First Night's Top Ten of 2010: Nashville's Best Choreographers

Think about it: What if you were watching The King and I and when Anna and the King of Siam started to sing "Shall We Dance" and they just stood there, it just wouldn't have much of an impact, would it? Or if all those budding chorus members in A Chorus Line just stood around and talked about dancing but never did even the most basic shuffle-ball-change...sounds pretty bleak, doesn't it? That's where choreographers come into the picture; they collaborate with the director, the music director and the cast members to create movement that elevates every musical comedy. Without them, the action remains stagebound and static. A choreographer allows your heart to soar along with the performers onstage, making musical comedy all the more compelling and transformative. These talented men and women created remarkable and memorable work in 2010 as First Night's Top Choreographers...

• Pam Atha, Macabaret, Street Theatre Company. If you've a hankering for some wickedly good fun this Halloween season, you need look no further than Street Theatre Company's wonderfully staged Macabaret, a musical send-up of all things ghostly, that features a terrific cast under the direction of one of Nashville's most beloved director/choreographers. Atha returns to the theater with a vengeance (okay, it's hard to think of Pam as a vengeful person, but it adds to the show's overall feel and effect to portray her as that) to bring this devilishly fun evening of entertainment to its onstage life. Her trademark wit is apparent throughout the evening, as she puts her terrific troupe of performers through their paces with a generous dollop of ghoulish glee. It's an off-kilter, thought definitely on-target, salute to the Halloween season and Atha's five-member cast will knock your socks off with their humorous, wink-and-a-nod take on any number of frightening, seasonal archetypes.

• D. Richard Browder, Big River, Tennessee Repertory Theatre. Representing what is perhaps the perfect confluence of imaginative minds in bringing this new vision to the stage, the creative collective also includes music director Paul Carrol Binkley and choreographer Richard Browder. Binkley's band of musicians perform Miller's score with skill and finesse and are brought onstage at key moments to become integral parts of the show's cast. Browder's folk-inspired, Americana-tinged choreography gives cast members the perfect means for expressing themselves and their emotions through dance.

• Michele Colvin, Brigadoon, Cumberland County Playhouse. Colvin's spot-on choreography (she generously gives a nod in the program to the original dances created by the legendary Agnes DeMiller for the original Broadway production) is a highlight of the show, particularly in Act Two's sword dance (performed by Austin Price, Chaz Sanders, Michael Ruff and Elliott Cunningham) and her dual roles as director and choreographer are perhaps at their zenith in Act Two's opening "The Chase," which is evocatively underscored by Murphy's orchestra and brought so vividly to life through Colvin's actors.

• Paul Cook, The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Street Theatre Company. Shouse's exceptional cast of actors, accompanied by music director Rollie Mains' talented musicians and featuring the sprightly choreography of Paul Cook, are sheer perfection as The Bee's crew of over-achieving - sometimes cringeworthy, yet always lovable - middle school spelling phenoms. You'd be hard-pressed to experience a more satisfying night at the theatre. An affectionate evocation of the trials and tribulations of adolescence,The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is a fast-paced pastiche of comic scenes and drolly amusing drama

• Laurie Gregoire, Nine, Boiler Room Theatre. Ignore the urge to rent the DVD of the recent, misguided film version of the Arthur Kopit/Maury Yeston musical; you will be disappointed and while you will likely come away with renewed respect for the talented Penelope Cruz, you won't have the enriching, invigorating and provocative experience you are guaranteed by McCarthy and company, under the expert direction of Corbin Green, musical director Jamey Green and choreographer Lauri Gregoire.

• Laurie Gregoire, Rent, Boiler Room Theatre. With a trio of powerful leading performances from Ben Van Diepen, Ciaran McCarthy and Laura Matula, the Boiler Room Theatre production of Jonathan Larson's Pultizer Prize-winning Rent may well be the finest interpretation of the groundbreaking musical we've ever seen. Certainly, we've never seen a more passionate or more engaging mounting of Rent and the cast assembled by director Corbin Green deserve every accolade possible for the obviously heartfelt rendering they give Larson's work. Green's overall artistic vision for the piece - given the strong underpinnings of Jamey Green's expert musical direction, Lauri Gregoire's evocative choreography and Melissa Cannon's pitch-perfect costume design - breathes new and vibrant life into Rent, which in lesser hands could be dated and maudlin. But in this production, the cast and crew effectively skirt stereotype, refusing to take the easy way out and, in turn, deliver a Rent that resonates vividly for the new millennium. It is just the latest musical triumph from Boiler Room and another in a long list of supERB Productions from the company, which continues to aim for higher and loftier artistic goals.

• Kate Adams Johnson, Swing, The Keeton Theatre. Swing!, the energetic and high-spirited dance musical now onstage at Donelson's Senior Center for the Arts is an entertaining romp certain to delight audiences during its three-week run. Directed and choreographed by Kate Adams-Johnson, the Nashvillian probably best suited to take on the job, it's a loving tribute to the Swing Jazz era and offers audiences the nostalgic opportunity to remember when. Among the dancers, Rawsam Alasmar (one of the talented members of Music City Salsa), Faith Kelm, Summer Carter and Melissa Pardo deserve special notice, and Terry McLemore delights the audience with his second act tap and his comic turn with Pardo. And if an award were given to the cast member who perfectly captures the look and vitality of the swing era, I'd have to give it to Lauren Atkins, who looks as if she just stepped off a bandstand of the era, right after sending her beau off to do battle with Hitler himself.

• Kate Adams Johnson, Titanic, Circle Players and The Keeton Theatre. An altogether moving and totally involving production of the Maury Yeston-Peter Stone Tony Award-winning musical - replete with a sinking ship - amid the intimate confines of the The Keeton Theatre in Donelson. A revival of Circle Players' 2008 production, which was staged at the company's then-home at the Z. Alexander Looby Theatre, this "new and improved" mounting (a collaboration between Circle and Keeton) is astounding in its sheer chutzpah. Who'd have ever thought a community theatre could take on such a daunting task and be so imminently successful in doing so? Frankly, it boggles the mind. Larson, in tandem again with choreographer Kate Adams-Johnson, has beautifully staged the musical, capturing all the spirit and pathos of the actual Titanic story, while giving an artfully conceived mounting of the musical.

• Ashley Anderson-McCarthy, Hello, Dolly!, Studio Tenn. With an imaginative staging and details-oriented direction by Matt Logan, with the superb musical direction of Nathan Burbank and the spirited choreography of Ashley Anderson McCarthy (who does double duty as "Minnie Fay" in the cast - and has never looked lovelier onstage), Studio Tenn's first official season kicks off in high style with this charming production that is as colorful and heartwarming as any we've seen. The musical's two biggest ensemble numbers are presented in a wonderfully kaleidoscopic style, filled with color and movement, and performed gloriously by this capable ensemble. Certainly, you would be hard-pressed to find a better version of "Hello, Dolly" (which features a nice moment between Gurley and music director Burbank) and my personal favorite - "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" - is presented with the right blend of theatricality and a genuine joie de vivre that is infectious. Logan's attention to detail is felt throughout the production and his exceptional design (Dolly's eye-poppingly gorgeous gowns are reason enough to revel in the show's design aesthetic) ensures that this Hello, Dolly! appears lush and luxurious (and, if you look closely enough, you can see just how inventive Logan, the designer, is) and his imaginative take on the musical's staging is somehow fresh and inventive despite his obvious affection for the show's lineage. Burbank's expert musical direction provides the necessary technical support for the performers, while McCarthy's choreography showcases them with an effusive confidence that is wonderfully lighthearted.

• Leila Nelson, She Loves Me, Cumberland County Playhouse. Given a sumptuous mounting in The Playhouse's Adventure Theater, She Loves Me is brought to life through Ron Murphy's focused music direction, Leila Nelson's winning choreography and Michele Colvin's expert direction and the casting of some of the company's best-loved and most-talented actors. If there's a better way to celebrate the season than this splendidly written and sublimely performed musical, I can't imagine what it would be. It's like finding the most beautifully wrapped package (featuring set design by John Partyka, costume design by Rebel Mickelson and lighting design by Emily Becher-McKeever) under the tree contains the most perfect gift possible.

• Holly Shepherd, Seussical, Nashville Children's Theatre. Seussical's sweetness isn't of the cloying variety that sets your teeth on edge; rather, NCT's Seussical is slightly satirical and wonderfully warped (just as you would expect from a show based upon the writings of the time-honored Dr. Seuss) and is brought to life by an ensemble of performers at the top of their game. You would be hard-pressed to find a more capable, more committed ensemble taking on the task of bringing Seussical to life. Paul Carol Binkley's exceptional musical direction comes, of course, as no surprise (he's one of Nashville's most proficient musicians, after all, and as a composer himself he approaches any score with uncommon skill and ease) and Holly Shepherd's clever choreography makes this colorful show even more appealing.

Pictured: Kate Adams Johnson