The Broadway musical Mrs. Doubtfire has been reimagined as a “socially distanced” piece of theater, its choreographer has revealed to The Daily Beast.
“I have gone through Mrs. Doubtfire beginning to end, and I have re-choreographed it with social distancing in mind,” Lorin Latarro told The Daily Beast. “I have taken out any ‘clumps’ of performers. I have taken out any partnering—which I love to do—which makes me very sad, and anything involving people being very close to each other.
“It is possible. If that is what is required to let the audience see the story of Mrs. Doubtfire, so be it. We can do it. The story wouldn’t be diminished. There are a million ways to skin a cat. We will find other ways to make sure people get the same joy and experience that choreography and storytelling offer.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Broadway closed because of the coronavirus pandemic on March 12. Its theaters are presently losing an average of $35 million a week in revenue. Speaking exclusively to The Daily Beast, Broadway League President Charlotte St. Martin said that she hoped Broadway would reopen in January 2021, with no social distancing necessary for performers, stage crew, and audience. Yesterday, Actors’ Equity published a list of safety protocols it said producers and theaters would have to meet before its members returned to the theater.
Latarro, who is also choreographing Pulitzer winner Tom Kitt’s musical The Visitor at the Public Theater and the touring productions of Waitress, said, “If social distancing ends up being something that makes actors safe, I would have no problem with it. There are so many exciting ways to move in the space. There is no one way.”
Read it at The Daily Beast
