New York – When he was asked for the first time to drive Broadway musical. “Death becomes it” The director and choreographer Christopher Gattelli loved it, but he refused to work in the great and dotted opening number. It was too delicious.
“When they sent it to me, I was cooking and burning dinner because my mind was spinning,” he says. “I was, as, ‘this is a gift. I will never have an opening number like this.”
Then Gattelli discovered everything else about how to put Robert Zemeckis’ The 1992 comic cult classic on a stage and only then turned to the great brass song, “For the Gaze”, a Valentine who wiped homosexual men, punishing along the way.
“I was able to do the show and then have my complete brain in that number because I knew the potential of what it could be,” he says.
What Gattelli created is an opening number for the ages, directed by Megan Hilty: There are costume changes in the middle of the song, dance pauses, chorus guys who were threads, spangly and tuxed Liza Minnelli Cameo, all ending with the Great Final of Hilty as Dorothy by Judy Garland of “The Wizard of Oz”, complete with a small stuffed dog.
“I heard my pocket in that song, and I thought: ‘I know there is a giant laugh there. I can hear giant laughs, what is that giant laugh?” Says Gattelli. “What is the biggest gay reference? So, literally, I just worked backwards.”
That number of telegraphy to the audience exactly what to expect for the rest of the night, a perfectly rehearsed comedy, with touch, dumb, dumb and conscious.
“Once we get to ‘for the look’, the public knows exactly what the program is,” he says. “And then I think they are on the trip.”
The work in “For the Gaze” has helped Gattelli see its program to win 10 Tony Award nominations, including one for its Broadway debut as director and another for its choreography.
The musical is based on the film, he starred in Meryl Streep as egocentric actor and Goldie Hawn as her friend writer of suffering in the shadows. Their desperate mutual measures to achieve eternal young people become comically grotesque. Hilty plays the role of Streep, while Jennifer Simard Play the Hawn One.
“He felt the perfect adjustment for what I do and what I love to do,” says Gattelli. “I love comedy and I love to direct the comedy and I love to make these large numbers splashed. I felt like everything I have been anxious to do.”
Gattelli – who was a dancer in the original “Cats” – It has been a Broadway pillar of recent times, capable of choreographing venerable works such as “King and I” and “My Fair Lady” but also irreverent musicals such as “Sponbob Squarepants” and the variety of records, such as “The Cher Show”.
He made his direction out of Broadway in 2011 with “Silence!” A parody musical of “The silence of the lambs”, complete with a chorus of dance lambs that runs on stage.
Lowe Cunningham, main producer of “Death becomes it,” saw him in Los Angeles and then asked Gattelli about the experience, how he collaborated and his approach to work. It was impressed by its opening to all ideas and care.
“I think that in the first place, his talent is clear and has been in the world of choreography for a long time. It is innovative, he does things that other people are not doing, but the other thing is that he is recognized as an incredibly friendly human being,” she says.
Gattelli, who won a Tony 2012 for choreographing “Newsies The Musical”, one of his flickering moments was that the dancers slide in the newspapers, was brought relatively late to “Death Boress Her”, just a year and a half before opening on Broadway.
“It was a great lesson to trust your instincts,” he says. “They said: ‘We want a lush, opulent, sexy and magical foamy night.’ And we begin to take large swings.”
It started with, of all things, the curtain. The audience presented to the theater is received by a purple and real cloth. “When people enter, they immediately feel that it is lush, sexy and mysterious.”
The musical is full of very fun effects that are decidedly low technology. At one point, the two main ladies are replaced by two men who do it with dresses and wigs. The audience roars in the deception and Gattelli even advised one of the male combatants who did not shave the arm’s hair.
“The public is in the joke,” he says. “I love that they continue that trip with us. They are laughing with us. We are all laughing together and feels good.”
A movie scene needed a lot of planning to reach the stage: the fall of the elegant stairs of the Hilty character mansion. Hollywood CGI Magic would have to be replicated by Broadway ingenuity.
“People who know the movie and fans are going especially, ‘How are they going to do it?’ I was staying awake at night because we tried everything, ”says Gattelli.
The creative team, which also included Set Designer Derek McLane, Justin Towsend lighting designer and sound designer Peter Hylenski, decided to be a dance scored for sound effects.
Warren Yang, an actor with a history of gymnastics, uses Hilty’s outfit and a wig as he falls slowly, acrobatically and theatrically lowering the stairs, jumping deadly while the thunder sound and listen to what it seems that the bones crack. (The stairs were made of the safety neoprene).
“There are very simple techniques that have a great impact,” says Gattelli. “I just became a beautiful, lush and beautiful show, but, deep down, it is only magic and theatrical stagnation.”
