Rebecca Luker and Tiler Peck Share a Mutual Admiration (and a Character) in Little Dancer

For its two leading ladies, the new Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty musical Little Dancer is a reunion, all at the hands of director and choreographer Susan Stroman. In 2000, Stroman cast Rebecca Luker, one of Broadway's velvet-voiced goddesses, as Marian Paroo in her revival of The Music Man. Shortly after the show began its nearly two-year run at the Neil Simon Theatre, 11-year-old Tiler Peck joined the company as Gracie Shinn. Though Luker and Peck didn't have much interaction back then, they certainly do now.

Peck, now 25 and one of New York City Ballet's most gifted principal dancers, is not only reuniting with her Music Man costar, she's playing the same role as her. The character they share in this world premiere at The Kennedy Center is Marie van Goethem, a young dancer with the Paris Opera Ballet whose name would be lost to history had she not been immortalized by Edgar Degas in his 1881 sculpture "Little Dancer, Aged 14." As the older Marie looks back, Ahrens and Flaherty imagine her relationship with the artist and the way that his interest in her as a subject ended up ruining her life and career.

"It's a very different and difficult role," Luker notes of her part as Adult Marie. "This is a memory play. I'm telling the audience about my life and we go back in time. It's so complicated, really." While she's essentially narrating from the future-present, Peck, in the past, is experiencing the events firsthand. At certain points, though, their worlds collide. The dancer elaborates with an example. "My favorite scene," Peck mentions, "is where Rebecca is basically singing what I, being such a young girl, can't put into words. She's saying everything I want to say but couldn't."

Luker isn't a ballet dancer by trade, but she's learning. Peck, widely hailed as one of the best dancers of her generation, displays a prideful smile as she explains that Luker, who has been taking ballet for six months, joins in the company's daily warm-up class. "I do it just to get the feel of the ballet in my body," Luker says. "It's been really fun. I've just taken little dance classes here and there since college, but nothing big. I don't do a whole lot of dancing in this show. I would love to do more. I'm game."

Peck, meanwhile, is quickly getting used to talking. Despite baring her soul internationally in major roles by Balanchine, Robbins, and Wheeldon, she hasn't spoken on a stage since 2002. "Yesterday at the Guggenheim we did a sneak peek of the show and it was the first time I had a microphone on since The Music Man. It was like, 'Oh my gosh, I can really hear myself singing.' After the first time, it felt completely natural." "You're a pro," her elder self interjects with a similarly proud grin.

Even though they've been working together for weeks, the pair hasn't really had the chance to bond, something you'd expect would be crucial to the experience. "I feel like we'll get to know each other a lot better doing the show," says Luker. "I'm a real fan of Tiler's." "Me too," Peck concludes before a pregnant pause. "Not of myself," she corrects with a chuckle. "Of you."