InDepth InterView: Lynne Taylor-Corbett & THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS

Staging one of the theatre's most unique and unclassifiable pieces, Brecht & Weill's THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS for the New York City Ballet, starting May 11 and running through May 15, is just the latest act in a career made up of anomalies, seemingly built upon always attempting to do the impossible - from her Broadway debut, trying to bring balletic bravado to Trevor Nunn's terminally troubled 1988 musical CHESS (a project begun under the guidance of Michael Bennett before his death), up through the trying-but-Tony-winning TITANIC in 1997 and, this century, SWING! starring Ann Hampton Callaway and Laura Benanti and a succession of successful regional ballets and theatre pieces - the gifted and dynamic director/choreographer Lynne Taylor-Corbett continues to challenge herself, her peers and audiences with each of her audacious new endeavors. THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS, starring two-time Tony-winning Broadway legend Patti LuPone as Anna I, is a particularly problematic play - or is it a musical? Or, is it a ballet? A song-spiel? - and in this revealing and engaging discussion, Ms. Taylor-Corbett and I attempt to deduce the themes, analyze the structure and look back at the authors' lives to gain insight into the perplexing America painted by Brecht and Weill in the forty-minute-long theatrical experiment. Also, in this first part of the complete conversation, Lynne and I take a look back at her long and varied career and she generously shares her thoughts on where the place of dance is in the twenty-first century, the exhilaration of working with a theatre artist like Patti LuPone, her own inspirations and formative experiences in the theatre, the legacy of Michael Powell and THE RED SHOES, the theatre versus the dance world, her son Shaun's career, and much, much more! Further information on THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS - including tickets - is available here.

Part I - Beginnings on Broadway & Beyond

PC: CHESS is one of the most interesting shows of the 1980s. Can you tell me about working with Trevor Nunn on the troubled Broadway version of the show? Michael Bennett famously worked on the London version before he abruptly left due to his health.

LTC: Michael worked on the London version and it was a very different version, apparently. When Trevor Nunn took it over he wanted to do it, "like a film." What was very difficult for some of us working on the Broadway version, was that that didn't necessarily translate very effectively. So, you know, he kept saying, "That's too stylized." You know what I mean?

PC: Naturalism was the goal.

LTC: Yes. He wanted it to be like they were just dancing like regular, pedestrian people would. So, it was a little tough to be a choreographer with my first Broadway show and not able to do awfully much. But, I understand, being a director, that he had a vision of it for people to feel like it was a very real experience. (Sighs. Pause.) So, anyway, it was a journey.

PC: I bet! How did you deal with those moving periaktoid towers? The stage was so shallow at that theater to begin with - it must have been impossible dealing with that set.

LTC: (Laughs.) Well, you know, it was actually a turntable, too - turning while they were moving!

PC: Compounded impossibility!

LTC: It was like, you know, a recipe for failure! (Laughs.)

PC: That's so funny.

LTC: Yeah, it was very difficult, and, you know, I think with technology now it might be more successful - but, what those men inside the towers were following were tiny, fluorescent, dotted lines on the floor that sometimes couldn't be seen so well.

PC: Recipe for disaster, indeed.

LTC: I remember one night there was an incident where the stage manager came running out on the stage because one guy had picked up the wrong line and he was heading right for the pit!

PC: What a nightmare.

LTC: (Laughs.) Yeah, I've had a couple of really hard Broadway shows - that and TITANIC!

PC: And David Carroll was so brilliant in CHESS. Do you have any memories of working with him?

LTC: Oh, yes, he was just such a wonderful person. He was a lovely, lovely guy. You know, it's funny, in those days so many people were HIV positive - Michael included - and it was just a time when people died on a regular basis. It was just such a... I can't explain it. You hear elderly people explaining, "I've lost all my friends." Well, I lost all my friends.

PC: And they were 30.

LTC: Yeah, yeah! It was just an unbelievable feeling - and David's death was such a shock. He was so excited when he was doing GRAND HOTEL and he got to move into this great dressing room and be the star of the show. It was just such a shock. (Pause. Sighs.) But, that was the plague years - they really were. They were like the plague years for those of us in the theatre - it was a very difficult time.

PC: And the musicals became faceless with the mega musical trend.

LTC: Yes. Yes. Absolutely. You're right.

PC: Tell me about your son, a Broadway star in his own right.

LTC: Oh, yes, my son actually did a BroadwayWorld interview when he was Sonny. You know, he covered Lin-Manuel off-Broadway and then he toured as Sonny and they brought him to Broadway to do Sonny for the last five or six months of IN THE HEIGHTS on Broadway. The irony is that the woman he married has a brother who also did Sonny - right before Shaun, my son, did! So, how funny is that? What are the chances that two brothers-in-law played Sonny in IN THE HEIGHTS on Broadway?

PC: And Lin-Manuel is so talented.

LTC: Oh, yeah! He's so wonderful. And, Shaun got to do Usnavi a lot in LA. That was a real highlight for him, too. He loves LA - he just moved out there.

PC: And your son is continuing the tradition in a way since you choreographed the first Broadway show with a full-out rap song (unless you count DREAMGIRLS), "One Night In Bangkok" - and IN THE HEIGHTS, of course, famously, utilizes rap music. What do you think of the score for IN THE HEIGHTS?

LTC: Oh, gosh, I was very taken by it. I was very moved by it - and moved by what it was trying to say. And, you know, mainstreaming rap poetry - that was just such a great thing. And, P.S., you know, it was really about immigration and immigrants and I think it really hit a lot of good chords and I hope the movie ultimately gets made.

PC: Did your son audition?

LTC: Well, it's been frustrating for them. I know he auditioned and hung out with Kenny Ortega - as did his brother-in-law - so, who knows how it's gonna go and how old everyone will be when this thing finally goes up.

PC: Your family reunion must be like a GLEE episode.

LTC: Yeah, it's a lot of fun, it's a lot of fun. I'm really lucky. It's really nice and I now realize not everybody has that. A lot of people just have maybe one person in their family in show business.

PC: So, you have even more talent in there?

LTC: Oh, yeah - for instance, my sister Sharon Talbot wrote a play that is going to be produced by Alan Campbell and Lauren Kennedy in Raleigh, North Carolina, this summer.

PC: Have you worked with them before?

LTC: Oh, yeah, I did a production of DRACULA with Alan that he narrated. It was a creation that I did with a composer down in North Carolina called Mark Scerce. It was like a ballet with narration and Alan played Dr. Seward for me. So, they liked my sister's play and the rest is history. They are doing it in July.

PC: What other projects have you worked on with your family?

LTC: I have been lucky enough to have the chance to work with my family members a lot. I did the workshop of THE LION KING in Hong Kong with my son Shaun as Simba.

PC: So, how did that production come about? Was it based in any way on the Julie Taymor version on Broadway?

LTC: Well, you know how these things become products - it all comes from the source material. Of course, Julie did this amazing and incredibly successful production. But, basically, you go back to the source material and re-conceive it.

PC: How do you do that?

LTC: Well, in Hong Kong, THE LION KING is in the round - so, that is really just very tricky. So, I've had to re-adapt it, too, because it's like a forty-five-minute show. It's in their park in Hong Kong. Of course, we could use any songs from the movie or from the show. I did it in 2005 and they've done it like three times a day there ever since. But, we started over from the beginning, basically - it was a very, very interesting process.

PC: What is that like to know it's been seen that much?

LTC: I know, right? Three times a day. Isn't that amazing? It's staggering to me. The cleverness and business acumen of Disney is extraordinary. (Pause.) It's really gratifying - and, I also directed that production. Now, these days, I really have to do both.

PC: You want to be the captain of your own ship.

LTC: Well, it's not that I don't love collaboration, but, it's just easier for me to have a grasp of the whole thing if I can just say, "Do this. This is what we need." I've been lucky enough working as a director and choreographer recently; although I do sometimes bring on associates - for instance, I did a big show in China called REEL-TO-REAL with a tap choreographer.

PC: What's that show about?

LTC: Well, it's afoot and hopefully it will be coming to Vegas, soon. It's produced by Broadway Asia and, also, the Chinese government. It was developed right outside Beijing as a Broadway-style show. We had the whole Warner Brothers and MGM catalogues.

PC: Wow!

LTC: Right? It's the juiciest of catalogues. I love it. So, it takes you around the world in movies and it's really just a fantastic project - and, it's still developing, actually.

PC: So, you use the newest technology, I presume, to integrate film into the action of the show?

LTC: Yes, and, really, I think the reason we were able to do it was because of the Chinese - just the money to develop it and get to first base. And, yes, it is an integration - people run off the screen onto the stage and all of that kind of stuff.

PC: What's the path for the show?

LTC: Well, we went to Edinburgh and had a nice success there, so I think it comes down to finding a home for it since it's so unique. And, you can't easily tour with this production due to the persnickety-ness of projectors. So, it's a lot to juggle.

PC: Could you tell me a little bit about your influences - Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse, Michael Bennett, Gower Champion?

LTC: You know, I think - you are mentioning the giants - Jerry Robbins was probably a huge influence. And, also Alvin Ailey.

PC: Of course. In what ways in particular?

LTC: I was in the Alvin Ailey company in the late 60s and his theatricality and his humanity really affected me a lot. He isn't often cited as an influence, but he changed the face of dance, really - I think he was very much ahead of his time. And, you are a product of your time, essentially.

PC: What about Balanchine - particularly as it pertains to THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS.

LTC: Yes, yes, of course. When you look at THE PRODIGAL SON... my first job was as an usher. I went to SAB for like five minutes just, like, as a summer course. (Laughs.)

PC: What happened?

LTC: Well, the truth was that I didn't have any kind of body type that was going to be successful. So, I ushered there at the same time and I did see those ballets from the top - so, I saw the architecture.

PC: How did they appear to you?

LTC: To me, Balanchine was the architect and Robbins was kind of the theatre craft person. But, Balanchine's THE PRODIGAL SON is an amazing piece of architecture.

PC: How did you get involved in choreography in the first place - SHAKESPEARE'S CABARET? That's your first credit.

LTC: Wow, you really do your homework! (Laughs.)

PC: What was that show about?

LTC: I think it was a very clever attempt to do Shakespeare as if he had done these scenes in these plays as if they were musical numbers in a musical. It had much to recommend in it, actually. I don't think it ran very long, but it was my first time in the commercial theatre and I really, really enjoyed that. It was kind of in the Broadway box, but it was off-Broadway. It was this little random show, you know?

PC: The early 80s off-Broadway was amazing - William Finn and all kinds of things.

LTC: Right. Right. It was a badge of honor to work off-Broadway back then. But, now, it's become so expensive to do off-Broadway. The mentality is that, "Do it on Broadway because at least if you fail, you'll brand it." It's crazy.

PC: What do you think of a $60 million musical like SPIDER-MAN?

LTC: I think it could have produced ten shows for that amount of money! (Laughs.)

PC: So true.

LTC: But, you know, I sincerely - and I really mean this - hope it can be salvaged. Just the people and the ancillary people and all the work - I just hope sincerely they can make it work. It's such a shame [if not].

PC: You of course worked on one of the most troubled shows in Broadway history - TITANIC. Audiences hated it originally, in previews, right?

LTC: (Laughs.) You know, I used to stand at the back of the theatre and, before we changed certain things, people laughed so hard they doubled over.

PC: The 1980s sequence?

LTC: The worst was when we had one scene that was supposed to be a sort of aerial view, so they had a ship on a string. It kind of went across the scrim on a diagonal and some nights it would get stuck and then it would just shoot forward, you know? (Pause.) That was painful. But, it was a great idea.

PC: What was the solution to that? Maury Yeston told me his impression of solving that problem when he did this column, so I'd like to hear yours.

LTC: Well, Maury finally wrote something there - it was a scenic transition that was very, very complex and the audience needed something to look at - so, he wrote a scene that was very, very effective.

PC: What other things went wrong that really were troublesome?

LTC: (Sighs.) Well, that was very terrible, but, then, the lift would get stuck and it would screech and halt to a complete stop. (Pause.) That show was just hard on the actors and the complete staff. That was actually another show where the director really saw it more as a play with movement - or as an opera that didn't have dance per se - so, unfortunately, my first two big Broadway go's were with directors that didn't want dance per se in the show. So, thankfully, finally, I got to do SWING! and I could let it all come flying out! (Laughs.)

PC: FIELDS OF AMBROSIA is another super-problematic source of a show of yours - that ending!

LTC: Oh my God, yeah! That's another thing that should have had a life. But, yeah, that ending - only brave men. Actually, they ended up doing another musical that I think had a better fate. It was a spoof. I remember seeing it.

PC: How do you choreograph an electric chair execution?

LTC: Well, when you think of DEAD MAN WALKING and so on, there is precedence for people to end badly in theatre. But, in musical theatre, people don't really like that as much - people accept it in opera and ballet. But, in musical theatre I think people have a different expectation. So, I think what those men wrote was really a very smart musical based on a movie and what people could accept in a movie they had a harder time accepting in person.

PC: Did that impact TITANTIC onstage, as well?

LTC: You know, it's funny because when that movie was on the side of buses the producers were really happy. So, just for the recognition factor, I don't think it hurt. I think it ran for a year or so, but I think it could have run longer.

PC: Did it ever feel like crowd control with that huge cast of TITANIC?

LTC: Yes, it did. I'll tell you, the thing that was so difficult were the elevators that went down forty feet. Just to stage it for safety was difficult. But, I loved working on that show because I love things with hubris. And, Peter Stone was such a genius and so is Maury. So, even though it was sort of bittersweet, it was a very valuable experience.

PC: What do you think of the score?

LTC: It's amazing. Maury's just amazing. The opening song was so fantastic.

PC: Tell me a little bit about working on SWING! at the same time as FOSSE, which also featuring "Sing! Sing! Sing!"

LTC: You know, I had three associate choreographers. One of them was a world-champion swing dancer, Ryan, and he was all over that number. I credited all three of the men I worked with, but Ryan brought so much expertise and authenticity and just the technique so that we had a real expect on site - he deserves a tremendous amount of credit. I always will share that credit with him because the show would not be as good as it was without him. It was not an easy show to put together.

PC: How so?

LTC: Well, because of all the people with specialties and such, but, actually, by the time we got to the tour and the specialists had been replaced by Broadway dancers, they looked fantastic! It took a while to get them there, but they looked fantastic and they got injured much less.

PC: Was it hard to cast?

LTC: It was a lot of research. We combed the websites of all the swing people and started identifying them. I wanted a large variety. They had done some workshops before my participation, but it didn't have any storylines or Ann Hampton Callaway and the things that lifted it out of being an ordinary Broadway revue.

PC: And Laura Benanti's first original lead role.

LTC: Divine, divine, divine girl! Actually, last year we did the benefit for Good Housekeeping. She's just grown into this most phenomenally talented woman. She was just like 21 when she did that back then. I have to say, her and Patti - when it all comes together in someone and they have the early opportunity and then they can build the confidence and then something else happens. It's just a fantastic thing to work with those kind of people because they bring so much to the table right away. It's extraordinary.

PC: And they both won the Tony for GYPSY.

LTC: Yes, of course - and isn't that something!