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Arts & Entertainment

Broadway Bound

Detroit-area native Marcia Milgrom Dodge directs and choreographs
a Big Apple revival of Ragtime.

Alice Burdick Schweiger
Special to the Jewish News

M

arcia Milgrom Dodge thought
her career as a musical theater
director and choreographer
couldn't get any better. Then she got the
phone call — and it did. The Kennedy
Center's dazzling production of Ragtime,
in Washington, D.C., for which Dodge
had created the dance movements, was
Broadway bound, and so was she.
"I have been working in the theater for 30
years, always gave it my all but had given up
the idea of actually working on Broadway'
says Dodge, a Detroit-area native who has
worked predominately in regional theater
nationwide. "I knew that with Ragtime I
would be on the radar a little bit more but
never for one instant thought the show
would make it to Broadway. We were build-
ing the show for the Kennedy Center. When
I heard the news, I was thrilled and well ...
verklempt!"
When the show begins previews on Oct.
23, New York audiences will be in for a
real treat. Ragtime, which originally ran
on Broadway from 1998 to 2000, garner-
ing Tony Awards for best book and score,
earned rave reviews in the nation's capital,
and critics hailed Dodge's new touches as
director-choreographer.
"It is a completely new interpretation
by me says Dodge, who saw the show in
New York when it originally ran. "I am not
doing anything remotely like the original
creators of the show. I work with different
designers, and I have a different interpre-
tation of how I want to tell the story'
Ragtime, set in New York City at the
beginning of the 20th century and based
on the 1975 novel by E.L. Doctorow, tells
the story of three intertwining ethnic
groups — white Anglo-Saxons, African
Americans and immigrant Jews — and
their pursuit of the American dream.
In exploring the immigrant experience
for the musical, Dodge, 54, wound up
reconnecting with her own Jewish roots.
She not only learned more about her
grandparents, but after the performance
at the Kennedy Center, she received an
e-mail from a distant relative. "Because of
Ragtime, I learned more about my own
heritage," she says.
Dodge's interest in dance can be traced

back to childhood, when she took jazz and
tap at the Julie Adler School of Dance in
Oak Park. The former Southfield resident
attended Adlai Stevenson Elementary and
Birney Middle School and graduated from
Southfield-Lathrup High School in 1973.
From there Dodge went to the University
of Michigan, where she began in a liberal
arts program but soon transferred to the
dance department.
"The first thing I did when I started
U-M was audition for The Roar of the
Greasepaint —The Smell of the Crowd,"
recalls Dodge. "One day we were working
with a choreographer, and I corrected her
about which foot we should end up on. At a
later date, the choreographer was unavail-
able, and the director asked me to take a
look at something. That's what started me
thinking I could be a choreographer."
After her 1977 U-M graduation, Dodge
moved to New York City, where, she says,
she choreographed everything she could
get her hands on. It didn't take long before
work started to come her way, and she
began making her mark in regional theater.
"I was doing great work at the Goodman
Theater in Chicago, the Arena stage in
Washington, D.C., the Actors Theatre of
Louisville and at the La Jolla Playhouse
in California;' says Dodge. "I worked
with Stephen Sondheim on the revival of
Merrily We Roll Along, and Beverly Sills
hired me to choreograph The Music Man
at the New York City Opera:'
Dodge's theater interests extended
to writing plays. In 2002, she co-wrote
Sherlock Holmes & The West End Horror

with her husband, Anthony Dodge, also a
Detroit native. The parents of a 12-year-
old daughter, Natasha, the couple were
able to showcase their play in Sag Harbor,
N.Y. "I loved working with my husband:'
says Dodge, who also has choreographed
episodes of Sesame Street and a PBS pilot
called Crackle Box for television.
When not busy working on productions,
Dodge has taught workshops at colleges,
including New York University.
In 2006, she was asked to direct and
choreograph Seussical, a touring adapta-
tion of the 2000 Broadway production of
Seussical the Musical, for Theatreworks
USA, America's largest and most prolific
nonprofit theater for young and family
audiences. The show was so successful it
was brought to New York for a limited-run
Off-Broadway production.
That opened the door for Dodge's work
on Ragtime: Lynn Ahrens and Stephen
Flaherty, who wrote the musical score for
Seussical, also had created the music and
lyrics for Ragtime.
"When I worked on Seussical with Lynn
and Stephen, we developed a great sense
of artistic trust:' Dodge says. "They liked
what I did and so did the critics, and it
helped cement my relationship with them.
I became their go-to girl for taking a look
at Ragtime'
For now, Dodge is working intensely to
get the show ready for Broadway. "It's one
of those musicals that gets inside your
skin and really affects people she says.
Unfortunately, Dodge says, she doesn't
get back to Michigan as much as she

Marcia Milgrom Dodge: "Because of
Ragtime, I learned more about my own
heritage."

would like. However, her parents, Myron
and Jacqueline Milgrom of Southfield,
along with her sisters Carole Lasser and
Paula Milgrom, both of West Bloomfield,
and Marianne Milgrom Bloomberg of
Farmington Hills, all will be coming to
New York for her Broadway debut.
"They wouldn't miss it:' says
Dodge, whose family has belonged to
Congregation Shaarey Zedek of Oakland
County for years (her father is a former
president of the synagogue). "My family
has always been a tremendous support:'
When asked what she thinks has been
the highlight of her career, Dodge says just
working and making a living in the the-
ater is as good as it gets. "I can't complain
at all; I have had a very fulfilling career.
And working on Broadway with Ragtime
— that is the brass ring:' I 1

For a roundup of other Broadway and Off-

Broadway shows with a Jewish twist, see page

44.

Ragtime begins previews Oct. 23
and opens Nov.15 at the Neil Simon
Theatre, 250 West 52nd St., in New
York City. (212) 307-4100.

October 22 • 2009

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