With ‘Little Dancer,’ a Sculpture Comes to Life

Lynn Ahrens is getting excited.

After literally years of working to bring the story of the girl who posed for Edgar Degas’s classic sculpture “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen” to the stage as a major musical, it’s about to happen.

“Little Dancer,” the Kennedy Center musical, will premiere Oct. 25 and run through Nov. 30 at the Eisenhower Theater. But there’s more. The National Gallery of Art will hold a focus exhibition at which the actual sculpture—which is in the NGA collection—will be the star. It will be surrounded by ten additional works, including the gorgeous pastel “Ballet Scene,” several monotypes and smaller original statuettes related to the original work beginning Oct. 5 through Jan.11.

The girl was Marie van Goethem, a 14-year-old member of the Paris Opera Ballet, who posed for Degas and became, after the fact, one of the most famous ballerinas in the world.

A number of years ago, Arhens, who wrote the libretto and book, while her partner Stephen Flaherty composed the music for “The Little Dancer,” saw the sculpture and wondered “who was that girl, what kind of life did she lead, what did Degas see in her. I was struck by the pose, everything about her. It just affected me, and I imagine that’s when I started thinking about a play, a musical, that would be about her, and Degas—I think they were like father and daughter, more than anything—and the whole world of the Paris Opera and Ballet, the painters and artists. The young dancers usually lived in poverty and helped support their families. They were called the little rats.”

“It was kind of a Dickensian world in Paris,” she said. “But it’s obvious that Degas was transported by her, enchanted, he was immersed in that world.”

This is what Ahrens and Flaherty do. They make great musicals and shows out of unlikely materials.
Ahrens and Flaherty are a rarity in Broadway and show business today. They are a composer and song and book writing duo who hugely successful and who’ve been working together for years. They’ve got the Broadway Triple Crown under their belt, winning the Tony Award, the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Circle Award for “Ragtime,” their theatrical version of E.L. Doctorow’s towering novel of America’s coming of age, which was also a successful film and play at the Kennedy Center twice in different incarnations.

They also created “Once on This Island,” a show which recently surfaced at Olney Theater and is a staple of regional theaters. There’s also been “Lucky Stiff” and “My Favorite Year” Most recently, they wrote the score for “Rocky” which arrived on Broadway with a big splash but never quite turned into a hit, although a version in Germany is drawing big crowds.
“Stephen and I are the best of friends, the best of partners, we work well together, always have. There’s no formula—sometimes he starts out with some bits of music and I’ll start writing lyrics, sometimes I start with the words, and he follows with the music,” she said.

It took a while to get “Little Dancer” done. “It took six years altogether that we worked on it, workshopped it, had labs and readings. We invited Michael Kaiser to take a look at a portion of what we were doing. He was absolutely taken with it and was behind it from the get go.”

“This is about art and life. We have one song called “In Between” which illustrates this, in between youth and growing up for the” little rat,” where art and life come together and touch.”

“We have a terrific group of people who came together on this, including, of course Susan Stroman” Ahrens said. “Stroman is the director of “The Producers,” and the beautifully original “Contact,” which was essentially a dance piece, as well as most recently “Big Fish” and “Bullets Over Broadway.” “She is perfect for this because she’s worked with ballet companies. She knows dance better than anybody.”

Playing the adult Marie is Rebecca Luker (of “Mary Poppins” fame) while New York City Ballet principal dancer Tiler Peck plays the young ballerina, the haunting young girl torn between trying to survive in a harsh world and expressing her gifts as a dancer.

“I think this is a show that everyone—including families—can relate to. It’s about family, survival, fathers, daughters, patrons and art.

“There’s a beautiful little original story ballet—about ten minutes long—which basically shows what the whole thing is about. It’s like recreating that world, that story, those people and what they did and loved.”