ARTIST OF THE YEAR
ROB MARSHALL
Who knew Daniel Day-Lewis could sing and dance? Rob Marshall did. “I’ll never forget the first time I heard Daniel sing. You hold your breath, hoping, but I just knew he had a voice,” he remembers. The six-time Tony-nominated choreographer and director, best known for helming the 2002 film Chicago, has a knack for singling out Hollywood superstars and turning them into high-caliber hoofers (see: Renée Zellweger, Richard Gere). This year, he debuted his most ambitious project to date, directing eight heavyweights in the stunning adaptation of the Broadway musical Nine, and judging by the cast—who have 17 Oscar nominations among them—there is no one in Hollywood who doesn’t trust him. In addition to Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Kate Hudson, Penélope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Judi Dench, and Sophia Loren all leaped (and leaped, and leaped) at the chance to work with him in the Fellini-inspired film.
Marshall, who received Tony nominations for his choreography of Kiss of the Spider Woman and Damn Yankees, distinguished himself as a director with the 1998 revival of Cabaret, and by 2000, he was at work on the film version of Chicago. Nearly 10 years later, America seems positively transfixed by musical theater—Broadway just finished its highest box office–grossing year ever— and the success of films like Dreamgirls and TV shows, including Glee and American Idol, owe Marshall’s reinvigoration of the genre a debt of gratitude. “I always sort of resented when people said ‘the genre’s dead.’ Well, maybe the material wasn’t there. But it wasn’t dead,” he says. “If I played a small part in that at all, I’d be so happy, because it’s really what inspired me as a kid. It’s a true American art form that can lift you in ways that other things can’t.”
