Another Pittsburgh Marshall making it big

Rob Marshall's two sisters, Maura Powell and Kathleen Marshall, are pleased to report they knew him when — way back when — but maintained identities of their own.

Reached at her home in Alexandria, Va., Maura recalls growing up as the non-performer among showbiz-gifted siblings.

As Rob's 42-year-old twin sister, she's four minutes older. "And don't think I haven't milked that for all it's worth," she says. "I've known Rob longer than anyone else — about eight months longer. We were six to eight weeks premature."

Kathleen is two years younger.

Maura remembers Rob's talent beginning to manifest itself somewhere around age 6, 7 or 8. "We were always so interested in theater and music that we were surprised to find out when we went off to school that other families didn't spend their weekends listening to 'Carousel.'"

Their father, Robert Marshall, taught English at the University of Pittsburgh. Their mother, Anne, was an administrator in the Pittsburgh school system for many years and also taught at Pitt, heading the elementary education department there.

The children attended the Falk School, the laboratory school at Pitt, where a musical or operetta was put on every year.

"It was so much fun being part of that community," Maura says. "Even if you didn't have talent, you were in the show. I loved musicals, loved theater and went to musicals incessantly growing up, but performing just came along with that. I was 12 or 13 when I realized it wasn't what I wanted to do."

That was when, she says, "I decided I was not nearly as talented as my brother and sister. And also because I wanted to be my own person and have a different identity from the rest of the family. Rob and Kathleen were more interested in being in front of an audience."

But Maura has not completely bypassed the Marshall creativity gene — she owns an interior design and design-build company.

Rob began practicing his directing skills on his two sisters at a young age. "We did a couple of productions every year for my family, my parents," Maura says. "Then we took our show on the road to Boston — our parents are both from there — and took a whole trunk full of props and costumes and music."

It's local folklore that the three children appeared together as von Trapp children in Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera's 1973 production of "The Sound of Music." The following year's Civic Light Opera productions included Kathleen in "South Pacific" and Rob in "The King and I."

"And I was one of the 50 kids in 'The King and I,'" Maura says. "I really loved it."

She says it become obvious that Rob's career was taking on a life of its own sometime in high school. "But it was true for both he and Kathleen. They'd get everything they auditioned for. I guess for Rob, specifically, he was accepted at many colleges and conservatories before he picked Carnegie Mellon. We realized there was something special and different, more than him just dancing around the living room. "

Maura graduated from Brown University, Kathleen from Smith College.

Even living a few states away, Maura remains close to her brother and sister and sees everything they are involved in, including a New York screening of Kathleen's TV production of "The Music Man," which she choreographed, and "House of Flowers," an Encores! musicals-in-concert production, which she's directing.

Her favorites examples of Rob's would be "She Loves Me" — "A perfect bonbon," she says, "Kathleen was assistant on that." — and his "Promises, Promises" for Encores!

"For Kathleen," she says, "'Kiss Me, Kate' is the biggest thing and the best thing, especially the 'Too Darn Hot' number that just lifted you out of your seat."

So far, Maura has seen "Chicago" three times — at the Los Angeles premiere, the New York premiere and in her hometown with friends.

Nothing, she says, surprises her about Rob's success.

"Sometimes when I act surprised, my husband, Dennis, asks: 'Why are you surprised?' Because Rob is an incredibly talented person. I know how hard he works, and I see how he works around people. So I'm thrilled beyond words, but not surprised."

Although Rob Marshall's twin sister, Maura, elected not to pursue a career in show business, their younger sister, Kathleen Marshall, followed Rob to New York, and was assistant choreographer to him on a few shows.

Since then, she has been choreographing Broadway shows and directing and choreographing for the Encores! series, which does limited runs of seldom-revived musicals. Her Encores! production of "House of Flowers" runs Feb. 13 through 16 in New York City.

She also choreographed the new Disney TV production of "The Music Man" with Matthew Broderick, which premieres on ABC at 7 p.m. Feb. 16.

Question: Was it as clear to you when you were growing up as it was to Rob what you were going to do with your life•

Answer: I think we were fans before we ever thought this was something you could do for real. Our parents took Rob and Maura and me to everything — the opera, the ballet, the symphony, musicals, movies — before we had any formal lessons.

We just came home and imitated it and sang along with the records and made up our own shows. So we fell in love with it. The fact that it was going to be our careers didn't occur to me, at least, until high school. By then I was taking ballet lessons five days a week.

Q: Organizational skills were evident even then•

A: Yeah, now that I think about it, we did these little shows that had props and costumes and lighting and an opening number and a closing number. In a way, we were stumbling into learning about structure and the administrative part of it without being aware of it.

Q: Both you and Rob started as performers and wound up directing and choreographing.

A: In a way, we had a similar and natural progression — starting off as dancers, even when I was in the (Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera) ensemble in the summers during college. (Frequent CLO director) Susan Schulman, who got me my acting card, said: "Kathleen was always looking around the room and saying, 'Shouldn't we be doing this?'"

Robby had that — he was always looking at the big picture. He wasn't just honing his own skills. He was like a sponge with everything, watching rehearsals, paying attention to design, absorbing what he watched.

Q: Do you have a favorite example of your own Broadway work•

A: I think "Kiss Me, Kate." That was the culmination of a lot of things coming together — a show that I loved, a style of music and dancing that I connected with — a '40s style. I also loved doing it because it was a backstage musical; it's about our world. it was fun to put the world we live in onstage.

I think the scene I'm most proud of in it was "Too Darn Hot" because we created a little one-act play there. (Director) Michael Blakemore allowed me to develop that all.

The London company of "Kiss Me, Kate" was filmed and is going to be on PBS in February. (WQED will run it at 8 p.m. Feb. 26 on "Great Performances.")

Q: A favorite example of Rob's work•

A: I saw his "Cabaret" many times. It left me speechless. I was just stunned by the power of what he had done, how he had created this intense world with its own unique vocabulary of how these people moved, and it kept a high level of tension throughout.

When he did "Little Me," it was the Robby I know with his joy and exuberance and his wicked sense of humor. But I couldn't believe it when I saw this dark and intense piece of work in "Cabaret." It blew me away that he had the daring to go there.

Q: The revival of "Follies" you choreographed recently was comparably impressive in its environmental approach, but it drew an unexpectedly mixed response.

A: That cast. It was a dream to be in a room with those people — Marge Champion and Polly Bergen and Betty Garrett and one after the other. As I saw it, this was just "A" take on "Follies," one approach to the show. I wasn't prepared for the sense of ownership people have about that show.

I was surprised there seemed not to be an openness to accept a different approach.

Q: Anything on the docket after "House of Flowers"?

A: I'm going to choreograph the first Broadway production of "Little Shop of Horrors." (The long-running original played off-Broadway.) It will open in New York in August, which is a popular time all of a sudden because "Hairspray" was so successful opening last summer. You get a lot of attention when you're the only game in town.

It's still going to be a small cast, but we have some new technical tricks up our sleeve with the plant and a more fully realized set.

Q: Has the theater been selected yet•

A: We're not sure. We've looked at several. It's terrible because you feel like vultures flying around, seeing who's vulnerable, who's going to close by then.

Q: Now that all five members of the Marshall family have moved from Pittsburgh, is there anything that will bring you back•

A: I hope so. Ted Pappas (Pittsburgh Public Theater artistic director) is a friend, and I'd love to work at the Public.

Q: You were at the Los Angeles and New York premieres of "Chicago"?

A: When I see that movie I see everything that Robby loves, up on that screen. He loves theater and movies. It's his take on showbiz — loving it but also having an ironic approach to it.

By the time we saw the L.A. premiere, there had been a lot of other industry screenings, and the buzz was so good we were sort of nervous.

They were still making adjustments. Having known what the basic ideas for all the numbers were, I knew what was coming to a degree, but it was done with such assurance and clarity.

Rob obviously had these two parallel movies in his head, all mapped out. He knew exactly how he was going to boomerang back and forth from the reality to the fantasy. Each one of those zigzags is so specific, so planned out and smart. And you think: He had this all choreographed in his head. It blows me away. It's so wild, such a whirlwind. It's completely overwhelming and yet, knowing Robby, it not a surprise at all.