Hadestown is Afra Hines’ eighth Broadway musical, so she thought she knew what to expect—until she had a private rehearsal with the choreographer, David Neumann. Preparing her to be Amber Gray’s understudy, he said, “You don’t have to do exactly what Amber’s doing—I want it to feel comfortable on your body.” That was new. “A […]
The 20-somethings doing Broadway Dance Lab’s first-ever Choreography Summer Intensive ended their recent tour of Lincoln Center’s New York Public Library for the Performing Arts with something special. In the seminar room, Tony-winning choreographer Christopher Gattelli awaited them with a conference table laden with Broadway treasures from the library’s collection. Decades-old original sketches and black-and-white […]
Could Justin Peck be any busier? In the midst of pulling triple duty at New York City Ballet—as a soloist, resident choreographer and a member of its interim artistic team—he also managed to choreograph a Broadway show. Then, last month, on his first try, he won a Tony Award for best choreography for the revival […]
For the new Broadway season, Ellenore Scott has scored two associate choreographer gigs: For Head Over Heels, which starts previews June 23, Scott is working with choreographer Spencer Liff on an original musical mashing up The Go-Go’s punk-rock hits with a narrative based on Sir Philip Sidney’s 1590 book, Arcadia. Four days after that show […]
DanceBreak came roaring back to life on Monday after seven years on hiatus, and six choreographers now have the opportunity to be the next Andy Blankenbuehler. Or Joshua Bergasse, Kelly Devine, Casey Nicholaw, Josh Prince or Josh Rhodes. These stellar Broadway choreographers all got their first big shows after Melinda Atwood’s musical-theater launching pad let […]
You could call it island-hopping, but it’s not exactly a vacation. After choreographing last season’s Come From Away, and winning a Tony nomination, Kelly Devine zipped from frosty Newfoundland to the Caribbean beach resort that is the setting for Escape to Margaritaville. In the fall, she was shuttling between them, before they start this month: […]
They speak a language of their own. You could call it Arendelle-ish, except that they were using it long before they started working on Frozen. So maybe the dialect filling a Times Square rehearsal hall last month should be dubbed Robsarahcharlie-ish, after choreographer and Tony winner Rob Ashford and his associate choreographers, Sarah O’Gleby and […]