Latest news with #Gattelli
San Francisco Chronicle
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
How Christopher Gattelli crafted Broadway's 'Death Becomes Her' and made it a Tonys powerhouse
NEW YORK (AP) — When he was first asked to helm the Broadway hit musical 'Death Becomes Her,' director and choreographer Christopher Gattelli loved it, but refused to work on the big, splashy opening number. It was just too delicious. 'When they sent it to me, I was cooking and I burnt dinner because my mind was spinning," he says. "I was, like, 'This is a gift. I will never get an opening number like this again.'' So Gattelli worked out everything else about how to put Robert Zemeckis' 1992 comic cult classic onto a stage and only then turned to the big, brassy song, 'For the Gaze,' a winking valentine to gay men, punning along the way. 'I was able to do the show and then have my full brain on that number because I knew the potential of what it could be,' he says. What Gattelli crafted is an opening number for the ages, led by Megan Hilty: There are mid-song costume changes, dance breaks, chorus boys hoisting Hilty, spangly jumpsuits and tuxedos, high-kicking Vegas showgirls with feather headdresses, a body double doing somersaults, a rainbow flag of top-hatted dancers, and Hilty doing a Liza Minnelli cameo, all ending with the grand finale of Hilty as Judy Garland's Dorothy from 'The Wizard of Oz,' complete with a little stuffed dog. 'I heard the pocket in that song, and I was like, 'I know there's a giant laugh there. I can hear giant laughs, what's that giant laugh?'' says Gattelli. 'What's the biggest gay reference? Then I literally I just worked backwards.' That number telegraphs to the audience exactly what to expect for the rest of the night — a perfectly rehearsed, lushly costumed, silly, self-aware comedy. 'Once we hit 'For the Gaze,' the audience knows exactly what the show is," he says. "And then I think they're in for the ride.' A wheelbarrow of Tony nods The work on 'For the Gaze' has helped Gattelli see his show earn 10 Tony Award nominations, including one for his Broadway debut as a director and another for his choreography. The musical is based on the film, which starred Meryl Streep as a self-centered actor and Goldie Hawn as her suffering-in-the-shadows writer friend. Their mutual desperate measures for achieving eternal youth turn comically grotesque. Hilty plays the Streep role, while Jennifer Simard plays the Hawn one. 'It felt like just the perfect fit for what I do and what I love to do," Gattelli says. "I love comedy and I love to direct comedy and I love to do these big splashy numbers. It felt like everything I've been itching to do.' Gattelli — who was a dancer in the original 'Cats' — has been a mainstay on Broadway of late, able to choreograph such venerable works as 'The King and I' and 'My Fair Lady' but also irreverent musicals as 'SpongeBob SquarePants' and the jukebox variety, like 'The Cher Show.' He made his directing debut off-Broadway in 2011 with 'Silence!' a parody musical of 'The Silence of the Lambs,' complete with a chorus of dancing lambs running across the stage. Lowe Cunningham, lead producer of 'Death Becomes Her,' saw it in Los Angeles and later asked Gattelli about the experience, how he collaborated and his approach to the work. She was impressed by his openness to all ideas and his caring. 'I think first and foremost, his talent is clear and it's been out there in the world of choreography for a long time. He is innovative, he does things other people aren't doing, but the other thing is that he's renowned as being an incredibly kind human being,' she says. Gattelli, who won a 2012 Tony for choreographing 'Newsies the Musical' — one of his show-stopping moments was dancers sliding on newspapers — was brought in relatively late to 'Death Becomes Her,' only a year and half before opening on Broadway. 'It was a great lesson in trusting your instincts,' he says. 'They said, 'We want a lush, opulent, sexy, magical sparkling evening.' And we just started taking big swings.' It started with — of all things — the curtain. The audience filing into the theater is greeted by a purple, royal fabric. 'When people walk in, they immediately feel like that it's lush and sexy and mysterious.' The challenge of one scene The musical is filled with very funny special effects that are decidedly low-tech. At one point, the two leading ladies are replaced by two men duking it out in dresses and wigs. The audience roars at the deception and Gattelli even advised one of the male combatants not to shave his arm hair. 'The audience is in on the joke,' he says. 'I love that they go on that ride with us. They're laughing with us. We're all laughing together and it feels good.' One scene from the movie needed a lot of planning to make it on stage: The tumble down the elegant mansion stairs by Hilty's character. Hollywood CGI magic would have to be replicated by Broadway ingenuity. 'The people that know the movie and the fans especially are going to go, 'How are they going to do it?' It was keeping me up at night forever because we tried everything,' says Gattelli. The creative team — which also included set designer Derek McLane, lighting designer Justin Townsend and sound designer Peter Hylenski — decided to make it a dance punctuated by sound effects. Warren Yang — an actor with a gymnastics background — wears Hilty's outfit and a wig as he tumbles slowly, acrobatically and theatrically down the stairs, somersaulting as thunder sounds crash and we hear what seems like bones cracking. (The stairs were made of the rubber Neoprene for safety.) 'There are very simple techniques that make a big impact,' says Gattelli. 'I just went back to it's a beautiful, lush, gorgeous show, but, at the core, it's just theatrical magic and stagecraft.'
4 days ago
- Entertainment
How Christopher Gattelli crafted Broadway's 'Death Becomes Her' and made it a Tonys powerhouse
NEW YORK -- When he was first asked to helm the Broadway hit musical 'Death Becomes Her,' director and choreographer Christopher Gattelli loved it, but refused to work on the big, splashy opening number. It was just too delicious. 'When they sent it to me, I was cooking and I burnt dinner because my mind was spinning," he says. "I was, like, 'This is a gift. I will never get an opening number like this again.'' So Gattelli worked out everything else about how to put Robert Zemeckis' 1992 comic cult classic onto a stage and only then turned to the big, brassy song, 'For the Gaze,' a winking valentine to gay men, punning along the way. 'I was able to do the show and then have my full brain on that number because I knew the potential of what it could be,' he says. What Gattelli crafted is an opening number for the ages, led by Megan Hilty: There are mid-song costume changes, dance breaks, chorus boys hoisting Hilty, spangly jumpsuits and tuxedos, high-kicking Vegas showgirls with feather headdresses, a body double doing somersaults, a rainbow flag of top-hatted dancers, and Hilty doing a Liza Minnelli cameo, all ending with the grand finale of Hilty as Judy Garland's Dorothy from 'The Wizard of Oz,' complete with a little stuffed dog. 'I heard the pocket in that song, and I was like, 'I know there's a giant laugh there. I can hear giant laughs, what's that giant laugh?'' says Gattelli. 'What's the biggest gay reference? Then I literally I just worked backwards.' That number telegraphs to the audience exactly what to expect for the rest of the night — a perfectly rehearsed, lushly costumed, silly, self-aware comedy. 'Once we hit 'For the Gaze,' the audience knows exactly what the show is," he says. "And then I think they're in for the ride.' The work on 'For the Gaze' has helped Gattelli see his show earn 10 Tony Award nominations, including one for his Broadway debut as a director and another for his choreography. The musical is based on the film, which starred Meryl Streep as a self-centered actor and Goldie Hawn as her suffering-in-the-shadows writer friend. Their mutual desperate measures for achieving eternal youth turn comically grotesque. Hilty plays the Streep role, while Jennifer Simard plays the Hawn one. 'It felt like just the perfect fit for what I do and what I love to do," Gattelli says. "I love comedy and I love to direct comedy and I love to do these big splashy numbers. It felt like everything I've been itching to do.' Gattelli — who was a dancer in the original 'Cats' — has been a mainstay on Broadway of late, able to choreograph such venerable works as 'The King and I' and 'My Fair Lady' but also irreverent musicals as 'SpongeBob SquarePants' and the jukebox variety, like 'The Cher Show.' He made his directing debut off-Broadway in 2011 with 'Silence!' a parody musical of 'The Silence of the Lambs,' complete with a chorus of dancing lambs running across the stage. Lowe Cunningham, lead producer of 'Death Becomes Her,' saw it in Los Angeles and later asked Gattelli about the experience, how he collaborated and his approach to the work. She was impressed by his openness to all ideas and his caring. 'I think first and foremost, his talent is clear and it's been out there in the world of choreography for a long time. He is innovative, he does things other people aren't doing, but the other thing is that he's renowned as being an incredibly kind human being,' she says. Gattelli, who won a 2012 Tony for choreographing 'Newsies the Musical' — one of his show-stopping moments was dancers sliding on newspapers — was brought in relatively late to 'Death Becomes Her,' only a year and half before opening on Broadway. 'It was a great lesson in trusting your instincts,' he says. 'They said, 'We want a lush, opulent, sexy, magical sparkling evening.' And we just started taking big swings.' It started with — of all things — the curtain. The audience filing into the theater is greeted by a purple, royal fabric. 'When people walk in, they immediately feel like that it's lush and sexy and mysterious.' The musical is filled with very funny special effects that are decidedly low-tech. At one point, the two leading ladies are replaced by two men duking it out in dresses and wigs. The audience roars at the deception and Gattelli even advised one of the male combatants not to shave his arm hair. 'The audience is in on the joke,' he says. 'I love that they go on that ride with us. They're laughing with us. We're all laughing together and it feels good.' One scene from the movie needed a lot of planning to make it on stage: The tumble down the elegant mansion stairs by Hilty's character. Hollywood CGI magic would have to be replicated by Broadway ingenuity. 'The people that know the movie and the fans especially are going to go, 'How are they going to do it?' It was keeping me up at night forever because we tried everything,' says Gattelli. The creative team — which also included set designer Derek McLane, lighting designer Justin Townsend and sound designer Peter Hylenski — decided to make it a dance punctuated by sound effects. Warren Yang — an actor with a gymnastics background — wears Hilty's outfit and a wig as he tumbles slowly, acrobatically and theatrically down the stairs, somersaulting as thunder sounds crash and we hear what seems like bones cracking. (The stairs were made of the rubber Neoprene for safety.) 'There are very simple techniques that make a big impact,' says Gattelli. 'I just went back to it's a beautiful, lush, gorgeous show, but, at the core, it's just theatrical magic and stagecraft.'
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How Christopher Gattelli crafted Broadway's 'Death Becomes Her' and made it a Tonys powerhouse
NEW YORK (AP) — When he was first asked to helm the Broadway hit musical 'Death Becomes Her,' director and choreographer Christopher Gattelli loved it, but refused to work on the big, splashy opening number. It was just too delicious. 'When they sent it to me, I was cooking and I burnt dinner because my mind was spinning," he says. "I was, like, 'This is a gift. I will never get an opening number like this again.'' So Gattelli worked out everything else about how to put Robert Zemeckis' 1992 comic cult classic onto a stage and only then turned to the big, brassy song, 'For the Gaze,' a winking valentine to gay men, punning along the way. 'I was able to do the show and then have my full brain on that number because I knew the potential of what it could be,' he says. What Gattelli crafted is an opening number for the ages, led by Megan Hilty: There are mid-song costume changes, dance breaks, chorus boys hoisting Hilty, spangly jumpsuits and tuxedos, high-kicking Vegas showgirls with feather headdresses, a body double doing somersaults, a rainbow flag of top-hatted dancers, and Hilty doing a Liza Minnelli cameo, all ending with the grand finale of Hilty as Judy Garland's Dorothy from 'The Wizard of Oz,' complete with a little stuffed dog. 'I heard the pocket in that song, and I was like, 'I know there's a giant laugh there. I can hear giant laughs, what's that giant laugh?'' says Gattelli. 'What's the biggest gay reference? Then I literally I just worked backwards.' That number telegraphs to the audience exactly what to expect for the rest of the night — a perfectly rehearsed, lushly costumed, silly, self-aware comedy. 'Once we hit 'For the Gaze,' the audience knows exactly what the show is," he says. "And then I think they're in for the ride.' A wheelbarrow of Tony nods The work on 'For the Gaze' has helped Gattelli see his show earn 10 Tony Award nominations, including one for his Broadway debut as a director and another for his choreography. The musical is based on the film, which starred Meryl Streep as a self-centered actor and Goldie Hawn as her suffering-in-the-shadows writer friend. Their mutual desperate measures for achieving eternal youth turn comically grotesque. Hilty plays the Streep role, while Jennifer Simard plays the Hawn one. 'It felt like just the perfect fit for what I do and what I love to do," Gattelli says. "I love comedy and I love to direct comedy and I love to do these big splashy numbers. It felt like everything I've been itching to do.' Gattelli — who was a dancer in the original 'Cats' — has been a mainstay on Broadway of late, able to choreograph such venerable works as 'The King and I' and 'My Fair Lady' but also irreverent musicals as 'SpongeBob SquarePants' and the jukebox variety, like 'The Cher Show.' He made his directing debut off-Broadway in 2011 with 'Silence!' a parody musical of 'The Silence of the Lambs,' complete with a chorus of dancing lambs running across the stage. Lowe Cunningham, lead producer of 'Death Becomes Her,' saw it in Los Angeles and later asked Gattelli about the experience, how he collaborated and his approach to the work. She was impressed by his openness to all ideas and his caring. 'I think first and foremost, his talent is clear and it's been out there in the world of choreography for a long time. He is innovative, he does things other people aren't doing, but the other thing is that he's renowned as being an incredibly kind human being,' she says. Gattelli, who won a 2012 Tony for choreographing 'Newsies the Musical' — one of his show-stopping moments was dancers sliding on newspapers — was brought in relatively late to 'Death Becomes Her,' only a year and half before opening on Broadway. 'It was a great lesson in trusting your instincts,' he says. 'They said, 'We want a lush, opulent, sexy, magical sparkling evening.' And we just started taking big swings.' It started with — of all things — the curtain. The audience filing into the theater is greeted by a purple, royal fabric. 'When people walk in, they immediately feel like that it's lush and sexy and mysterious.' The challenge of one scene The musical is filled with very funny special effects that are decidedly low-tech. At one point, the two leading ladies are replaced by two men duking it out in dresses and wigs. The audience roars at the deception and Gattelli even advised one of the male combatants not to shave his arm hair. 'The audience is in on the joke,' he says. 'I love that they go on that ride with us. They're laughing with us. We're all laughing together and it feels good.' One scene from the movie needed a lot of planning to make it on stage: The tumble down the elegant mansion stairs by Hilty's character. Hollywood CGI magic would have to be replicated by Broadway ingenuity. 'The people that know the movie and the fans especially are going to go, 'How are they going to do it?' It was keeping me up at night forever because we tried everything,' says Gattelli. The creative team — which also included set designer Derek McLane, lighting designer Justin Townsend and sound designer Peter Hylenski — decided to make it a dance punctuated by sound effects. Warren Yang — an actor with a gymnastics background — wears Hilty's outfit and a wig as he tumbles slowly, acrobatically and theatrically down the stairs, somersaulting as thunder sounds crash and we hear what seems like bones cracking. (The stairs were made of the rubber Neoprene for safety.) 'There are very simple techniques that make a big impact,' says Gattelli. 'I just went back to it's a beautiful, lush, gorgeous show, but, at the core, it's just theatrical magic and stagecraft.'
Winnipeg Free Press
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
How Christopher Gattelli crafted Broadway's ‘Death Becomes Her' and made it a Tonys powerhouse
NEW YORK (AP) — When he was first asked to helm the Broadway hit musical 'Death Becomes Her,' director and choreographer Christopher Gattelli loved it, but refused to work on the big, splashy opening number. It was just too delicious. 'When they sent it to me, I was cooking and I burnt dinner because my mind was spinning,' he says. 'I was, like, 'This is a gift. I will never get an opening number like this again.'' So Gattelli worked out everything else about how to put Robert Zemeckis' 1992 comic cult classic onto a stage and only then turned to the big, brassy song, 'For the Gaze,' a winking valentine to gay men, punning along the way. 'I was able to do the show and then have my full brain on that number because I knew the potential of what it could be,' he says. What Gattelli crafted is an opening number for the ages, led by Megan Hilty: There are mid-song costume changes, dance breaks, chorus boys hoisting Hilty, spangly jumpsuits and tuxedos, high-kicking Vegas showgirls with feather headdresses, a body double doing somersaults, a rainbow flag of top-hatted dancers, and Hilty doing a Liza Minnelli cameo, all ending with the grand finale of Hilty as Judy Garland's Dorothy from 'The Wizard of Oz,' complete with a little stuffed dog. 'I heard the pocket in that song, and I was like, 'I know there's a giant laugh there. I can hear giant laughs, what's that giant laugh?'' says Gattelli. 'What's the biggest gay reference? Then I literally I just worked backwards.' That number telegraphs to the audience exactly what to expect for the rest of the night — a perfectly rehearsed, lushly costumed, silly, self-aware comedy. 'Once we hit 'For the Gaze,' the audience knows exactly what the show is,' he says. 'And then I think they're in for the ride.' A wheelbarrow of Tony nods The work on 'For the Gaze' has helped Gattelli see his show earn 10 Tony Award nominations, including one for his Broadway debut as a director and another for his choreography. The musical is based on the film, which starred Meryl Streep as a self-centered actor and Goldie Hawn as her suffering-in-the-shadows writer friend. Their mutual desperate measures for achieving eternal youth turn comically grotesque. Hilty plays the Streep role, while Jennifer Simard plays the Hawn one. 'It felt like just the perfect fit for what I do and what I love to do,' Gattelli says. 'I love comedy and I love to direct comedy and I love to do these big splashy numbers. It felt like everything I've been itching to do.' Gattelli — who was a dancer in the original 'Cats' — has been a mainstay on Broadway of late, able to choreograph such venerable works as 'The King and I' and 'My Fair Lady' but also irreverent musicals as 'SpongeBob SquarePants' and the jukebox variety, like 'The Cher Show.' He made his directing debut off-Broadway in 2011 with 'Silence!' a parody musical of 'The Silence of the Lambs,' complete with a chorus of dancing lambs running across the stage. Lowe Cunningham, lead producer of 'Death Becomes Her,' saw it in Los Angeles and later asked Gattelli about the experience, how he collaborated and his approach to the work. She was impressed by his openness to all ideas and his caring. 'I think first and foremost, his talent is clear and it's been out there in the world of choreography for a long time. He is innovative, he does things other people aren't doing, but the other thing is that he's renowned as being an incredibly kind human being,' she says. Gattelli, who won a 2012 Tony for choreographing 'Newsies the Musical' — one of his show-stopping moments was dancers sliding on newspapers — was brought in relatively late to 'Death Becomes Her,' only a year and half before opening on Broadway. 'It was a great lesson in trusting your instincts,' he says. 'They said, 'We want a lush, opulent, sexy, magical sparkling evening.' And we just started taking big swings.' It started with — of all things — the curtain. The audience filing into the theater is greeted by a purple, royal fabric. 'When people walk in, they immediately feel like that it's lush and sexy and mysterious.' The challenge of one scene The musical is filled with very funny special effects that are decidedly low-tech. At one point, the two leading ladies are replaced by two men duking it out in dresses and wigs. The audience roars at the deception and Gattelli even advised one of the male combatants not to shave his arm hair. 'The audience is in on the joke,' he says. 'I love that they go on that ride with us. They're laughing with us. We're all laughing together and it feels good.' Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. One scene from the movie needed a lot of planning to make it on stage: The tumble down the elegant mansion stairs by Hilty's character. Hollywood CGI magic would have to be replicated by Broadway ingenuity. 'The people that know the movie and the fans especially are going to go, 'How are they going to do it?' It was keeping me up at night forever because we tried everything,' says Gattelli. The creative team — which also included set designer Derek McLane, lighting designer Justin Townsend and sound designer Peter Hylenski — decided to make it a dance punctuated by sound effects. Warren Yang — an actor with a gymnastics background — wears Hilty's outfit and a wig as he tumbles slowly, acrobatically and theatrically down the stairs, somersaulting as thunder sounds crash and we hear what seems like bones cracking. (The stairs were made of the rubber Neoprene for safety.) 'There are very simple techniques that make a big impact,' says Gattelli. 'I just went back to it's a beautiful, lush, gorgeous show, but, at the core, it's just theatrical magic and stagecraft.'
New York Times
06-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
This Choreographer Is Sending Love Letters to His Dance Heroes
If Christopher Gattelli's choreography looks familiar, that's probably the point. A veteran of more than 20 Broadway shows and a devotee of movie musicals, he has an encyclopedic dance brain, a catalog of musical theater references he deploys throughout his work onstage and onscreen. Homage is his calling card. And that makes him a very clever satirist. His two current projects — the stage adaptation of the television show 'Schmigadoon!,' at the Kennedy Center in Washington through Sunday; and Broadway's 'Death Becomes Her,' at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater — both feature wickedly detailed sendups of 'musical theater dance.' For Gattelli, 52, those scare quotes might as well be hugs. Barbed as his dance humor can be, it's underpinned by his affection for the genre, in spite and because of its excesses and quirks. 'It's easy to get snarky when you're spoofing something you're so familiar with,' he said in an interview. 'It's easy to get all the digs in. But I'm truly writing love letters to all of my dance heroes.' In his choreography for 'Schmigadoon!' on AppleTV+, he all but addressed those letters by name. For the show's first season — which followed a 21st-century couple stranded in a world where every day is a Golden Age musical — Gattelli channeled the knee-slapping, heel-clicking ebullience of the choreographers Agnes de Mille and Michael Kidd. For the second season, set in the grittier environs of 'Schmicago,' he brought in the pigeon-toed slinkiness of Bob Fosse and the splayed-fingers jazz of Michael Bennett. The choreography for the stage version (based on that first season), which Gattelli also directs, is even giddier and broader. Now, when the performers sing out 'S-C-H-M-I-G-A-D-O-O-N' in the opening number, à la 'Oklahoma!,' they also spell the letters with their bodies, à la 'Y.M.C.A.' In 'Death Becomes Her,' which Gattelli choreographed and directed, the references are slightly less pointed, but the dance jokes are just as sharp. Based on the 1992 film — a dark comedy in which two women drink a potion that promises eternal youth, emphasis on eternal — the musical adds a chorus of body-suited dancers as 'Immortals.' They delight in their own sinister sinuosity, like the self-aware dance ensemble of Fosse's 'Pippin.' And Gattelli ensures that the showstopping 'Death Becomes Her' number 'For the Gaze' lives up to its own double entendre title: There are parades of feathered Ziegfeld Follies showgirls, and enough shoulder shimmies and hip thrusts to power a disco-era variety show. (A dancer in a black bob wig even cartwheels in for a cameo as Liza Minnelli, jazz hands flying.) The dancer and actress Ariana DeBose, who appeared in the television version of 'Schmigadoon!,' said in a phone interview that she appreciates Gattelli's multilayered dance humor. 'He understands how to build these big, glorious spectacles, and that energy is going to translate to any audience,' she said. But for DeBose, a fellow musical theater enthusiast who started as a dancer on Broadway, 'a lot of the magic happened when we were chatting about the great film stars and theater stars who excelled in dance and how we could emulate their particular qualities,' she said. 'We were referencing Vera-Ellen in 'White Christmas,' Donna McKechnie in 'A Chorus Line' — they meant something to us.' On a recent Zoom call between 'Schmigadoon!' rehearsals in Washington, Gattelli discussed his approach to dance-based satire. These are edited excerpts from the conversation. When did you start using dance to make people laugh? Some of my earliest choreography jobs were for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS events. That's the kind of audience that will get 90 percent of the theater jokes you make, even the deep cuts. So we would create these opening numbers that would spoof everything. Hearing my peers, my community, laughing — the bug really bit me then. How do you convey archness — the raised eyebrow — in dance? The dancing body is usually such a vulnerable, earnest thing. Even archness has to come from an earnest place. That happens most naturally when the dancers are addressing the audience directly. It helps in 'Death Becomes Her' that we begin with Viola Van Horn, Michelle Williams's character, addressing the audience. When the Immortals come out for that first number and flirt with the audience, it doesn't feel like a cheap wink — it feels like they're helping her tell the story. The television version of 'Schmigadoon!' created stage-style musical numbers for the screen. Are they funnier now, onstage? What I think is funny is that I'm now doing the opposite of what was happening in most of those Golden Age movies: Those choreographers were usually taking gorgeous stage dances and trying to make them fit on film. The stage is honestly a much more comfortable arena for me — this is the place and the history I know best. And so I felt like I could take the vision even further, like I was directing and choreographing the numbers the way they had always been intended. Especially because I have more bodies to play with, or at least more bodies that people can see all the time, which automatically amps everything up. Specificity seems like a big part of the humor in 'Schmigadoon!,' too. Oh, definitely. When I was first choreographing these numbers, I would sit in the room and show the dancers YouTube videos of the old musicals, and then follow up with emails full of links. Like, 'Watch what they're doing at four minutes into 'June Is Busting Out All Over.' Look at this moment from 'Dance at the Gym.'' I really got in there. [laughs] Most audience members can quote a few lines from Broadway songs. But not many can quote Broadway choreography. How do you make sure that kind of dance joke lands? I think the key to that is to add details that, even if the average audience member doesn't know where they're from, they'll go, 'Oh, I've seen that before.' Like in 'With All of Your Heart,' Ariana's big number from the first season of 'Schmigadoon!,' we put in this toe-tapping moment that's from 'Step in Time' in 'Mary Poppins,' when Mary is dancing with the chimney sweeps. It's not exactly famous, but it is iconic. Even if people can't name that moment, it will be familiar in a way that makes them, I hope, feel like they're in good hands. And if they can name it, then it's a great little Easter egg. Musical satire can be nihilistic — like 'The Book of Mormon' — but your work seems fundamentally optimistic. Is it? Well, I like to lead with kindness. I feel like I tend to choose shows that I can do that with, or those shows tend to choose me. Even a show like 'Death Becomes Her,' which we call a cautionary tale, the idea is still to lift up, not to push down. I've been a part of hits, and I've been a part of misses, but the thing I'm always going for is joy. And big belly laughs.
