As Christopher Gattelli organized a major survival death, she becomes her death on Broadway

The theater veteran received two Tony Award nominations for the adaptation of the cult classic: its first for directing and sixth for choreographies.

When Christopher Gattelli heard that his name was not announced once, but twice in the morning as nominations for Tony Award 2025, he could not help but become emotional. As a director and choreographer of Death becomes her At Broadway, his vision led the musical to its 10 Tony nominations and put it in a three-way difference for most nod. And while he was previously on this street after earning five earlier best choreography nominations and winning in this category News In 2012, the recognition of his direction was harder in his career at that time.

“I was the co-pilot for some of the best directors in the business,” said Gattelli and called Bartlett Sher (((The King & I, South Pacific), Tina Landau (The Spongebob -Quadratiker Musical), Joe Mantello (Dog construction) and Michael Greif (War color) from the tip of his head. “I was able to work first hand and it was just the largest training area,” he says.

And the exaggerated Death becomes her – An adaptation of the Meryl Streep/Goldie Hawn film about Frenemien, which took an eternal youth potion – was what he had trained for. “Between the comedy and the great physical production, it played everything I like to do as a director,” he said. And it is also a good thing, because the development process moved at an exciting pace.

“I just did it Take the lead in the paper feeling house, and I worked on it [musical] For 10 years, ”he says with a laugh.”[With Death Becomes Her]I jumped on board and it was a year and a half of our first reading and then we opened on Broadway. “

To move so quickly, not only required some of the biggest heads in the biz, but also a go-for-brok mentality. The Universal Theater Group, the main producer of the show, told Gattelli that they were looking for a “large, lush, opulent musical” and gave him the green light to take large swings to develop the illusions and the Stagecraft that bring the supernatural show to life. When the most important points of action require that one main actor drive down an evil case over the stairs and the other is blown through her stomach with a rifle, the team certainly had to think creatively.

Gattelli attributes his double role as a director/choreographer that he gave him the tools that are necessary to unlock the staircase, one of the most occupied moments of the show. At first he approached him as a director and tried to find out how he can best convey it as one of the most central events on the show. But a change in perspective changed his way of thinking towards movement.

“Because of my choreographer brain, I was able to see and go:” Wait, I could do it with a human body, “he said. The result is a breathtaking tournament that is carried out by the turbean and stunt -performer Warren Yang with breathtaking precision.

As soon as the fall was locked up, Gattelli used him to inform his approach to the other Staging challenges of the show. As a fan of the 1992 film, he felt the pressure to perform the important cinematic moments that primarily brought him a cult support. But he didn't want to rely on robotics or other highly complex techniques.

“Basically, we only used good old theatrical magic, a good old -fashioned stage craft,” he said. “In a way, it is in the comedy of the show because the audience has the joke. It connects more with the audience because they see things that are real.”

But Gattelli knows that he is not a one-man show and quickly screamed his employees. In the course of the development of the show, he worked with two illusionists: Rob Lake for the World Prime Minister of the Show in Chicago and Tim Clothier for Broadway transfer. He also called Production Requisite -Supervisor Buist Bickley because he had helped him nail important gags big and small.

The team workshop on the show with a “best idea wins” and enabled them to collide the pleading and rebounding suggestions. “I like to be in the room,” said Gattelli. “There is no ego, so everyone broke in. And when someone had a good idea, we would run with it. It really needed a village for the smallest quickie gags.”

It didn't hurt that he had two industry women on his side: Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard, both nominated for Tony Death becomes her. “They are both strange surgeons,” said Gattelli. “You can both find out how to make something laugh.”

Her collaboration was another example of workshopping on the show until it was exactly right. Gattelli had to observe the comedic method of the individual actress and try it out as new management deliveries and iterations of jokes until everyone decided on the perfect punch line. “I loved watching both processes because they are so different and both work for each of them, but the end result is the same,” he said.

Gattelli, Simard and Hilty make up four of the 10 Tony nominations of the show. The other honor the book, the score, the landscape design, the costumes and the lighting – and the cherry above is a nod for the best musical. Excellence across the board was always the goal. The Universal guideline came to go all the way – because they knew that an audience was not guaranteed.

“The ticket prices are so high,” said Gattelli. “We really want to give people their money. We want people to see the value in what they have paid for this experience.”

The most important thing is that he also wants you to have fun. “I am most proud that we can bring people so much laugh at that time,” he said. And although the show was opened six months ago and his daily commitment is largely behind him, Gattelli still uses every opportunity to sunbathe the reactions of theater goers.

“When I'm in the area, I will still go into 20 minutes to laugh as hard as they laugh,” he said. “It means the world.”

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Production photocredit: Death becomes at Broadway. (Photos by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)
Headshot Credit: Christopher Gattelli. (Photo by Axel Dupeux)