Kinky Boots choreography

[MrJNLong]

Posted: 7/26/13 at 10:18pm

Why did "Kinky Boots" win the Tony for Best Choreography?
I'm not complaining...I would actually like to discuss the awesome, award-worthy attributes of the choreography.
I understand that everyone has different tastes, and that's fine. I just cannot wrap my mind around anyone thinking that choreography was the best of the season. And I would like to wrap my mind around it. I'll probably learn something. So can someone defend that choice?
In my personal opinion, and no disrespect to Mr. Mitchell, but it all seemed pretty hokey and simple to me. Now, maybe that was the point, but award-worthy?
Personally, if I were Lord of the Tony Awards, Kinky Boots wouldn't have even been nominated. I would have given that 4th spot to A Christmas Story. My choice for the winner would have been Matilda (since some of Pippin was Fosse's original stuff, and since their circus choreographer wasn't nominated).

Any way, anyone have thoughts on the rationale behind voting for Kinky Boots for the best choreography of the season?

[binau]

Posted: 7/26/13 at 10:24pm

Perhaps the Tony Voters are ageing and their senses (namely eyesight and hearing) have deteriorated over time. That would also explain why KINKY BOOTS won for BEST SCORE.

[Joviedamian]

Posted: 7/26/13 at 10:24pm

I think it was because of how sync it was with the set, the walking treadmills acting like factory assembly line, etc. Mr. Mitchell said that every single thing is run by the folks on stage...it's not run electronically...the cast does all the movement of set pieces and press the start and off button of the treadmills, etc and choreographed with the physical choreography. That's pretty impressive.

[ABB2357]

Posted: 7/26/13 at 10:26pm

MATILDA's choreography was infinitely better. However, the choreography award often goes to the most dance-heavy show, and I wouldn't be surprised if voters felt the work in MATILDA was too similar conceptually to SPRING AWAKENING.

Mitchell is a terrific traffic cop - he's fantastic at keeping the energy up without getting too "busy." He's not particularly inventive, though. I felt most of the KINKY BOOTS numbers were too similar to his LA CAGE work (which he also won a Tony for), and there was a generic catwalk quality to it that didn't really build at the show went on.

[jnb9872]

Posted: 7/26/13 at 10:33pm

The voters probably hadn't been on YouTube in the last seven years and seen OK Go's music videos...

[KathyNYC2]

Posted: 7/26/13 at 10:43pm

....Yeah but they must have seen Spring Awakening.

I am not sure if I would have picked Kinky Boots for best Choreography but I sure would not have picked Matilda either. For me, Matilda's was repetitive, choppy, overly stylized and used movements were often unrelated to what was going on during the show or with the characters.

But I digress - this is a thread about KB.

[Musical Master]

Posted: 7/26/13 at 11:27pm

To me personally, Jerry Mitchell is losing that creativity that made him great. Quite honestly if anyone deserved that Tony at all was Josh Rhodes (who was criminally snubbed) for his outstanding work on Cinderella.

Everyone else is meh...



Updated On: 7/27/13 at 11:27 PM

[quizking101]

Posted: 7/26/13 at 11:37pm

I thought about how Kinky Boots won over Pippin, but then someone else made the good points that:

A) Kinky Boots choreography was all original (as in, developed specifically for the show)

B) PIPPIN was nominated for choreography done "in the style of Bob Fosse" and not for its circus creation (although CHICAGO won back in 1997 for the same type of choreography...unless the step-by-step recreation of the Manson Trio was a no-no)

[broadwayishome]

Posted: 7/27/13 at 1:18am

Matilda and Pippin both had much better choreography than Kinky Boots. I still don't get why it won that.

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 7/27/13 at 9:42am

Yeah, I'm scratching my head nearly 2 months later about it. I get why Pippin didn't win. But, KINKY BOOTS?! The KB Choreography was so unmemorable for me. I can't remember one dance move except the hand moves in Everybody Say Yeah and Raise You Up.

Matilda's was just SPECTUCLAR. KB might have trendmills, but Matilda has swings and Peter Darling took full advantage of that. And Revolting Children and Bruce was jumping and fast movements. The kids blew me and my parents away. LOUD had great salsa moves and School Song was just brilliant with the gates. MATILDA had a lot more to offer than KB with cherography.

KINKY BOOTS was SO SO overlooked this year. KB could have BEST MUSICAL & BEST ACTOR, but BEST MUSIC & BEST CHOREOGRAPHY should had been MATILDA'S. Period! I can't wait for MATILDA to have a revival, so it can have its revenge at the Tonys!

[Unknown User]

Posted: 7/27/13 at 10:02am

In most of the press videos, I think Jerry Mitchell was pretty clear, the treadmill idea WAS from the OK-GO video. I think it was an homage not a rip off.

[Younger Brother]

Posted: 7/27/13 at 10:20am

The choreography for Matilda reminded me of 9 to 5. Many times it was distracting

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/27/13 at 10:30am

Why did "Kinky Boots" win the Tony for Best Choreography?

Because a majority of Tony voters voted for it.

Next question.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 7/27/13 at 11:05am

His choreography of late has become gimmicky. First the birdcage, then the jump ropes, now a conveyor belt. The results aren't even exciting, so it just serves as a distraction.

[wicked4l]

Posted: 7/27/13 at 11:23am

Enjoyed Matilda and Kinky dancing. I'd hardly say the jump ropes in Legally Blonde and EVERY size person on the treadmills in Kinky Boots is NOT exciting. As a performer myself, it's completely captivating.

[Kad]

Posted: 7/27/13 at 11:38am

Found the choreography in the show to be surprisingly uninspired and mostly very basic.

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 7/27/13 at 11:39am

Because a majority of Tony voters voted for it.

Actually it's a plurality if we're getting technical.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 7/27/13 at 11:51am

As with any aspect of a show, I always hope it is more about how well the choreography serves the show, and not as stand alone dancing. In a story about (mostly) working class folk, how spectacular could the dancing be?

Would I say it was BETTER than Matilda? ONLY for the reason I stated above. It served the material better.

[KathyNYC2]

Posted: 7/27/13 at 12:03pm

Well put Dramamama....I agree totally.

I did enjoy the choreography in both Cinderella and Christmas Story too - I found Matilda's choreography completely distracting as well. But like with all awards, it's very hard to say which is BETTER...when each four of these shows are completely different in style.

But yes, the choreography in Kinky Boots served it well - from the extravagant movements of the KB Angels, the working class feel for much of the show and they way they danced their way through a boxing match - with dancers making up the ring as well as the fighters.

[Marlothom]

Posted: 7/27/13 at 5:26pm

I thought they wanted to reward Mitchell with an individual Tony since Pippin would win best director. I thought there was better choreography this season.

[binau]

Posted: 7/27/13 at 6:33pm

^ That is not how it works. Hundreds of people voting independently can't conspire something like that.

[ljay889]

Posted: 7/27/13 at 6:37pm

^ I agree. If there are any conspiracies like that, it happens during the nomination process, which consists of a committee with much fewer members than the actual voters.

[Marlothom]

Posted: 7/27/13 at 6:43pm

I just think everyone knew best director would go to Pippin - so they wanted to give something to Mitchell. But what do I know. . . have a nice weekend!

[chuckydisc]

Posted: 7/28/13 at 6:11pm

Well, since we don't know whether or not KB got 50.1% of the vote, or if it got less than that, we don't know if it was a majority or a plurality.