His own career moves from chorus line to choreography as he racks up prestige gigs alongside heavyweights like Agnes de Mille, Jerome Robbins and Michael Bennett. His first Tony nomination--along with his subsequent tuxedo fetish--comes for "The Full Monty" in 2001, followed by "Hairspray" in 2003 and "Never Gonna Dance" in 2004. He also begins to work in television and film, picking up an Emmy nomination for his contributions to "The Drew Carey Show" along the way.

He finally breaks his "Broadway's Susan Lucci" streak in 2005 as a double nominee for both "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" and "La Cage aux Follies," but he's almost not in his seat when his name is called as the winner for "La Cage." No, he's not in the bathroom. This is a bootstrap musical, after all, one that finds him back home with his family in Paw Paw, Michigan, on the day of the Tony Awards.

These days, statuette securely on mantle, Mitchell finds himself bowing as a director, in addition to his duties as choreographer, with the upcoming Broadway musical version of "Legally Blonde." We caught up with Jerry just before that show's first Equity table read and he cited inspirations as varied as Ginger Rogers and the "Holla Back" video, had a few choice words for "The New York Times" and found the boundaries of the ever-changing commercial theater taking him next to Las Vegas, where he's sure to continue his winning streak.

Tony Phillips: So, Jerry, where have you been all day?

Jerry Mitchell: I was just in a rehearsal space working with the writers on "Legally Blonde" and I was running a little late there.

So how's that going?

It's going brilliantly. It's very exciting. Laura Bell Bundy just arrived yesterday so we spent some time together just giving her a head start because the part of Elle Woods is kind of like Tracy in "Hairspray." I mean, she just steps onto the stage and she never leaves. We start with everybody on Monday. I have 19 actors for one of those 29-hour Equity readings. We're going to read it for the very first time and hear the first and second act. This is the first time I'm the director/choreographer, so it's just crazy.

So what did you send Laura home with? I know you're a great believer in homework.

Well, Laura is the hardest working woman in show business. That girl is amazing. We gave her seven numbers today. She's there still, now, working with the musical director pounding out the notes to get her a little more familiar with it.

I ask about the homework because I remember being up at William Ivey Long's house when you two were working together on "Never Gonna Dance" and there were just stacks of videos from you sitting on top of the VCR.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But for that show, certainly, there was a style of things that we had to adhere to in order to find the show in costumes and movement, especially the dresses for Ginger Rogers. I think he was probably watching some of my favorite Fred and Ginger numbers, which I had pre-edited myself and put on my Macintosh and would take with me to rehearsal every day just to look at the way they flowed. I'm a collector of visual imagery. I collect pictures and paintings and if there are DVDs out there that pertain to the period or the year, I do a lot of that. With "Hairspray," there was a show called "Twist" on DVD of the early 60s and The Peppermint Lounge and all that stuff. It was very helpful in research.

There are so many "Twist" movies, though. It's like its own franchise. I'm surprised you ever got through them all.

This was a DVD that someone did that was a documentary. It was called "Twist" and it's really about the period. It was very helpful, especially for the kids who I was casting who were 20-years younger than I am and had no idea what the early 60s were. I mean, I was born in '60, so I barely remember the late ‘60s, but "Hairspray" was all about being in 1962, as John Waters once said, "Before Kennedy was shot." Well, I don't even remember Kennedy being shot. My brothers do, but I don't. In this instance, with "Legally Blonde," I collected everything from Abercrombie & Fitch catalogs to the "Holla Back" video, which is just brilliant. It's so Elle Woods. We have a number, actually. In the movie, she sends a video for her admissions to Harvard, but in the stage show she actually comes and makes an appearance. She busts in on the Harvard board. She says, "Essays are boring, I thought I'd appear in person." Then she brings in the entire Harvard marching band and says, "Please admit me." It's a little Dainty June. Dainty June mixed with "Holla Back," if you can imagine.

Of course I can. Now speaking of "Gypsy" meets Gwen Stefani, Flo and I saw you in the park the other day with the "Mad Hot Ballroom" kids. What do you make of this whole resurgence of social dancing?

I thought the film was amazing. I went to see it with Eric [Schuur, his partner]. I didn't really get emotional watching the film until the very end. It reminded me, strangely enough, of the same feeling I got when I saw "Billy Elliot" about myself, which was, I was very young and I loved to dance and I did it in theater in my hometown and around, but I had a teacher when I was a kid. I was in sports and everything and I wouldn't take dance classes, but I performed with the Paw-Paw Village Players. She choreographed the shows, but she also had the local dance studio and she kept inviting me to come take classes. I was like nine or ten, and I wouldn't go. So she obviously saw something in me that I didn't even know I had myself until I was fifteen and I broke my collarbone playing football on the way home from practice. Then I thought, okay, now I'll take lessons, because I had enough confidence that I didn't care if people thought I was gay. It didn't matter anymore. I felt like I was well liked and it didn't really matter and I wanted to go take dance lessons. So then I went. And these kids in "Mad Hot Ballroom," from the beginning of the film to the end of the film, you can see their character change. You can see how it affected them as a person, and that's what's so rewarding. Because dancers--truly dancers, people who studied dance--you can't squelch their spirit. If they're truly a dancer--if they're a dancer in their heart, whether they ever are as a performer--it's the kind of spirit where you have to prevail. That's what dancers do.

I saw "Mad Hot Ballroom" at Sundance last year. It was one of the Slamdance movies. There was also that Ballet Russes doc and Maria Tomei in that "Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School" movie at Sundance. So I left Park City thinking, wow, this is going to be a huge year for dance movies, but that didn't seem to happen. TV, on the other hand, seems to be where dance is happening this year. What do you make of all these "American Idol"-type shows for dance?

I've been asked, actually, to judge one and to choreograph another one and, you know, I haven't really watched them, but I don't watch any TV. I watch so little television. The only thing I watch is "Law & Order" because it's the best storytelling ever. But literally, I never watch TV. I think that dance is always something that gets audiences juiced because it's like flying for normal people. Dance is something that everyone wants to do. It's like a dancer wanting to fly like a bird. That's the parallel.

Jerry, I feel like you're hinting that we might be seeing some fly wires in "Legally Blonde." And you're scaring me!

[Laughs] Oh, no. You'll have to go to "Tarzan" for that.

If I remember correctly, you're sort of anti this whole helicopters landing onstage and chandeliers crashing down crap?

Well, I'm about story. I mean, "Light in the Piazza," I was so incredibly moved by that show because I thought the storytelling was so well done. Whatever the show is, if the story is good, people will enjoy it. And that's really what I try to do. Choreography has to tell the story also. And it has to be appropriate to the characters that are doing it. And that's a big part of what I do.

That brings up two things that I want to talk to you about. The first is the difference between directing and choreographing and what doing both is like? Are you wearing two hats, or is it really the same thing anyway?

It is the same thing. Choreographers are directors; they just do it with movement.

That sounds like a bumper sticker.

It is, but that's the way that I approach it. I'm directing people to try and tell a story and using my vocabulary. My written words are steps. The Michael Jordan number in "The Full Monty" was about five guys learning to dance using sentences that would actually come out of their mouths or physical movements that would actually come out of their bodies. That's the way it works. Robbins said if you do a double pirouette onstage and you're turned out and you've got your foot in passé, you better be a person who is either studying dance or the instructor, otherwise you have no right doing a double pirouette and turned out passé in a Broadway show. That's the truth of it.

Those three shows you just mentioned all come from different source material that's not written for the stage. And not just "Legally Blonde," but especially "Hairspray." That's kind of the "Victor/Victoria" story with the movie, then the musical and now the movie of the musical. What do you make of where the piece comes from?

I don't care where the piece comes from. I don't care if it comes from somebody's drunken binge on my terrace or if it comes from a movie that I saw last week. The truth is that we're a society in general that doesn't read as many books as we used to. I think it's much easier to get footage on DVD and we share them much more quickly so they're latched onto in a much faster way. I don't think that's good or bad; I think it's the way it is. And we all have to know that that is the way it is, and that it's going to be a part of the society that we live in. I don't have the energy or time to change the way that people get their information, or any interest. The only thing that interests me is how I get my information and what stories I choose to tell and translate on a stage, and hopefully I'm capable of doing it in a good way.

Well, what's the difference, and maybe you could talk about that in terms of "Hairspray" or "Jeffrey" or something that you've worked on that's been both a movie and stage show?

There's no difference! There was no difference in "Imaginary Friends" or "Full Monty" or "Hairspray." Jack O'Brien and I approached each project in exactly the same way. "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," same thing. And as we're working with Marc Shaiman and Scott Whitman now on "Catch Me If You Can," the idea is you're trying to tell a story. The theater is a different medium than film and it's a different medium than someone writing it on a page and putting it in a book. We're using the tools that the theatrical stage offer to tell the story and that a musical offers when a character can actually sing what they're feeling and it can move a story forward. I don't even want to get into the way that people are arguing over theater and whether it's alive or dead. It's very much alive. And the year is 2005 and it's going to be alive in 2015 and it's going to be alive in 2025, but there's one thing you can count on, and that's change.

Are you okay with that?

I'm very okay with that. I embrace change. Out of change will come some other way of telling a story. I don't think anyone is going to say that Julie Taymor's decision to do "The Lion King" was terrible, artless and uninspired. I wouldn't use any of those adjectives to describe what she did--quite the opposite--so everyone is different; everybody has a different way of approaching their work. And I welcome it all and I look forward to seeing it all. The truth of it is, if the story is well told; the public will enjoy seeing it. And that's what I took away from "Light in the Piazza" and it was inspiring to me because not only was it well told, but also the actors in the piece are so incredibly committed. Now, I just saw it recently, so I know that a show evolves, you know? Even when I returned to "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" to see where they are after their opening night, it's phenomenal. John Lithgow and Norbert Leo Butz are amazing together right now. They are breathing like one body onstage. It's breathtaking to watch.

I remember on Tony night, I was across the street in that sort of green room, and reporters were watching on monitors while at the same time people were coming through the press area after they won and making speeches. And your speech was so wonderful, but there was this moment in the speech where you dropped Paw Paw and there was an immediate ripple through the room. People were falling over each other. "What's that?" "How do you spell that?" And I got very haughty and finally yelled, "Paw Paw, Michigan, people. Come on, try and keep up!"

Well, I was in Paw Paw that morning. I had been with my family, as I said, and my nephew was graduating. He's my middle brother's youngest son from his first marriage. Both of my brothers have two kids and this was the last of that batch. Now my middle brother has a little baby girl, but that's the next batch, she's got a long way to go. So this was the last of that batch and everybody in the family was home and I just couldn't miss it. And then I found out that it was going to be the exact same weekend as the Tonys and because of last year's number that I did, they asked me if I would come and help them with the opening number and help them get that on stage. So I did that and then left that in the hands of my assistant, Denis Jones, and I said, "Look, I gotta go home for this graduation." Then my flight home got cancelled Sunday morning and I got on the second flight, but, of course, I missed the dress rehearsal that day. Still, I'm fortunate in this business. I know a lot of people in this business who have been absolutely disowned by their family, but I have been so embraced by my family, by everyone in my family, from the moment I decided to do this. And no one is in my family is in the theater, in the arts, in the business, and they've all become huge supporters of it and huge fans of mine. And they're the ones, when something happens to me like winning a Tony Award, it really means more to them than it does to me. And I'm not saying it doesn't mean something to me, it means a great deal to me, but to be able to share that with my family--and they're still alive--my mother and my father are still alive, so it was just an amazing event.

Have you been able to digest that night at all?

I've digested that night, and the past five years, from the first time I was nominated for a Tony Award. The truth of the matter is that I never really wanted or expected to be nominated, let alone win a Tony Award. It was never a goal of mine to win a Tony Award until I actually got nominated for "The Full Monty," which was my first nomination. It was an amazing honor and it made me wake up to a whole new level or plateau in my career. I thought, Oh God, I could win a Tony Award someday. It really wasn't something I'd thought about. And then, of course, it was all I could think about after I'd been nominated the first time. There was some press things this particular year that I thought were incredibly unfair to the choreographic community.

What do you mean?

Well, there was that piece in The Times that said there was no choreography on Broadway this year. And then Jack [O'Brien] wrote a letter responding to that in his work with George Faison and Graziella Danielle and myself and Rob Marshall and every choreographer he's ever worked with. You know, I don't expect anyone to understand what it is I do. The only thing I expect them to do is to respect what I do as I respect what they do, and unless you're talented and smart enough and well informed enough to actually talk about it, it's actually probably better to stay quiet.

Well, what would you say to The Times to inform them about what you do?

Go study. Go study dance, go study choreography. Go find out what it's about.

Which brings us to your background. Where did you learn to do what you do?

When I was a kid, I learned in my hometown. I started to learn to dance, but there was something inside of me that always wanted to be the person that taught and created the dance, even when I was a kid. I choreographed all through high school and college. And then I had the great fortune to get into Broadway shows. I was lucky enough, for my first Broadway show, to sit next to Agnes de Mille to understudy the role of Harry Beaton and for her to teach me and coach me on doing it and what her original choreography meant. Then I had the opportunity to work with Jerry Robbins and be his assistant. I learned his original choreography from "West Side Story," "Fiddler on the Roof," "Billion Dollar Baby," "Peter Pan," everything and had the opportunity to understand every step and what it meant. What was the storytelling behind those steps, and what was required in those musicals for those choreographers to do that. Then I had the great good fortune to be the assistant to Michael Bennett for three years and create a new musical with him that would never be seen by anyone. I choreographed a good deal of that musical under his tutelage, and for him to work with me and tell me when the choreography was good: when it was telling the story and when it wasn't, was incredible. And then to work with Bob Avian on "Follies." So I've had this opportunity, and I might be one of the few choreographers working today who actually had the opportunity to work with some of the greatest choreographers of yesterday. And the things that they told me are the things I keep saying and telling other people. Choreography is the language in which you dance; you can't have the character of Riff speak the words of the character of Billy in "42nd Street." They speak different words in their body physically. They have a different vocabulary in dance. You can't expect to go see "The Full Monty" and see them doing the steps that I created for "Hairspray." And you wouldn't go see "Light in the Piazza" and expect to see the steps that were created for "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels." It's a job that requires the choreographer to tell the story within the context of what the whole picture is onstage. Yes, I'd love to have a dream ballet in every musical I do, but I have not had one yet that has allowed me to do that. And guess what? There's not going to be a dream ballet in "Legally Blonde," and I'm the director.

So do you see a through line to your work, other than "no dream ballets"?

I hope that my work is about storytelling first and foremost, and style is not what the work is about. That was told to me from my dear friend and teacher—someone I idolized—and his name was Jerome Robbins. He said, if you have one style, your one style will prevail in everything that you do. If you have storytelling, your storytelling will prevail and hopefully all of that storytelling will be true to what you're creating and that will be a style in itself, which is good storytelling.

Do you see any limitations to working within the commercial theater?

No, this is like a whole new phase for me with "Legally Blonde," to be for the first time in charge of the entire production. It's so exciting and so thrilling, no matter what the outcome of the project will be, because I'm doing it. I have no idea what's going to happen with the show, and I don't even want to think about it. All I'm trying to concentrate on is doing the show and telling a good story and to be entertaining and to be all of the things that I enjoy when I go see something at the theater.

Other directors I talk to who come from choreography all say they couldn't imagine going back to just choreography. Is that the same with you?

It depends on the collaboration. I think I could work with Jack on any project as a director, co-director, choreographer, anything, because we have a sort of collaboration that I have experienced with no one in this business. The only thing I have that comes close is my recent collaboration with Jerry Zaks, who I would also be excited and thrilled to work with again on another project. I had wonderful experience with Michael Greif. I've had wonderful experiences with other directors. But I feel like on a lot of those levels, I'm ready to take the musical on as the director also. Every dancer who is a choreographer transitions into directing. One of the things that I love about what I do is that I always walk away from a project having learned something. Hopefully, I, myself, have grown. That's part of the reason I take a project on, or because I'm passionate about telling that story, or impassioned about the characters. I'm either titillated or thrilled or excited or interested and there's something I want to share, something I believe in.

Does this affinity you have for Jack extend to performers as well? Is there a Jerry Mitchell company somewhere?

Well, there are so many people in this business that I'm a fan of and I haven't even had the opportunity to work with. One of the things that's interesting is the more work I do and the more casting I do for shows I've been in or seen, is how when the casting and the character match and something magical and indescribable happens on the stage. Certainly Victoria Clark falls into that category. Certainly Norbert falls into that category this year. And not just because they won awards, but because something magical is happening with those people in those roles. Now we've seen Norbert in "Wicked" and we've seen Norbert in other things, "Thou Shalt Not," so the talent was there. That match going off, that moment when the match goes off and starts to burn, is happening in "Scoundrels" because the meeting of the actor with the material is special. As with Victoria, listen, everyone in "Light in the Piazza" I thought had that. That's what was one of things that made the storytelling so clear to me, was that everybody in that cast was phenomenal. I'd like to think it's true in all of my casts, also, but it's easier for me to comment on another show.

I guess what I'm asking is what is that spark for you because there are some actors that you seem to be working with again and again. In a real practical way, what can somebody come in and do on an audition that'll completely blow you out of the water?

You know what, for "Legally Blonde," we saw several girls for this reading and the thing that blew me away was when the material matched the actress. And that's not something you plan on. The thing that I think that you have to do as a director or a choreographer or the person on the other side of that table is to remain open to the possibility. The most important job is to--without coloring it in any way--watch and see. And when that happens, it's obvious. It's hard to describe it, but it's clear.

I guess the other part of that question is what can someone do in an audition that'll insure you'll be balancing your checkbook under the table?

[Laughs] You don't have to worry about that. I was also taught well. With Robbins, you couldn't even bring a cup of coffee to the table when you were auditioning people. No eating, no drinking, you must sit there and give them your full attention. And you know, I gotta tell you something, when people come to an audition for me, I take it that they are doing me a favor, and they really are. First of all, it's ludicrous in our business that the only way we can find the person is to actually have them come in and audition. And sometimes huge celebrities want to do that. I mean John Lithgow, we offered him the role in "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," but John wouldn't take the role until he actually came in and sang the songs with us and actually had a session because he wanted to make sure he was the right match. And although we were all confident that he was, he actually wanted to come in and sing. And I thought that was so generous of him, but also so smart of him to know that it is about the match as much as it is about your ability to do it. So when actors come in to addition for me, I'm happy that they're there and I'm happy to give them my undivided attention. I think an actor really needs to get as much information about what he's auditioning for before they walk through the door. In the instance of a character like Elle Woods, it's simple because you can at least rent the movie and look at it. You can also go read the original book on which the movie was based.

I didn't know there was a book!

Oh yes, she wrote a book: a series of letters like a journal of going to school at Harvard. There was an actual book. So you can get a lot of information about a character even if you don't know exactly what that character is in the script. And I think most of the girls who came in to audition for me; they knew what they were doing. They were all dressed in pink, their hair was done the right way. They're smart, this gang.

You've seen a lot of younger actors for this. And you certainly worked with a lot of younger actors in "Hairspray." Do you ever think about what New York is like for them just economically? I mean, would you be possible if you were coming up now instead of then?

I have to tell you, they must be doing what I was doing. I came to New York and I was fortunate. I was in a Broadway show when I came and I was never not in a Broadway show. I was in "Brigadoon" when I moved here, then I went right to "Woman of the Year." Then I went to out to LA to make the movie of "Whorehouse." I came back and did "Barnum," then "On Your Toes." I just kept going from show to show to show and I was always being paid. And I had to live off that paycheck. For 15-years, I didn't really save any money. I was basically living and working in the city hand-to-mouth, but I was fortunate. I was doing what I wanted to. I wasn't waiting tables. I was in the business. I don't think everybody's that fortunate. In fact, I know everybody's not that fortunate. It's hard. It's a tough business. I saw 1,7000 singer/dancer/actors for the 12 roles in "Dirty Rotten" and the 12 guys in "La Cage." I cast those two shows in the same six months. There were 24 parts and I saw over 1,700 people. And 300 of them were friends who came to an invited call.

So what's going on with the "Hairspray" movie?

Who knows what's going on with the movie? Jack and I are not doing it anymore.

Really? I didn't know that. Jerry! I have to pick up the trades once in a while.

[Laughs] Um, yeah…But it was the timing. It got pushed back from the fall schedule to the spring schedule and I'm going to be busy with "Legally Blonde." I'm also going to be busy with a project called "Peep Show," right now that's the working title. It's a project I'm developing for Las Vegas with Clear Channel Entertainment. We're going one phase at a time and I'm devoting a lot of time to that. It's basically a modern day burlesque strip show for Las Vegas and it's going to feature a lot of women.

Now, where did they get that idea?

I know. Why did they call me? [Laughs]. So anyway, those are two major projects that I'm very invested in and extremely excited about as well as "Catch Me If You Can" with Terrance and Marc and Scott and Jack. And Jack is doing "Coast of Utopia" with Lincoln Center, the Tom Stoppard trilogy. And, you know, Tom Stoppard and him have a huge relationship. If would have been lovely to do the film and I hope it gets done and I hope it's brilliant. But we're getting ready to do "Hairspray" in Las Vegas for four-years at the Luxor. I think Harvey's going to open it. We'll see.

So what would you tell a younger dancer who's thinking about traveling along this road you're on?

Well, I have four things. I've done a couple of teaching things and I always say this: the four D's. I can't even remember who told it to me, but it's so true to me now, much more so than even when I was young. But when I think back and think about how I've come this far, I think it's because I had the four D's: Drive, Determination, Discipline and Desire. You must have them all, but the one thing that I find that I am attracted to when I'm looking at people is the discipline. Do they study? Do they take class? Do they take voice lessons? Do they take acting lessons? Are they disciplined? Because it's not a reality show, we're not dealing with a one-shot deal to become a star. It's a lot of discipline that goes into being successful. The other thing I tell them is every job you do affects the next one. How do you handle yourself? How do you conduct your professional self? That will determine whether you get hired the next time. And I think a lot of kids forget that. You have to have good attitude, not just attitude.

Alright Jerry, thank you so much for doing this, and I'm really looking forward to seeing Elle Woods on Broadway.

Well, it's going to be a while, but it's going to be worth the wait I hope.