The Ensemblist

In the wake of this pandemic that has altered the face and shape of how we consume so much popular media, particularly when it comes to musical theatre, we’re spotlighting One Million Musicals.

Created by Jacob Ben-Shmuel and Alan Blake Bachelor, One Million Musicals is an ambitious, independent endeavor to produce - you guessed it - ONE MILLION high quality musicals to the podcasting space. With a team of artistic collaborators, not to mention many notable swings and ensemblists from Broadway, Jacob and Alan drop a new podcast with an entirely original story and set of songs and characters every month.

To explain the creation and execution of One Million Musicals in their own words, here is our interview with Jacob and Alan.

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There isn’t a theatre choreographer more associated with their own unique style than Bob Fosse. The infamous Oscar-, Emmy- and Tony-winning director and choreographer created his own signature technique that distinguished shows like Chicago, Pippin, and Damn Yankees into dance masterpieces. This April, FX launches a new limited television series Fosse/Verdon, based on the 2013 biography by Sam Wesson with a focus on his marriage and collaboration with Gwen Verdon. 

In the first episode of the TV miniseries, we meet Fosse and Verdon on the set of the film version of Sweet Charity. The episode then transfers locations to Munich, Germany where Fosse and Verdon work together to turn Cabaret into one of the most seminila movie musicals in the history of film. Performing “Mein Herr” are a quartet of Broadway dancers including this episode’s guest, Skye Mattox.

Skye Mattox made her Broadway debut as replacement in the 2009 Broadway revival of West Side Story. Since then, she performed in Broadway’s revivals of On The Town and Carousel, the later for which she was nominated for a Chita Rivera Award. She’s also no stranger to bringing musical drama to the small screen: Skye and I first worked together during the winter 2013 on the second season of NBC’s Smash. Here’s our conversation...

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There isn’t a theatre choreographer more associated with their own unique style than Bob Fosse. The infamous Oscar-, Emmy- and Tony-winning director and choreographer created his own signature technique that distinguished shows like Chicago, Pippin, and Damn Yankees into dance masterpieces. This April, FX launches a new limited television series Fosse/Verdon, based on the 2013 biography by Sam Wesson with a focus on his marriage and collaboration with Gwen Verdon. 

Here on The Ensemblist, we are also taking the opportunity to speak to some of the Broadway ensemblists who are working on the series. First up is Hamilton and Bandstand's, Morgan Marcell, who worked as an associate choreographer on the series in addition to appearing on camera in three episodes.

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A Chorus Line changed everything. It’s a statement theatre lovers have heard time and again. But until this exploration into the proliferation of the line as a theatrical device in musical theatre, I never really understood the depth of what A Chorus Line changed.

For the layman, it was the first time in years that a Broadway musical reached the greater cultural conversation. Musical theatre had drifted from the zeitgeist after decades of leading the entertainment industry, but here it was back and in charge.

For the theatre aficionados, it was the first Broadway musical to run longer than a decade. For comparison, prior to Broadway’s shutdown there were four musicals running that had opened more than ten years ago. 

But for theatre artisans, A Chorus Line was the first big musical without a separation between principals and chorus. In A Chorus Line, every character was named and given a point of view - not only in the staging but in the script itself. It’s a popular device now, but it shook theatre artists to their core because it meant that what they knew to be true about live theatre was finally being shared with audiences; that every company member makes an important contribution to the success or failure of a musical.

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“Life is a Cabaret” premiered on April 9th, 2019. It was written by Steven Levenson, and directed by Thomas Kail; uniquely for this episode, the show credited Both Mssrs. Levenson and Kail with creating the story, but only one of them for writing the actual teleplay. The two group numbers we saw, “Mein Herr” and “Big Spender,” were both originally choreographed by Bob Fosse, but were reconstructed by Valarie Pettiford and Dana Moore, respectively. Something fun for these modern TV shows: the viewership is now able to be tracked separately between live viewers and viewers who watch on DVR. For this pilot episode, the live viewership was .614 million and the DVR viewership was .729 million, bringing the total viewership to 1.344 million.

We heard five featured songs in this premiere. The two songs from Sweet Charity, “Big Spender” and “If My Friends Could See Me Now,” were both written by Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields. While the latter was an excerpt from the original recording, “Big Spender” was performed and sung by Bianca Marroquin and the Fandango girls. Also included in this episode were songs from Cabaret, all written by John Kander and Fred Ebb: “Wilkommen” which was a recording, as well as “Mein Herr” and the title song “Cabaret,” both performed by Kelli Barrett.

The limited series begins in Hollywood, with 19 years left in the illustrious life and career of Bob Fosse. With his wife and muse Gwen Verdon at his side, he is setting up shots for the song “Big Spender” in his directorial debut: a feature film version of his hit Broadway musical Sweet Charity, which had opened on Broadway with Verdon as the lead less than three years early. While Bob is the director, it is clear that Verdon is just as much a creative force as he is, deconstructing the movement for the dancers and even recommending one of them should be cut when the frame needs to be tightened.

At a party to celebrate the film’s opening the following year, Verdon and Fosse host a party for friends and colleagues at their New York City apartment. While the energy is positive with the attendees entertained by a performance from their young daughter Nicole, the reviews for the film are notably less enthusiastic. Of particular note in the New York Times review, which says “Sweet Charity is a movie haunted by the presence of an unseen star, Gwen Verdon. Although Mrs. McClaine often looks like Miss Verdon, she never succeeds at recreating the eccentric line that gave cohesion to the original.” 

The box office bust of Sweet Charity makes Bob have to work hard to line up his next film directorial job, which he hopes to be a film adaptation of the 1966 Broadway musical Cabaret. While the film’s producer Cy Feuer is skeptical that Bob’s aesthetic is appropriate for the material, Fosse convinces him by leaning on his experience performing in the USO during World War II. Well, that and going behind Feuer’s back by speaking to his boss.

Fosse lands the job and flies to Munich, Germany to direct the film two years later. But while he seems in his element visiting a brothel to cast extras and sleeping with his translator, Feuer is concerned that Fosse’s demand for specificity is going to cost the production millions like the financial flop Sweet Charity. Bob asks Gwen to join him in Munich, where she again saves the show by applying dancers make up and even making a 72 hour trip to New York and back to pick up the perfect gorilla costume.

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Over the years, The Ensemblist has had the privilege of sharing personal stories from hundreds of theatre actors on our blog. In this edition, we spoke with Myles McHale of Mean Girls, who recalled a seemingly innocuous wrist injury a year prior that would take him out of the production for six whole months. 

In the days and weeks leading up to Myles return to rehearsals, Broadway shut down in the second week of March, sidelining not only Myles return to the stage, but even his in-person physical therapy.

In his own words, here is Myles’ inspiring take on staying optimistic and galvanized through this unprecedented time.

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In my exploration of “the line” and its impact on musical theatre, I wanted to learn more about its use in Hamilton, I reached out to a friend and colleague who has intimate knowledge of the show’s staging. Stephanie Klemons is a noted mover and shaker in the theatre industry, known for her work onstage and off. But her most impressive title is that of Global Dance Supervisor for Hamilton: An American Musical. 

Steph was in the room as Hamilton was staged, sitting at tech tables as the show was refined, performed in the show as an original cast member and now helps to set and maintain companies of the show around the world. She was generous enough to take time to talk to me from her New York home, where she and her wife raise their young son. Between starting episodes of Dinosaur Train, Steph told me about the purpose of the line in Hamilton and how she teaches the staging to scores of performers around the world.

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Today, we remember the life and career of Doreen Montalvo. An ensemblist legend, she created the role of the Bolero Singer in In The Heights and was also an original company member of On Your Feet! Most recently, she created the role of Janet Lundy in Mrs. Doubtfire The Musical. We are honored to share memories and tributes from some of Doreen's friends and colleagues: Jocelyn Bioh, Natalie Caruncho, Linedy Genao, Analise Scarpaci, Shani Talmor and Alèna Watters.

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The 30th Annual Tony Awards were held at the Shubert Theatre, current home of A Chorus Line. As opposed to the usual June ceremonies we are used to, the ceremony took place in April 18, 1976 and broadcast by ABC television. The show featured six hosts, including Richard Burton and Jane Fonda It should be noted that while revivals of My Fair Lady and Hello, Dolly! (featuring Pearl Bailey) ran this season, there was no category for Best Revival or Best Revival of a Musical.

Heading into the April ceremony, the original productions of A Chorus Line and Chicago were virtually tied for nominations, with 12 and 11 respectively. Also nominated for Best Musical were Stephen Sondheim’s Pacific Overtures and a revue called Bubbling Brown Sugar. But the night went to A Chorus Line, winning 9 Awards, The awards for Set and Costume Designer going to Pacific Overtures and Chicago going home empty handed.

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For theatre lovers of a certain age… my age… it’s impossible to think about a line onstage without thinking about Rent. The 90s musical which transposes the story of the opera La Boheme onto New York’s Lower East Side is a touchstone for many theatre lovers who grew up at the end of the millennium.

Like A Chorus Line before it, and Hamilton after it, the show was a cultural phenomenon whose impact reached far outside a typical Broadway audience. Rent expanded the typical theatre audience to those who didn’t think that musicals were “for” them. One of the ways that Rent achieves this is by turning a very specific story into a universal message of community and, of course, love.

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