Harvey Brownstone conducts an in-depth interview with Jerry Mitchell, Multi-Award Winning Director and Choreographer, Author, “Backstage Pass”
About Harvey's guest:
Today’s guest, Jerry Mitchell, is a multi-award winning director and choreographer who’s brought us some of the most beloved and iconic musicals in the past 40 years.
After dancing in Broadway shows including “Will Rogers Follies”, “Brigadoon” and “On Your Toes”, he’s gone on to choreograph dozens of shows on Broadway, in London’s West End, and for touring productions. He choreographed the world premiere of the musical “Jeckyll & Hyde”. He was the choreographer for many Broadway shows including “The Full Monty”, “Hairspray”, “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”, “Legally Blonde”, “Pretty Woman: The Musical”, and “Kinky Boots” and “On Your Feet”, which he also directed. He choreographed the Broadway revivals of “Grease”, “You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown”, “The Rocky Horror Show”, “Gypsy”, and “La Cage Aux Folles”. He’s been nominated for 8 Tony Awards and won 2 for Best Choreography, for “Kinky Boots”, and “La Cage Aux Folles”, for which he also won a Drama Desk Award and an Outer Critics Circle Award.
He’s also received 4 Laurence Olivier Award nominations, 6 more Drama Desk Award nominations, and 3 more Outer Circle Award nominations. In addition to his work in the theatre, our guest directed the movie versions of “Kinky Boots: The Musical” and “Legally Blonde: The Musical”.
He was also the choreographer for a number of movies including “Scent of a Woman”, “In & Out”, “The Object of My Affection”, “One True Thing”, and “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”. On TV, he’s choreographed numerous shows including the 2004 Tony Awards, the 2016 live performance of “Hairspray”, and he got an Emmy Award nomination and WON an American Choreography Award for his work on “The Drew Carey Show”.
In Las Vegas, he created, directed and choreographed “Peep Show”, the longest-running live show at Planet Hollywood.
And on top of ALL THAT, this incredibly generous man created, and for many years directed, the hugely popular annual “Broadway Bares” burlesque and comedy extravaganza, for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, a vitally important fundraising organization within the theatre community, that has raised over 25 million dollars for AIDS related causes across America.
If you’re not familiar with “Broadway Bares”, you MUST GET our guest’s wonderful book about this annual show, entitled “Backstage Pass”.
AND, in recognition of his dedication and contributions to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, as well as his 3 decades of volunteer service through the arts, our guest will be receiving the prestigious Isabelle Stevenson Award at the upcoming Tony Awards on June 11.
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