I was recently over at the Great Western Marketplace here in Reno, and was chatting with some vendors about a “ballet performance” that entertained a month or so ago.  Apparently, it wasn’t that good, with the take away being, “Well, it was free entertainment.  What did we expect?”  My reply?  “I expect a good show, free or not.”

There is so much that goes into the making of a “good” show … but the shows that get standing ovations?  Well, that’s what I want to talk about here, what it takes to create a show that is head and shoulders above the rest, the making of a show that an audience walks out of the theatre knowing they’ve seen something great, but can’t quite put their finger on what it was that made it great.  The show that gets people singing to themselves, the show that gets people moving in their seats, the show that makes people smile, that makes them feel good for having been there and witnessed that infinitesimal something that elevated their spirit and made them happy to be alive.  THAT is what I want to discuss here.

Every show starts with a concept.  Unfortunately, sometimes the concept kills the show, no matter how great the director or the performers are who are hired to do it, so every great show has to start with a GREAT idea!  The best shows start with a great idea, that is also an ORIGINAL idea.  Copy cats are a dime a dozen in show biz … I know … I’ve been copied throughout my career.  People are always curious as to what I’m doing next, because they know I stay a step ahead of trend.  When I was choreographing, I would see full sections of my original choreography in other shows … costume designs?  I’ve been copied there too.  Show creation?  OMG … too numerous to count.  In every case, however, these copied products had no where near the success of the originals.  Why?  If something is good, why can’t it be copied and be just as good?

I am blessed to have worked with only those at the top of their fields, starting with Jackie Gleason.  My first job and there I was in the rehearsal room with “The Great One”.  Watching him work, alongside June Taylor, was the start of my education as to how a show comes together, how a show works, and most importantly, how a show is able to lift the human condition.  Fast forward 45 years later and I will never forget my Butler on Silversea Cruises being stunned by the audience reaction we received from Choozi’s show “Fabbalicious”.  My Butler said she had never seen the guests of Silversea moving their shoulders while watching a show.  I knew I hit a home run with that comment, and I thought to myself, it all started back when I danced on the Gleason Show.  I learned what it takes to put together a show people want to see, by watching Gleason and Taylor work together.  I have been creating shows that receive standing ovations for a long time now, and I go back often to my formative years watching these amazingly talented professionals work.

There are many people who make up the Creative Team of any show.  Starting with the Producer, then the Director, Choreographer, Music Director, Designers (costume, set, lights, sound), technicians, and so on, it is a collaborative effort to bring any show to fruition.  However, there is always one voice that pulls it together, that sees the big picture, that EDITS, that knows when to leave something alone, and when to change it.  There are so many choices to be made when creating a show, and some of them seem quite benign.  Maybe a prop goes off stage right when arguably it would be better going off stage left.  A good director knows the importance behind the choice of which direction that prop is going to exit.  As silly as it sounds, these are the things that make or break a show, the subliminal choices that an audience is none the wiser about.

The 7 shows Choozi created for Silversea had the highest ever guest satisfaction ratings for the cruise line, and the guests of Silversea are some of the most discerning people on the planet.  How were we able to get such high ratings with shows that ‘seem’ to have been done before?  The list of shows were “Fabbalicious” (Abba), “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” (Motown), “Hi C’s” (Classical), “Aria” (Opera), “Hooray for Hollywood” (Movie Musicals), “Voices” (Composer Songbooks), and “Decades” (Pop).  The Entertainment Director wanted Abba, and Motown, so our task was to re-think how to bring them to the stage in a different way, as Choozi Entertainment is never derivative.  Once I had created the concepts, and laid down the art direction I wanted to see, I handed it all over to Christopher Childers, (pictured above with me when we co-directed “Fantasy” at the Lotte, Pusan Korea), to make the choices that I knew were going to WOW the demographic that sails with Silversea.  Christopher is my brother.  Like me, Christopher started his career very early, and like me, worked with the stars of his day, and also like me, did not goof off in rehearsals, choosing instead to pay attention to the process … to the choices the directors were making.  Chris has danced for Twyla Tharp, Gene Kelly, and Jerome Robbins to name a few … the greatest of their generation.  He, again like me, has an entertainment lineage that has become his “bag of tricks”, his “syllabus”, his ‘textbook’ … a textbook that includes every stage trick, nuance, cliche, invention … you name it, he knows it.  I relied on my Director to deliver the goods and boy did he!

Entertainment is subjective of course.  There were those who did not like what we did, but the vast majority loved our shows.  I would chat with the guests when I would be on the vessels and they would have so many questions about the shows, the talent, the creative team.  The knew they were seeing something that was a cut above previous efforts, so when I detailed for them the people behind the shows, their eyes would light up, most especially when they heard about the show’s Director.

When I moved from Directing to Producing, I did so in order to allow Christopher his voice.  We have had phenomenal success together, as we are both excellent Directors in our own right.  It helps I guess that we think alike, having come from the same parents, holding the same values, and ethics that were instilled in us, and both having worked with the “best in the business”, but even if he weren’t my brother, he would still be my Director of choice.  A show’s success depends on its direction.  Thank you Christopher Childers for your large contribution to the success of Choozi Entertainment LLC.