Three-time Olivier Award-winning choreographer Stephen Mear has nearly executed all of it: from Kiss Me, Kate to Mary Poppins to Candy Charity to Guys and Dolls. The Brighton-based dancemaker’s newest undertaking has been the Sondheim revue program Stephen Sondheim’s Previous Buddies at New York Metropolis’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, by way of the Manhattan Theatre Membership.
Right here, Dance Informa speaks with Mear concerning the course of, solid, collaborative nature of the undertaking and extra. By way of that, he additionally affords a great deal of knowledge relevant to dancemaking extra usually – with a aspect of notably personable heat and pure pleasure about what he does. Let’s leap proper in to listen to what he has to share!
Choreographing Sondheim
This isn’t Mear’s first rodeo with Sondheim – removed from it. He really started working with the person himself not as soon as, however twice: as soon as as a performer, and one other as a choreographer. In each roles, he discovered rather a lot from watching superb performers within the ensemble at hand, he shares.
Key to staging Sondheim, Mear notes, isn’t “treading on the sensible lyrics…they are saying and communicate a lot.” He believes that appearing, and the theatricality inside dance sections, is extremely vital.
Mear additionally highlights the humor within the materials. “It’s not essentially ‘chortle out loud’ humorous, however there’s positively a snigger or smile since you get the joke.” On the subject of motion, these are “nice reveals” for that. But – for many (maybe with exceptions like Gypsy) – the motion is extra about that theatricality and humor, in addition to constructing character, than about virtuosity or spectacle.
What may be very particular about such an strategy, Mear thinks, is that “Joe Public” within the viewers thinks, “I can transfer like that!” – so it turns into extra welcoming and relatable.
The method: Highlighting what’s trustworthy and accessible
That’s to not say that these reveals don’t have “massive”, vaudevillian numbers; Mear named “Bargie’s Blues” and “Maid” as two on this program which can be simply that. With numbers like these, he says, “it takes having a really collaborative staff to have all the parts come collectively cohesively.” He believes that cohesive, fluid high quality resonates by way of Stephen Sondheim’s Previous Buddies. “The motion, music and all different parts have actually labored collectively.”
A collaborative staff has additionally allowed for full assist of performers, Mear affirms – which, with performers having a wide range of skillsets, is typically essential. “‘Maid’ was an fascinating problem as a result of the performers aren’t essentially movers, however they’re very witty and humorous,” Mear recounts. The duty – as is commonly essential in musical theater, and choreographing extra usually – has been to capitalize on what the expertise brings to the desk.
With one other quantity, “Broadway Child”, the dynamic grew to become concerning the characters “one-upping one another” and “molding that to be extra tongue-in-cheek,” he provides. “You need to stage that with wit and characterization.”
Construction has additionally been vital, Mear explains. Numbers being woven collectively in a specific method has allowed all the characters “possibilities to shine.” That, in flip, has enhanced the closeness that viewers members can really feel with them.
The intimate venue house already set fertile floor for that. “Viewers members have actually been capable of join – they even generally get raucous!” Mear says with amusing.
The ensemble: Bursting with starpower
As for these on the opposite aspect of the fourth wall, the ensemble, Mear mentioned that the Stephen Sondheim’s Previous Buddies solid is chalk-full of “fabulous West Finish and Broadway stars.” Arguably even higher, and extra admirable, than their star caliber: “they’re so beneficiant with one another,” Mear notes – all the time giving all to the method and serving to one another convey their finest. “They actually cowl one another,” he says, complementing one another’s strengths and development areas.
Mear has additionally observed their “self-discipline,” he shares. “For instance, even in tech rehearsal – after they don’t essentially must go full-out – they nonetheless do. It makes such a distinction if you work with gifted people who find themselves additionally good folks. I can’t sing their praises sufficient.”
He describes a couple of notably particular moments, when all of that – the expertise, the dedication, the generosity – has borne fruit. “Bernadette [Peters] with ‘Dropping My Thoughts’ is simply fantastic,” in addition to “A Little Night time Music” and “Ship within the Clowns.”
Mear is evident that all ensemble members have introduced one thing particular to the work – together with the kid performers, who, he says, are notably mature as performers and as professionals. “They’re all actual triple threats!”
On the plate and on the horizon: Past Sondheim
As a director and choreographer, Mear is busy and in-demand. So what’s subsequent on the horizon for him? In an awesome stroke of luck, he’ll be directing a movie the place he’s already situated, in Brighton, UK.
He additionally serves as a university patron – which he believes is vital to find time for, and he loves interacting with “younger expertise.” That leads him to sentiments with which he desires to shut us out, one thing he’ll usually reinforce for rising choreographers: the significance of constructing dance not for simply “dance’s sake….storytelling is so vital.”
In the identical line of pondering, he underscores the significance of holding issues easy; much less can actually be extra. “My largest mistake after I was studying [to choreograph] was being ‘too busy’ with motion,” he recounts. He obtained smart phrases of steering that also stick to him: “Simply because you’ve gotten a parasol doesn’t imply that it’s a must to twirl it.”
The prospers, the spectacle, the virtuosity: as Stephen Sondheim’s Previous Buddies has demonstrated, what usually issues extra is nuance, sturdy characterization and bringing what’s strongest center-stage. Maintaining issues cohesive and nice by way of efficient collaboration, to not point out merely being individual to work with, can matter simply as a lot.
Stephen Sondheim’s Previous Buddies has just lately been prolonged till June 29. Be taught extra and buy tickets right here!
By Kathryn Boland of Dance Informa.
