Interview: Lorin Latarro on Reinventing Chess, Staging Rock Musicals, and Balancing Broadway With Motherhood

After three decades working on Broadway, dancer-turned-choreographer-turned-director Lorin Latarro has built a career defined by versatility, as evidenced in a wide range of shows like Chess, Into the Woods, Mrs. Doubtfire, Waitress, The Producers, and The Heart of Rock and Roll. In a recent conversation, Latarro reflected on reimagining musical legacies, working with iconic collaborators, and navigating the industry as a mom who’s not afraid to do it all.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Chess is a tough show to crack. Did this production feel like working on a typical revival?
I felt like I was choreographing a new musical because there wasn’t a blueprint that existed, so we really came up with our own universe. It was thrilling to work with Michael [Mayer] and Danny [Strong] and Benny [Andersson] and Björn [Ulvaeus] and Tim [Rice]. Because the set is sort of like a rock concert, there’s space, so when it was time to dance, we got to really get up there and dance.

What were your personal goals for your work in the production?
I wanted Michael Bennett to be proud of me, looking down from the sky. Jerry Mitchell was his assistant; Jerry and Michael flew to London and ran these very legendary dance auditions, where every dancer came out. They were two weeks long. Full of dancing. The dancers who were there were interviewed, and they were talking about how it was the hardest dancing they’ve ever done.

And then Michael Bennett never came back to London. He got sick shortly after auditions. So, his ideas about what the show would look like never made it in any video, in any staging, in anything. I felt this immense, beautiful pressure to do something that he would be proud of. 

You’ve got two directing projects on tap, with Starstruck and Begin Again.
I’m working with Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls right now [on Starstruck] and for me, the Indigo Girls album Swamp Ophelia…I listened to that cassette tape in my bedroom in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. I know every note of those songs. I’m in the room with Emily and thinking “pinch me.” It’s the same thing with Train [for Begin Again]. The guys are so wonderful, and we’ve become very close friends. We were rewriting the opening number and I was sitting here with Pat Monahan thinking “whose life is this?”

Do you think of yourself as a rock-and-roll whisperer? Is it about the way the music moves?
For me, the story is king. Tommy moved very differently than Heart of Rock and Roll than Waitress than Chess.

With that kind of music that we all know, I think it’s on two planes of reality. You come into the theater or you’re in a rehearsal and the music already means something to you. You find meaning with it inside the story, so, to me, it has very magical powers. I don’t know about you, when I hear a song from seventh grade, eighth grade, whatever it is, I can almost smell the room I was in. I think of the Fairfield town pool and the songs that we played on the radio. I can smell the chlorine.

The storytelling is really the part of dancing that interests me the most. Maybe that’s why I’m so interested in directing.

How much of a shift was it from choreographer to director?
I’ve been very lucky that I’ve had these directors that I’ve worked for over the years that are truly exceptional. I’ve learned a lot from them, and I’ve always had a specific point of view as a choreographer. Now, it’s the same thing with directing, it’s just a bit more zoomed out. I like collaborating and I like working on new musicals, and the structure of a musical, after 30 years in the business on Broadway, is in my bones. 

When you’re directing, what is it like working with dancers and choreographers? Do you feel like you have to micromanage everything, given your whole-encompassing career?
Actually, the opposite, because I trust choreographers implicitly. I give them lots of breathing room because dancers are the hardest-working people in showbiz. I feel like I can trust them and then I can help and shape and curate. I start with very clear conversations in the beginning, and then we watch what they’ve done together and continue to shape it. 

How is it being a working mom in this industry?  You must have some unique challenges other moms who work regular jobs don’t encounter?
She’s at such a fun age. When I did The Producers in London last summer, I took my daughter with me, and I put her in camp in London. This summer, I’m directing Begin Again at the Old Globe and she’s coming with me. I’m putting her in sailing camp and San Diego Zoo camp. She’ll have a unique childhood. Sleep eludes me, but I’m living my dream and I’m living my motherhood dream, so I’m very, very happy.  

I was excited to see you nominated for a WhatsOnStage Award for The Producers. How did you like working in London?
This was my third time. Waitress was there and Mrs. Doubtfire was there, but this was my first time creating a show in London, as opposed to Waitress and Doubtfire, which were done in here and then we brought them there. The community in London is wonderful, and I found the whole cast extraordinary. I really enjoyed working with [director] Patrick Marber. We had a really good time together.