Christopher Gattelli, Death Becomes Her's Twice-Tony-Nominated Director/Choreographer, on Joining His Idols in the History Books

Heading into awards season, Christopher Gattelli already had one Best Choreography Tony in hand for Newsies, plus a trio of nominations for the Lincoln Center Theater juggernauts South Pacific, The King and I and My Fair Lady. He had even competed with himself when his My Fair Lady choreography was pitted against his work on SpongeBob SquarePants. “I canceled myself out,” he jokes of the 2018 race, which Justin Peck won for Carousel. What could top a pair of Tony nods? How about nominations for Best Choreography and Best Director for the hit musical Death Becomes Her?

“I’m on Cloud Eleven,” Gattelli says of nabbing dual nominations in his first time out as a Broadway director. “My mind explodes to think I’m now on the list of director/choreographers with my idols—Jerome Robbins, Michael Bennett, Bob Fosse. No matter what happens, I’m proud to be part of theater history.”

Before anyone asks what took so long for Gattelli—who danced in three Broadway shows before creating dances in a whopping 18—to make the leap to director, it certainly wasn’t for lack of experience. In fact, he first directed off-Broadway 20 years ago, in the Silence of the Lambs parody Silence! The Musical. Since opening Death Becomes Her last November, he has helmed musical adaptations of the streaming series Schmigadoon! at the Kennedy Center and the dance-centric movie Take the Lead at Paper Mill Playhouse. But in a process that sounds like kismet, Death Becomes Her made it to Broadway first. “It just felt like the perfect show at the perfect time,” he says now.

After years of development by writer Marco Pennette and composers Julia Mattison and Noel Carey, Death Becomes Her got on the fast track once Gattelli signed on. “It was almost a year to the day from my first reading to our [pre-Broadway] opening in Chicago, which never happens for a show this big,” he says. From the beginning, Gattelli sensed that his affinity for comic material and experience working on Lincoln Center’s huge Beaumont stage would serve him well directing a larger-than-life musical about dueling divas and a magic potion. He welcomed the challenge of making Megan Hilty’s character tumble down a spiral staircase and Jennifer Simard’s character survive a gunshot blast to the torso.

“This show specifically benefitted from having one cohesive vision as director and choreographer, in ways I didn’t even expect going in,” he says. “I imagined how that stair fall could be done with a dancer/acrobat; the way our house curtain almost dances; the quick changes in [Hilty’s] “For the Gaze” number. As a director, I was trying to home in on what those moments needed to be, and then the choreographer brain would come in to figure out how to push them forward.”

The versatility Gattelli displayed in musicals as varied as SpongeBob, The King and I, The Cher Show, Godspell and Newsies can be traced back to his childhood studying dance in small-town Bristol, Pennsylvania. “I started with tap, then I did jazz, then I did ballet,” he says—and then, when he was 15, he won Star Search in a five-person dance group. “I still think about my younger self, watching and taping Star Search every weekend,” he says with a laugh. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do then, but winning gave me the confidence and drive to just go.” By 17, he had talked his way into a featured spot in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular while studying modern dance at Alvin Ailey and inching toward musical theater.

“One of my first auditions was for Jerome Robbins’ Broadway,” he recalls. “Jerry Mitchell was in the room teaching the combinations, and now we’re peers.” Contemplating the friendly rivalry in this year’s Best Choreography race for their work on Death Becomes Her and BOOP! The Musical, he adds, “The circular aspect of it blows my mind. I feel very lucky and grateful to be part of this community.”

During the pandemic, Gattelli was fortunate to shift into film and TV work, choregraphing satirical musical numbers for Schmigadoon! and making Timothée Chalamet leap over rooftops on the big screen in Wonka. “I could never do an air ballet on stage,” he says of the movie stunts made possible by green-screen technology, “but in the theater, you have to come up with creative solutions that can be done in real time by the actors and the orchestra and the crew. That’s a challenge I love, and the satisfaction for the audience is great because they’re so close.”

Above all, Gattelli marvels at the skill and stamina required to put on a Broadway musical like Death Becomes Her. “It still blows my mind, watching performers do what they do eight times a week,” he says. “It’s not just one take, you have to maintain it, and I have so much respect for what it takes to work on this level. Getting any show up on Broadway is a miracle, and when it happens to become a hit, it feels like a winning lottery ticket.”

While navigating the pre-Tonys hoopla, Gattelli is back in the rehearsal room directing a revised workshop of Schmigadoon!, which he hopes to bring to Broadway soon. Like Death Becomes Her, it leans into broad comedy, something Gattelli believes audiences are yearning for. “The world in general is a bit of a mess, and people want to experience joy,” he says. “Because our show is over the top in the best way, you leave reality outside the door. I love standing in the theater and watching audiences have a great time. It’s not lost on me that I get to create something that makes 1,500 people laugh every night.”