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After theater and TV triumphs, Rob Marshall turns to film
Sunday, April 01, 2001 By Chris Rawson, Post-Gazette Drama Critic
NEW YORK -- You have to have a captain on a musical, and you're the captain," Neil Simon told Rob Marshall when they did "Little Me."
Rob is warm, plain-dealing and sincere, as you'd expect of a Pittsburgher -- but he also must be a talented captain, since a partial list of those he's worked with as director or choreographer includes Julie Andrews, Kander and Ebb, Hal Prince, Blake Edwards, Liza Minnelli, Chita Rivera, Boyd Gaines, Angela Lansbury, Whitney Houston, Kathy Bates, Alan Cumming, Nathan Lane, Victor Garber, Jerry Lewis, Bebe Neuwirth and Whoopi Goldberg.
Now, his career is in transition. After choreographing a string of Broadway shows, he moved into directing with the hit "Cabaret" and "Little Me." "Any great choreographer is also a director," he says. "People don't know this: Choreographers put the show together."
But almost simultaneously, a new career opened up in Hollywood, capped by his new assignment to direct the feature film of "Chicago." This is why the Disney Company now has him and his assistant ensconced in a huge suite of offices in Soho. "I thought I'd get a cubicle in the Disney building on Park Avenue," he says, but instead he's in the suite left empty by two Barrys -- producer Josephson and director Sonnenfeld ("Men in Black"). They had hired him to direct "Enchanted" for Disney and to give them a "first look" at other projects. When they split up, Rob's Disney deal survived.
Last year, Rob kept the suite's four offices, two meeting areas and video room busy developing four projects -- feature films "Chicago" and "Enchanted," a TV movie of "Mame" for Barbra Streisand and "Hairspray," a new stage musical based on the 1988 John Waters movie. "You develop them all, then whatever is green-lit goes first," Rob explains. "Chicago" won.
He had dropped "Mame" first. The attraction was Streisand, who would produce and maybe star. They met several times and Rob called it "a role for Streisand -- and how many roles are there for her? I know she has a reputation [for being difficult], but she was unbelievably relaxed and open."
But Streisand decided she didn't want to work that hard, up early every morning for fittings and makeup. "I just want to get in the truck and go see movies with Jim [Brolin, her husband]," she told Rob. She continues as producer. "So then they went to Cher. I met with her. She's lovely and wanted to do it." But without Streisand, Rob figured it was just a TV movie, so he pulled out, to save himself for his theatrical film debut.
Next, he passed on "Enchanted." He calls it a fish-out-of-water movie, like "Splash" or "Big," but the script didn't feel distinctive. "At the beginning of a film career, it's more important that your work be special." Disney says his withdrawal won't hurt their relationship. Perhaps they even admire his resolve: The day his withdrawal from "Enchanted" was announced, he received an offer to direct "Chambermaid" with Hilary Swank.
"Hairspray" is on schedule. Rob's been working steadily with composer Mark Shaiman, lyricist Scott Whitman and librettist Mark O'Donnell. (The problems with "Seussical" reminded him it's essential to be involved every step of the way.) They had a workshop of Act 1 last May, with Harvey Fierstein doing the Divine role, and if they finish Act 2 as planned this spring, they might do a workshop in the summer.
Now, Rob's faith in "Chicago" has paid off. Bill Condon's script opens up Kander and Ebb's "theatrical vaudeville" to the realistic'20s, relegating the musical numbers mainly to Roxie Hart's fantasies. He says Miramax called the script "not just great, [but] genius. They are just over the moon." Rob is already hiring assistants and dancers and a studio to begin pre-production.
Getting here
After Rob and Kathleen choreographed "Damn Yankees" in 1994, they went on to "Petrified Prince," a wild fairy tale based on an unmade Ingmar Bergman screenplay, with music and lyrics by Michael John LaChiusa, directed by Hal Prince. Rob was proud of it, but it never went further than off-Broadway. Then, in quick succession, came three on Broadway: "Victor/Victoria," "Company" and "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum."
"When you hit, you hit. I was asked to do everything, and I spread myself too thin."
He calls "Victor/Victoria" "the highest high and the lowest low. It was my first really expensive show and my first huge dance ensemble -- that was thrilling." Director Blake Edwards, a Broadway novice, "relied on me, but he's also used to being a one-man band. I'd say, 'There's a brick wall coming,' but he'd hit it anyway." Still, Edwards and wife Julie Andrews were exciting to work with, and there were invitations to their Swiss vacation home.
"Company," directed by Scott Ellis, was no great success. "It's a piece of its time," Rob says. "I don't think you can re-create that." But "Forum" was a joy -- "I loved working with [director] Jerry Zaks. He's exact, I'm loose -- his comedy is like a science. I loved working with Nathan Lane and seeing him win a Tony."
Rob enjoys resetting stuff for new performers. Whoopi Goldberg, who replaced Lane in "Forum," said, "Don't change anything, just the pronouns." He redid "Damn Yankees" for Jerry Lewis and found him easy to work with. "It was his dream to be in a Broadway show. On tour, he'd get to the theater at 6 p.m., he just couldn't wait. I learned a lot from him."
In the winter of 1996, he spent the mornings with Whoopi and the afternoons with Liza Minnelli, who was stepping in for Andrews. "One day I had to turn into Jerome Robbins, insisting 'Again, again, again' -- Liza was opening in just two days. She went on very shaky." When Liza later came to see "Cabaret," she apologized, saying she'd been sick when she did "Victor/Victoria." Rob sums up, "I truly love Liza, she's the kindest, sweetest woman. She's unbelievably talented -- discipline is her problem."
That's not how he feels about Raquel Welch, another "Victor/Victoria" replacement. "I had a day to work with her. We started with 'Le Jazz Hot.' I said, 'You start on the right foot,' and she said, 'I don't want to start on my right foot.' After an hour I was steaming. I told her manager I wasn't going to redesign the show for her and she could learn it from the dance captain."
In 1997, when he directed and choreographed "Promises, Promises" at Encores!, "Marty Short and I became friends in seconds. And with all that experience of working at the CLO, I felt fine having just a week to do it."
He'd had small Hollywood contacts before, but his first TV movie was choreographing "Mrs. Santa Claus" in 1996 with Angela Lansbury. "Just listening to her sing, my tears came. It was the voice I grew up with on the 'Mame' album." Rob remembers Jerry Herman playing and singing the score for them at his home in Bel Air and later giving "my first big Hollywood party -- Ann Miller, all the "Golden Girls," Juliet Prowse, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Dorothy Lamour, Janis Paige." In 1997, he returned to L.A. to choreograph "Cinderella," with Whitney Houston, Brandy, Victor Garber and Goldberg.
Back on Broadway, it's funny that sweet, all-American Rob had his biggest success with the scabrous "Cabaret." "I know," he says: "My mother covers her eyes when 'Two Ladies' starts."
He first got interested in it when he saw Sam Mendes' original London production, which was "sort of half-staged in musical terms." Originally, Mendes was going to direct it in New York with Matthew Bourne (Broadway's "Swan Lake") as choreographer. They already had Alan Cumming, Natasha Richardson and a theater, "but Sam got a movie -- I think 'Little Voice.' Todd Haimes [of the producing Roundabout Theater] was devastated and asked me to take over. I started planning to direct my Broadway debut." Rob had already directed many musicals outside New York, including the CLO.
"Then Sam's movie fell through, so he was available. He called me, and I realized no matter what I did with it, it would still be his concept. Yes, I'd have to wait for my own show, but this was too exciting a piece to miss." Rob did the generous thing, agreeing to step back to choreographer and co-director.
"Cabaret" opened in March 1998, so it's just had its third anniversary. (If Rob and John ever buy a house, it'll be the house that "Cabaret" built.) He proved a proud host last month, conducting a tour of its theater, Studio 54, once an (in)famous disco, joking with the current leads about how performances change.
Later in 1998, Rob finally got his first solo Broadway directing credit, doing "Little Me" with Short and Faith Prince.
Then the call came asking him to direct his first movie for TV -- "Great!," he thought. Then he heard it was "Annie" -- "Oh, no! But I reread it and discovered it's good material, a classic orphan story." He chose a stage-savvy cast: Kathy Bates, Alan Cumming, Audra McDonald and Victor Garber, and "I rehearsed it like a Broadway show, since that's the only way I know."
Even so, "that first day at 7 a.m. on that huge sound stage at Universal, sitting in the director's chair, I was scared to death to say 'Action!' and 'Cut!' But as a choreographer, I'm attuned to movement -- [and this is] movement of camera against action. You do it in small pieces, and you only have to get it once on film. I was ready -- I'd been on a set twice, observing a good director and a bad director" (he doesn't say which was which).
Disney and ABC were more nervous than he. "They were afraid I wouldn't 'make my days.' But in theater, you're used to schedules, and I was so prepared I didn't need 75 takes. They began to relax after the first dailies. It's all about staying on schedule."
He pulled that off on "Annie," without overtime, despite working with kids and two dogs. He was rewarded with Emmys for both direction and choreography, winning for the latter.
In retrospect, the transition to movies wasn't that hard, since he had grown up on movie musicals. "Whenever I'm doing something for the stage, I think, 'How would they do it in the movie?' It opens my mind up. The possibilities are endless on film. And the editing room is a joy. I'm anxious to get back behind the camera."
After sitting out for a year working on scripts, he was happy to get back to the rehearsal hall for "Seussical." But play-doctoring, he says, "is always tainted, like the Florida vote." There's so much instant info and gossip on the Internet that even to hire a "doctor" is read as an admission of failure.
"Seussical" has helped him plan for "Hairspray": "Before you do anything, make sure you have the right team for the material. ... Directing works best when it's a democracy. If ego is checked at the door, then the best idea in the room can win." But there must be a captain: "Everyone speaks, then the captain says, this is what we'll do."
Moving forward
"Why was I offered film after film after 'Annie'? Because it was the highest-rated TV movie of the year. I was very lucky -- we got good ratings and good reviews. But Hollywood doesn't care about reviews. In New York, it's different -- it only matters if it's good, that's what gets you your next job."
As to "Chicago," from the start he was on board as choreographer, with Nicholas Hytner to direct. "But he and Miramax didn't see eye to eye. Then I did 'Annie.' Harvey Weinstein and I had a talk about my concept, and they gave it to me." It helped that Mendes, Rob's co-director on "Cabaret," had just made his first film, a little piece called "American Beauty." Presto, "theater directors have more clout these days."
Who will star? It's all conjecture so far, tossing about names like Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger and Charlize Theron. Can they dance? Can they sing? In Rob's video room is the tape of "Mrs. Soffel," but don't expect the famous old Allegheny County Jail to appear in "Chicago": "We're hoping to film in Chicago, but I suppose we could end up in Toronto."
It seems fated that "Chicago" is by Kander and Ebb. They and Rob have had a close relationship since 1983, when, at 22, he first danced on Broadway in their "Zorba." In "The Rink," he rose to dance captain, and later he made his choreographic debut with a revival in Florida. "The Kiss of the Spider Woman" was his first Broadway choreography, and "Cabaret" his first Broadway direction. He directed "Chicago" in California in 1992, when it almost came to Broadway -- now, it will be his feature film debut.
There'll be a lot riding on it. Recent film musicals have been a spotty affair. "Evita," Rob calls "just a long video with no book." Kenneth Branagh's "Love's Labour's Lost"? Woody Allen's "Everyone Says I Love You"? Lars Von Trier's "Dancer in the Dark"? They haven't done it.
"I know movie musicals better than anyone," Rob says. With "Chicago," he's attempting nothing less than a revival of the American film musical.
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