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00:04What if Wicked did the halftime show at the Super Bowl?
00:07In my mind, I was like, first, I was like,
00:08oh, God, can we do the Super Bowl?
00:10I want to do the Super Bowl.
00:10But that didn't happen.
00:11So now it was like, well, this is our chance.
00:15Let's give the fans that moment.
00:17Hello, my name is Edward Morrison,
00:19and I am the department head here.
00:20And I'm Christopher Scott, choreographer and producer,
00:23and we're here to discuss the magic of crafts
00:25from Wicked One Wonderful Night on The Process.
00:29Boom.
00:35From coming off of the film,
00:36it was a very interesting first conversation
00:39with Ben Winston and Raj Kapoor,
00:41because they brought me in very early
00:42to talk about what this special could be.
00:44They had a whole pitch deck ready,
00:46and I was a little like these new entities
00:48now taking over the space of Wicked.
00:51It was a little scary.
00:52But that first meeting that I went to,
00:54you know, there was such a clear vision
00:57of like that this is not recreation of the movie.
01:00This is not a recreation of the stage show.
01:02This is a celebration of Wicked and the films,
01:07you know, between one and the release of part two.
01:10They talked a lot about connecting it to the fans
01:12and giving them this kind of gift.
01:13And I think that's what really resonated with me.
01:15Yeah, I like the fact that it was somewhat similar
01:19to a live performance on Broadway with the live audience.
01:22And I really thought that it was a veer off from the movies.
01:28And I kept trying to disassociate myself with the movie
01:31because now I'm going into a live performance.
01:33And I'll stand out in the window
01:38Feeling the things I've never found
01:43In this scene here, I felt like the costumes were moving around so much
01:48that I wanted to contain the hair.
01:50So when I talked to Chris about their hair,
01:53I felt like it would be nice if we can do some stationary stuff,
01:57something that was structured and something that was more tailored.
02:03And then he agreed as well.
02:04We had all these different numbers and the challenge,
02:07and I still can't believe that you pulled it off as brilliantly as you did,
02:10but like to create one look because there was no time
02:13to change the dancers hair and makeup.
02:17So we had to, you know, the costumes could change,
02:19but the hair was not.
02:20And we talked about Wiz, we talked about those things.
02:22Oh, yes. Criteria is not to have the hair moving
02:25because the wardrobe is moving enough
02:26and they're doing a lot of backflips.
02:28So he didn't want the audience or the eye to be distracted towards the hair.
02:34So we wanted to make sure that it was shaped.
02:35You know, how I approached choreographing this number
02:38was very different from the film.
02:40This is actually the first number in the film that I worked on with Cynthia.
02:44The first day of rehearsal for her, she came in,
02:47I set up a little kind of maze for her.
02:49And I just asked her, I was like, you know,
02:51do you mind just kind of taking us through a journey and singing the song?
02:54We got to kind of really focus on her personal journey
02:58and her feeling actually really alone at Shiz.
03:00It was really about that story-wise.
03:03You know, that was the film version.
03:04Now we have 24 dancers.
03:06How do we create this version of Wizard and I
03:09that we would never get to do anywhere else?
03:11Because even in the stage show,
03:12it doesn't make sense to do it like this necessarily.
03:14And I remember what the song does to me lyrically.
03:16You know, what Steven Schwartz wrote lyrically, like affects me, it moves me.
03:20And then when Cynthia Erivo sings it, it's like magic.
03:23So the first idea was like, well, let's make the dancers an extension of that.
03:27And that's where it really started.
03:29And so they could narrate the lyrics like almost like the thoughts in her head.
03:33You know, we start off small with Jeff Goldblum at the piano
03:35with a little jazzy variation, which was like a whole moment in itself.
03:40And then as she got to the center stage, we just kept building it.
03:44You know, this was really the moment the first time that she interacts with them.
03:47So we kept it very much like they're just inside her head.
03:50But then we wanted to find that moment lyrically that made sense for her to now like honor them.
03:54And it was really about her honoring her thoughts.
03:56And so she takes a bow to them.
03:59They have a little head nod and you can see the shift in conversation.
04:02So that's really the approach I took is that I just wanted to feel like a conversation
04:06she's having with her inner thoughts.
04:14We use cans and cans of hairspray, but we also sewed most of that hair down.
04:20We took needles and thread and sewed it down so it would not move.
04:24And we met like very briefly and we had the conversation about the movement,
04:27which for me is always about like it's like the beat because this is so sharp and detailed.
04:31If there's too much movement in the hair, sometimes it'll be on a different beat.
04:34So it's like they go here and the hair is like wonk, two, three, four.
04:37And so that drives my OCD crazy.
04:39Most of the dancing was above the shoulders.
04:42You know what I mean?
04:43I didn't realize that, you know, but once I start going to rehearsals,
04:47I knew that this is very detailed, it's very intricate, it's very precise.
04:52So I knew when you told me that you didn't want any movement with the hair, I got it right
04:57away.
04:57This was our opportunity to really story tell from the film again, because it's like it's conflict.
05:03You got, you know, what is this feeling? It's loathing.
05:06So you get to go back into that mode, which was really fun.
05:09But this one really came from like now I felt like I had a connection to the fans through the
05:14choreography in the film because the video was going viral.
05:17People were doing the dance and sending it back to me.
05:19So now I felt like this really was a gift from the movie that I didn't know I was going
05:23to get.
05:24The idea was sparked from fans going on TikTok and doing like what if Wicked did the halftime show at
05:30the Super Bowl.
05:31So now it was like, well, this is our chance.
05:34Let's give the fans that moment, which took it into a completely, you know, contemporary version, which is why the
05:39choreography,
05:40I kind of mirrored what it would feel like to be on tour.
05:43You know, it's big movement jumps there.
05:45We developed the songs like I think about the Super Bowl and I think about like when people have a
05:50special guest.
05:50So that was the idea behind Michelle Yeoh.
06:00I really like this scene because this scene was very telling on the particular choreography that Chris pulled together because
06:08it was all about the head movement.
06:10It was all about structure and the foundation.
06:15Everything had to really just be really nice and precise because the wardrobe with the puffy arm, you know, all
06:21you can see is just the head.
06:23And this was something that like birthed to me from my moment with Michelle Yeoh on set doing for movie
06:29two.
06:29So this felt like a little nod to movie two that maybe the wouldn't even know is coming yet.
06:33But the inspiration was there was a day on set where Michelle Yeoh created the tornado.
06:38Spoiler alert, if you haven't seen part two yet, go see it on Peacock.
06:41But it was one of my favorite days on set because it was like, first of all, she doesn't dance
06:45in this movie.
06:47Building the tornado.
06:47And that's why I love John Chu and his creativity was like, well, let's make it a bit of a
06:51dance.
06:51And so it was a very organic thing.
06:52I worked with her in her tent before we were filming.
06:55I showed her some finger tut moves that she liked.
06:58She would be like, oh, I love that.
06:59I love that.
06:59But she also has a background in martial arts, which we really tapped into there.
07:02So then when I came into this moment, I built the tutting foundation that the choir was going to do
07:08behind her.
07:09And it was an original piece of music that Stephen Arimus built with Will Wells.
07:14And that was something that we're crafting at the same time as I was choreographing.
07:17And so it was really this collaboration with costume, hair, music, dance.
07:22And then you have Michelle Yeo at the center of it.
07:24And we taught her the dance.
07:26The associate choreographer, Comfort Fidoki, would go to her hotel and work with her while I was doing a whole
07:32nother rehearsal.
07:33And then Michelle Yeo would just do it over and over again.
07:35But we left a little space for her to do her own thing.
07:37So when you see the martial arts inspired movement, that's Michelle Yeo.
07:41And what I love about this moment, too, is we were worried she didn't get a lot of rehearsal.
07:46That choreography is really challenging.
07:48And it's, you know, in front of a live studio audience.
07:50And you're, you know, you're like, all right, here you go.
07:53Good luck.
07:53And I had never really seen her nail it.
07:56She goes out there and she killed it.
07:59And we're all back there looking at the monitors.
08:00And she looks at the camera after she does it.
08:02And she goes, and she gives a little wink.
08:04And she walks off.
08:04We're all like, no.
08:06And it was, it was again, that, that thing of live theater that you were speaking about that, like, that's
08:11what I didn't get from the film.
08:12And that's what this experience really gave me that I'm so grateful for.
08:28In this act here, I really would have loved to use or implement color in the hair.
08:36I felt like this would have allowed us to play a nod towards movie one and two.
08:43Although the different colors and the different textures were different in both movies.
08:49But this would have gave me an opportunity to be able to merge the two together.
08:53Cause this was the transformation from the cold opening.
08:57We did get to play with their hair a bit because that was shot the night before.
09:00Right.
09:00And I remember being like that, you know, they looked like backstage performers, but then seeing them transformed into this
09:09world of like the kind of avant garde version of what Wicked represents and feels like, but with a modern
09:15twist.
09:16And I was very like shocked that everybody across the board really nailed this.
09:28Choreographing the tulip moment for the live audience was actually like a major moment for me.
09:33I had been trying to do that on like social media a couple of times.
09:37I actually did it one time in a theater.
09:38Was this your idea?
09:39Yeah.
09:40I shot a whole thing in a movie theater.
09:42I looked at it.
09:43I was like, it didn't work out how I thought, whatever.
09:46Moving on.
09:46Now it's like this opportunity comes up.
09:48Ben Winston, Raj Kapoor.
09:49Everybody was kind of like, I don't know, Chris, is this going to work?
09:52You just don't have a lot of time.
09:53He was like, you got, you got like 10 minutes with them.
09:55And I had done something similar.
09:56I was like, I think I can get the audience members to do it.
10:00I think we'll be fine.
10:00They'll do it.
10:01They'll learn it.
10:02These people love the movie.
10:03And that was a big thing is like the audience were fans.
10:06They put, you know, everybody that really loves the movie, they're down in the front.
10:09It wasn't like, Oh, put them in the back of the Dolby.
10:12It's like, put them up in the front.
10:14This is for them.
10:15And that, that alone gave me the confidence.
10:17I'm like, they're going to, they're going to take care of this moment.
10:20So me and Steven Remus, he had to teach them the singing too.
10:23So they sound great because they're also singing.
10:25I had five minutes.
10:25He had five minutes and we taught them and they were doing it.
10:28And Mark Platt was in the audience and John Chu and all these people that I love and worked with.
10:32And I felt like grateful for I'm watching them get to be a part of this moment.
10:37And it really did.
10:38Like, it made me quite emotional, actually, like going backstage from that moment.
10:41And then the show's about to start.
10:42It was like, wow, what a, what a rush.
10:45So as much as it was for the fans, there was a bit of it that I guess was a
10:48little selfish on my part for me.
10:51And then you're back there, you're watching the monitor and that camera rotates part.
10:55And you just see the boom and the, the flowers came up.
10:58And it was like, and I'm looking at Ben and Raj like, I think it worked.
11:02And they're like, all right, it worked.
11:04I want to thank you for giving me direction.
11:08You isolated your ideals and you gave them to me and I was able to run with them.
11:12And I was able to give you what you were looking for.
11:14So thank you for that.
11:16You probably make me emotional.
11:17I don't know.
11:19That means a lot to me because I think often too, sometimes choreographers tend to forget sometimes
11:24that we're going to have a stake in how the hair moves.
11:27We're going to have a stake in how the costumes move for dancers.
11:30And I'm very grateful to you and how you collaborated with us.
11:32And we're so like down to really get in there with each dancer.
11:36They were so happy, you know, and I just remember that.
11:39And they felt so proud to be on that stage that it felt like this really beautiful thing.
11:44That is kind of what the movie felt like.
11:46And that's what really stood out to me too, is getting to the special.
11:50It could have been very different.
11:51So I'm very grateful to everybody that came together.
11:54Thank you for watching Deadlines The Process.
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