From the first time I ever saw Jerry Mitchell in the 1991 musical Will Rogers Follies – he was the Indian of the Dawn, barely dressed in a loincloth on an elevated drum – there’s been one through line in his career as a Tony-winning choreographer for Hairspray, The Full Monty, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, La Cage aux Folles, and then as a Tony-winning director-choreographer for Legally Blonde, Kinky Boots, On Your Feet!, Pretty Woman, Boop!, and the musical adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada that’s now playing in London. Every single one of them, without exception, has been designed to make you happy. Actually, not just happy – you’re supposed to walk out of the theater joyful. Jerry has taken this mission upon himself, like Evillene says in The Wiz, “don’t bring me no bad news.”
This week on the podcast we’ll find out the reason he has such an obsession with making everyone so goddam happy.
