http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/arts/dance/city-ballet-stars-land-major-musical-theater-roles.html 2014-09-15 23:15:33 City Ballet Stars Land Major Musical Theater Roles In a mix of happenstance and connections, three members of New York City Ballet will soon perform in major musicals. === One morning this month, That Ms. Fairchild, 30, is acting in a musical, singing and speaking lines before a paying public for the first time, is a striking career turn. But perhaps even more notably, she won’t be the only City Ballet dancer moonlighting in musical theater this year. Two other company stars — her brother, Mr. Fairchild, 27, will be starring in an adaptation of the 1951 Gene Kelly film “An American in Paris” that opens in December in Paris and heads to Broadway next April. Ms. Peck, 25, has the title role in “ Not many musicals require the specialized skills of world-class ballet dancers. It’s mostly a fluke that three high-profile shows with such needs are opening within months of one another. But it’s surprising that all three dancers come from City Ballet. Though the company’s founding choreographer, George Balanchine, worked on Broadway in the 1930s and ’40s, and its second most prominent choreographer, Jerome Robbins, moved between ballet and Broadway for much of his career, there is no tradition of company dancers’ straddling the two realms. In fact, compared with members of other major ballet troupes, City Ballet members tend not to take on any long-term outside projects. The family ties among the three dancers matter. They also point to other, less obvious connections, not only within ballet but between ballet and Broadway as well. It’s least surprising that Ms. Peck should appear in a musical. After all, she recalled in a joint interview with Mr. Fairchild, she made her Broadway debut 14 years ago as Gracie Shinn in “The Music Man.” That production was directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman, who is now directing and choreographing “Little Dancer.” It was Ms. Stroman who encouraged Ms. Peck, then an 11-year-old mainly interested in jazz dance, to further develop her classical technique by enrolling at the School of American Ballet, the training ground for City Ballet. Those classes are where Ms. Peck fell in love with ballet, above all with the challenge of it. As she joined the company in 2005 and rapidly became one of its most celebrated ballerinas, lauded for her musicality and sparkle, the idea of returning to musicals stayed in the back of her mind, perhaps as an option when she got older. The idea moved a bit forward in 2011, when Ms. Stroman choreographed a work for City Ballet that starred Ms. Peck. When Ms. Stroman mentioned the “Little Dancer” project, Ms. Peck posed questions. It wasn’t long before Ms. Stroman invited her to meet the composers and read some scenes and sing, a test she passed. A workshop followed, and then a reading, and then another workshop — the typically long process of a musical in gestation. Now comes the premiere. Mr. Fairchild also found ballet boring as a child and gravitated to tap and jazz. He took voice lessons and sang in his high school choir. (The future spouses first spotted each other in a New York jazz-dance class back in 2001.) It was his sister who nudged him into auditioning for the School of American Ballet, where he, like Ms. Peck, was drawn in by the challenge. After joining the company in 2006, he also rose swiftly: a handsome, warm dancer who seemed as if he could handle anything. Yet he held on to a dream of performing on Broadway. His chance, “An American in Paris,” is being directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, whose connection to City Ballet is deep. He danced with the company, served as its resident choreographer and has created many works for the troupe, including a 2005 ballet version of “An American in Paris.” In a phone interview, Mr. Wheeldon said that the 2005 work, which he created after an earlier stage adaptation fell through, has nothing in common with the new show, apart from the Gershwin score. He said that Mr. Fairchild was chosen for the Kelly role only after an extensive casting search, and that while the new production is based on the old film, it features a revamped libretto by Craig Lucas. “Robbie can tap, and he sings well, and he’s so hungry and daring,” Mr. Wheeldon said. “We felt he could bring a fresh interpretation to our reimagined version.” Nevertheless, comparisons with Kelly, who was Mr. Fairchild’s childhood idol, are inevitable. One came last month, when he performed a Kelly solo at the Vail International Dance Festival in Colorado. “ At City Ballet, with its huge and ever expanding repertory, rehearsals are notoriously fast. Mr. Fairchild and Ms. Peck say they appreciated having more time to work on a character. Rehearsing for “Little Dancer” during the day, Ms. Peck said, helped her ballet dancing at night, giving her both a fresh sense of exploration and the joy of returning to the familiar. She and Mr. Fairchild have been taking singing and acting classes. Ms. Fairchild is a different story. Until very recently, she had never taken a voice lesson. The last time she took a jazz or tap class was before she entered the School of American Ballet, 15 years ago. That was also the last time she had auditioned for anything before this summer, when her brother received a text inquiring whether Ms. Fairchild might want to try out for a part in “On the Town.” She laughed about it for a day and then thought, “Why not?” she said. In separate interviews, the show’s director, John Rando, and its choreographer, Joshua Bergasse, said they had auditioned many ballerinas for the role of the “Miss Turnstiles” beauty, Ivy Smith. Mr. Bergasse had considered Ms. Fairchild to be settled at City Ballet (where her husband, Andrew Veyette, is also a principal), but late in the casting search, he thought it was worth a shot. Mr. Rando (who had directed Mr. Fairchild and Ms. Peck as dancers in In a sense, her inexperience is an asset. In the original 1944 production, Ivy was played by Sono Osato, a ballerina who had performed with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and Ballet Theater and danced on Broadway but had never sung or acted. Robbins, who was making his Broadway debut as a choreographer, used her abilities to help tell the story through dance — “On the Town” grew out of his first ballet, “Fancy Free,” a hit for Ballet Theater that year. But he also capitalized on her challenges for their comedic value. The book writers, Adolph Green and Betty Comden, put Ms. Osato’s funny tales about voice lessons right into the script. Humor is one Broadway skill that Ms. Fairchild has honed at City Ballet, particularly in “Double Feature,” a ballet by Ms. Stroman. Humor was also evident in the way that Ms. Fairchild recounted her “On the Town” adventure. She might not have braved it, she said, had she not been blown away by her brother’s performance in an “American in Paris” workshop. And yet she laughed about how she was slipping into a musical ahead of him and Ms. Peck. “They’re living their dream, and I’m like: ‘Me, too! You can’t get rid of me!’ ” Mr. Bergasse, who is best known for his choreography for the TV show “Smash” and is making his own Broadway debut, said that Ms. Fairchild’s discipline and abilities have inspired him. “When she tries my ideas, they’re 10 times better than I imagined them,” he said. He expressed hope that dancers of the Fairchilds’ caliber would remind Broadway audiences “how great a big dance musical can be” and maybe inspire them to attend the ballet, too. That last thought also crossed the mind of “Maybe to their surprise, I told them all to do it,” Mr. Martins said. “Dancers’ careers are short.” He counseled them to take a ballet class daily, so that their technique would not deteriorate, but he wondered whether they might grow bored doing the same material seven times a week. He said he hoped they would come home better equipped, yet he also recalled a bit wryly what Balanchine had told him in similar situations: “Make sure they pay you a lot,” and “When you return, maybe you’ll better appreciate what you left.”