Three for the show.Choreographer Rob Marshall has scored a triple play: Right now, he has three big musicals running on Broadway. His musical staging of three wildly diverse shows--Kiss of the Spider Woman, She Loves Me, and Damn Yankees--has suddenly thrust Marshall into the major leagues. Not bad for a choreographer whose previous solo Broadway outing was orchestrating movements for an earthbound revival of Blithe Spirit. For the brash, hallucinatory hal·lu·ci·na·to·ry adj. 1. Of or characterized by hallucination. 2. Inducing or causing hallucination. Kiss of the Spider Woman Kiss of the Spider Woman (El beso de la mujer araña) may refer to:
v. slith·ered, slith·er·ing, slith·ers v.intr. 1. To glide or slide like a reptile. See Synonyms at slide. 2. To walk with a sliding or shuffling gait. 3. figure of glamour and gloom. Marshall worked on Spider Woman when it was already in progress, so billing lists him for "additional choreography," with Vince Paterson credited as choreographer. Insiders report, however, that Marshall rechoreographed every number involving Rivera but one, and choreographed two numbers from conception to completion. In October Marshall's charming, dexterous dex·ter·ous also dex·trous adj. 1. Skillful in the use of the hands. 2. Having mental skill or adroitness. 3. Done with dexterity. musical staging (and Scott Ellis's direction) evoked the Old World perfume of She Loves Me, the intimate 1963 musical currently at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre The Brooks Atkinson Theatre is a Broadway theater located at 256 West 47th Street in Manhattan. Designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp, it was constructed as the Mansfield Theatre by the Chanin brothers in 1926. . (As usual, Marshall's assistant choreographer was his sister Kathleen.) On March 3 at the Marquis Theatre, Marshall and director Jack O'Brien step up to the plate with a revival of Damn Yankees, the 1955 musical about a sadsack sports fan who trades his soul to save his favorite baseball team. Bebe Neuwirth, best known as the glacial Lilith in television's "Cheers," plays the hotblooded Lola--not as much of a stretch as it seems: Neuwirth won a Tony Award in the recent revival of Sweet Charity. Along with baseball allusions, Damn Yankees requires a choreographer to grapple with to enter into contest with, resolutely and courageously. See also: Grapple the indelible imagery created by the show's original choreographer, Bob Fosse, and embodied by his muse, Gwen Verdon. Hard-edged, hilarious, sexy, technically complex, Fosse's work defined show dancing for a generation. "Fosse was a genius, so choreographing this show is daunting daunt tr.v. daunt·ed, daunt·ing, daunts To abate the courage of; discourage. See Synonyms at dismay. [Middle English daunten, from Old French danter, from Latin ," Marshall acknowledges. "I lucked out in one sense because the script has been revised by Jack O'Brien. It's a fond look back at the fifties, but hipper than before. The set is reminiscent of |Nick at Nite,' and we're staying true to that. Some of the pieces have different functions now. |Who's Got the Pain?' is not one man with Lola but all the ballplayers with her. We've added a |Blooper Ballet' for the ballplayers; we wanted to illustrate that they are a lousy team, and not just have people talking about them during a crossover." Marshall does not use an instantly recognizable idiom--at least not yet. "Some people work from a style," he says. "I work from the text of the show and the characters. I try to further or comment on the plot and develop character through a number. Putting together a generic number for a variety show would not be my strong point. I get my inspiration from the people and the story, the world of the play. "Of course, Fosse's images are so strong that in a couple of places I do pay homage to him. It's like [Michael Kidd's] Guys and Dolls: the crapshooters have to flip and roll dice and slide on their knees." How do you make a teapot dance? How does a candle walk? How does a breakfront break·front n. A piece of furniture, such as a cabinet or a bookcase, with a central section that projects beyond the sections to either side. sing? Bringing Disney's Beauty and the Beast Beauty and the Beast is a traditional fairy tale (type 425C -- search for a lost husband -- in the Aarne-Thompson classification). The first published version of the fairy tale was a meandering rendition by Madame Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, published in to life on the stage poses distinctive challenges for a choreographer. After all, compared to cartoons, real people look lifeless. Some audiences expect--or are inured in·ure also en·ure tr.v. in·ured, in·ur·ing, in·ures To habituate to something undesirable, especially by prolonged subjection; accustom: to--theme park attractions in which midgets wearing Mickey masks cavort ca·vort intr.v. ca·vort·ed, ca·vort·ing, ca·vorts 1. To bound or prance about in a sprightly manner; caper. 2. . Others expect genuine Broadway dazzle. Then there's fear of tampering with a commercial and critical success: the animated film of Beauty and the Beast has grossed $145 million, its songs won an Oscar, and kids can recite the dialogue by heart, so Disney's first foray into legitimate theater is a high-priority item for a zealously self-protective organization. And let's not ignore the schadenfreude factor: Broadway loves nothing so much as the humiliation of a well-heeled newcomer. Mainly, more than anything, there's the question of how to cope with all those actors dressed as home furnishings. "When Beauty and the Beast opened, [Disney chairman] Michael Eisner suggested doing a stage version of the film," recalls choreographer Matt West. "I thought, Oh God, dancing candlesticks, |
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