BY NAVEEN KUMAR
Since beginning his career as an acclaimed choreographer, apath which led to his Tony Award for Best Choreography for Thoroughly Modern Millie in 2002, Tony Awardwinner and eight-time nominee Rob Ashford has more often taken on thedual role of director/choreographer. His recent musical outings on Broadway includerevivals of How To Succeed In Business WithoutReally Trying (starring Daniel Radcliff) and Promises, Promises (starring Kristen Chenoweth and Sean Hayes). Ashford'schoreography is currently on display in Evita, starring Ricky Martin.
Scarlett Johansson returns to Broadway as Maggie the Cat in Ashford's
production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, following her 2010 Tony Award
winning debut in Arthur Miller's A View From The Bridge. The
production, which opens on Thursday, also stars Ciarán Hinds, Benjamin Walker and Debra Monk.
This starry revival of Cat marks Ashford's first Broadway production of a non-musical. Italked to Rob about his approach as a director, and his experience working onboth New York and London stages.
Naveen Kumar: In recent years you've directed a number of acclaimedproductions of American classics, including Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie (with Jude Law) andWilliams' A Streetcar Named Desire (withRachel Weisz), both at the DonmarWarehouse in London. How would you characterize your approach to this sort ofcanonical material, with which artists and audiences are likely to be sofamiliar?
Rob Ashford: It's interesting trying to do a revival of aclassic play. What I tried to do was go back tothe original source material as much as I could, and also go back to the timewhen the play was written and try to get to what the writer was truly after. There'sa lot of inspiration to be found by going back, and trying to figure out theoriginal intention.
For example, with Streetcar there were five published scripts, and they changed somuch over the years. Then the film happened, and the scripts adjusted to the film.So the main goal for these plays was to go back to the original source materialand the original productions. Not being slavish to them, like 'Oh no, these arethe first words he wrote, and these are the ones we're doing,' but just tryingin a way to make it full circle, instead of stacking on other productions.
I didn't concentratefor any of these three shows—Streetcaror Cat or Anna Christie—on previous productions, I tried to ignore that. [On] the first day of rehearsal [for Cat], I said to the cast, 'I would lovefor us to take these characters off the pedestals where they've been placed andput them back into the play.' So, I didn't want to see anybody giving their 'Big Daddy' or giving their 'Maggie' or giving their 'Brick.' I just wanted tosee these characters in the play, as if for the first time.
Read more, AFTER THE JUMP…
NK: All of these plays have iconic female characters. Isthat something you're particularly drawn to as a director?
RA: I guess I am—I feel like I like the guys too. These areclassic roles, Maggie and Blanche and Anna Christie. But all of theseplays have great men's roles in them as well. I do know, especially with the southern plays [by Williams], fromgrowing up in the South [myself], the strength of the women in the house, inthe town, and in the community was very true.
In Cat too, that'swhat we realized: Big Daddy, Brick andGooper are all weak, and the women are strong. Those three women are thestrength. That's not the stereotype, I think that’s true [from my experience growing up there]. The women are the strength. So I think I'm drawn to that, because that's my life, — lotsof strong women and lots of sweet well-intentioned men.
NK: How would you compare working in London versus New York,both in terms of the creative process and what you might have learned to expectfrom audiences?
RA: I have to say, I love both. Both offerchallenges. One thing I love about London is that I feel like the audiencesare more willing to listen longer beforethey understand. So, they can not know what two characters mean to each otheruntil the end of a play. American audiences are a bit less patient. They're like, 'Okay, who are they? Who is she? Who is he? What's going tohappen to them?' and then they'll watch it. So I think that's one bigdifference.
We have great actors on both shores, and I've been lucky towork with [many].
I do feel likethere are slightly different agendas at times, just by the nature of the way ourcommunity, the New York theatre community, has a season and these big awards.The awards aren't quite the same in London. They don't mean the same thing. There'snot a season in London, so you just kind of do your play when you do your play.And here, it's a lot more calculated. But I enjoy both places. And the audiences, if you do goodwork, will respond equally.
NK: Does your experience as a choreographer influence yourapproach as a director?
RA: At first I was hoping it wasn'tgoing to be a detriment. I was hoping, God all these years and all that timeand I hope it doesn't stand in the way.
If I'm going to choreograph a number for Sutton Foster, Iget in the studio and I get a basic idea for what the number is going to be,and I understand what I'm trying to say and what the intent is.
Then I get in the studio with Sutton and I start teaching it, and she's like, 'Oh, oh, oh could we turn the other way?' or 'Oh, oh,oh can I kick the other leg?' or you start doing something and you're like 'Oh,that doesn't look so good on Sutton…maybe we shouldn't do those jumps, maybe weshould do something else?'
And that's not compromising your work at all, that'sbringing it to life. That's bringing your dance to life. That's 'putting it on'someone, is what they say in the ballet. I 'put this on' them, I choreographedit on them, I made it for them. That kind of bespoke service in dance isnormal, and also what you need to do to make a good dance.
It's the same process working with a play. You envisioncertain things — you envision ways these characters might be, ways the room mightwork, ways the blocking and the design might work. But when you get in thereand put it on them, and make it bespoke to them, it changes. There's so muchflexibility and they have so much more input. And because they have so muchmore input, they're so much more invested. Also it just feels like them; it'ssecond nature to them.
Just the way I am with my steps and my music and a room fullof dancers, it's the same with actors. I have my ideas and my vision of how ascene would move or play out or where people would be, and then you put it onthem and it changes and becomes something better. I would say rarely have I ever put a dance on any person orgroup of people that it doesn't get better when they get a hold of it.
Cat On A Hot Tin Roofopens on Thursday, January 17th at the Richard Rodgers Theatre.
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(Ashford portrait: Bruce Gilkas; other photos: Joan Marcus)
You can follow Naveen Kumar on Twitter @Mr_NaveenKumar.
