John Leggio is a talent whose motto might be "You ain't seen nothin' yet." Which is not to downplay three years of Leggio's choreography and onstage performances at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. In fact, Leggio, who this year won the Planet's Best of the Bay award for his choreography, has more than proven himself in shows like Swing! Swing! Swing!, The World of Jacques Brel and Televisions. But the point is, he feels that he's capable of much more. And he's working to show it.
"Really what I've wanted to do in moving here is to find a place where I can develop a theater and really bring all that I've learned to that theater, and try to build something," he says.
So Leggio has sent out resumes all over Florida, and, without loosening his connection to TBPAC, has been developing a relationship with the Showpalace Dinner Theater in Hudson. The Showpalace, he says, is a venue "where I've been able to direct and choreograph shows, and that's been probably the highlight of my time in Florida. Because I'm able to cast the shows and go all out with what I can do with my talent."
Last summer he choreographed Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Showpalace, and "I was able to get some really wonderful talent to do the show. And Kissy (Vaughan) was the narrator, and it really was a huge success."
Right now, though, it's TBPAC and A Rockin' Christmas — for which he's both choreographer and performer — that's most on Leggio's mind. The show, which opens this weekend, starts as a tour of Christmas tunes from the '40s and '50s, then moves ahead to the new millennium. It's more about song than about dance, but Leggio says he enjoys the challenge of working with performers who aren't primarily dancers. "I do enjoy working with singers who move well," he says, "'cause I love to teach too, and I love to inspire people."
As for his relationship with the show's director, Claude McNeal: "He allows me now, he trusts me, so pretty much I'm able to say, "Let me go ahead and put this up, and then let me invite you to come back and look at it, and then you can give me some ideas if you want me to do something else.' Whereas at the beginning it was more, he was there the whole time watching me and stopping me as I was going. But the more he began to trust that I could do it, and that we worked well, then he pretty much gave me the freedom."
Leggio, 35, has lived in Orlando since February 1998, but was born and raised in Kansas City, Mo. When he was 16, he participated as singer and gymnast in an inspirational performance group that visited New York City. While there, he saw several shows and was particularly impressed by the dancing in Cats. He returned to K.C. and began to study dance seriously. Then he "got lucky and got a few shows in Kansas City" working with John Kander and Fred Ebb (of Cabaret fame). He went to the University of Missouri as a dance major, was given work at Nashville's Opryland theme park and after that at Disney World.
Then the chance came to try out for the show that had so powerfully influenced his career: Cats. He auditioned in Miami "and they gave it to me on the spot." From the touring company he moved to the Broadway company, where he played the role of Mungo Jerrie. He stayed in New York for about 10 years but dreamed of moving to Florida for the most obvious reasons: "I just love the sun. I hate cold weather."
He admits that living in this area is often problematic because "there's not a lot of theater per se in Florida, especially in Orlando, there's hardly any. So it's a challenge for me to find places that one, have a job opening, and two, I guess I've found that a lot of theaters the talent level isn't as strong when it comes to dancers, so it limits what I can do." He also finds that sometimes the performers in Florida don't match the level of passion he got used to in New York: "I feel like I almost have to hold back a lot and that even a lot of theaters aren't used to my intensity … so that's frustrating for me."
Leggio's excited, though, about A Rockin' Christmas, which he thinks will be more meaningful to audiences after the trauma of Sept. 11. "I think that it's just going to affect the audience a lot more than it might have before," he says. ""Peace on Earth' is going to mean a whole lot more now. And Claude and Stan Collins wrote a song that is really an incredible song I think, and it's about people going off to war, and it's a very up and inspirational number that is kind of like a "God Bless the USA' kind of song."
He also thinks that the cast of A Rockin' Christmas — Vaughan, Colleen McDonnell, Maggie Lynn Held, Jonathan Harrison and Leggio himself — is "one of the strongest casts there that they've had altogether."
Leggio is an impressive talent who sings, dances, choreographs and directs. His work at TBPAC, he suggests, is just part of the story: Keep your eyes open and you just might discover how much more John Leggio can do.
'Cause you ain't seen nothin' yet.
Enter Neil DeGroot. American Stage has hired an interim artistic director to replace Kenneth Noel Mitchell at least until Jan. 31.
Neil DeGroot is a multitalented producer/director who has been involved with American Stage at various times in its history. From 1981 to '89 he worked at the St. Petersburg theater as SchoolTour manager, actor and director. He also served as associate artistic director under Victoria Holloway during the 1987-88 and 1988-89 seasons.
DeGroot is currently one of three partners running Watershed Films, a Los Angeles-based film and TV production company. Since 1988, his film and TV producing and directing credits include Southern Cross, Last Perfect Wave, Vampire Wars and Return of the Red Pirate. His most recent film is The Forsaken, released nationally by Sony Pictures.
Former artistic director Mitchell was asked to resign by American Stage's Board of Trustees in October, largely because of ongoing disputes with Managing Director Lee Manwaring Lowry. Mitchell was American Stage's third artistic director to be let go in the last four years.
This article appears in Dec 6-12, 2001.
