A Mover and Shaker, Still In Motion

Choreographer Gillian Lynne, renowned for "Cats" and "The Phantom of the Opera," at the Lansburgh Theatre, where she worked on "The Imaginary Invalid." (By John Mcdonnell -- The Washington Post)
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Working with dancers is one thing, but few of "The Imaginary Invalid's" actors had had any dance training. Lynne put them through a boot camp of sorts, starting each rehearsal off with stretches and abdominal exercises. Says actor Tony Roach, who plays Cléante, the beau of Argan's daughter Angélique: "I think everyone is in at least slightly better shape than we started."

Lynne made her demands known at the outset. "In the audition we had to do all these tricks," Roach recalls. "At one point I was walking on my hands, and Gillian yelled out, 'Sing!' "

"They're very game, these actors," Lynne says approvingly. She describes their willingness to tumble over like spectacularly messy dominoes in one of the interludes. "They just did it. It was fantastic! After about a week, they were stiff and asking if there was any other way to do it. I said no."

Though she had to work with no other help besides a rehearsal pianist ("I haven't worked without an assistant in a long time," she leans in to confide), Lynne says she enjoyed choreographing this relatively small-scale regional production more than some of her ventures in commercial theater, which have been encumbered by "producers who don't know anything about musical theater."

It's also been a special pleasure because among the actors is her husband of 28 years, Peter Land, who plays Argan's brother Béralde. He's 27 years her junior. Asked how she stays so energetic, she mentions the age difference and says simply, and with a smile, "I think that helps."

Now it's on to the next project: Lynne is finishing her autobiography. The title? She draws her hand through the air, as if seeing the words in lights: "Nipples Firing."

"Because that's what I always yell at my actors," she says. "The first thing that enters space is this" -- she inflates her chest -- "and they have to be firing with energy, have to be something that lifts the audience up."

From the sound of it, Lynne will shape her writing with the focused energy and intensity she brings to her rehearsals. For all her wealth and her years, she has no plans to retire from a life in dance, she says, because what else is there to do?

"In our world, if you come up through dance, you either give it up at 50 -- except I didn't, because I did 'Cats' at 52 -- or you're hoist with your own petard, because if you leave off you'd just disappear into a lazy, old, uninteresting person. I can't imagine a life where I don't think things up and go to rehearsal and help actors mold something they didn't think they could do."