Cats - Lynne Unhappy with Hiring — Page 2

It's the old what-have-you-done-for-me-lately routine.

And the new what-tickets-can-you-sell-for- me -now one.

"Also, I think it was a smart move to hire him, as that increases the chances that the "crazed Hamilfans" (and I include myself in that category) go see the show."

There you have it.

Is she claiming elder abuse??? She is the third richest woman in the UK....let it go Gilliane....your choreography sucked and that is the reason they didn't want you...Andy is a great choreographer (except for that awful Annie revival)...the show is ridiculous in the first place...just because a dancer paws behind their ears or like a previous poster said shakes their heads and stretches their backs doesn't make them a cat.......I assume she will not be at the opening...here is an example of Gilliane choreography from a 1968 flop "How Now Dow Jones".....her ego excedes her talent-a very good ballet dancer yes but..... she is a very lucky woman and a British snob.....'Step To The Rear' from 'How Now, Dow Jones - YouTube....very similar patterns as that horrific Gumby cat tap number- yuccchhhhh.

Neon lights - she hasn't been 'fired.' They have hired someone to re-do her original work without her involvement. Different scenario; though I suspect she must still be making a handsome paycheck, because she has clearly signed on for it. The union wouldn't allow a different choreographer to be hired to 're-work' her choreography without her permission.

From a May 19, 2916 Broadway World story.

Blankenbuehler particularly treasures his conversations with Lynne, who turned 90 earlier this year. "There are lyrics in the show, but there is a lot of music without words - a lot of ballet gestures," he explains. "Gillian, with Trevor, obviously, did a great amount of work creating the storytelling. In many ways she wrote the book, as the choreographer of a danced-through piece does. So it was important for me to hear what she had to say and to understand why, for instance, she chose to make one section in unison and another with one person. Ultimately, the difference between Gillian and me is that she is balletically and lyrically based, so the pictures are long and sweeping," Blankenbuehler continues. "I'm rhythmically based, and so my pictures are always about syncopation and shapes that crunch down, as opposed to shapes that expand up. I wanted to take her bible and meet it with my bible; I think in that we are going to be great partners."

"The creative team talked to me a lot about the musical not just being about Cats, but about finding the common ground where the audience can see themselves in the Cats. So for me as a choreographer, it's a great opportunity to further deepen the individual Cats within the tribe. As Andrew's musical styles change, I have them move in different ways. I am also making choreographic adjustments for Rum Tum Tugger, Mistoffelees, for the Macavity fight, and for our younger Cats. One thing that's going to be substantially different is the connective tissue between moments. The archetypal characters are the same but I want to make sure, as I have always done, that in the transitions, the storytelling continues in a very dynamic way."

"The big gamble is to take something that feels familiar and make it unfold in a deeper and more colorful way."

Reading between the lines:

1. They don't want her (or an assistant under her control).

2. She is being paid off so as to avoid a basis for suing them for whatever similarities exist between what they do and what she did. (I suspect she does not actually own her work, because I believe RUG owned everything the way a movie studio does, but sometimes it is better to pay off a problem.

3. Notwithstanding being paid, she won't shut up. This is the prerogative of a nonagenarian but it also goes far in explaining why someone would not want her around.

I had hear this production is no longer the london one... They are recreating the original set and everything.. I would have much preferred a brand new production... sigh.

PalJoey said: "I saw the original production five times. Although the cat-like movement was entertaining, it was NOT distinctive enough to deserve the protections given to the choreographers like Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse, Agnes De MIlle, and Michael Bennett.

There was nothing much more to it than holding your hands up near your nose and twitching and then stretching your back and rubbing against things.



"

And it should be clear that most of the choreographers you mentioned haven't been all that protected. the only Fosse revival on Broadway to essentially recreate his original choreography was his own Sweet Charity (as you know Fosse claimed to have zero interest in preserving his work anyway--) and the Bennett estate only seems to care about ACL, not Dreamgirls or other shows (the Robbins estate--is probably the most sringent.)

Still, as others have said, I wonder how much will be re-choreographed if he's still using her work as a basis.

Also--when did she restage Masquerade for Phantom, as that article mentions? Has anyone seen it??

broadwayguy2 said: "Hogan, I suspect you are correct about RUG owning her work, and connecting to my previous post, would go miles toward explaining her anger. I can not fault her for that."

Agreed. I think they bought off a lawsuit but apparently they did not get a muzzle provision. Frankly, they may not care because it is unlikely her ranting will even be heard outside of the rarefied confines of places like this

EricMontreal22 said: "Also--when did she restage Masquerade for Phantom, as that article mentions? Has anyone seen it??"

Phantom's current Carlotta, Michele McConnell, posted this on her fan page in mid-March.

"Hi Phans!
Tired feet!
Why?
Because we've been in rehearsals all day for BRAND NEW choreography in Masquerade!! Wow!!
Dame Gillian Lynne has created an amazing new version of this piece! Come and see us soon!"

I haven't seen it yet, but everyone I know involved in the production seems pretty happy with it.

Ksilver--thanks for that. I wonder how different the Masquerade staging is--with that set it doesn't seem like it could be that drastic (but I'm surprised, with Phantom's huge fanbase, I hadn't heard about it before).

I'm with Queen Alice--I know people (including the man himself) like to act like Sir Andy and RUG has complete control on these things but I doubt they outright own the original choreography and staging (keep in mind too that CATS is one of their shows that they own *with* CamMac--and ALW himself has complained to the press that he has less control over this revival because of its separate producers). As has been pointed out, Gillian is a VERY VERY wealthy money--surely that is due largely to the constant Cats and Phantom productions over the past 35 years.

And while I don't think Lynne is remotely in the same league as Bennett, Robbins, etc, etc, I agree with Best that her Cats choreography is fairly iconic--and not just because she makes a few whisker hand gestures and back bends. Someone else said that it's also very firmly in the late 70s jazz dance vocabulary (so is Bennett's ACL to an extent, actually) and for that and other reasons I suppose it could be seen as dated but since, judging from the London and Aussie revivals, they don't seem to be updating much the tights and legwarmers/cats look, I'm not sure that would matter either (that's another reason I find the horrible hip hop Rum Tum Tugger odd--why update that part and not other sections? As it is--at least in those stagings--the updated version already seems at least as dated as the rest).

the issue is control, not stream of payments. We are so used to the "each ship on its own bottom" style of producing that we forget that there is another model that has been used by Disney, RUG, Livent and perhaps a few others. In some of these cases, the property is controlled by the producer and the contracts do not look like the typical license for a term we find in the theatre. That does not mean that there is not a revenue stream although obviously there theoretically could be a contract that was all upfront.

On a somewhat unrelated note, have they announced rush or lottery tickets for previews?