Christopher Gattelli

Christopher Gattelli is an American choreographer, director, and performer who grew up in Bristol, Pennsylvania. He began dancing at the age of eight and went on to become a grand champion on Star Search. His Broadway performing career spanned from 1982 to 1999 and included appearances in Cats, in which he played Pouncival, as well as the revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Fosse.

Gattelli is best known as a choreographer, with his work on the 2012 Broadway musical Newsies earning him both a Tony Award for Best Choreography and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography. His Off-Broadway choreographic credits include Altar Boyz (2005), Adrift in Macao (2007), I Love You Because (2006), How to Save the World and Find True Love in 90 Minutes (2006, which he also directed), tick, tick...BOOM!, Dogfight, and Bat Boy: The Musical (2001). In regional theatre, his choreography credits include The Baker's Wife at Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey (2005), Tom Jones (2004), tick, tick...BOOM! (2004, with a London Fringe production following in 2005), Me and My Girl, and O. Henry's Lovers at the Goodspeed Opera House (2003).

Gattelli has also directed and choreographed several benefit concerts, among them Chess (2003), Hair (Actors Fund, 2004, which he co-directed), and Chance and Chemistry: A Centennial Celebration of Frank Loesser (Actors Fund, October 2009, which he also directed). He directed Jim Henson's Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut in 2008 and choreographed Julie Andrews' The Great American Mousical at the same venue in 2012. His production of The Jungle Book played both the Goodman Theatre and the Huntington Theatre Company in 2013. Additional directing credits include SILENCE! The Musical, a spoof that ran at NYCFringe in 2005, and the musical staging for Little Miss Sunshine. His West End and London credits include South Pacific and Sunday in the Park with George.

In 2014, Gattelli collaborated with composer Stephen Flaherty on the world premiere of In Your Arms, which he directed and choreographed for New York Stage and Film's Powerhouse Theater at Vassar. He subsequently directed and choreographed the same production at the Old Globe Theatre in September 2015. That same year, he directed and choreographed the Spring 2014 lab of RKO's Top Hat in New York, a new version of the 2011 London stage production developed with Chad Beguelin, which Gattelli noted in January 2017 remained several seasons away from production.

Beyond the stage, Gattelli served as resident choreographer for The Rosie O'Donnell Show and contributed choreography to the Coen Brothers feature film Hail, Caesar!. He choreographed the Apple TV+ musical comedy series Schmigadoon! in both 2020 and 2023. Gattelli is openly gay.