‘Phantom’ among the things that keep her happily busy

By Jerry Fink

Wednesday, July 30, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Choreographer Gillian Lynne has taken a lot of dance steps in her day — waltzing through a career that began at 16 with the Royal Ballet in London and still going strong.

At a saucy 82 years old, age seems almost irrelevant for Lynne.

Since 1980 she has been married to actor Peter Land, 27 years her junior. She bounces from project to project like someone half her age, flying from city to city and country to country. Along the way she is putting the finishing touches on her autobiography, which will put her storied life into print.

Lynne is best-known for choreographing Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cats” and “Phantom of the Opera.”

She chatted with the Sun recently when she was in Las Vegas polishing “Phantom, The Las Vegas Spectacular.”

How are you involved with “Phantom” today?

I staged it originally when we did it in 1986 in London, and it’s still running there 22 years later. But I don’t do that exclusively. I’m involved in so many other shows now — “Cats” being one of them, “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” being one of them. I just staged a wonderful Moliere play, “The Imaginary Invalid,” for the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., directed by Keith Baxter.

So I do a lot of things. I have to fit my visits in to polish “Phantom” all over the world when I can. But I am particularly fond of this one since we seem to be hanging in while half the Broadway shows that come here have bitten the dust.

How does the Las Vegas version compare with the others?

Comparing this with Broadway: You are getting the real thing, but a real different thing. It’s 2 1/2 hours everywhere else in the world and 95 minutes here, so we had to tailor it like most shows do in this town. But instead of just cutting we created something slightly different. I think it’s got a great speed and polish to it. It’s a wonderful cast, a wonderful story you can’t destroy. It’s like a thriller romance “Phantom” and I think that’s why — coupled with Andrew’s fabulous music — I think that’s why it’s lasted all over the world.

I’ve been lucky in my life, staging two blockbusters — “Cats” the first one and then “Phantom.” We did a wonderful gala in New York two years ago when “Cats” was beaten for the longest-running Broadway show ever by “Phantom.” So I did a whole huge gala and chose a tiny little white cat and did something quite moving. We did the final number of “Cats” but I changed the ending so the little white cat discovered the Phantom waiting and went up and put her paw in his hand. It was very moving.

Why do you need to polish a show as successful as “Phantom”? What does it involve?

It entails running through the whole show with them — “This could be stronger, I don’t think this is quite right, the arms could be slightly stronger there.” Believe you me, it’s such a beautifully kept show here in this town, but all shows that play night in and night out for two years, some for eight years and ours in London for 22 years — the creators have to go in from time to time and remind them why they are doing something the way they are doing it. But there are no major changes. I wouldn’t change it at all. It’s just to remind them all of why we did certain things and where their focus has to be. It’s just a question of making what is very, very good even better.

You have been associated with so many extraordinary productions in your career. Do you have a favorite?

“Cats” will always be a bit of a favorite. It’s all movement, a story told in movement and dance. It was a most wonderful job to be given, such an incredible production. But I have had so many wonderful things happen it’s hard to say which is a favorite.

Was “Cats” a difficult undertaking?

“Cats” wasn’t difficult for me at all. I had a lot of varied choreographic experience. It was tricky but not difficult. “Cats” is about the right person being in the right place at the right time.

Was any production especially difficult for you?

“Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” was difficult because we had producers who knew a lot about movies but don’t know about theater. That wasn’t helpful. But I have done so many varied things, difficulty is not a word, really. The only difficulty I ever find is sometimes we have rotten producers. Some are wonderful and some are (really bad).