After an early workshop of “An American in Paris,” the new hit Broadway musical directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, producer Roy Furman turned to his fellow producer Stuart Oken and asked, “Have we discovered the next Jerome Robbins?”Putting the British-born Wheeldon in the same category as the legendary Robbins, who revolutionized Broadway with such musicals as “Gypsy” and “Fiddler on the Roof,” might well have been tempting fate. No one then knew how “An American in Paris” would ultimately turn out. But the producers’ confidence in Wheeldon turned out to be justified.The musical, based on the 1951 Oscar-winning film starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron, opened last April to strongly positive notices and was recently nominated for twelve Tony Awards, including Best Musical and two nods for Wheeldon for his direction and choreography. Also vying for Tonys are its two leads, Robert Fairchild and Leanne Cope, in the roles created by Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron in the film; as well nominations for supporting players Brandon Uranowitz and Max von Essen.Wheeldon, a former principal dancer with the Royal Ballet and New York City Ballet, has been choreographing contemporary ballets for international dance companies since 2000. His flirtation with Broadway began two years later when director Nicholas Hytner invited him to design the dances for the short-lived musical “The Sweet Smell of Success.” His re-emergence in New York theater came as a result of the Gershwin estate’s desire to see the 1951 film adapted to the Broadway stage. For this incarnation, an additional half-dozen or so numbers from the extraordinary songbook of George and Ira Gershwin have enhanced the film’s lush score. The material seemed ripe for it: the story of Jerry Mulligan, an American GI and aspiring artist caught up in the creative fermentation of post-World War II Paris while vying for the love of Lise, a beautiful young shop girl. Wheeldon says that he jumped at the chance to effect the transformation, along with librettist Craig Lucas and designers Bob Crowley and Natasha Katz, all of whom are also nominated for Tony Awards. “I loved the movie,” recalls the 42-year-old artist. “I grew up watching Gene Kelly and he and [Mikhail] Baryshnikov were the reasons I became a dancer. I thought it was a great opportunity to take inspiration from the movie but also to create something entirely new.”Wheeldon recently spoke with ARTINFO about the challenges of fulfilling that mandate.You’ve described your objective with “An American in Paris” as “translating the sweeping panoramic feel of the movie to the stage.” How so? The music demanded it. This show is really borne through the music. The Gershwin score conjures up these vivid jazzy images that kind of sweep through it, even though the music was never created with this story in mind. It’s hard not to see that kind of sweeping panoramic energy when the music is played.Did that also inspire the design? Exactly. It’s very much inspired by the arc of the character of Jerry Mulligan, who is an artist. He eventually creates the designs for the ballet within the show since Lise is an aspiring dancer. Art plays a big part of the design and Bob [Crowley] has done fantastic work. These wonderful designs are set against this quite gray monochromatic and elegant cityscape of Paris after the war. It was such a hotbed of artistic invention and the designs reflect that.How do you balance the play of dark and light, given the immediate aftermath of the war and contrasting that to the joy of the music and the beauty of Paris?One of the wonderful things that we’ve been exploring is the potency of joy and romance emerging from the darkness of World War II. Of course they couldn’t do that in the movie because it was so close to the war. Nobody wanted to talk about the Nazi Occupation, how the people of Paris felt kidnapped, and what a struggle it was to emerge from that horror. We’ve been able to place our show in a more truthful historical context that for me heightens the romance.The world premiere of the musical was at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris last winter. Did those events seem much closer by being in the actual vicinity? It was the 70th Anniversary of the liberation of Paris and there was a wonderful exhibition in the Marais. You could walk these beautiful boulevards and imagine the fear that enveloped the city at that time. It still lingers a little bit in the air.How did you develop the sexual chemistry between Robert Fairchild and Leanne Cope, both of whom are from the dance world and are making their Broadway debuts? They have a great chemistry and that is something that they both worked very hard on in rehearsals. Dance is innately sexy anyway and Gershwin’s music just oozes sexiness. That trumpet comes in on the “American in Paris” ballet duet and it’s one long orgasmic line! And the sexual energies were very high after the war. People found great solace and comfort in each other’s company.Jerry Mulligan is such a quintessentially young American, naïve and optimistic, making his way on the Continent. As a Brit who’s worked both in London and New York, how do you view Americans? [Laughs] It is interesting how we all look at each other. I’ve started to call myself “Ameriglish” because I’ve now lived in America for two years more than I’ve lived in the UK. So although I still feel very English, I owe a lot to America and it is my home. There is a small ironic bite to the British and they can sometimes look at Americans as being overly sunny and overly optimistic. But I think the same goes in reverse. So I’m happy to find myself in the middle of these two cultures both of which I love.
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