\n<\/p>\n
If Christopher Gattelli\u2019s choreography looks familiar, that\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
And that makes him a very clever satirist. His two current projects \u2014 the stage adaptation<\/a> of the television show \u201cSchmigadoon!,\u201d<\/a> at the Kennedy Center in Washington through Sunday; and Broadway\u2019s \u201cDeath Becomes Her,\u201d<\/a> at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater \u2014 both feature wickedly detailed sendups of \u201cmusical theater dance.\u201d<\/p>\n For Gattelli, 52, those scare quotes might as well be hugs. Barbed as his dance humor can be, it\u2019s underpinned by his affection for the genre, in spite and<\/em> because of its excesses and quirks.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s easy to get snarky when you\u2019re spoofing something you\u2019re so familiar with,\u201d he said in an interview. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to get all the digs in. But I\u2019m truly writing love letters to all of my dance heroes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n 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 \u201cS-C-H-M-I-G-A-D-O-O-N\u201d in the opening number, \u00e0 la \u201cOklahoma!<\/a>,\u201d they also spell the letters with their bodies, \u00e0 la \u201cY.M.C.A<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n In \u201cDeath Becomes Her,\u201d 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> \u2014 a dark comedy in which two women drink a potion that promises eternal youth, emphasis on eternal \u2014 the musical adds a chorus of body-suited dancers as <\/strong>\u201cImmortals.\u201d They delight in their own sinister sinuosity, like the self-aware dance ensemble of Fosse\u2019s \u201cPippin.\u201d<\/p>\n And Gattelli ensures that the showstopping \u201cDeath Becomes Her\u201d number \u201cFor the Gaze\u201d<\/a> 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.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The dancer and actress Ariana DeBose<\/a>, who appeared in the television version of \u201cSchmigadoon!,\u201d said in a phone interview that she appreciates Gattelli\u2019s multilayered dance humor. \u201cHe understands how to build these big, glorious spectacles, and that energy is going to translate to any audience,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n But for DeBose, a fellow musical theater enthusiast who started as a dancer on Broadway, \u201ca 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,\u201d she said. \u201cWe were referencing Vera-Ellen in \u2018White Christmas,\u2019 Donna McKechnie in \u2018A Chorus Line\u2019 \u2014 they meant something to us.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n On a recent Zoom call between \u201cSchmigadoon!\u201d rehearsals in Washington, Gattelli discussed his approach to dance-based satire. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n When did you start using dance to make people laugh?<\/strong><\/p>\n Some of my earliest choreography jobs were for Broadway Cares\/Equity Fights AIDS<\/a> events. That\u2019s 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<\/em>. Hearing my peers, my community, laughing \u2014 the bug really bit me then.<\/p>\n How do you convey archness \u2014 the raised eyebrow \u2014 in dance? The dancing body is usually such a vulnerable, earnest thing.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Even archness has to come from an earnest place. That happens most naturally when the dancers are addressing the audience directly. It helps in \u201cDeath Becomes Her\u201d that we begin with Viola Van Horn, Michelle Williams\u2019s character, addressing the audience. When the Immortals come out for that first number and flirt with the audience, it doesn\u2019t feel like a cheap wink \u2014 it feels like they\u2019re helping her tell the story.<\/p>\n The television version of \u201cSchmigadoon!\u201d created stage-style musical numbers for the screen. Are they funnier now, onstage?<\/strong><\/p>\n What I think is funny is that I\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n The stage is honestly a much more comfortable arena for me \u2014 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.<\/p>\n Specificity seems like a big part of the humor in \u201cSchmigadoon!,\u201d too.<\/strong><\/p>\n 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, \u201cWatch what they\u2019re doing at four minutes into \u2018June Is Busting Out All Over.\u2019<\/a> Look at this moment from \u2018Dance at the Gym.\u2019<\/a>\u201d I really got in there. [laughs]<\/p>\n 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?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n I think the key to that is to add details that, even if the average audience member doesn\u2019t know where they\u2019re from, they\u2019ll go, \u201cOh, I\u2019ve seen that before.\u201d Like in \u201cWith All of Your Heart,\u201d Ariana\u2019s big number from the first season of \u201cSchmigadoon!,\u201d we put in this toe-tapping moment that\u2019s from \u201cStep in Time<\/a>\u201d in \u201cMary Poppins,\u201d when Mary is dancing with the chimney sweeps. It\u2019s not exactly famous, but it is iconic. Even if people can\u2019t name that moment, it will be familiar in a way that makes them, I hope, feel like they\u2019re in good hands. And if they can name it, then it\u2019s a great little Easter egg.<\/p>\n Musical satire can be nihilistic \u2014 like \u201cThe Book of Mormon\u201d \u2014 but your work seems fundamentally optimistic. Is it?<\/strong><\/p>\n 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 \u201cDeath Becomes Her,\u201d which we call a cautionary tale, the idea is still to lift up, not to push down. I\u2019ve been a part of hits, and I\u2019ve been a part of misses, but the thing I\u2019m always going for is joy. And big belly laughs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n