Bill Irwin, who served as movement consultant.

“It was like kismet—Bill had to work on this,” says Taymor. “And so we tracked him down and didn’t let him say no.”

Dance Magazine spoke to Taymor and Irwin about how they developed Pass Over‘s striking non-choreography.

Danya, you’ve been with Pass Over since 2017. Bill, how long have you been with the project?

Bill Irwin: Hardly at all. It gives me an opportunity to just go on record as saying that this quite astounding piece of work on that Broadway stage has zero to do with this physical artist.

Danya Taymor: That’s not true. What’s cool about what Bill did was he gave us a few really direct links to different ways of moving, different embodiments, different traditions. He let us all be tramps, and we’d been investigating that. But to get to work with Bill just opened up different doors that we have been knocking at and Bill was like, Let me just open this for you.

How did the movement in the show evolve into what it looks like today?

DT: A lot of the movement in my work comes from mirroring, which is like the most basic of all theater exercises. But it allows connection between performers—they really have to gaze into each other’s eyes, and there’s nothing more intimate than that. I also like to do these weird partner stretches. So it creates a trust and dependence on your fellow ensemble members. Antoinette and I have also talked about different comedic duos through time, like Abbott and Costello, Nichols and May, Laurel and Hardy, Key and Peele. Obviously, Vladimir and Estragon. So many of these duos are working with great physicality. We wanted to find ways to bring joy into all the bodies onstage and freedom and looseness and goofiness. These young men should be allowed to be just silly. Especially considering what their day-to-day is.

Can you talk about how the idea of “trampness” translates into movement in Pass Over?

BI: Here’s a stage direction from Mr. Beckett’s play: “They stand motionless, arms dangling, head sunk, sagging at the knees.” I mean, he is that particular.

DT: Bill came in one rehearsal and literally just brought them big shoes and big pants with suspenders. So they could just feel their bodies in those clothes. Something else we experimented with on a day when Bill was in was the exploration of the feminine body. So often in Pass Over the way the characters can be intimate with one another is when they embody women. I had a friend come and she was like, I just think women are going to flock to this play to see men given permission to be so vulnerable and so free, because society doesn’t like to let them do that.

BI: And it’s happening on a truly movement dimension. Actors are told all the time, “Be vulnerable here. So as you’re reading text, you’re looking for ways to find that. But finding it in the standing body is a different craft.

What is the role of movement in the show?

BI: I think it is inextricable. And that is part of the joy of watching this work. It is a weave that is very hard to disentangle.

DT: When they think of movement, people think about choreography or something set, or something that somebody decided upon and then taught. And as a director, that’s never how I go about it. I will let the actors do the play on its feet for, like, 10 days before I come in and even give a suggestion, because I’m hoping that if you have performers that are strong enough, as these three men are, they’re gonna figure it out. It’s always better if it comes from inside them. That’s why it feels so alive and so precise. I’ve given them full permission: If they can’t get there, do what’s real. Part of why it’s so striking is because of the trust they have with themselves and with each other.

How much are they actually experimenting with the movement each night?

DT: I’d say 25 percent of it is different every night. The three actors before every show huddle up, and they say, “What shall we play tonight, gentlemen?,” and they suggest a different musician. It could be a musician, it could be a genre, it could be a song, it could be an album. And then after half an hour, they go and they all listen to that music. And then that’s the show they do. And so there are certain sections of movement where the line of it is known, but how you get from A to B, as long as you can honestly go from A to B, get there however you want. That keeps it alive, especially in a long run. It keeps it really playful for them. It’s the same story being told every night, but it’s a different show.

Moses and Kitch move through space in such a specific way. How did you develop that shared movement language?

DT: A lot of the Moses and Kitch stuff really is just mirroring. And they’re letting their different bodies inform that mirror. So it’s not like Moses and Kitch are the same and they’re doing the same movement. Moses will mock Kitch and filter it through his body. It gives this permission for repetition, which I feel like is a really Beckettian thing, and really part of Moses and Kitch’s everyday. They play these games; they recycle them. Kitch especially gets real comfort in the routine of it.

Do you each have a favorite movement moment from the show?

BI: At the very end, when Moses takes his clothes off, it is a glorious moment of theater.

DT: Yeah, the disrobing is exciting. I like when they take off their microphones. I like that final acknowledgment that, yes, we’ve all been in this room together. And we still are in this room together. And that acknowledgment through movement is singular to theater to be able to say, “Yeah, we’ve been breathing the same air this whole time and we’re not asking you to pretend otherwise. That happened. That all happened.”

The post Don’t Call It Choreography: Inside the Propulsive, Powerful Movement of Broadway’s First Post-Pandemic Play appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Here’s a rundown of what’s on the horizon. As with any show aiming for Broadway, details are subject to change, and the reality of COVID-19 adds another layer of uncertainty. Actual opening nights, which have been announced and re-announced by some shows multiple times, remain a moving target.

The post What Musicals Will Light Up Marquees When Broadway Returns? appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Despite Broadway’s current closure, the July drop of Hamilton on Disney+ proved that Americans still have a hungry appetite for theater, even if it is via streaming at home.

In fact, Filmed on Stage—a website that aggregates which Broadway and West End productions are available online and where—doubled its traffic leading up to Hamilfilm’s July 3 drop. And when compared to an average Friday, traffic nearly quadrupled on Hamilton‘s premiere date. Since then, interest in Broadway musicals listed on Filmed on Stage has held strong.

The post 6 Free Shows to Keep Your Theater-Streaming Habit Going appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Instead of its originally planned theatrical release in October 2021, the filmed version of Broadway’s Hamilton got fast-tracked to a July 3 release on Disney+. Fans can now transform their living room into “the room where it happens” for the $6.99 monthly subscription fee—less than the price of a movie ticket.

Whether you saw the original cast in person or have memorized every single lyric from afar, Hamilton mania has hit again. Naturally, it’s time to obsess over Andy Blankenbuehler’s Tony-winning choreography. Dance is enmeshed in the entire show, but here are a few of our favorite elements to watch out for.

The post Hamilfilm's Here. These Are the Dance Moments We've Been Thinking About Non-Stop appeared first on Dance Magazine.

With Broadway dark and the Tonys postponed for the foreseeable future, musical theater lovers could definitely use a bit of good news right now: Smash, A New Musical, based on the cult-favorite television series, is headed to Broadway.

The post A Musical Based on Cult-Fave TV Series "Smash" Is Broadway Bound appeared first on Dance Magazine.

From fresh stories to revivals to movies-turned-musicals, here’s what’s arriving on the Great White Way next, in order of opening night.

The post Here's What's Broadway Bound So Far in 2020 appeared first on Dance Magazine.

But that would leave out the juicy parts: its start in 2017, when a pair of British university students, Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow, wondered what would happen if they turned those 16th-century queens into a girl-power rock group; how their cheeky idea sailed from Cambridge to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it wowed audiences, critics and the producers who would ultimately bring it to London’s West End, Broadway and even the Norwegian Cruise Line.

The post How Henry VIII's Wives Channel Beyoncé and Avril Lavigne in SIX appeared first on Dance Magazine.

“She was like, ‘We need to do something!’ ” recalls Luplau. “‘We need to do an arts benefit, or a concert, or something.’ ”

Later that night, Luplau started brainstorming in the shower, then called up his friend who’s a producer, Hayley Isaacson. Within a week, they had secured the intimate Greenwich Village concert venue Le Poisson Rouge, and convinced everyone from Ben Folds and Postmodern Jukebox to several fellow Broadway vets to perform for what they’ve dubbed the “Make It Rain Rally” on January 27.

“We always have bushfires every year in Australia,” says Dinardo. “But this is far greater than what anyone had ever had to deal with before, and far greater than anyone could imagine. The statistics about the animals that have died, about the acres that are burning, it just doesn’t seem real. And we’re here in New York, so far away—not doing anything feels awful. We had to do something.”

All proceeds from the concert will go to the Australian Red Cross Disaster Relief and Recovery Fund and WIRES Australian Wildlife Rescue. Those who can’t attend but want to support the cause can donate here.

The day before the concert happens to be Australia Day (January 26), and Moulin Rouge! has also pledged to donate all proceeds from that day’s Broadway performance to the relief efforts.

“I can’t just keep kicking my legs and smiling and entertaining people while my home country is in turmoil,” adds Luplau. “We hope to raise as much money as we can, but we also want to create awareness about what has happened and the impact of climate change. And to be able to know that we’ve helped even though we’re miles from home.”

The post These Moulin Rouge! Dancers Are Fundraising for Australia. Here’s How You Can Help appeared first on Dance Magazine.

The dancing in the show is its own misfit of sorts: Cherkaoui has created work for everyone from his contemporary company, Eastman, to Royal Ballet of Flanders, where he’s director, to Cirque du Soleil to Beyoncé, and his melding of styles isn’t what you’d typically expect from Broadway. Jagged Little Pill‘s choreography includes moments of highly structured improvisations, embodying the grunge vibe of Alanis Morissette’s ’90s soundtrack, but also eerie, ghostlike “avatars,” as dancers express characters’ inner emotions when words alone can’t do them justice.

We spoke with Lang about her path to Jagged Little Pill and dancing in the show’s most chilling scene.

The post Inside Jagged Little Pill's Arresting Dance Scene That Depicts Opioid Overdose appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Audiences are being surprised too, as directors like Diane Paulus, Rachel Chavkin and Daniel Fish bring them shows developed away from Broadway. With collaborators from their old neighborhoods, they are opening Broadway to new influences and practices. Judging by last season, Broadway doesn’t mind.

The post These Downtown Choreographers Are Reshaping Dance on Broadway appeared first on Dance Magazine.

If there’s anyone who’s up to the task, it’s easily Sykes. The Tony-nominated triple threat has proved his mettle time and again in six Broadway shows. No stranger to the soul and pop genres, he was in the casts of Memphis and Motown The Musical, and is currently starring as David Ruffin in Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations.

The post MJ The Musical Casts Its Michael appeared first on Dance Magazine.

This year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is stuffed (pun intended) with performances from four stellar Broadway shows, the Radio City Rockettes and students from three New York City dance institutions.

Tune in to NBC November 28 from 9 am to noon (in all time zones), or catch the rebroadcast at 2 pm (also in all time zones). Here’s what’s in store:

Beetlejuice

Matthew Murphy, Courtesy Polk & Co.

Set aside tradition and dive into the deathly fantastical world of Beetlejuice, brought to life by Connor Gallagher’s choreography.

Radio City Rockettes

Courtesy MSG

A parade staple, the Rockettes will add to the holiday cheer with their signature kickline.

The post Which Broadway Shows Are Performing in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade? appeared first on Dance Magazine.

We knew that Ivo van Hove and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s production of West Side Story would challenge our preconceived notions about the show.

But a recent Vogue story gives us a taste of just how nontraditional the Broadway revival will be. Most notably, van Hove is cutting “I Feel Pretty” and the “Somewhere” ballet, condensing the show into one act to better reflect the urgency of the 48-hour plot. (The choice has been approved by the West Side Story estate, including Sondheim, who has “long been uncomfortable” with some of the “I Feel Pretty” lyrics.)

The post The West Side Story Revival Is Cutting Two Iconic Songs, and People Aren't Happy appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Hutchings, a Broadway dancer who originated an ensemble role in Hamilton and was recently seen in “Fosse/Verdon,” understudies both Laurey and Ado Annie in the current Broadway revival of Oklahoma!—plus the lead dancer, who performs the 13-minute dream ballet practically solo. Though she hasn’t performed the dream ballet yet, she rehearses it every Friday, right before rehearsing the whole show as either Ado Annie or Laurey, then sometimes performing one of those roles in the evening show.

“As soon as I’m done rehearsing the dream ballet, I have to let that fade in order to fully immerse myself in Laurey,” she says. “And if I ran Laurey earlier in the day and I’m watching her scene as Ado Annie, I have to let go of her lines. Once you start going down the thought pattern of that character, it takes you to a whole other place.”

We talked to Hutchings about the mental and physical gymnastics of understudying three such distinct roles—and how her dance training helps her do it:

Courtesy Hutchings

The post What It's Like to Understudy 3 Principal Roles in Broadway's Revolutionary Oklahoma! Revival appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Each Friday in November at 9 pm Eastern on PBS, you can experience a live taping of a different show—and the choreographic talents on display don’t disappoint. (Pro tip: If you have the PBS Passport app, you don’t have to wait a week between performances. Members can stream all five starting November 1.)

Here’s what’s airing:

The post Catch 42nd Street, Kinky Boots and 3 Other Shows on PBS This Month appeared first on Dance Magazine.

But deep into the second act, the show reaches a brief homeostasis of peace, one of those bright, shining moments that allows the audience to think “maybe it will turn out this time,” as the character Hermes keeps suggesting.

After songs and songs of conflict and resentment, Hades, the king of the underground, and his wife, the goddess Persephone, rekindle their love. And, unexpectedly, they dance. It’s one of the most compelling moments in the show.

The post How Hadestown's Patrick Page Overcame His Greatest Fear: Dancing appeared first on Dance Magazine.

But she had an idea: What if the material used in the backdrops and legs could be upcycled into something new? And what if theater lovers could literally keep a piece of a beloved show?

The post This Company Is Turning Old Broadway Backdrops Into Handbags—and Saving 20,000 Pounds of Fabric from Landfills appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Now, the show has secured a Broadway theater, with previews starting July 6 at the Neil Simon Theater.

The post Despite Michael Jackson's Molestation Allegations, MJ The Musical Will Hit Broadway This Summer appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Though she’s perhaps most well-known today as Bob Fosse’s wife and muse, that’s not even half of her story. For starters, she’d already won four Tonys before they wed, making her far more famous in the public eye than he was at that point in his career. That’s just one of many surprising details we learned during last night’s U.S. premiere of Merely Marvelous. Believe us: You’re gonna love her even more once you get to know her. Here are eight lesser-known tidbits to get you started.

Courtesy Boneau/Bryan-Brown

The post Gwen Verdon Is Uncredited for Her Work on One of Hollywood's Most Iconic Dance Movies appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Here’s a look at the musicals hitting Broadway in the coming months. We’re biding our time until opening night!

The post Michelle Dorrance's First Broadway Gig, Plus 9 Other Musicals We Can't Wait to See This Season appeared first on Dance Magazine.

But before previews start February 13, 2020, SIX is continuing its out-of-town tryouts with a surprising twist: It will play aboard several Norwegian Cruise Line ships, beginning with the Norwegian Bliss September 1.

The post Before SIX: The Musical Hits Broadway, It's Playing at Sea appeared first on Dance Magazine.

On opening night, there were a few members in the audience with a unique perspective on the show: Dancers and artistic staff members from the actual Moulin Rouge in Paris. Samantha Greenlund, an Everson, Washington, native, spent the past three years as a dancer at the Moulin Rouge, and spoke to DM the morning after the red carpet event to offer her take on the musical.

The post How Does the New Moulin Rouge! The Musical Compare to the Real Thing in Paris? appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Relive the night with some of our favorite moments from Broadway’s big night, in order of appearance.

The post Hadestown Sweeps the Tonys, Plus Our Fave Moments from the Awards Show appeared first on Dance Magazine.

For a sentiment that sounds like it belongs in a fortune cookie, you’d never expect that Steve Young is actually referencing a subset of offbeat, secret musicals: Shows about toilets and tractors and dog food and cars. Shows with big names, like Bob Fosse attached, and even bigger Broadway-style budgets. Shows that were never seen by the public.

These musicals are the subject of Bathtubs Over Broadway, the Tribeca Film Festival–winning documentary that begins streaming on Netflix today.

The post This Netflix Documentary Takes You Inside the World of Secret Musicals About Toilets, Cars and Dog Food appeared first on Dance Magazine.

But Tony voters expecting James Graham’s play to resemble other prestigious British imports will be surprised to find a choreographer, Lynne Page, listed in their Playbills, and several rowdy, exuberant romps on the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre stage.

The post The Tony-Nominated Play Ink Has a Secret Weapon: Choreographer Lynne Page appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Could Hadestown sweep the awards? Why didn’t John Heginbotham’s work on Oklahoma! garner him a Best Choreography nomination? What musical numbers will the nominated shows bring to the ceremony on June 9? To discuss, we gathered a group of musical theater–loving editors from Dance Magazine and Dance Spirit for a roundtable conversation about the nominees.

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As David Ruffin in Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations, he does both with such vigor that we had to know how he pulls off this famous Temptations frontman. “It requires everything,” says Sykes, who was nominated today for outstanding male dancer in a Broadway show by the Chita Rivera Awards.

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Sykes broke down his routine from pre- to post-show—and how he wound up learning what he calls “the key to life” along the way.

During the Day:

“I try to stay as still and quiet as possible to truly conserve my energy. I take a lot of voice lessons in the day and do things for my body, like acupuncture and massage therapy once a week.”

Two Hours Before Curtain:

“I eat really healthy, substantial meals to make sure that I have enough fuel to get through the show: something like steak and potatoes and vegetables, or chicken and vegetables and rice. I have a very fast metabolism, so I eat things like red meat and heavy proteins like chicken that can stick to my body. If I eat too light, something like fish, I’ll feel depleted by the time I get to the second act.”

Once He Gets to the Theater:

“I get a good vocal warm-up in, as well as a body warm-up. I just do enough to get my body loose and warm.”

Act I:

“I focus on being smart about gauging my energy and how I can use the show itself, especially the first act, to continue to warm up and ramp up into the big, high climatic moment.”

Sykes (front) and the cast dancing Sergio Trujillo’s energetic choreography for Ain’t Too ProudMatthew Murphy, Courtesy DKC/O&M

Intermission:

“A physical therapist comes to my dressing room and does therapy on my throat all the way down to my diaphragm. Literally every show, just because my first act is so strenuous. It’s the almost-screaming and dancing and harsh singing that make my diaphragm and throat almost want to clench up. They literally peel me apart—my throat, my jaw, even my diaphragm—to help me breath again. I’m finding out that if my breathing is clutch, the better I’m able to breath, the easier I can get through this monstrous show.”

Backstage Snacking:

“I have a lot of protein snacks, like almonds and trail mixes, and fruit like bananas. Of course I have coconut water and a big canteen of Throat Coat tea with me.”

The Sneaky Thing He Does During the Show:

“Any time I get a break and I’m facing upstage, I’m stretching my tongue out of my mouth really far and doing things to relieve tongue tension.”

Matthew Murphy, Courtesy DKC/O&M

Whenever He Has a Moment Offstage:

“I’ve learned throughout this show that the key to life [laughs], as cliché as it sounds, is breath. When I’m doing something this hard, anytime I’m offstage I’m taking big, deep breaths in different positions that my voice teachers taught me that help reboot my adrenal glands. I’m hanging over, grabbing my feet or touching my toes and taking full breaths to get the air into my back, deep down into my lower abdominal spaces and releasing my neck tension.

“I was primarily a dancer before this show, and dancers are taught to breathe very high up and shallow and singers need the air to be down low and deep. I have to bridge the gap: How do I keep my core tight so I can do all my spins and splits but be able to sustain my notes and have the power behind my voice?”

Immediately After Curtain Call:

“I have a 10-minute cool-down process: a vocal warm-down and a breathing cool-down so I don’t sound like James Brown when I’m talking. And my muscles respond to what my mind and breath are doing. If I leave the stage and go straight to talking to friends or family, my voice and body don’t recuperate the way that they should because they’re still at a heightened place. The cool-down is just as essential to my show as my warm-up.”

Matthew Murphy, Courtesy DKC/O&M

Post-Show:

“I’ll eat a smaller portion of the same sort of protein, starch and vegetables that I had pre-show, and hydration is key—coconut water is my best friend.

“I’ve been taking a hot Epsom salt bath pretty much every night to relax my muscles. A lot of times, I’m sitting in my bathtub, stuffing my face and watching ‘Game of Thrones.’ ”

On His Day Off:

“My days off are full of nothing if I can manage it. I have a standing acupuncture appointment to recuperate, and a fat dog that I take to the park so we can both have peace of mind. From there, I’m just chilling out. I watch TV and let my mind go blank for a little bit, so I can be prepared for the next week.”

The post Every Little Thing Ephraim Sykes Does to Pull Off Ain't Too Proud's Electric Vocals and Dance Moves appeared first on Dance Magazine.

We caught up with Hamilton about starring in the show’s dream ballet and her delightfully bizarre pre-show ritual.

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The post Gabrielle Hamilton on Starring in Oklahoma!'s Dream Ballet—and Her Delightfully Bizarre Pre-Show Ritual appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Will there someday be a (gasp) Britney Spears musical?

A Britney show seemed so inevitable that we didn’t even mention it in our story. And it seems the Broadway gods had the very same thought: Once Upon a One More Time, a brand-new musical featuring hits by Spears, is officially happening. Oh baby, baby.

The production starts its pre-Broadway run Nov. 13 in Chicago. It replaces a high-profile, previously announced show: The Michael Jackson–themed Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough canceled its Chicago run in mid-February. (The team says it is now aiming for a summer 2020 opening on Broadway.)

The artist’s estate cited “scheduling difficulties” related to a labor dispute. However, the cancelation was announced shortly before the release of HBO’s new documentary Leaving Neverland, which centers on abuse allegations against Jackson. In it, choreographer Wade Robson is one of two men who give detailed accounts that Jackson sexually abused them as a child. Although many MJ fans and colleagues—including former choreographer Vince Paterson—have flocked to the King of Pop’s defense, the current public outcry against Jackson makes any major projects unlikely.

All of this leaves an opening at Chicago’s James M. Nederlander Theatre for Spears’ show. According to Broadway in Chicago, Once Upon a One More Time will center around a group of fairy tale princesses engaged in a book club that only reads Grimm’s Fairy Tales. That is, until one day when Cinderella wishes for fresh reading material. That’s when “a rogue fairy godmother drops The Feminine Mystique in her corseted lap.” In this journey from pretty princess to something more, expect to hear signature Britney hits like “Stronger,” “Lucky,” “Toxic,” and, of course, “Oops!… I Did It Again.”

Here’s another reason to get pumped: Keone and Mari Madrid are on board to choreograph. The charming duo, not to mention super-cute married couple, have had major success with their playful blend of contemporary and hip hop. After raking in 1.4 billion views for starring in Justin Bieber’s “Love Yourself” video, we’re sure they can make magic onstage with Britney Spears’ music.

One thing we’re less sure of: how poor Cinderella will turn out. Ah, to be not a girl, not yet a woman…

The post Britney Spears' Musical Replaces Michael Jackson's Show in Chicago appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Enter Ashley Blair Fitzgerald, who steps out of the ensemble to captivate with a sensual solo to the song “Dark Lady.” In a show stuffed with catchy pop songs and dizzying costume changes, it’s a scene unlike any other: The lead actors drop back, and Fitzgerald becomes the sole focus as she’s partnered by a bevy of men and spends much of the number in the air. On the night I attended, her electric stage presence resulted in the longest applause of the evening, aside from the curtain call. We spoke with Fitzgerald about being in The Cher Show and commanding the stage with this literal show-stopper.

Courtesy Rubenstein

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Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough
boasts more than 25 MJ hits and has set its premiere for October 29. As previously reported, Christopher Wheeldon will direct and choreograph the new musical, while Lynn Nottage pens the book.

The musical will be set in 1992, as Jackson prepares for his Dangerous World Tour. The timing makes his first eight studio albums fair game—which include pretty much every iconic MJ track you could possibly wish for (not to mention the instantly recognizable moves from the music videos). Using tour prep as plot scaffolding also lends itself to a structure that could allow for ample flashbacks to earlier iconic moments in his career. As Nottage told the Chicago Tribune, “We are endeavoring to tell the story of one moment in the life of a very complicated man…We want to look at the pieces of his life that went into selecting his song list.”

It sounds like Wheeldon will have plenty of source material to draw upon, both dramatically and musically—but how will the master ballet choreographer’s style mesh with the King of Pop’s? And with Wheeldon’s Tony-winning track record, will he be able to elevate the oft-derided jukebox musical genre?

The post Michael Jackson Musical Announces Title, Early Plot Details and Pre-Broadway Run appeared first on Dance Magazine.

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Just tune in to PBS the next four Friday nights at 9 pm Eastern (check your local listings), because the network’s “Great Performances” programming is tipping its hat to theater gems old and new. The following day, each show will be available for streaming here and through PBS apps. Here’s what’s on tap:

GREAT PERFORMANCES | Broadway’s Best | Fall 2018 | Preview | PBS
www.youtube.com

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