Choreographer brings ballet-studded musical to Broadway
By bringing ballet to his Broadway musical, choreographer Christopher Wheeldon hopes to keep audiences on their toes too
When Christopher Wheeldon was growing up in England, the only child of parents involved in amateur theatre, he amused himself by building stage sets in his bedroom. The one he liked best was inspired by Starlight Express, with toy car tracks recreating the whirling pathways of the 1980s roller-skating rock musical.
"It was Theatre Geeks 101 for an eight-year-old," he says. Wheeldon went on to an immensely successful life on the stage, dancing with the Royal Ballet and New York City Ballet, then becoming one of the world's most sought-after ballet choreographers. Yet only now are his long-ago musical theatre dreams fully coming true: An American in Paris, the first Broadway show Wheeldon has directed as well as choreographed, opened at the Palace Theatre on April 12.
The biggest challenge was being courageous and sticking to my guns
The show begins with a big dance number, closes with a 14-minute ballet and, with ballet dancers in the leading roles, it relies on dancing to propel the plot. It perfectly encapsulates the artistic character of the boyish-looking, 42-year-old Wheeldon, a sophisticated balletmaker who is a hopeless fan of razzle-dazzle.
An American in Paris also reflects the fancies of an Englishman in New York, where Wheeldon has spent more than half his life. But could his tastes be too elevated for Broadway? Can high art bring in box-office gold?
Wheeldon's cultivated approach is evident in the electrifying Rockettes-style number he crafted for one of the show's many jazz-infused Gershwin songs, I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise. The music's building sense of joy and sheer panache cries out for a kick line, and gets it. And more. With concentric archways lit up like giant make-up mirrors, the set recalls the stage of Radio City Music Hall and hints at the flashing, swooping lines of Wheeldon's boyhood obsession with the Starlight Express steam engines come to life.
"It's all my Broadway-fantasy-birthday wishes come true," Wheeldon says of Stairway to Paradise, which also features tap-dancing, top hats and Ziegfeldian showgirls in feathers. Sitting in the lobby of the Renaissance New York Times Square Hotel one recent morning before rehearsal, he wiggles his fingers over the coffee table as if he's animating marionettes.