By: Dale G. Henderson P.Eng
September 2009
The New Job Creation ‘Vision’ Must Be About Developing Friendships
Thanks to my wife Kathleen, I was able to meet Lanny Mitchell and convince him to come to London from his homes in New York and Connecticut to be the director and choreographer of my first self-produced show at the London City Music Theatre.
Lanny Mitchell is one of those amazing guys who casually can mention that he danced in Michael Jackson’s Thriller video and also in major US productions of The Wiz, Dreamgirls, Dancin, - just to name a few. She saw him perform in New York in the production ‘Big’ and then decided to take lessons from him – well, Lanny is now in London helping us stage Seussical Jr.
The youth performers are blown away by his ability to teach them new dance moves. They are very lucky kids to have such a talent here in Canada for the first time. And, Lanny, is amazed by how receptive our Canadian kids are to his ideas. He arrived on August 17th – watched and rated 114 auditions and then picked a cast of 65 for Seussical Jr and started rehearsals by August 19th. This guy is an energy ball on and off the stage! He tells me he has a lot of great dancers in the show so he is able to do more with this production than he first anticipated.
“I really felt that it would be a nice thing for the kids to have a Broadway experience – to go through the auditions and to see how the show comes together. These kids were picked for their talent and nothing else. They don’t pay us and we don’t pay them- but one day we hope they can become paid actors if this concept takes off in London,” Lanny says. He also plans to bring some of his US agents to the shows, which run September 24 to October 1st.
“I find the kids up here take theatre quite seriously. They do their home work and they come in ready. They learn quickly and they take on the challenge – I really like that.”
And we really like that a major Broadway dancer cares enough about friendship to take a chance on us, too. Thanks Lanny for coming to London. We won’t let you down!
Email: dalehview@gmail.com
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