Lorin Latarro Is Doing It All…and She’s Just Getting Started

You think you are busy? Try stepping into Lorin Latarro’s shoes for a moment. The acclaimed choreographer has had a busy spring with Chess opening on Broadway, an acclaimed revival of The Producers transferring to the West End, and pre-production of a brand new musical, just to name a few. 

I recently caught up with Lotarro to chat about all things Chess, ten years of Waitress, and how she keeps it all together. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity. 

With so many projects, how do you keep them all straight in your brain! 

I have the best associates and I stay in close contact with all of my associates. I have one running Mrs. Doubtfire, I have one running Waitress, Tommy is about to kick off in the fall, and we're planning that carefully. I just have a really great team of people and we stay in close communication. Same thing with the directors I work with!

So let’s chat all things Chess. Were you always a fan of this score?

I have always been a fan; always a fan. Tom Hulce and Michael Mayer are really two of the most formative artists in my career. Mayer told me to stop performing and start choreographing full-time because he liked what he saw. He asked me to be the associate on American Idiot, which Hulce was one of the producers on. We, of course, became very, very close on that process and Michael has been a champion and a dear friend ever since. And I feel very lucky to be with both of them on Chess.

I think one of the most exciting moments of the entire season is watching Aaron Tveit get thrown into his pants (IYKYK), talk to me about bringing that moment to life. 

Well, I have to give credit where credit is due. Aaron came to me and he was like, hey, I had this crazy idea. What if I start undressed and I get dressed? I immediately loved this. I think the older I get, the more I learn that when you have great artists in the room, you listen closely, they know what's right. You know what I mean? And he knew. So this was him. And then we just started playing around with it all. I got the women in the room and made sure that they felt like they were a big part of how they wanted to dance this on stage in 2026. And they were incredibly game and had lots of input. It was such a beautiful collaboration between all of us. And incredibly fun. I love partnering so we were able to incorporate that. It's a hard to song to choreograph to, it's not fast and it's not slow, you have to find the story inside of it.

I just caught The Producers over in London. 

Oh good, I'm so glad you saw Richard Kind.

It was a performance I will never forget. He is one of a kind. What is it like as an American choreographer going over there and building such an American this show from the ground up in London?

It was really fun. The British actors and actresses are extraordinary. It honestly feels the same as here. It's fun to sort of get to shock them a little bit with my Americanisms. I'm so New York, as it will…and so they had a lot of fun with that. Patrick Marber is deliciously funny so that was a joy. What I'm proud of is that I think we have sort of a British and an American sense of humor in it, and it's been essentialized, but I think the heart is kept whole.

What do you hope folks take away when they go see this production of The Producers that is currently playing?

That there's no such thing as something that is dated if it is good. It defies time if it's good work. And funny is hard. Mel Brooks was a genius. And if you haven't seen his documentary, I think you should see it, it's really wonderful. But funny is as hard, if not harder, than serious.

I can't believe it's been a decade of Waitress. As you reflect back over the last 10 years of this musical—still on its UK tour—what comes to mind?

Again, so deeply grateful. That was a really big opportunity for me. Jesse and Diane and Sarah, we all remain friends. And, you know, we keep working at the show. It's a living, breathing thing. So every time we do it again, we go back at it. I was just on an email chain last week about something, so it's great that we keep tinkering. The show continues to sort of get more and more refined, which is incredible. It's a beautiful show that really holds up. 

For me, it's such a landmark time in my life. I had just gotten married, and I was trying to get pregnant, and the whole show is about having a baby, and now I have an eight-year-old. So the show sort of propelled me into motherhood, and now, I mark my daughter's years sort of with how they related to Waitress in a way. 

I want to chat about directing. I still have my mop from Joy sitting in my office. Was that always a goal for you?

You know, choreographing is not dissimilar to directing. It's just that you're directing the movement of the piece. And in a way, directing is sort of like shifting your focus to making the whole ship move, not just, you know, parts of it. I have never lived my life as an artist wanting this or that, just sort of listened and seen where it has taken me. When I stopped performing and started choreographing, something inside of me wanted to be there more and do the act of creation. And that happened with directing as well. I am finding that I’m really loving doing this side of it, it all works together. 

You are just starting work on Begin Again which will head out to The Old Globe later this fall. 

I can't wait. We are in the middle of a four-week workshop, which is thrilling that the producers were generous enough to do this for us. We're going to put a whole show on its feet. We will learn so much. And what I'm really excited about is I'm getting to do this before I'm building the set design. As opposed to having a set design imposed on us, where we have to sort of fit inside of it, we are really collaborating with Derek McLean, who's designing the set, to figure out what we need for the show based on what we think the show is and how it moves. And I actually think it's quite a choreographic way in, isn't it? You know, doing it that way. 

To circle back to Chess, I’m curious when you think about where you are now with Waitress, what do you want to remember most about this production in a decade? 

Grateful is the word that keeps coming up, but it is really true. We had such an exciting rehearsal process and Lea and Nick and Aaron were such beautiful leaders in the room. The thing that I will personally remember is the ensemble. These artists on that stage doing this eight times a week. Extraordinary ensemblists, and each one of them could be a principle on Broadway. If you look at that cast, the things they're doing both in dance and singing is so exceptional; I will never forget the amount of energy and love they gave us, the creative team in the room, and the amount of pride they take in their jobs. It is truly singular.  And the cherry on top of working with Tom and Michael these many years later after American Idiot for me, again,is a very, very special moment.