Marilyn has inspired a new ballet, as Amy Leona Havin reports for Oregon Arts Watch.
“Oregon Ballet Theatre’s contemporary world premiere Marilyn, created and choreographed by artistic director Dani Rowe, promises an untold look at the life of Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe through the lens of the actress.
A co-production with BalletMet and Tulsa Ballet, it opened April 4 at downtown Portland’s Newmark Theatre, continues through April 13, and features an original music score by OBT composer and former San Francisco Ballet dancer Shannon Rugani.
The curtains rose at the Saturday, April 5, performance to a young dancer sitting on the floor, arms wrapped around her knees. Isla Ferreira played the child version of Marilyn Monroe … eventually replaced by Hannah Davis as the adult Norma Jeane.
The core cast of Marilyn was small, featuring Jessica Lind as Marilyn Monroe, performing gracefully while taking on a doe-eyed and bewildered portrayal. Benjamin Simoens, Brian Simcoe, John-Paul Simoens, and Bailey Shaw represented the men in her life, with roughly 18 other dancers filling in roles of extras, paparazzi, backup dancers, actors, and directors. The dancers performed the dramatic contemporary style well and with clarity, appearing to have fun while depicting Marilyn’s well-known imagery.
A particularly satisfying moment included Monroe resting in a bubble bath, perhaps drawing from her 1955 movie The Seven Year Itch, while dancers in bubble-adorned gold costumes, designed by Emma Kingsbury, moved in unison.
The choreography here was sweet and simple, drawing on Hollywood’s beloved chorus girls circa Monroe’s 1948 Ladies of the Chorus and other early ‘50s films — originating in ‘20s silent film shorts like Larry Ceballos’ 1929 The Roof Garden Revue and dating even further back to the Parisian music halls and cabarets of the late 1800s, including the Moulin Rouge and Folies Bergère (branching off to become showgirls made popular in Las Vegas with the El Rancho Vegas casino acts in the ‘40s.)
Rowe’s Marilyn, which takes us through many of the high and low points of Monroe’s life, revolves around the men she interacted with and offers a voyeuristic take on the star’s short life. Through period costumes and a large, spacious set, Rowe presents Monroe’s familiar story for the American audience to consider once again.”
Writing for Pointe magazine, Kyra Laubacher discovered how the show was staged.
“The idea for Marilyn was born from a conversation between Dani Rowe and designer Emma Kingsbury after Kim Kardashian appeared at the 2022 Met Gala wearing Monroe’s iconic ‘Happy Birthday, Mr. President’ dress. Shortly after Rowe joined OBT in 2023, she met with Portland philanthropist and fine art collector Jordan Schnitzer, who shared with her his collection of screen prints from Andy Warhol’s Monroe series. Schnitzer explains that Warhol’s print of Monroe, created after her death in 1962, is one of the most well-known images in the world. ‘Ultimately, it’s Warhol’s image of her that cemented her legacy,’ he says.
While researching other Warhol pieces, Rowe was especially struck by his 1962 Marilyn Diptych—its juxtaposition of vivid, potent colors to faded black-and-white copies, she says, indicated to her a stark duality and layeredness to Monroe’s character. ‘Everybody has our light and our dark,’ she states.
The other crucial element in conjuring Monroe’s life onstage is fashion, says Kingsbury. As costume designer, one of her goals has been to pay homage to William Travilla, the designer behind the actress’s most memorable looks. ‘These designs live in this world of iconography, and the cult of celebrity,’ she says, adding that most will be immediately recognisable to audience members. (Think Monroe standing on the subway grate wearing the white halter dress in a promo for The Seven Year Itch, or the pink strapless gown from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.) ‘We’re touching on those commercial moments of Marilyn as a stark contrast to the other sides of her life that were so private and so incredibly painful.’
For the set design, Kingsbury and her co-designer, David Fin, created an adaptable space inspired by Los Angeles and the Hollywood studios and soundstages where Marilyn spent her working life (especially the Gentlemen set) with moving parts that allows for transitions between different scenes, The adaptability of the set also creates a ‘liminal’ effect, Kingsbury says – another way the themes of layers and iconography show up in the ballet.”
Shannon Rugani discussed writing the score in an interview for the Tahoe Daily Tribune…
“Rugani’s experience as a dancer and Broadway performer gave her an ear for accompaniment and what an audience and dancer would enjoy. ‘These strong melodies are really fun to dance to and my greatest gift to the dancers who will perform to this… I keep saying I’m jealous that I don’t get to dance to it,’ she said.
The full ballet includes homage to two iconic Marilyn Monroe performances: ‘Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend’ and ‘Happy Birthday Mr. President.’ Rugani said there was high pressure to compose a score that wouldn’t just recreate the music, but embody the spirit of how Marilyn Monroe performed.
Capturing her story in an empowering way was important for the team. Rugani recalled a time when Rowe asked her to reimagine the score for a scene with photographers. Rather than seeing them as sleazy paparazzi, Rowe told her that Monroe wanted to be photographed, it represented a chance for her to climb up the social ladder.
Rugani also drew on her experience as a mother to write what she felt was one of the most heart-rending moments of the score: Marilyn Monroe’s miscarriage. ‘It was devastating to write that, but it allowed me to emotionally be there for Marilyn—and anyone in the audience that could understand how she felt,’ said Rugani.”
Another review…
“Monroe is The Beatles of beauty … Was the story as untold as advertised? Hardly. Monroe’s mother Gladys (Eva Burton) dances free of the grip of little Norma Jean (Charlotte Zogas) in the first act, broad-stroking her rough upbringing and early life as shadowy men in suits chase her across her marriages … The costuming is easily digestible—DiMaggio tosses a baseball, John F. Kennedy (Bailey Shaw) wears the fanciest suit, and Miller stares at Monroe through glasses like a nerd.
Jessica Lind as Monroe is delicate yet agile in a surprisingly acrobatic ballet. A sequence in the second act sees Monroe pursue the monochromatic, uniformed march of motherhood that Lind performs with both pure glee and utterly crushing disappointment after miscarriage. Company dancers realise Monroe’s champagne and quaalude bubble dreams, closing with a full-cast dance with every character from her too-short life.”
– Andrew Jankowski, Willamette Week
And finally, Marilyn will come to Tulsa’s Lorson Performance Centre in April 2026, with a further stop in Columbus, Ohio also planned – so watch this space!
The Marilyn Report 