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Drama
Desk Pays Tribute to Dance
By Francine
L. Trevens
ART TIMES July/August
2006
This Spring, the Drama Desk, which was founded in 1949, again hosted
luncheon meetings which are a pleasant, informal way for critics to meet
those whose work they critique and to give the writers an opportunity
to get an inside feel for what the producing companies and performers
face.
The April topic was “Dance on Broadway,
The Art and The Staging”. The panel consisted of Sutton Foster,
Kathleen Marshall, Casey Nicholaw, Kelli O’Hara, Jonathan Pryce, SergioTrujillo
and John Lloyd Young, representing the productions of “Jersey Boys”, “Pajama
Game”, “Drowsy Chaperone” and “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”. Richard Ridge
of Broadway Beat moderated.
Most of these panelists were subsequently
nominated for and received awards from the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle
and Tony committees. Were the creators of this panel prescient or just
theatre savvy?
Ridge began with a question to the choreographers,
then one for dancers, and continued alternating between the two groups
for most of the discussion. At the end, questions were thrown open
to the floor of critics, journalists, and general public.
While answers didn't always adhere to topics,
the discussion was lively, informative and fun, seventy five percent of
the fun attributable to Jonathan Pryce’s witticisms. This distinguished
British actor, who replaced John Lithgow in “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”,
was missing, and missed, from Broadway for fifteen years.
There was a tempest when “Miss Saigon” was
being brought over from England and American Equity attempted to prevent
Pryce from coming with the show. British and American Equity were
fighting out the fact that English actors were often welcomed here, but
American actors did not get reciprocity; so Jonathan became a cause celebré.
Having seen his remarkable performance in London, I was among many who
felt it a travesty to bring the play without him. Pryce’s work in
“Miss Saigon” still glitters in my memory, well deserving of his Tony
award.
Eventually the matter was settled, along
with a few new guidelines in the cross-Atlantic Equity agreements, and
Pryce became a “Pryceless” addition to American theatre while remaining
the same in Britain. People in the business have said he was fun to work
with. He was certainly fun at the Drama Desk Luncheon.
One of the more surprising statements was
Jonathan’s claim that he never thought of himself as a singer or dancer.
Talking about going into “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” he said for four weeks
in London he learned the songs, and then during his four weeks of rehearsal
in NYC they added the choreography to the music. “It takes me a
long time – I'm not a dancer”. He extolled the dance captain on
the play: “Dance captains do the work to keep the show in shape.”
All the dancers spoke of the life regimen
dancing demands. They agreed you needed lots of sleep and mustn't abuse
your body: you must “live the life of an athlete”. Some detailed their
stringent routines, even when not in a show, and their warm-up routines
just before curtain time to limber up.
Kelli O’Hara of “Pajama Game” (later, Tony
and Outer Critics Circle nominee for outstanding actress in a musical)
said, “It’s a great way to live life. It makes you take care of
yourself, eating right, keeping your body in shape”.
Pryce earned guffaws with, “I don't
do anything pre show”. Then he added, “I'm naturally limber”.
He confessed that in the second act of …”Scoundrels” he wears elastic
kneepads…can't in first act, when his legs “are naked”.
.jpg) Roundabout Theatre Company’s The Pajama Game Photo: Joan Marcus, 2006 |
Sutton Foster (Tony and Drama Desk nominee
for best actress in a musical) said when she broke her wrist at final
run through of “The Drowsy Chaperone”, “I could do 85% of routines.
Things were altered for my physical limitations, but I tried a one handed
cartwheel and found I could do it”. She said they kept it in the
show. (I saw the show – they did.)
Talking about how dance has changed, or
dance in specific shows has altered, Kelli O’Hara said “’Pajama
Game’” is now a period piece. We're more fifties than the fifties were”.
Sergio Trujillo, (subsequently Drama Desk
choreographer nominee) in talking of how he choreographs, said he puts
a song on the CD player and waits till he sees things. For “Jersey Boys”
he had a bit of an edge — “Coming from New Jersey it was in my head,
but if what I see is not the performers’ strength, I reshape dance to
them”.
Kathleen Marshall (ultimately winner of
the Tony for choreography, OCC outstanding choreographer award and DD
choreographer award and also nominee for direction of a musical) said
she ponders on the character’s story. She also considers: What’s
the set for the number? “In ‘Hernando’s Hideaway’ number I used
the piano - people dancing around it, the seduction of it. In ‘Light in
the Piazza’ Clara took me to the place: - the struggle, painful and wonderful
at the same time”.
John Lloyd Young (later winner of Tony, DD and OCC outstanding actor in a musical awards) confessed when he first auditioned for the Frankie Valli role a year ago, he had no idea who that was. He considered the era and thought, “I can do Doris Day”. He auditioned for the role cold. Later, he knew better.
Jonathan picked up on this by saying, “I
also tried for Doris Day roles, but I didn't get any of them”.
John Lloyd Young was called in for another
audition some time later, just before “Jersey Boys” came to Broadway.
By then, he'd learned a bit about Valli, and knew the singer had not danced,
so he thought, “I can do this”. This time he went ready for the
audition. “It was a much sought after role, but I didn't seek it, it found
me”. However, it took six auditions to land it. Later,
he learned there was dancing in the show.
Pryce also had a role find him. John
Lithgow was leaving “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” and suggested Jonathan
for his role. Since Pryce worked with understudies and the dance
captain, “No one was saying ‘This is how I did it’…” so he was free to
find his own way of playing it.
Sutton Foster remarked this was her first
real dance role. “Except maybe for rocking back and forth as an
Hassid in a version of ‘The Chosen’”. She had been planning to take
a little break after “Little Women” and was hanging out with Casey Nicholaw
who suggested she read “The Drowsy Chaperone” which he was set to direct.
“I laughed out loud reading it”, she told us. Then she auditioned
and got the part.
Richard Ridge presented the topic of what
choreographers seek now.
Kathleen said since musicals have a lot
smaller cast now than a few decades ago, you have to cast principles who
can do everything. She looks for strong, vivid people.
Casey Nicholaw (OCC nominee for outstanding
choreography, DD and Tony nominee for choreographer/director) who wanted
“the show to move” looked for people who were “comfortable in their bodies”.
Sergio referred to how Jerome Robbins and
Bob Fosse were able to find dancers who were actors. “I like to have a
dancer who is an actor, that extra encourages dancers to live it, find
the movements true to the dance or step”.
John Lloyd Young is in his first Broadway
show, “I'm new to the game and getting a lot of attention. It’s
hard to know how to handle it”. He’s getting a big kick out of some of
the celebrities who have come to “Jersey Boys” – Nicole Kidman,
Bruce Willis with his daughter, Calvin Klein “who has seen it two or three
times”.
When one choreographer talked about seeking
“chemistry between players before casting them”, Jonathan quipped, “Norbert
and I should have had a chemistry test”. He was of course referring to
his hyperactive co-star in “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”.
“We have a sense of spontaneity in the show.
Norbert licked my face on stage – the shock came when I licked his
back”.
All agreed dance was in good shape on Broadway.
I believe this year’s crop has reinstated dance’s significance to most
musicals.
Kathleen said, “Book musical comedies lend
themselves to dance – dance naturally follows the music”.
Sergio Trujillo, who danced in Robbins and
Fosse shows, feels there is a “great new force of choreographers coming
up. Dance is evolving a new genre of musicals as choreographers
infuse dance with their own point of view”.
Casey said, “With a 1928 musical I researched
vaudeville, old movies”. Then there was finding his “dancer’s talents
and making dances funny”. Since principles also comprise the chorus,
he needed people who were comfortable in their bodies, able and willing
to move. He certainly got them!
A special award should be given to the Drama
Desk for reminding critics and public alike of the importance of dance
to Broadway musicals, and doing so with such a stellar group of performers
and choreographers!