A Mover and Shaker, Still In Motion

Tag : original t-shirts

"That's from 'Cats,' " she laments, lifting her foot backto the floor as casually as if it were a handbag. "Every movein that thing was worked out on this body."
"That thing," however damaging to the bones, made Lynne avery rich and -- in theater circles -- famous woman. Thechoreographer of "Cats" as well as "The Phantom ofthe Opera," two of the longest-running musicals in Broadwayhistory, she is surely one of the most successful dancemakers ofall time, with her work appearing on a stage somewhere in the worldjust about continuously for the past quarter-century. Despite thewelded foot and two artificial hips, Lynne is still at it -- notfor big-money commercial productions in London or New York, but forthe Shakespeare Theatre Company, where she recently staged themusical interludes in its production of Molière's "TheImaginary Invalid," which runs through July 27.
Who knew Molière was the original song-and-dance man? In this, hislast play, the 17th-century satirist who revolutionized Frenchtheater also foreshadowed musical comedy, incorporating the singingand dancing he'd dabbled in during his years on the road with aband of commedia dell'arte players.
"The Imaginary Invalid," which skewers doctors asmoney-hungry peddlers of hot air and hypocrisy, is by no meansloaded with dance numbers. Lynne's work here is compartmentalized-- she gets the actors moving in a whirlwind, scene-settingprologue and a taut, stylized epilogue that has the cast wearingmasks (a bit "Phantom"-esque) and sweeping cloaks, aswell as two interludes. But the effect is memorable. Her snappy,fluid way with a crowd is fully of a piece with Keith Baxter'scareening, vigorous direction of the cast, led by the rubbery RenéAuberjonois as Argan, a hypochondriac so addicted to doctors thathe schemes to make his daughter marry one.
Baxter, who like Lynne is English, said he came to know Lynnebecause they both have houses on the Sussex seaside. He said heasked Lynne to stage the dances "first because we werefriends, and second because I knew she was brilliant. The kudos for'Cats' -- you generally think of [director] Trevor Nunn, but 'Cats'is really Gillian's own brilliance."
Lynne took a notebook over to Baxter's house 18 months ago, wherethe director played her the play's original music by the baroquecomposer Marc-Antoine Charpentier. But she says her work on"The Imaginary Invalid" has less to do with the physicalgags of commedia dell'arte -- the bawdy Italian form of comedy thatinspired Molière -- than with two other influences: her yearsdancing with the Sadler's Wells Ballet (which later became theRoyal Ballet), learning mime from the famed Russian prima ballerinaOlga Preobrajenska, and the more contemporary work of the greatFrench actor and mime Jacques Lecoq.
Lynne studied with Lecoq in the 1950s, learning "how to buildcharacter out of movement," she says. "Thanks to him Ican make my body go into any character. It's become instinctive,how to translate your imagination into your limbs, with no holdsbarred, no thinking, 'Oh, I can't do that.' "
Watching Lynne as she bounces from point to point in her lifestory, it's hard to imagine her ever thinking, "Oh, I can't dothat." Her account is a mosaic of jubilant name-dropping --"I'm the only one left alive who choreographed for DavidMerrick, the King of Broadway"; "Then I did a film withErrol Flynn" -- and physical theater. She's wearing caprislacks, a couple of layers of form-fitting T-shirts and a string ofcrystal beads; with her firm skin and blond bob, she looks faryounger than her years even when she's not jumping up todemonstrate, say, how she eagerly scanned a cast list posted at theballet one day to find that she'd lost out on a part to none otherthan Margot Fonteyn.
"I was around 25 at the time and known as the girl with aRussian soul," Lynne says. "I know that statement aboutbeing sick with disappointment. I rushed to the loo and threwup."
That setback put her on the path to London's West End, however. Shestarted dancing in variety shows at the London Palladium, giving 16performances a week.
"Fighting for that audience, it strengthened mytechnique," Lynne says. "That's why I tell dancers" -- here she stands and clasps her hands betweenher legs, as if there's a harness lifting her at the crotch --"pull up! Pull up! I am not tired!"