Posted: 9/21/15 at 8:39pm
Next to Normal had a little choreography. I'm Alive and My Psychopharmacologist and I both had dancing (given it was very basic, but it existed none the less).
Posted: 9/22/15 at 11:16pm
Choreography does not necessarily have to have a line of chorus girls come out and start tapping in unison to be great. Some of the shows listed definitely have choreographic needs (imagine A Little Night Music with nobody waltzing, or people waltzing badly).
Posted: 9/23/15 at 8:03am
True, but I have seen musical staging by directors with a certain adroitness with movement and patterns, who would never call themselves choreographers. Such a director could easily handle the movement needs of Night Music and other such musicals.
Posted: 9/23/15 at 8:31am
In addition to Contact, RENT also has dancing in Tango: Maureen, when Mark and Joanne dance the tango.
Posted: 9/24/15 at 8:52pm
Yeah, originally Pat Birch certainly had a lot of waltzing in Night Music (not just during the opening but in some scene transitions, etc.) I think that counts.
Was South Pacific mentioned? Josh Logan purposefully didn't hire a choreographer and apparently largely let actors created their own dances for things like Was That Man because he wanted it to seem spontaneous and natural--the video of the 1950s London production shows this clearly (even Honey Bun is barely what I'd call choreographed, though I suppose the original point was about dancing and I suppose, as well, that it is dancing.)
Posted: 9/25/15 at 8:42am
If I recall correctly, COMPANY's choreography was fairly scant, more like moving or musical staging.
Posted: 9/25/15 at 10:26am
^ Well, Side by Side by Side featured thoroughly choreographed tap-dancing, and Tick-Tock was a 3-minute solo dance number alone onstage. Michael Bennet's fans would be disappointed to hear COMPANY called a show without dancing.
Posted: 9/25/15 at 12:11pm
Posted: 9/25/15 at 3:06pm
I believe Camelot had very little dancing in it. I think spinning hoops in The Lusty Month of May was about it?
Posted: 9/25/15 at 3:20pm
Lizzie will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the original production of Les Mis didn't even have a choreographer or someone billed for musical staging (a term that didn't exist back then!).
Posted: 9/25/15 at 3:49pm
Lizzie will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the original production of Les Mis didn't even have a choreographer or someone billed for musical staging (a term that didn't exist back then!).
The billing of "Musical Staging" absolutely was in use well before Les Mis.
Posted: 9/25/15 at 3:56pm
Interesting, I thought it was a more modern term. Or maybe I've just noticed more popular usage lately.
Posted: 9/25/15 at 4:11pm
I couldn't say when the term "musical staging" came into being, but it was used in 1970 by Michael Bennett for Company. So the term has been around for at least 45 years.
