Woodrow grad didn't see honor coming
This article appeared in the Register-Herald on June 4, 2002.By NEALE R. CLARK
Rob Ashford didn't have much voice left Monday morning, having spent much of Sunday night into the wee hours talking to people.
The 2002 Tony Award winning choreographer for "Thoroughly Modern Millie" said he was in a "total state of shock" when his name was announced during the CBS-televised awards show in Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
"It is truly a state of shock, that's the only way to describe it," said the man who started his career as Rob Davis, a 1978 Woodrow Wilson High School graduate, on the Theatre West Virginia stage at Grandview.
"I was overjoyed and overwhelmed, and a part of you kicks in that wants to be a good student and keep the one-minute time restriction (for acceptance speeches) and not have the music play over top of what you say. Those are the things that are running through your mind and you look out at 6,000 people and it's an unbelievable feeling."
Ashford said the award is particularly meaningful because it is not a popularity contest, rather an accolade from peers on Broadway.
"It means so much, it really does. The voters are quite a varied group, from the people who write the shows, the producers, directors, actors, choreographers' union, all of these groups that come together to make this decision. So it really does mean a lot."
Ashford said one reason he was so stunned was that he had no expectation of winning at all, figuring that five-time Tony winner Susan Stroman would win for her choreography on the revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma."
"She's a brilliant choreographer and director," he said. "She directed and choreographed 'The Producers' last year, which was the big hit of the century."
Ashford said he has worked for Stroman twice before and regards her as Broadway royalty.
"Thoroughly Modern Millie" was drawn from a 1967 movie of the same name, which Ashford said was "not a successful film but it had moments in it that everyone remembered. ... We had to deal with that - how are we going to treat the film, were we going to try to take a lot from it or try to recreate it on our own?"
For example, a memorable scene from the movie - about a 1920s girl who goes to New York City pursuing a dream - features Julie Andrews and Mary Tyler Moore tap-dancing in an elevator, something made dazzling with a movie camera but which becomes something totally different on stage.
When Ashford graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School 25 years ago, his original ambition was to become a trial lawyer, but working in the Washington and Lee University theater group and spending summers as an extra in Theatre West Virginia's outdoor dramas changed his mind.
After taking basic ballet lessons from local choreographer/instructor Toneta Akers-Toler, Ashford was hooked and knew what he wanted to do in life.
"I have to thank my family for their support all these years," he said.
"When I was at Washington and Lee in a pre-law program, I called my dad and said I'm not going to be a lawyer, I'm going to be a dancer and I'm changing colleges and going to Pittsburgh. My parents said, 'Whatever you want to do, we support you.' If they hadn't done that, there's no way I would have been standing up there Sunday night."