As a longtime fan of the Broadway show, coming on as the choreographer for Wicked was an incredible opportunity for Christopher Scott. Not only was he able to translate one of his favorite shows to cinema, but the chance to infuse something new and original into a storied musical is a rare gift for any choreographer.

Based on the long-running Broadway musical, Wicked follows the relationship between Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and Glinda (Ariana Grande) as they meet at Shiz University to study magic. Though the story takes place in the fantastical world of Oz, Scott says the most successful musicals always have their moments of song and dance grounded in a sense of reality. For him, a dance is only successful if there is a reason behind it.

DEADLINE: Choreography for stage and screen are very different things, was there any pressure to translate some of the choreography from the Broadway show to the film?

CHRISTOPHER SCOTT: My mindset was always to go in completely original. We want to give the audience a new experience and one that is specifically designed for cinemas and to work with the camera. I’m a big fan of the show and [choreographer] Wayne Cilento, and I definitely wanted to pay homage to the brilliant work that he did on the stage show, so there’s little things that were more built out of love for the people that built the theater show that we’re standing on the shoulders of. But specifically, you start with this clean slate. You’ve got to really design it and something like “Popular” for example, that’s already a challenging one. You can’t do Kristin [Chenoweth]’s version of “Popular” because you’re never going to touch that one. Almost out of respect, you’re like, ‘Let’s leave that on stage.’ But Ariana is so brilliant at being that guide on how much to pay homage to Kristin’s version, but then really making it her own. It was important for her to be able to have her own voice.

DEADLINE: How closely do you work with other departments, like costume or production design, on something like “Popular”?

SCOTT: “Popular” was probably one of the most detailed collaborations that we had across all departments. That was the one where it’s like [costume designer] Paul Tazewell’s costumes were so important because this sheer robe that Glinda is wearing was so delicate and would rip at the tiniest little movement. He had to figure out how to maintain his vision, but also make it danceable with all the craftspeople that were working on it. All those little designs and gadgets and stuff through [production designer] Nathan [Crowley] was like an ongoing conversation. When we were rehearsing, [director] Jon [M. Chu] gave a really detailed layout for this number on purpose because they needed time to make the stuff for the ideas that we were coming up with.

At first, it was one of those crazy worlds where we’re just using boxes and one of my associate choreographers is sliding something through, and you just play in this world of theater hoping this is going to work. Then we’d have these showrooms set up for us, where all the special effects designers made the luggage and the trick makeup cases, and we would go one by one and see each gag. They would just push a button and we’d be like, ‘Oh crap, that’s amazing.’ Some of them would even need a crew guy tucked into a trunk right below it to make the thing happen. I mean, it was really this cool magical world of cinema and theater. It really felt like that blend of where our practical theater meets cinema and I just love seeing it all come together.

DEADLINE: How do you begin that process of designing these numbers?

SCOTT: The first thing I do is listen to the music and I let the music speak to me. I know the story very well because I was a fan of the show, and I also know Jon is very clear with his vision. There was a point when Jon wanted dancing in the open number, “No One Mourns the Wicked”, and that’s not even done on Broadway. There was concern at first, like, ‘Why would we have them dancing when this is a moment where the Wicked Witch was just killed? It’s not really a moment to dance.’

That’s when I chime in with what I believe is the reasoning behind it, because when Jon wants dancing in there, I’m going to find a reason to make sure that it makes sense for me. To me, that moment was like a war ending, and when wars end people actually do go out in the street and they dance. I think that was important to feel and I think that’s what helps. Sometimes that kind of thought process can help make a musical more believable for people watching it that don’t really watch musicals. 

I get this a lot where people are like, ‘I don’t like musicals. I don’t understand why people start singing and dancing out of nowhere.’ For me, I think I’m just very aware and I walk around in this life watching people sing and dance in real life, so I can always try to pull that reality and try to at least keep it as rooted in reality as much as I can. When you focus on the story, it can work. There’s a belief we’ve all got to roll with, but I do feel like it’s my job as the choreographer to do my best to make it as relatable to people as possible and just try to find the reality in the moment. It exists and if you dig deep enough, you’ll find it.