Choreographer Sergio Trujillo asked the women auditioning for ensemble roles in his newest musical to arrive in guys’ clothing—”men’s suits, or blazers and ties,” he says. He wasn’t being kinky or whimsical. The entire ensemble of Summer: The Donna Summer Musical is female, playing men and women interchangeably as they unfold the history of the […]

I dance to remember. I dance to forget. I dance to contain. I dance for my mom and dad. I dance to show my love. I dance when I cannot speak. I dance when words won’t do any justice. I dance to connect with strangers. I dance to understand. I dance to feel differences. I […]

Conscientious theatergoers may be familiar with The School for Scandal, The School for Wives and School of Rock. But how many are also aware of the school of Fosse? The 1999 musical, a posthumous exploration of the choreographic career of Bob Fosse, ran for 1,093 performances, winning four Tonys and 10 nominations; employing 32 dancers; […]

“I don’t wanna go to dance!” As a kid, these were my famous words. When packing into the car for the interminable ride to the studio, I would kick and scream so much that I earned the nickname “The Hornet.” I am so glad my parents put up with my sting, because looking back, it […]

Christopher Gattelli describes his latest cast as “unicorns,” because he can’t believe they exist. “It blows my mind, what they can do,” he says. “They can do everything.” They have to. Their characters belong to no species generally known to dance on Broadway—a crab, a squirrel, a starfish, a snail and, you guessed it, a […]

To me, dancing is an opportunity to exist in an alternate reality. With my imagination moving galaxies per minute, there’s no telling what I will do, when or how—and that’s my escape from this world. It’s common for my mind to drift off and borrow ideas from a character in a Disney movie while performing […]

The closing months of the 2016–17 season brought a glut of extraordinary music and dance to Broadway’s stages, and the superabundance has left 2017–18 looking a bit anemic. Partly it’s real estate—there are only so many Broadway theaters; in June, nearly three dozen were occupied. The only musical scheduled to open this summer was Prince […]

Apart from having won the Tony Award for best choreography, the dances in Damn Yankees, West Side Story and the 1994 revival of Show Boat have little in common. Not the choreographers—Bob Fosse, Jerome Robbins and Susan Stroman—or the composers—Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, Leonard Bernstein, and Jerome Kern. Not the dancers, either—the standouts were […]