Jerry Mitchell Featured on 5/11 Downstage Center

The American Theatre Wing and XM Satellite Radio proudly celebrate their 150th interview with Tony Award winning director and choreographer Jerry Mitchell.  The weekly theatrical interview show, "Downstage Center," is broadcast on XM's On Broadway (XM Channel 28).

Mitchell will appear as the special guest on Friday, May 11 at 6 p.m. The show will repeat on Saturday, May 12 at noon, Sunday, May 13 at 7 p.m., and Wednesday, May 16 at midnight.  The program becomes available as streaming audio and podcast from ATW's website beginning Monday afternoon, May 14.

Tony Award-winning choreographer Jerry Mitchell talks about taking on the dual roles of director and choreographer for the first time with Legally Blonde and charts the development of the musical from the selection of the writing team to its San Francisco tryout to its Broadway debut. He also shares his experience of becoming a professional dancer while still in college, when he was chosen by the legendary Agnes DeMille for the 1980 revival of Brigadoon, his work with two other legends -- Michael Bennett on Scandal and Jerome Robbins on Jerome Robbins' Broadway; how he develops a dance vocabulary for each of his shows according to the needs of the material, with sources as diverse as 60s dances (for Hairspray) and basketball (for The Full Monty); and how dancing nearly naked on a drum for Tommy Tune in The Will Rogers Follies led to "Broadway Bares," which has raised millions of dollars for Broadway Cares.

Jerry Mitchell made his debut as director and choreographer with the musical Legally Blonde. He received the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics' Circle Awards for his choreography created for the 2005 Tony Award-winning Best Revival of La Cage Aux Folles, having also been nominated for the Tony Award in the same category that year for the musical, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Previously, he had received Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Astaire Award nominations for choreographing Broadway's Tony Award-winning Hairspray and Tony, Drama Desk and Astaire Award nominations for choreographing The Full Monty, both shows having been directed by his cherished collaborator, Jack O'Brien.  He began his choreographic career as associate choreographer to Michael Bennett on Scandal and Jerome Robbins on Jerome Robbins' Broadway.  Emmy-nominated for choreographing "The Drew Carey Show," his film work includes In and Out, Camp, Drop Dead Gorgeous and Scent of a Woman. 

For Broadway, Mitchell also choreographed the hit revival of Gypsy, starring Bernadette Peters, which combined his own work with his recreation of Jerome Robbins' original, as well as Never Gonna Dance, the first and only Broadway musical based on an Astaire/Rogers film, making him one of the only choreographers to ever have three Broadway musicals running simultaneously (a distinction which occurred yet again in 2005 with the simultaneous runs of Hairspray, La Cage Aux Folles, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels).  Prior to those productions, Jerry choreographed the Broadway revivals of The Rocky Horror Show (Drama Desk nomination), You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Hedwig and the Angry Inch (on stage and film), the national tour of Jekyll & Hyde, and Paper Mill Playhouse's critically acclaimed Follies, featuring Ann Miller.  Mitchell proudly conceives, directs and choreographs "Broadway Bares," a comedy burlesque performed annually for the charity Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

Each new "Downstage Center" is regularly broadcast at 6 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays at noon, Sundays at 7 p.m. and Wednesdays at 12 a.m. (all times EST). Following the initial run on XM, each program is made available for free, on-demand, internationally as both streaming audio and podcast on ATW's Web site, www.americantheatrewing.org.  Visit www.xmradio.com for more on XM Satellite Radio.

Photo of Jerry Mitchell by Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.