EPISODE · May 14, 2007 · 58 MIN
Jerry Mitchell (#150) May, 2007
from ATW - Downstage Center · host American Theatre Wing
Tony Award-winning choreographer Jerry Mitchell (for the original Cabaret and 2005 and 2010’s revivals of La Cage aux Folles) talks about taking on the dual roles of director and choreographer for the first time with Legally Blonde and charts the development of the musical from the selection of the writing team to its San Francisco tryout to its Broadway debut. He also shares his experience of becoming a professional dancer while still in college, when he was chosen by the legendary Agnes DeMille for the 1980 revival of Brigadoon, his work with two other legends -- Michael Bennett on Scandal and Jerome Robbins on Jerome Robbins' Broadway; how he develops a dance vocabulary for each of his shows according to the needs of the material, with sources as diverse as 60s dances (for Hairspray) and basketball (for The Full Monty); and how dancing nearly naked on a drum for Tommy Tune in The Will Rogers Follies led to Broadway Bares, which has raised millions of dollars for Broadway Cares.
What this episode covers
Tony Award-winning choreographer Jerry Mitchell (for the original Cabaret and 2005 and 2010’s revivals of La Cage aux Folles) talks about taking on the dual roles of director and choreographer for the first time with Legally Blonde and charts the development of the musical from the selection of the writing team to its San Francisco tryout to its Broadway debut. He also shares his experience of becoming a professional dancer while still in college, when he was chosen by the legendary Agnes DeMille for the 1980 revival of Brigadoon, his work with two other legends -- Michael Bennett on Scandal and Jerome Robbins on Jerome Robbins' Broadway; how he develops a dance vocabulary for each of his shows according to the needs of the material, with sources as diverse as 60s dances (for Hairspray) and basketball (for The Full Monty); and how dancing nearly naked on a drum for Tommy Tune in The Will Rogers Follies led to Broadway Bares, which has raised millions of dollars for Broadway Cares.
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Jerry Mitchell (#150) May, 2007
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