Broadway in Cincinnati - 2020/2021 Series Magazine

2020/2021 Series Magazine

Do You Want to Build a Snowman?

Frozen breezes into the Aronoff in January

All Rise Aaron Sorkin’s astonishing new version of To Kill A Mockingbird

Sunshine on a Cloudy Day Witness The Temptations’ journey to fame in Ain’t Too Proud

Big. Huge.

Bryan Adams’ music brings Pretty Woman: The Musical to life on stage

I Could Have Danced All Night A stunning new My Fair Lady bows in Cincinnati

Give your children the gift of planning well. “The last thing I want is for my daughter to have to take care of me down the URDG VKHĹ?V JRW KHU KDQGV IXOO DOUHDG\ :LWK &RQĆ“ GHQW /LYLQJ P\ SHUVRQDO &DUH &RRUGLQDWRU ZLOO KDQGOH DOO WKH GHWDLOV RI P\ IXWXUH FDUH VR VKH GRHVQĹ?W KDYH WR ZRUU\ 3OXV WKHLU ZHOOQHVV SURJUDPV DQG QHWZRUN RI UHVRXUFHV KHOS PH VWD\ KHDOWK\ DQG DFWLYH VR , FDQ NHHS XS ZLWK P\ JUDQGFKLOGUHQ $QG EHVW RI DOO I can stay in my home that I love.â€? ĹŠ &RQĆ“ GHQW /LYLQJ PHPEHU

If you’re between 50 and 80 and in good health, join us for an informational event.

8KUKV %QPĆ‚ FGPV .KXKPI QTI QT ECNN ConďŹ dent Living, a Life Enriching Communities program, is afďŹ liated with the West Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church and welcomes people of all faiths. We do not discriminate and we provide free assistance in your native language, if needed. Find our complete non-discrimination policy at LEC.org.

Great Design. Quality. Value.

Serving the greater Cincinnati area for over 34 years.

Stop in and visit our beautiful showroom!

Visit us online at bovafurniture.com CINCINNATI 12130 Royal Point Drive (Across from Kings Auto Mall) Cincinnati, OH 45249 T: 513.247.9100

HOURS: Mon-Fri: 10a-7p Saturday: 10a- 5p Sunday: Closed Take a virtual tour of the store.

WELCOME Dear Cincinnati Broadway Lovers, We find ourselves in unprecedented times, facing an uncertain future. If you are a fan of live theatre like I am, you are longing for the chance to gather together and enjoy the collective experience of delighting in a stage performance. We are temporarily removed from this kind of communal journey. But however long this may last, it is just an intermission. I hope you know as I do that we will be able to meet at the Aronoff again very soon. And oh, what an event it will be when we do.

That’s why I’m overjoyed to look ahead to a new season of Broadway headed to the Queen City. Among the pleasures that next season holds is the Cincinnati premiere of Disney’s Frozen, headed here for three weeks in January 2021. Disney’s icy-cold smash hit will be one jewel in the crown of an exceptional season that includes the beloved modern Cinderella story Pretty Woman, the gorgeous new production of My Fair Lady, and the Tony-winning Best Musical The Band’s Visit. You’ll also see Aaron Sorkin’s stunning adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird, the return of the bubbly comedy Hairspray, and the premiere engagement of Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations.

We are also bringing back the theatrical phenomenon that sold out more than 60,000 seats over 3 weeks at the Aronoff in 2019. Everyone’s favorite founding father returns to town as Hamilton plays a four-week run in March.

The lights will once again be bright at Broadway in Cincinnati, and we’d love for you to be part of the fun. Subscriptions are now available starting at just $245 for a seven-show package. You can secure your seats today at BroadwayInCincinnati.com.

The longer our intermission lasts, the sweeter the day will be when we are together again. We will sing along in our hearts with a favorite showtune, we will delight in the energy of a chorus line, we will laugh, cry, escape, and our hearts will soar. I can’t wait to see you there.

Genevieve Miller Holt General Manager - Midwest Broadway Across America

6 CONTENTS 4 A Word From Our Sponsors 6 Pretty Woman: The Musical 8 My Fair Lady 10 Disney’s Frozen 12 The Band’s Visit 14 Hamilton 18 To Kill a Mockingbird 20 Hairspray 22 Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of The Temptations

ABOUT BROADWAY IN CINCINNATI Fifth Third Bank Broadway in Cincinnati presented by TriHealth is committed to bringing the best of Broadway to the Queen City. Over the past 33 years, Cincinnatians have attended more than 3,500 Broadway in Cincinnati performances, including blockbusters like Hamilton, Wicked, The Phantom of the Opera, and The Lion King. We’ve proudly presented classics such as West Side Story, Evita, and My Fair Lady, as well as today’s most popular new shows, including The Book of Mormon, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, and Dear Evan Hansen. On average, we welcome more than 300,000 guests to Broadway shows each year, contributing an estimated $55 million in economic impact to the greater Cincinnati region. For more information, please visit us online at BroadwayInCincinnati.com.

FAMILY GUIDE Bringing kids to the theater can be an inspiring and unforgettable experience! Check out our online Family Guide for information about show content, language advisories, and age recommendations for each show.

Please visit BroadwayInCincinnati.com/FamilyGuide.

2 • B R O A D W A Y I N C I N C I N N A T I 2 0 2 0 –2 0 2 1

KEEP IN TOUCH /BroadwayInCincinnati @BroadwayCincy @broadwaycincy

BroadwayInCincinnati.com

Cover Image: Caroline Bowman as Elsa in Frozen North American Tour - Photo by Deen van Meer. ©Disney Photographs: (TOP LEFT) Photograph courtesy of Broadway in Cincinnati / (TOP RIGHT) Pretty Woman: The Musical Hamburg Production - Photo by Morris Mac Matzen

DIVIDENDS ... THE FREEDOM TO LOOK FORWARD

RELIABLE INCOME = RELIABLE OUTCOME®

Growing Dividends Provide: www.bahl-gaynor.com

compounded growth spendable funds inflation protection

INDIVIDUALS | INSTITUTIONS | FINANCIAL ADVISORS

A WORD FROM OUR SPONSORS Dear Greater Cincinnati Patrons of the Arts:

Dear Fellow Art Lovers:

Fifth Third Bank is proud to have been the title sponsor of Broadway productions in Cincinnati since the first curtain call.

Supporting Cincinnati’s vibrant arts community is key to making our region a destination for talented innovators and entrepreneurs. This is economic development in action, attracting visitors and tourism dollars as well as enriching our lives and the reputation of our city as an attractive home for families and businesses. Our artistic community is world-class and accessible.

Whether you are enjoying the Broadway series, visiting one of our art or history museums, or attending a concert, Cincinnati offers an experience that entertains and inspires your family.

At Fifth Third Bank, we are dedicated to continually improving the lives of our customers and the well-being of the communities we serve. Our commitment to the Broadway series is an important investment in building a stronger Cincinnati.

We would be delighted to have you join us in this celebration of the arts. We hope you enjoy the Fifth Third Bank Broadway in Cincinnati season.

It’s part of how we help make our Queen City a Fifth Third better! See you at the show!

TriHealth is excited to once again present the Broadway series in Cincinnati. We believe the health of individuals and vibrancy of a community are affected by many factors.

A well-balanced life, rich in the arts with stimulating and uplifting entertainment, is one of those factors.

At TriHealth, we partner with nonprofit organizations and businesses throughout the region to get health care right for Greater Cincinnati by tirelessly working to provide better care, better health, and better value. Our more than 12,000 physicians, nurses, team members, and volunteers are committed to providing you and your loved ones the best possible care at our six hospitals and more than 140 ambulatory centers and physician offices.

We hope you enjoy the 2020/2021 season of Broadway in Cincinnati, with an expansive lineup of shows ranging from the highly anticipated Cincinnati premiere of Disney's Frozen to the rousing behind-the-music story of The Temptations in Ain't Too Proud – The Life and Times of The Temptations.

It’s our sincere hope and belief that our support of Broadway in Cincinnati is another demonstration of how TriHealth invests in the overall health of our community.

Tim Elsbrock

Mark Clement

President, Fifth Third Bank, Greater Cincinnati

President & Chief Executive Officer, TriHealth

TriHealth Primary Locations: Bethesda North Hospital, Good Samaritan Hospital, TriHealth Evendale Hospital, Bethesda Butler Hospital, McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital, Bethesda Arrow Springs, Good Samaritan Western Ridge, Thomas Comprehensive Care Center, Good Samaritan Glenway, TriHealth Beechmont|Anderson, TriHealth Kenwood, TriHealth Five Mile|Anderson, TriHealth Liberty, TriHealth Fitness & Health Pavilion, TriHealth Physician Partners, TriHealth Priority Care

Broadway in Cincinnati Staff GENERAL MANAGER, MIDWEST, BROADWAY ACROSS AMERICA

SENIOR GROUP SALES MANAGER, BROADWAY IN CINCINNATI

Genevieve Miller Holt

Peggy Hughes

DIRECTOR OF REGIONAL MARKETING & PUBLIC RELATIONS, BROADWAY IN CINCINNATI

MARKETING & PUBLIC RELATIONS ASSISTANT, BROADWAY IN CINCINNATI

Elizabeth Truitt

Jay Quitter

This program was published in cooperation with Broadway in Cincinnati by Cincinnati Magazine.

All contents © 2020. All rights reserved.

“Broadway in Cincinnati” is a registered trademark of The John Gore Organization. All rights reserved.

Cincinnati Magazine Staff PUBLISHER Ivy Bayer

OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Missy Beiting

DIRECTOR OF EDITORIAL OPERATIONS Amanda Boyd Walters

BUSINESS COORDINATOR Erica Birkle

CUSTOM PUBLISHING EDITOR Kara Hagerman

ADVERTISING DESIGNER Paisley Stone

SENIOR ART DIRECTOR Emi Villavicencio

SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER Maggie Wint Goecke

PRODUCTION DIRECTOR & IT SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR Vu Luong

ACCOUNT REPRESENTATIVES Paige Bucheit, Megan Hinckley, Eric Kappa, Julie Poyer

4 • B R O A D W A Y I N C I N C I N N A T I 2 0 2 0 –2 0 2 1

SENIOR OUTSIDE ACCOUNT REPRESENTATIVE Laura Bowling

441 Vine St., Suite 200 Cincinnati, OH 45202 513.421.4300 • 513.562.2788 fax cincinnatimagazine.com

20/21 SEASON

THE MUSICAL

March 2 - 28, 2021 THE LINCOLN CENTER THEATER PRODUCTION

November 10 - 22, 2020

December 1 - 13, 2020

January 6 - 24, 2021

April 6 - 18, 2021 SEASON OPTION

May 25 - June 6, 2021 SEASON OPTION

BROADWAY’S TONY AWARD-WINNING BEST MUSICAL IS BACK

February 9 - 14, 2021

May 4 - 9, 2021

BroadwayInCincinnati.com • 800.294.1816

PRETTY WOMAN: THE MUSICAL NOVEMBER 10–22, 2020

Hollywood power player and Youngstown, Ohio, native Paula Wagner spearheaded bringing the beloved film Pretty Woman to the Broadway stage. Broadway in Cincinnati caught up with the showbiz mogul to talk about why she loves this story.

Paula Wagner: I grew up right outside of Youngstown, Ohio. My first experience in the theatre was as a young actor at the Youngstown Playhouse. From that moment on, theatre was in my blood.

Later I did some summer stock in Dayton, Canton, and at the Cleveland Playhouse. I saw that Ohio is rich with first-rate stage productions. From Ohio, I made my way from college to Broadway to the movie business in Hollywood as an actress, an agent, and a producer. I finally came back to Broadway in 2012 as a producer.

Pretty Woman is one of the most beloved and internationally renowned romantic comedies of all time. It is a story of two people living in vastly different cultural and economic worlds.

They connect with each other and transcend all of the obstacles to find true love. It is a classic, beautiful tale of redemption and the belief that true love will prevail.

Garry Marshall’s vision of J.F. Lawton’s original story touched the hearts of people all over the world, and it certainly touched mine. I am attracted to stories that feature strong female characters who go on a transformative journey. The character of Vivian does this in an unconventional way. The three of us brought on the Grammy Award– winning Bryan Adams and the highly-regarded, prolific Jim Vallance as composers. Bryan and Jim were passionate about creating an original score for

6 • B R O A D W A Y I N C I N C I N N A T I 2 0 2 0 –2 0 2 1

Pretty Woman: The Musical on Broadway. We’ve now produced the musical version on Broadway, in Hamburg, London, and on a tour of the U.S., which will begin in the fall and include Ohio.

BiC: What about the original film did you make sure to carry over to the Broadway production, and what new aspects did you want to explore?

PW: We incorporated many of the iconic moments that everyone knows and loves, such as the opera scene, shopping on Rodeo Drive, the polo match, and many others. Gregg Barnes recreated, with his own vision, the costumes for Vivian, from Hollywood Boulevard to the classic red opera dress and beautiful necklace when Vivian and Edward experience La Traviata together. This is a stunning moment in the musical in which Bryan and Jim have merged a beautiful love ballad with opera,

PHOTOGRAPH: PRETTY WOMAN: THE MUSICAL HAMBURG PRODUCTION - PHOTO BY MORRIS MAC MATZEN

Broadway in Cincinnati: Your career started in theatre, then shifted to movie production in Hollywood, and again to producing plays on Broadway. What drew you to producing the stage musical of this iconic film?

a truly unique experience.

We have integrated the hit Roy Orbison song “Oh, Pretty Woman” into the show in a creative way, in which the entire cast participates. Many of the memorable moments and lines from the movie are brought to life on stage. Additionally, we have deepened the characters and even added a new character, the Happy Man, who is a guide playing many different roles, including Mr. Thompson, the hotel concierge.

Even though Vivian has always been an independent young

woman, she is trying to find the world in which she belongs. She dictates the terms, is a good negotiator, and has kept her dignity and authenticity. From Vivian’s first song she realizes she wants to be “anywhere but here.” This leads her to the place where she finally sings the rousing power ballad “I Can’t Go Back.”

Edward’s character is deepened too, and Vivian’s best friend Kit realizes that she has a dream as well and decides to follow it.

Although our Vivian is still charming, delightful, and filled

with warmth and irrepressible enthusiasm, she now has an added awareness of her own empowerment.

Pretty Woman: The Musical is set in the fairytale time of the late ’80s/early ’90s, and there are some profound moments woven into this charming, upbeat romantic story. z

ABOUT THE SHOW Fall in love all over again. One of Hollywood’s most beloved stories of all time is now coming to Cincinnati. Pretty Woman: The Musical features direction and choreography by two-time Tony Award® winner Jerry Mitchell (Kinky Boots, Legally Blonde), an original score by Grammy®-winner Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance (“Summer of ’69,” “Heaven”), and a book by the movie’s legendary director Garry Marshall and screenwriter J.F. Lawton.

The Hollywood Reporter calls it “Irresistible! A romantic fantasy.

A contemporary fairy tale.”

PHOTOGRAPH: PRETTY WOMAN: THE MUSICAL HAMBURG PRODUCTION - PHOTO BY MORRIS MAC MATZEN

Pretty Woman: The Musical Costume Designer Gregg Barnes sat down with Kathrine Nero in New York City to talk about designing the clothes for this iconic story.

Kathrine Nero: There are some iconic moments in Pretty Woman. Will we recognize some of these looks?

shoulder look. So it’s a very different dress, but people think it’s the same dress.

Gregg Barnes: When something comes along like Pretty Woman and the audience has an expectation, the question is always: Do I just completely veer down a different road or do I honor what was done?

I feel like there is something about delivering the expectation, then twisting it to tell a different story with a more current political and social mindset. So I hope that you get what you came for, but then you get a little extra.

The opening costume, with the boots and the red jacket, you’re going to think, “Wow, that’s her. That’s my icon.” The red [opera] dress is actually completely different [from the film], if you look at the details of it, the quality of it, the way it moves…but it is red and it has that off-the-

KN: What was your philosophy as you approached this project and time period?

KN: How do you think your costume design helps tell this story?

GB: Like every great project that comes across your path, there is a high/low aspect.

So it’s not everybody in an evening gown and it’s not everybody in a fur cropped jacket and thigh-high boots.

It’s a mix. We get to travel through the fable, a Cinderella story that takes place in Los Angeles. We said, let’s pay homage to the time that we all remember with nostalgia, but let’s make it feel like it is current so that, hopefully, if you’re sitting in the audience, you’re not thinking, “Oh, weren’t we all quaint,” or “Weren’t we all ridiculous.” You think, “Oh my God, why don’t we still dress like this? That looks amazing.”

GB: It’s built into the storytelling that you have a person who is uneasy in her particular career, but you feel like she is in control of herself even though she’s doing something that she inherently disagrees with. And you see that quality at the end of the play when she’s thinking, “I have learned my worth. I want the dream. I demand the dream.” So I help underscore that. When she has the makeover at the end of Act I, in the film it’s very buttoned up. You know there’s a hat and gloves and it’s very prim. We serve up a different Hollywood glamour. He tells her to buy something conservative. She doesn’t buy anything conservative. She buys something that looks incredibly elegant and that half the women in the audience are going to wonder where she got it.

B R O A D WAY I N C I N C I N N AT I . C O M

• 7

MY FAIR LADY

THE ORIGINAL MAKEOVER STORY Americans love a good makeover. If you doubt it, there have been more than a dozen reality TV shows and countless magazines showcasing the benefits of transformation: new clothes, new makeup, new grooming, new hairdo and, voila, a new you.

These external changes might seem superficial, but it’s apparent to anyone who’s ever caught an episode of What Not to Wear or Queer Eye that the experience tends to boost self-esteem and is usually empowering.

The great playwright George Bernard Shaw perhaps realized the ramifications of a makeover better than anyone. He understood that in England’s rigid class society, a truly life-changing transformation could not be attained passively. It required much more than improving one’s apparel and appearance, though both of those were important.

Upward mobility, he believed, could only be achieved if one

had the intelligence, tenacity, and commitment to learn how to speak “proper” English.

In his preface to Pygmalion, the funny, wickedly insightful play (1913) that inspired Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s beloved musical My Fair Lady, Shaw made the claim that his work about a professor who transforms a Cockney flower girl into a lady was essentially about

phonetics. Lerner, who wrote the book as well as the lyrics for the musical, borrowed liberally— and sometimes verbatim—from Shaw. As Higgins says in both works, “What could possibly matter more than to take a human being and change her into a different human being by creating a new speech for her?

Why, it’s filling up the deepest gulf that separates class from

ABOUT THE SHOW From the Lincoln Center team that brought you The King & I and South Pacific comes “a sumptuous new production of the most perfect musical of all time” (Entertainment Weekly), Lerner & Loewe’s My Fair Lady. Director Bartlett Sher’s glowing production is “thrilling, glorious, and better than it ever was” (New York Times). “Every so often a revival comes along that reminds you how indispensable great theater can be” (NY1).

Boasting such classic songs as “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “The Rain in Spain,” “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” and “On the Street Where You Live,” My Fair Lady tells the story of Eliza Doolittle, a young Cockney flower seller, and Henry Higgins, a linguistics professor who is determined to transform her into his idea of a “proper lady.” But who is really being transformed?

8 • B R O A D W A Y I N C I N C I N N A T I 2 0 2 0 –2 0 2 1

PHOTOGRAPH: SAM SIMAHK (CENTER) AS FREDDY EYNSFORD-HILL, SHEREEN AHMED AS ELIZ A DOOLIT TLE, KE VIN PARISE AU AS COLONEL PICKERING AND LESLIE ALE X ANDER AS MRS. HIGGINS IN THE LINCOLN CENTER THE ATER PRODUCTION OF LERNER & LOE WE’S MY FAIR LADY

DECEMBER 1–13, 2020

PHOTOGRAPH: SAM SIMAHK AS FREDDY EYNSFORD-HILL IN THE LINCOLN CENTER THE ATER PRODUCTION OF LERNER & LOE WE’S MY FAIR LADY

class, soul from soul.”

My Fair Lady is often referred to as a Cinderella story because, at least figuratively, it’s a ragsto-riches tale: Eliza goes from being a “guttersnipe” to a woman mistaken for a princess. But in traditional Cinderella stories, the heroine is the recipient of magic and good fortune: A fairy godmother enables her, a prince sees her and falls in love. She wishes, and things happen. But My Fair Lady is more complex: Eliza is the driving force. It is she who comes to Higgins to request speech lessons after he says, in their first encounter in Covent Garden, that in six months he could “pass her off as a duchess or find work for her in a shop.” It is Eliza’s determination that brings her to Higgins’s

door. And despite his bullying and his flashes of heartlessness, she works diligently to achieve her dream.

For Bartlett Sher, who directed the critically acclaimed Lincoln Center Theater production of My Fair Lady headed to Cincinnati next season, it was important to focus the story more on Eliza than on Higgins.

“Essentially, we track her journey,” Sher says. “I tended to think that My Fair Lady had come to be dominated by Higgins, and I felt we had to re-center the piece around the person who, in plot terms, you really follow, which is Eliza. So a lot of the work, including the design work, went into repositioning the show behind her. We open on Eliza, we follow her, we

go with her to the house.”

Sher, who also directed luminous revivals of South Pacific and The King and I, has a gift for imbuing classic musicals with a contemporary perspective, honoring the original production while compelling audiences to see the piece with fresh eyes.

Lerner’s and Loewe’s wonderful score, which includes the likes of “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” “The Rain in Spain,” “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “Get Me to the Church on Time,” “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face,” and “On the Street Where You Live,” is performed by a fullsized orchestra playing the 1956 arrangements by Robert Russell Bennett and Phil Lang. “We want people to hear the songs as they were written,” says Sher.

The sets and Tony Award– winning costumes are lavish.

The script has been slightly tweaked, with small cuts and the addition of some dialogue from Pygmalion, mostly, Sher says, to strengthen some of the arguments made by Alfred P. Doolittle, Eliza’s father, who also undergoes a makeover, from dustman to in-demand philosopher.

In approaching My Fair Lady, Sher wanted to acknowledge more of Shaw’s vision. Lerner was a romantic, Shaw was not. In Shaw’s play, unlike the musical, Eliza does not return to Higgins.

Sher’s ending for his production of My Fair Lady was inspired not just by Shaw’s original intent, but by 21st century sensibilities.

At the end of the show—spoiler alert—after Eliza returns to Higgins’s house and they exchange the familiar lines, she walks out.

“She’s going into the future,” says Sher. “It doesn’t mean they’re not going to be close.

But in this day and age, we can’t suggest she has no agency over her own life.”

Younger audiences in particular are thrilled to see Eliza take command of her life, and that delights Sher. “Young women coming to see the show now have the chance to engage with one of the great characters in dramatic literature and musical theater history and see how powerful and extraordinary a model she is. And that’s very special.” z

B R O A D WAY I N C I N C I N N AT I . C O M

• 9

FROZEN

WARMTH AND HUMOR PERVADE TOURING PRODUCTION OF FROZEN THE MUSICAL

By Malina Saval, Variety In 2013, Disney’s Frozen hit screens like a 100 mile-per-hour snowball, sparking a pop cultural phenomenon in which little girls and boys pranced about dressed in Anna and Elsa and Olaf costumes while belting aloud “Let It Go,” Elsa’s feminist anthemic response to the ice powers that rendered her a societal outcast.

The animated movie won two Oscars and netted over $1.2 billion at the worldwide box office.

Six years later, its sequel Frozen 2, which earned an Oscar nomination for best original song, landed in theaters.

In 2018 Frozen also went to Broadway, breathing theatrical life into a story that’s not just about an eternal winter that almost was, but about the enduring power of sisterly love.

The stage version has proven itself to be a major success, spawning a national tour that is

enchanting audiences not only with the songs and story that made the cinematic versions so magical, but with added touches in the way of sparkly costumes, a new original track, good-natured humor targeted at both youngsters and adults, and a sibling relationship between Elsa and Anna that’s even more heartwarming than the one they share on screen.

“We wanted to create a new energy, because we couldn’t just re-do the movie,” says Michael Grandage, Frozen’s Tony Award–winning director and artistic director of the London-based Michael Grandage Company.

“We wanted to create new pieces,” he continues. “And we changed a lot, actually, because we’re trying to reach a live audience of both adults and children every night with live people on

10 • B R O A D W A Y I N C I N C I N N A T I 2 0 2 0 –2 0 2 1

stage. And while the source material and starting point for Frozen [the movie] is very much a children book’s [The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen], there’s no escaping the fact that there was a group of adults who were making it.

“We spend our lives trying to preserve the child in all of us, but we are, nonetheless, adults now and we are creating this show for adults as well as children,” says Grandage. “I don’t think of it as a group of adults trying to come up with a children’s show.

It’s a group of adults trying to creatively, through choreography, through writing songs and set design, trying to come up with something that appeals to everybody universally.”

The two big-screen versions of Frozen are imbued with funny sequences throughout—Olaf’s “In Summer” song, Anna’s

PHOTOGRAPH: CAROLINE BOWMAN AS ELSA, AND THE COMPANY OF FROZEN NORTH AMERICAN TOUR - PHOTO BY DEEN VAN MEER ©DISNEY

JANUARY 6–24, 2021

PHOTOGRAPHS: (TOP) MASON REE VES (KRISTOFF) AND COLLIN BAJA (SVEN) IN FROZEN NORTH AMERICAN TOUR - PHOTO BY DEEN VAN MEER / (BOT TOM) COMPANY OF THE FROZEN NORTH AMERICAN TOUR - PHOTO BY DEEN VAN MEER ©DISNEY

ABOUT THE SHOW Critics are calling Frozen “a can’t miss Broadway event” (NBC), and now it’s joining Disney’s smash hit musicals The Lion King and Aladdin on tour across North America. Frozen is an all-new production created for the stage by an award-winning creative team, led by Academy Award® winners Jennifer Lee, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, and Robert Lopez, and Tony Award®-winning director Michael Grandage. It features the songs you know and love from the original film plus an expanded score with a dozen new musical numbers. Frozen is an unforgettable, magical adventure, which Newsday calls, “a serious megahit with amazing special effects, eye-popping costumes, and incredible performances.”

It’s a theatrical experience like no other, so let yourself go.

clumsiness—but the stage version beefs up these elements even more. For example, Scandinavian nudity gets more play in the theatrical’s version’s “Hygge” number.

While the film versions feature an almost all-white (albeit animated) cast, the North American tour of Frozen features a racially and culturally diverse roster of characters, reflecting the world

at large. In fact, the first two characters (after the intro) that appear on stage in Frozen are the King and Queen, both of whom are from different ethnic backgrounds. This, notes Grandage, “was a conscious decision.”

“I remember saying to everybody, look, this is the very first relationship in the play, it’s the very first thing we see after the two little children, and if

their parents can be a part of a mixed-race marriage straight off of that, then immediately we’re sending out a signal that absolutely says everything,” he says.

“It means we’re sending out a very positive message.”

For Grandage, what’s also important about Frozen is that it’s likely the first, or one of the first, theater experiences for the younger generation. He wants to make sure it’s an inspiring one.

“The fact that a huge proportion of the audience members are going to be young and impressionable, and that it might even be the very first time they come to the theater,” he says.

“That comes with a huge amount of responsibility because what you want is for them to start, if possible, a lifelong relationship with the theater. You want them to go on coming for the rest of their lives. Beyond that, you also realize you’ve got responsibilities surrounding the fact that what [children] see up there on the stage is an extension of the world they live in. You can go, ‘Oh, Frozen, it’s a cartoon,’ but actually, with the musical, we’ve been given the opportunity to bring animated visuals to life with proper breathing human beings. And to be able to invest in all the subtleties and nuances that human beings have has been one of the most joyful privileges.” z

This story originally appeared in Variety.

B R O A D WAY I N C I N C I N N AT I . C O M

• 11

THE THE BAND’S BAND’SVISIT VISIT FEBRUARY FEBRUARY9–14, 9–14, 2021 2021

WAITING IS WANTING The “Telephone Guy” arrives on stage early in The Band’s Visit.

Long before he speaks, we see him in the background, staring at a payphone like he can will it to ring.

His vigil adds a provocative texture to the show. Until he starts interacting with other characters, he’s like a phantom on the periphery, reminding us that Bet Hatikva, the small Israeli town at the center of this quiet new Broadway musical, is brimming with souls.

And those souls are everywhere we look. As the show moves between major scenes, director David Cromer fills the transitions with glimpses of other characters. On our way to a song or fight or flirtation, we might see a woman smoking or a musician daydreaming or a man rolling by on skates.

We have just enough time to wonder about them before the turntables in the set carry them smoothly away, back to whatever they’re living through.

“I wanted it to seem like we were finishing one storyline and then wandering down the street to another storyline,” Cromer says. “It’s a way to cast the spell

that we all feel is in the story.

That spell is in the original film [that the musical is based on], which is not afraid of silence and space. And it’s in [composer] David Yazbek’s music, which has this feeling of sitting back as it’s flowing forward.”

Cromer’s staging also emphasizes how much is happening in this town. “The show doesn’t have a lot of very overt events—no one is suddenly getting married or getting sick—but

it feels very full to me,” he says.

“Most of our lives are spent like that. Floating through things, waiting. And waiting is an active thing. It is expectation. It is wanting.”

All this wanting and waiting creates a crackling energy.

By the time the ensemble sings “Answer Me” in the final scene, we understand that all of these people are hungry for a different—even just a slightly different—life. z

ABOUT THE SHOW The critically acclaimed smash-hit Broadway musical The Band’s Visit is the winner of 10 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, making it one of the most Tony-winning musicals in history. It is also a Grammy Award® winner for Best Musical Theater Album.

In this joyously offbeat story, set in a town that’s way off the beaten path, a band of musicians arrive lost, out of the blue. Under the spell of the desert sky, and with beautiful music perfuming the air, the band brings the town to life in unexpected and tantalizing ways. Even the briefest visit can stay with you forever.

The cast of world-class performers is led by award-winning Israeli actor Sasson Gabay, star of the original film and the Broadway production. With a Tony- and Grammy-winning score that seduces your soul and sweeps you off your feet, and featuring thrillingly talented onstage musicians, The Band’s Visit rejoices in the way music makes us laugh, makes us cry, and ultimately, brings us together.

12 • B R O A D W A Y I N C I N C I N N A T I 2 0 2 0 –2 0 2 1

PHOTOGRAPH: THE COMPANY OF THE BAND'S VISIT NORTH AMERICAN TOUR. PHOTO BY MAT THE W MURPHY

A discussion with Tony Award–winning director David Cromer about The Band’s Visit.

AGES 18 MONTHS TO 18 YEARS.

BECAUSE THE WHOLE JOURNEY MATTERS .

CHALLENGE YOURSELF. BE YOURSELF. We are Country Day. We are dedicated to inspiring students, both big and small.

From 18 months to 18 years of age, we are uniquely designed to cultivate a passion for learning and independent thinking that prepares students to become exemplary citizens, conďŹ dent leaders, and the best versions of themselves. Let the journey begin! #WEARECOUNTRYDAY

Apply today for admission and tuition aid consideration.

Registration now open for summer programs.

6905 Given Road | Cincinnati OH 45243 513-979-0220 | CountryDay.net

HAMILTON JANUARY 6–24, 2021

ANDY BLANKENBUEHLER’S PRIDE AND JOY IN HAMILTON Bridgett Raffenberg: Tell us a bit about your background and career.

Andy Blankenbuehler: I’m a director and choreographer in New York City. I grew up in Cincinnati, moved to New York City and had a career as a Broadway performer, transitioned into choreography, met the wonderful Lin-Manuel Miranda and Tommy [Kail] and Alex [Lacamoire], and we all made a show called In the Heights together and later, Hamilton. I started directing a bit, so now I direct and choreograph on Broadway.

I grew up in Pleasant Ridge.

I went to Nativity grade school where I did the The Music Man and The Sound of Music. I went to St. Xavier High School, and I watched the freshman musical and was so wowed by it that I knew it was something that I wanted to do. So I did Godspell there as a sophomore, and that

was the thing that killed me. I was sunk from then on out. I was going to be a Broadway performer no matter how hard it was going to be to get there.

My junior year I did Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and that was the first show that I ever choreographed.

My senior year I did The Wizard of Oz and then the rest, as they say, is kind of history.

BR: Can you tell us what it was like to do choreography for Hamilton?

AB: Hamilton was an overwhelming challenge. It is a huge piece. There are almost 4,000 words in the show, so there’s a lot of information and a lot of lyric. I was privy to the ideas very early on when the songs were being written, and I had a great collaboration with Alex, Tommy, and Lin, we all made the show together.

14 • B R O A D W A Y I N C I N C I N N A T I 2 0 2 0 –2 0 2 1

Every morning I would listen to the show from beginning to end. And the first thing that struck me was I have to find a way to make each idea different, each chapter in the story different, each character in the story different, and so that went on for months, just listening and never choreographing a step, writing notes like, “maybe this is where the redcoats have their guns” or “maybe this is only bluecoats and no redcoats.” “Maybe this section is just stomping.”

So I would find those ideas and slowly I started to be able to visualize the show and then I went to work on the choreography. And that process for me is that I go to the gym in the morning, then I do a dance warm-up, and then I just start playing the music and I improvise for a couple of hours and make up dance steps. Then, as soon as I feel like I have a foothold of an idea,

PHOTOGRAPH: COMPANY - HAMILTON NATIONAL TOUR - (C) JOAN MARCUS 2018

Bridgett Raffenberg from 365 Things to Do in Cincinnati caught up with Cincinnatian Andy Blankenbuehler in New York City to talk about choreographing Hamilton.

then I start to really craft out what happens around it. What if somebody crosses from stage right to stage left and they’re carrying champagne glasses?

It’s slow like an oil painting, one layer on the next layer, and that lasts for several months.

PHOTOGRAPH: SHOBA NARAYAN, TA'RE A CAMPBELL, AND NYL A SOSTRE - HAMILTON NATIONAL TOUR - (C) JOAN MARCUS 2018

BR: One of the things that fascinated me was the spinning floor, the turntable. How did that come into play?

AB: When we started working on the show, Tommy (the director) and Dave Korins (the set designer) always had this image of the balconies and an old-fashioned operating theater of sorts, with rows of students looking down. It was that sort of idea where we are all students, we are all still learning about life in our country, and so the focus was down into this sort of pit.

So that sort of started the idea of the set and when we first staged the workshop, there was no turntable. We had talked about maybe the idea of it, but we hadn’t committed to a revolve, but the way I started staging the show always revolved. The sense of counterclockwise momentum to me felt like time passage. It felt like the inevitability of life, and maybe that’s because we read left to right. So the show kept doing this all night long. Every time we’d leave a scenic outline, drop a chair, people’s bodies would keep circling the same way.

After we staged the first act of the show that way, then we all got back together and said, maybe [we do] two revolves so they can contrast each other and go in opposite directions. And so we committed to that turntable.

So then I had a model with the two turntables on it. I would choreograph during the day and then I would take my ideas, and at night I’d sit at the kitchen table with a bottle of wine and for several hours I would just slowly rotate and time the rotations, hear the music in my head, and see what would feel right. It’s very different if a chair rotates in 30 seconds or if a chair rotates in 15 seconds…one feels rushed, one feels graceful. And so it was like a two-part process of choreographing [the performers] and choreographing the turntable.

BR: There’s so much dialogue during your choreography. Is that different from other shows you’ve done?

AB: You know, early on, because the text was so important in the show and the detail was so specific, Tommy and I would say, “We have to stay out of the way of the words.” Whatever we do we had to bring the words to life, not in any way distract from them. And so there was a constant sculpting away that I might feel an idea, but then how does that idea not pull too much focus, unless I want it to be all focused and just help bring the lyrics forward.

So in that way it’s a difficult challenge, but it’s a wonderful challenge because there’s nothing greater to me as an artist than to bring a story to life.

And Lin’s blueprint of the story is so honest and so specific that it’s almost like painting by numbers. I still have to invent the really great colors, but I know where to put the colors.

I know the characters really well. His writing makes you understand those emotional situations so well. So it’s been a privilege working with something where there’s a thousand ideas and all of them could be good and I just have to pick ten.

BR: Do you have a favorite part of Hamilton?

AB: I have a lot of favorite parts and I think as a choreographer, as an artist, the biggest blessing that Hamilton brings is that I actually love the work. So many times you make something and as soon as you’ve made it you wish you had done this, or that could be better. With Hamilton we all had the sense of pride that we’ve done our best work and that it actually thrills us to watch it.

When I watch the show, there are a lot of moments that bring me a lot of joy. I’m very proud of “Yorktown,” especially the Mulligan rap. And “The Room Where It Happens” is probably my favorite thing I’ve ever choreographed. I really like the duels and, in particular, in “Number Six” I like how the cast rotates one way, but the person who shoots rotates the other way.

I think it’s a really interesting thing. Probably the most emotional moment for me is the two rowers at the end who are rowing Hamilton across the water.

There are a lot of moments in the show that I look back on with fondness, and I think when I’m old and gray and when I think about the show, I’ll love both the memory of the show but also the memory of how I got there. z

ABOUT THE SHOW With book, music, and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, direction by Thomas Kail, choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler, and musical supervision and orchestrations by Alex Lacamoire, Hamilton is based on Ron Chernow’s biography of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, an immigrant from the West Indies who became George Washington’s right-hand man during the Revolutionary War and was the new nation’s first Treasury Secretary. Featuring a score that blends hip-hop, jazz, blues, rap, R&B, and Broadway, Hamilton is the story of America then, as told by America now.

B R O A D WAY I N C I N C I N N AT I . C O M

• 15

E XC E P T I O N A L D E S I G N

INTERIOR DESIGN | FINE FURNITURE & ACCESSORIES 859.441.2378 • BestFurnitureGaller y.com • 1123 S. Ft. Thomas Ave. • For t Thomas, KY MONDAY 10AM–8PM | TUESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY 10AM–6PM | WEDNESDAY by appointment only | SATURDAY 10AM–5PM | SUNDAY closed

PRECISION MOTORCARS INDEPENDENT MERCEDES REPAIR Cincinnati’s premier independent Mercedes-Benz service and repair shop for nearly 50 years. More than a dealer-alternative— a preferred choice for vintage to new Mercedes vehicles.

5565 Murray Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45227 513-271-5565 mercedescarsrepaircincinnati.com

CRAFTSMANSHIP. HONESTY. EXPERIENCE.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD APRIL 6–18, 2021

A NEW WAY OF LOOKING AT TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD The Broadway adaptation’s writer Aaron Sorkin talks about updating and paying homage to Harper Lee’s American classic today.

The first line of Aaron Sorkin’s stage adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird is one of quiet confusion. “Something didn’t make sense,” Scout Finch tells the audience of the tale that’s about to unfold. Sorkin’s dramatization of Harper Lee’s novel, which opened on Broadway in December 2018, is an unexpectedly probing work that refuses to let an American classic go unchallenged. Instead, it stages two trials: One is from the book, in which Scout’s attorney father, Atticus Finch, defends Tom Robinson, an African American man accused of rape in 1930s Alabama, and tries to combat the community’s entrenched racism.

In Sorkin’s play, the other trial is of Atticus’s own nobility, and how it doesn’t always square with his grander vision of justice. Though the adaptation

broadly follows the narrative arc of Lee’s novel, it uses Scout, her brother Jem, and her friend Dill (all played by adult actors) to cast a wary eye over some

ABOUT THE SHOW All rise for Academy Award® winner Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning masterwork. The New York Times Critic’s Pick To Kill a Mockingbird is “the most successful American play in Broadway history. It has not played to a single empty seat” (60 Minutes). Rolling Stone gives it 5 stars, calling it “an emotionally shattering landmark production of an American classic,” and New York Magazine calls it “a real phenomenon.

Majestic and incandescent, it’s filled with breath and nuance and soul.” With direction by Tony Award® winner Bartlett Sher, To Kill a Mockingbird—“the greatest novel of all time” (Chicago Tribune)—has quickly become “one of the greatest plays in history” (NPR).

18 • B R O A D W A Y I N C I N C I N N A T I 2 0 2 0 –2 0 2 1

PHOTOGRAPH: ED HARRIS IN TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD – PHOTO BY JULIETA CERVANTES

Excerpted from David Simms’ “A New Way of Looking at To Kill a Mockingbird.” The Atlantic, December 17, 2019

of the book’s more idealistic details. That framing encourages the audience to ponder the limits of Atticus’s impulse to empathize even with vile racists such as Bob Ewell, a man who’s trying to pin his own assault of his daughter Mayella on Tom. The play beefs up the relatively anonymous parts given to black characters in Lee’s work, gives Atticus’s kids a more argumentative nature, and sheds harsher light on the book’s somewhat pat ending.

The stage adaptation is nonetheless made with appreciation for Lee’s novel, and that mix of homage and update has translated into a family-friendly Broadway hit.

David Sims: The show surprised me. I knew the book, and I had seen the film multiple times, so I was not expecting to be surprised.

PHOTOGRAPH: LISA GAY HAMILTON & NINA GROLLMAN IN TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD – PHOTO BY JULIETA CERVANTES

Aaron Sorkin: I’m glad to hear that. From the moment the curtain goes up, we try to knock you off your pins a little bit.

Scout spends the play trying to solve [the mystery of Bob Ewell’s death], but broadly what we’re doing is having a new conversation about the book, the story we all learned in seventh grade and thought we knew.

When I started out [with this play], I thought it was a suicide mission, but I said yes right away ’cause I wanted to do a play so badly. My first draft was terrible because I tried to gently swaddle the book in bubble wrap and transfer it to the stage.

It felt like a greatest-hits album done by a cover band—just somebody trying to imitate Harper Lee and standing up the most famous scenes from the book. I realized that Atticus, as the protagonist [of the stage version of the] story, has to change. And if he’s gonna be the protagonist, he has to have a flaw.

How did Harper Lee get away with having a protagonist who doesn’t change? Because Atticus isn’t the protagonist in the book or the movie; Scout is—her flaw is that she’s young, and the change is that she loses some of her innocence. While I wanted to explore Scout, I absolutely wanted Atticus to be a traditional protagonist, so he needed to change and have a flaw…It turned out that Harper Lee had [already] given him one; it’s just that when we all learned the book, it was taught as a virtue. It’s that Atticus believes that goodness can be found in everyone.

Sims: He excuses things [such as bigotry and cruelty].

Sorkin: By the end of the play, he realizes he doesn’t know his friends and neighbors as well as he thought he did, that it may not be true that goodness can be found in everyone.

Sims: You give a lot of anger to the kids. In the novel, I don’t remember them ever challenging their father; they’re more like observers who are invested in childish obsessions, like [their mysterious neighbor] Boo Radley. But you’ve given them, especially Jem, a more defiant dynamic with Atticus.

Sorkin: Well, if Atticus is going to have all the answers, let’s ask him tougher questions.

Sims: Calpurnia [the Finch family’s black housekeeper] has more to do as well, and she’s a much more passive figure in the book.

Sorkin: I returned to the book and was surprised to find that in a story about racial tension, there were really only two significant African American characters, neither of whom had much to say. I want to be careful—this play is in no way meant to correct what I feel were mistakes that Harper Lee made. It’s a conversation. And I couldn’t do a Harper Lee impersonation or pretend like I was writing the play in 1960. But Calpurnia in the book is mostly concerned with whether Scout’s going to wear overalls or a dress; Tom Robinson pleads for his life, but we don’t know much more about him. In 1960, using African American characters mostly as atmosphere is something that probably would have gone unnoticed by a mostly white audience. But it would be noticeable today, and it’s a really big missed opportunity. You want their point of view in this.

Sims: It’s been an interesting year for great American works getting interrogated on Broadway.

Sorkin: They’re not getting repainted. We’re just taking another look, given the times we’re living in. z

B R O A D WAY I N C I N C I N N AT I . C O M

• 19

HAIRSPRAY MAY 4–9, 2021

BACKCOMBING HAIRSPRAY

By Jack O’Brien

How is it that the creation of certain theatrical events seems as unfeasible as mining uranium on Mars, and others rush by with the blitheness of an afternoon at Disneyland? And what distinguishes one event from the other?

I suppose if we knew the answer, all musicals would be as energized and filled with joy as Hairspray is. I know it must have happened. I was there when the balloon went up, but to define exactly what it was that produced the alchemy that has survived decades, of having been transferred onto film and yet remaining as one of the world’s most beloved musical works, is beyond my powers of analysis.

I do know that the chicken came before the egg; in other words, each of us—Jerry Mitchell, Tom Meehan, and Mark O’Donnell, and that array of gifted designers—were all borne instantly aloft by the brilliance of Marc Shaiman’s and Scott Wittman’s breathtaking score. This was an instance when one listened to the very first musical cut offered for consideration, and before Tracy had finished her first “oh…oh… oh…” one was irretrievably

hooked. If only the rest of the score could be anywhere near that good!

It wasn’t, of course. It was even better! And that template, that footprint for innocence, sass, and foot-tapping contained in this remarkable score suffused every single collaborator, every moment in the rehearsal hall, and finally permeated that outof-body experience we later were able to identify as our Seattle try-out.

Oh yes. Alchemy, I believe, involves the perfect blend of secret ingredients, like the Coca-Cola formula, lost somewhere in the mists of

time. In this case, the music, the lyrics, the book, and the physical world created by the Messrs. Rockwell, Ivey Long, and Posner were fueled by a secret weapon others would identify as perpetual motion.

That element belonged to choreographer Jerry Mitchell, and the zip, the faster-than-light and lighter-than-fast stepping he created gave us the beat you can’t, according to Tracy and her gang, stop.

History hasn’t been able to stop it either, and for that we are all grateful, all proud, and truly thrilled to have it back on stage, where it belongs. z

ABOUT THE SHOW You Can’t Stop the Beat! Hairspray, Broadway’s Tony Awardwinning musical comedy phenomenon that inspired the blockbuster film and live television event, is back on tour.

Join 16-year-old Tracy Turnblad in 1960s Baltimore as she sets out to dance her way onto TV’s most popular show. Can a girl with big dreams (and even bigger hair) change the world?

Featuring the beloved score of hit songs including “Welcome to the 60s,” “Good Morning Baltimore,” “It Takes Two,” and incorporating “Ladies’ Choice” from the musical film adaption, Hairspray is “fresh, winning, and deliriously tuneful!” (New York Times). This all-new touring production will reunite Broadway’s award-winning creative team led by director Jack O’Brien and choreographer Jerry Mitchell to bring Hairspray to a new generation of theater audiences. Don’t miss this “exhilaratingly funny and warmhearted musical comedy” (New Yorker).

20 • B R O A D W A Y I N C I N C I N N A T I 2 0 2 0 –2 0 2 1

PHOTOGRAPH: YOU CAN'T STOP THE BE AT. PHOTO BY CHRIS BENNION AND JEREMY DANIEL

Eighteen years ago, Hairspray bowed for the first time on Broadway, earning a New York Times rave that called it “deliriously tuneful…as sweet as a show can be.” Original director Jack O’Brien recalls the birth of this smash hit.

Matinée Musicale

CINCINNATI’S ORIGINAL CLASSICAL SOLO RECITAL SERIES! RE-SCHEDULED RECITALS

THE 2020–2021 108TH SEASON!

WINDSYNC

PENE PATI

WIND QUINTET

TENOR

Sun., October 11, 2020 Winner of the Concert Artists Guild and Fischoff National Competitions

Sun., August 9 2020

RYAN SPEEDO GREEN

3 PM • Memorial Hall

CHRISTINA NAM

VIOLIN

Photo: Dario Acosta

First Prize winner Montserrat Caballé International Aria Competition

BASS-BARITONE

Sun., November 22, 2020 2018 Marian Anderson Vocal Prize Winner

MARTIN JAMES BARTLETT PIANO

Sun., February 7, 2021 2014 BBC Young Musician of the Year

Sun., September 20, 2020

3 PM • Memorial Hall

ZLATOMIR FUNG

2019 National YoungArts Winner Attending Juilliard in Fall, 2020

Sun., March 14, 2021

NICOLE CABELL Photo: Devon Cass

SOPRANO

Sun., January 31, 2021

CELLO

International Tchaikovsky Competition Cello Division First Prize Winner

RACHEL BARTON PINE

VIOLIN

Fri., April 9, 2021 1992 Gold Medalist J.S. Bach International Violin Competition

3 PM • Memorial Hall

Winner of the 2005 BBC Singer of the World Competition

Memorial Hall Box Office: 513-977-8838 MatineeMusicaleCincinnati.org Visit us on Facebook.

AIN’T TOO PROUD

PAYING HOMAGE TO THE TEMPTATIONS THROUGH DANCE Kathrine Nero recently sat down with Sergio Trujillo, the Tony-Award® winning choreographer of Ain’t Too Proud, to discuss his approach to crafting The Temptations’ signature moves.

Kathrine Nero: Sergio, tell us about your career and how you got to Broadway.

much did you look at those movements to decide what you wanted your dancers to do?

Sergio Trujillo: I’m originally from Cali, Columbia. My family immigrated to Canada in the ’70s and while I was in Toronto, I wanted to get a respectable career. I studied biochemistry and then I went to chiropractic school, but the entire time all I wanted to do was dance. So, in the middle of my second year of chiropractor school, I auditioned for the Broadway production of Jerome Robbins’ Broadway, and after many months of auditions and waiting, I got a call to come in and join the cast. And here we are; that happened 30 years ago.

ST: My path to working on this show actually [started] 15 years ago. Des McAnuff, my director and my frequent collaborator who’s an absolute genius, hired me to choreograph Jersey Boys 15 years ago. I love to do research and to study the period, study the movement, everything pop culture. But during that time, there was no YouTube. So, I went to the Library of Film and Television here in New York. I tried to get my hands on any footage that I could on the Four Seasons to choreograph Jersey Boys, and I couldn’t find anything, but I came upon a lot of footage of The Temptations. Fifteen years later, by the time I came to choreograph this show, I had

KN: Let’s talk about Ain’t Too Proud. You had something to draw from by watching footage of The Temptations. How

22 • B R O A D W A Y I N C I N C I N N A T I 2 0 2 0 –2 0 2 1

done all of the research. I made a very conscious decision that I was not going to recreate what they did, but I wanted to pay homage to their work and their choreography. You know, we’re doing an adaptation of The Temptations, we’re not recreating it. And so I put myself in a position of, if I were the choreographer of The Temptations, what would I do? And this is what I came up with.

KN: It feels like the steps The Temptations might do, but different. Is that the idea?

ST: I felt like dance in the last 60 years evolved and it was important for me to look at dance through the lens of today, but I also wanted someone who grew up with The Temptations, who knew their music or had seen them live, to be able to look

PHOTOGRAPH: CHRISTIAN THOMPSON, SAINT AUBYN, EPHRAIM SYKES, JEREMY POPE, DERRICK BASKIN, AND JAWAN M JACKSON IN AIN'T TOO PROUD. PHOTO BY MAT THE W MURPHY.

MAY 25–JUNE 6, 2021

PHOTOGRAPH: EPHRAIM SYKES, JAWAN M JACKSON, JEREMY POPE, DERRICK BASKIN, AND JAMES HARKNESS IN AIN'T TOO PROUD. PHOTO BY MAT THE W MURPHY.

at them and say, “Wow, that’s what I remember.” But yet, for someone who’s never seen them or heard them, especially the younger audiences, I want them to look at them and think, “Wow, that’s very cool.” It’s a marriage of both worlds.

of sorts and the audiences, no matter what you do, will always be the best indicator about whether you’re telling the right story or not.

KN: You mentioned Jersey Boys.

The rest of your résumé is just as impressive, including On Your Feet! (about Gloria and Emilio Estefan) and Summer: The Donna Summer Musical. You have a history of choreographing shows based on real people.

How does that change your mindset?

ST: It was a true collaboration between [director] Des [McAnuff] and me, but it was really Des who—for the first time in any of our shows that we’ve done—was insistent on having more and more dance, which caught me by surprise.

Because in Jersey Boys, he kept me reined in. I was revving to choreograph and dance, and in that particular show, the guys needed to have restraint and just a different approach. They couldn’t look like The Tempta-

ST: No matter who you cover and what you know about them, you have to approach the material from a storytelling point of view. Choreographing for Gloria Estefan, you know, I grew up with her music, but at the same time, how do I interpret that period on a stage? How do I interpret that world into our show? You have to extrapolate it and you have to take creative liberties in order for it to really work for the show.

KN: And this show is more than just dance and music. This has a great story behind it as well.

ST: Yeah, I think one of the [reasons] that I’m excited about this show going on the road and why I’m so proud of it is because this particular story will take you by surprise. It provides great entertainment and brings so much joy to audiences, but it also has a really moving, heartfelt story. And, and in some ways, the music of The Temptations is the soundtrack of so many people’s lives.

KN: How does dance assist the character development of The Temptations?

tions. But in this one, because The Temptations come with the reputation of being the best dancing group ever, I think that was a beautiful way of weaving in dance, but also moments that are just pure subtlety, that are not real dance but more stylized movement. Those are very deliberate moments because the movement is always underscoring the action.

KN: With all of this great dancing, was it difficult to teach your cast? Is the movement hard to execute?

ST: It is. But we have on that stage probably the top “triple-threats” in America: actors who sing, act, and dance equally well. This show demands that; everyone has to be able to really do all three, masterfully. z

ABOUT THE SHOW Ain’t Too Proud is the electrifying new musical that follows The Temptations’ extraordinary journey from the streets of Detroit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Twelve-time Tony Award® nominee and the winner of the 2019 Tony Award for Best Choreography, Ain’t Too Proud tells the thrilling story of brotherhood, family, loyalty, and betrayal, as the group’s personal and political conflicts threaten to tear them apart during America’s decade of civil unrest. Set to the beat of the group’s treasured hits, including “My Girl,” “Just My Imagination,” “Get Ready,” and “Papa Was a Rolling Stone,” the unforgettable untold story of this legendary quintet takes you behind the music like never before.

Written by three-time Obie Award winner Dominique Morisseau, directed by two-time Tony Award winner Des McAnuff (Jersey Boys), and featuring the Tony-winning choreography of Sergio Trujillo (Jersey Boys, On Your Feet!), Ain’t Too Proud now comes to life on Broadway and across the country.

KN: When I saw the show in New York, audiences loved it. It almost felt like audience participation. When you see your work on the stage, how does it make you feel when audiences react so positively?

ST: There are times when, if I’m not having a great day, all I need to do is go stand in the back of the Imperial Theater, because I need to remind myself that we do this for the audiences. It’s my gift, it’s what I do, but at the end of day, it’s like a spiritual healer

B R O A D WAY I N C I N C I N N AT I . C O M

• 23

five nights. ten chefs.

summer series 2020

ONE DELICIOUS EXPERIENCE.

PRESENTED BY

AT

W D

JULY 27–31

Pinecroft at Crosley Estate

NE

ੜ

Our lavish, five-night dinner series returns to Pinecroft, the historic Powel Crosley Jr. estate in Mt. Airy. Be sure to #savorthedate for our summer dinner series and experience a one-of-a-kind meal in a oneof-a-kind setting. CINCINNATIMAGAZINE.COM/OUREVENTS

ES •

ES •

W D

AT

NE

D

•S US T

AIN

GN

GR

SI

EE

D E

N

V I NG by I L

I

L

G

LB

D

DES

IG

N

U •B

A sustainable approach to all of your landscape projects and needs.

Call today to start 'enjoying the green life' 513 .70 8 .075 4

Enjoy the Green Life greenliving-bydesign.com @GLBDcincy

SUBSCRIBE TODAY! IN PERSON

ONLINE BroadwayInCincinnati.com

PHONE

Aronoff Center Ticket Office 650 Walnut Street downtown

800.294.1816 M-F, 9am-5pm

M-F, 9am-5:30pm

IT PAYS TO BE A SUBSCRIBER! SUBSCRIBERS SAVE

EARLY ACCESS FOR EXTRA TICKETS

FIRST ACCESS TO THE BEST SEATS

Last season, on average, Season Subscribers saved 42% off day-of-show pricing.*

Share your priority access with friends and family to secure seats early for popular shows.

Guarantee your seats before the general public gets access.

EASY TICKET EXCHANGES** Exchanges are complimentary as a Season Ticket Holder.

SWAP A SHOW** Switch out of any one show on the season into another (by July 1, 2020).

YOUR CHOICE - GET 7 OR 8 NIGHTS OUT! When you subscribe, you will get the same seats on the same night for the six multi-week shows.

To complete your package, you can choose both or you can choose between THE BAND’S VISIT or HAIRSPRAY. For these two one-week shows, you will be assigned best available seating for your preferred performance and seating location based on availability. *Savings were calculated by comparing the subscriber ticket pricing (inclusive of all handling fees, facility fees, service charges, applicable taxes, and per seat Patron Club subscription fees, if applicable) versus day-of-show single ticket pricing when ordered by phone or internet (inclusive of all handling fees, facility fees, service charges, and applicable taxes) for 18/19 season performances of CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, RENT, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, HAMILTON, MISS SAIGON, and DEAR EVAN HANSEN. Subscriber savings are less when compared to single ticket buyers who purchase at the box office window without paying handling fees and service charges. Subscriber handling fees, service charges and any applicable per seat Patron Club subscription fees are prorated according to the number of shows in the 18/19 basic season subscription package. This calculation does not factor in any Season Options. **Subject a higher performance, show or seating location.

26 to•availability.

B R O The A Ddifference W A Yin Iprice N must C I NbeCpaid I Nwhen N Aexchanging T I 2 0 2into 0 –2 0 2 priced 1

ASK THE EXPERT! There is so much misinformation about CBD.

As a registered nurse for over 30 years helping patients in critical care, hospice care, cardiac care and natural medicine, I knew there had to be a better solution for pain management than opiods. That convinced me to research alternatives, namely CBD. I’m here to share what I’ve learned. For example…..

The hype: CBD gets you high.

The TRUTH: THC is what gives you a euphoric feeling not CBD. Some companies sell CBD that has trace amounts of THC. NOT Tulip Tree.

Our CBD is organically grown, thoughtfully processed and contains Zero THC. All of our products are tested for purity by an independent 3rd party lab. These results are listed on each product page. So you can trust the quality.

Jeri Schulz, MSN, RN Tulip Tree CBD

A Cincinnati-based company

There’s no reason to suffer. ,èYH VHHQ ĆUVWKDQG KRZ &%' FDQ EHQHĆW SHRSOH VXIIHULQJ IURP FKURQLF SDLQ LQćDPPDWLRQ DQ[LHW\ DQG LQVRPQLD Moreover, my healthcare background enables me to answer your questions about CBD and offer you the guidance you need and customized recommendations.

CARING FOR YOU

Visit TulipTreeCBD.com to learn more about CBD and how it can help you.

While you’re there, take our quiz to see what we recommend for your particular symptoms.

AND SAVE 15% ON YOUR FIRST ORDER.

B R O A D WAY I N C I N C I N N AT I . C O M

• 27

SEATING & PRICING CHART

ACCESSIBLE SEATING

SEAT LOCATIONS

7 - SHOW PACKAGE PRICE

Patron Club* Orchestra DD-O, Loge A-C

$

830

Orchestra Center P-Z, Left & Right Orch P-T, Loge Center D-J, Left & Right Loge D-F

$

595

Left & Right Orchestra U-Z, Left & Right Loge G-J, Balcony A-C

$

495

Balcony D-H

$

375

Balcony J-N

$

245

Season Subscriptions, and all Tickets and Additional Tickets purchased under any Subscription, are subject to the BroadwayAcross America® Standard Season Subscription Terms and Conditions posted on our website at BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com/SubscriberTerms. By purchasing a Season Subscription, you agree to such Terms and Conditions. Prices, shows, artists, dates and times are subject to change at any time without notice.

The price of each subscription seat reflects the face value of your tickets, as well as $50 in processing fees, facility fees (described below), applicable taxes, and, if applicable, the Patron Club subscription fee noted below.

Facility fees for 7-show subscriptions total $28 per subscription seat. *Patron Club subscriptions (Orchestra Rows DD-O/Loge Rows A-C) include a $120 fee for each subscription seat purchased. Patron Club Subscribers receive priority access to premium seat locations, available only to these Subscribers, prior to tickets being placed on sale to the general public. Additional benefits included in Patron Club subscriptions include parking vouchers, and the option to have your name included in the Playbill for all regular season shows.

Season28 Subscribers or HAIRSPRAY 7-show • B Rchoose O Abetween D W ATHE Y BAND’S I N CVISIT INC I N N A Tto I complete 2 0 2 0their –2 0 2 1 package.

Oxford proudly supports the Cincinnati Performing Arts Community.

Oxford is independent and unbiased — and always will be.

We are committed to providing multi-generational estate planning advice and forward-thinking investment solutions to families and institutions.

CHICAGO ) CINCINNATI ) GRAND RAPIDS ) INDIANAPOLIS ) TWIN CITIES 513.246.0800 ) WWW.OFGLTD.COM/CSO