It's not easy reconfiguring a successful dance piece for an entirely new space. Almost as hard as men and women finding the right relationships with each other, which happens to be what "Contact," the Tony-winning dance musical, is all about.
The show was created for the three-quarter thrust stages at Lincoln Center, where it has been playing since October 1999, first at the Mitzi Newhouse Theater, then at the larger Vivian Beaumont.
Under the watchful eye of director-choreographer Susan Stroman, "Contact" is still thriving on the Beaumont's thrust stage. And now Stroman has sent the musical out on tour, playing more conventional proscenium houses. The change has forced a wholesale rethinking of the production.
"At the Vivian Beaumont, it's almost like the dances are three-dimensional, three layers deep. In proscenium, the show is much more linear," explains Stroman, sitting in Lincoln Center Theater's rabbit warren of offices below the Beaumont. "Here you look at all the scenery through the dance. I couldn't do that in proscenium. I had to bring the scenework right down front."
"Contact," using well-known classical, pop and jazz melodies, is composed of three short stories, created by author John Weidman and Stroman. The tales are concerned with people connecting, men and women falling in and out of love. The stories use a minimum of dialogue and a maximum of dance.
The first, "Swinging," finds its romance in a painting by Fragonard, the 18th century French artist. Two young men, a nobleman and his servant, compete for the affections of young lady on a swing.
Then "Did You Move?" features a mousy housewife daydreaming during a meal at an Italian restaurant with her belligerent husband. She fantasizes--and dances--with the headwaiters, while busboys and other customers swirl around her.
The final, longer piece, called "Contact," concerns a world-weary advertising executive who wanders into a swing club and discovers a mysterious girl in a yellow dress. On tour, the roles are played by Alan Campbell, best known for co-starring with Glenn Close in "Sunset Boulevard" and Holly Cruikshank.
This revised version opened in May at San Francisco's Curran Theatre and traveled to the Ahmanson in Los Angeles, where it will be on view through Sept. 2 before setting off across the country.
Stroman is Broadway's busiest director-choreographer. Besides "Contact," she has two other shows running on Broadway--a revival of "The Music Man" and "The Producers," the megahit musical that looks as if it is not leaving town for the next decade or so. And she is preparing "Thou Shalt Not," a musical version of "Therese Raquin" for a fall opening. It has a score by Harry Connick Jr., and is set in post-World War II New Orleans.
The "Contact" tour rehearsals began right after Stroman opened "The Producers" on Broadway in April. To prepare, she and her dance captains set up shop in the Beaumont lobby on days the theater was dark. Using tape, she blocked out a playing area.
"I worked out what the whole show would look like on a proscenium stage," she says, "so that when I faced the actors I had a plan. But when I started rehearsal with them, it had a domino effect choreographically. When I would change one step, it would change quite a few others. I had to revisit every moment of the show."
When the choreography changed, so did the lighting cues, which had to be redone by designer Peter Kaczorowski. And the sets, too, had to be reconceived by set designer Thomas Lynch. They had to be able to fit in theaters of various shapes and sizes.
One thing remained the same--the flooring, large pieces of oak that will travel with the dancers from theater to theater. Stroman says the oak, which is also used at the Beaumont, is perfect for "Contact," solid, yet with a little give and able to hold the weight of heavy sets.
Audiences who see both the Broadway and touring versions will be able to recognize differences, although it will be the same musical.
"A lot of times when you do a tour of a Broadway show, it is just a recreation," she says. "Often the director doesn't even show up until the very last day of rehearsals. But I knew I had to be there for the company because the show would be brand new.
"In fact, this version of `Contact' feels very organic. The company was present when I was creating it for them."
But then "Contact" requires a special kind of dancer, according to Stroman, dancers willing to connect with partners. For example, she says, the third short story celebrates swing dancing.
"Not pure swing dancing, but my version of swing dancing," she says. "It's more about making contact, that feeling of dancing with someone. It's not easy for a lot of dancers to do.
"Today's Broadway dancers often don't connect with each other. In `Contact,' the dancing is all about making contact, so you have to have that partnership. Some dancers just like to dance by themselves and not have anyone touch them.
"But then, as in the third piece when the non-dancer advertising executive sees the girl in the yellow dress in a bar. It's about reaching out and asking someone to dance --taking a chance in unfamiliar territory."
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