Casey Nicholaw
Casey Nicholaw
Casey Nicholawis an American theatre director, choreographer and performer. He has been nominated for Tony Awards for directing and choreographing The Drowsy Chaperoneand Something Rotten!, for choreographing Monty Python's Spamalot, and choreographing The Book of Mormon, winning for his co-direction of the latter with Trey Parker. He also was nominated for the Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Direction and Choreography for The Drowsy Chaperoneand Something Rotten!and for Outstanding Choreography for Spamalot...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDirector
CountryUnited States of America
I was so impressed. I still am. Every time I see Sutton land her jump split I'm blown away.
We've all been through that at one time or another where you escape to something that makes you not feel what you're going through. I think that's what makes people respond on an emotional level.
Bouncing ideas off people when you're thinking up comedy is great.
Sometimes you feel like people go, 'Oh, he just does funny dances,' or 'That's cute.' It drives me a little crazy when someone does a dance number where all they do is kick to their head for five minutes, and everyone's like, 'That choreography is amazing.' It takes a lot to choreograph a number that also gets laughs in it.
I was in eighth grade when I did my first Junior Theatre show. I was in 'Annie Get Your Gun' as a dancing Indian.
Momentum is key. We really wanted to get to Broadway this season. I hated the idea of losing anyone in the cast.
I have a Tony Award now. It hasn't changed too much in the theater world, but it gives me entree for film stuff and TV stuff, where people will see me more easily now because they know me.
I was in 'Seussical,' and I was in a cage onstage in a purple yarn suit singing backup, and I was like: 'I've had it. I can't do this anymore.' I will say for the record that I did love the show, but I was like: 'I want to do something else. I need a little more.'
I was always bossy as a kid. I made my friends do shows that I wrote and would take them on tour from house to house.
It blows me away that my parents, they really weren't much into theater, but they recognized that in me. When I think about the things they did to support that, I'm blown away.
I went to UCLA for a year and a quarter. There were too many students at UCLA interested in what I was interested in, and they couldn't accommodate all of us. I wasn't allowed to take voice or dance, only theater and acting. So I saved my money and, at 19, moved to New York.
I look around at people who had success so early and then didn't know what to do with themselves.
I like bringing comedy to musicals. That's what's so much fun about this show, because the writers are so based in comedy. I've been able to make it dance and sing ? and keep building things ? in a way they're not used to. For me to be able to get people to laugh in dance is huge because it doesn't always happen.
In '92, I got my first Broadway show as a performer - 'Crazy for You.' I was in the ensemble. In fact, I was in eight Broadway shows as a dancer. Seven of them were original shows. That's how I learned to create something from the ground up.