New York correspondent Susan Reiter talks us through 12 months of Broadway productions.
The 2014-15 Broadway season (which covered the period from June 2014 through May 2015) included several productions in which choreography played a vital and scintillating role.
These included one tremendous revival, two productions based on beloved musical films from the golden era of that genre; and several original new musicals. The choreography that propelled these dance-driven shows was by Broadway neophytes as well as one of the most successful and in-demand of today’s director-choreographers.
That would be Casey Nicholaw, who in recent years has turned into a Broadway success machine. During his dancing days, he performed in the ensemble of eight Broadway musicals between 1992 and 2002. His first credit as a Broadway choreographer was the hilarious 2005 hit, Spamalot. Soon after that, he began to take charge of both direction and choreography, and hit the jackpot with the irreverent, hugely popular Book of Mormon – winning the Tony Awards for both choreography and direction of a musical.
That show continues its healthy run on Broadway, as does Aladdin – the 2014 stage adaptation of the Disney film, which Nicholaw also directed and choreographed. With the addition of Something Rotten, which opened in April, Nicholaw now has three Broadway musicals running at once.
Something Rotten, with a book and score written by Broadway newcomers is a big, pushy, in-your-face musical that aims to be silly and mocking, and leave everyone laughing. It seems to be having that effect on audiences. Though lacking star names in the cast, or any previous name-recognition for its creators, it appears to have settled in for a healthy Broadway run.
Its premise is that two frustrated and unsuccessful playwrighting brothers (Brian D’arcy James and John Cariani), contemporaries of Shakespeare, are jealous and full of hatred for the hugely popular and prolific Bard (portrayed as a spoiled rock star by Christian Borle, who won the Tony Award for his witty performance. Struggling for a new idea that can take attention away from him, they hit upon the idea of writing the first musical, essentially inventing the genre...
This is an extract from an article by New York correspondent Susan Reiter in the current issue of Dance Australia. Read the full article and many more - buy Dance Australia from your favourite retail outlet, or use our free app to purchase and download your copy, or make sure you receive every issue by subscribing here!