Pushkin

Friday the 19th of July 2002, the Schubert Theatre in Chicago.

The curtain was about to go up on the world premiere of a new show,

trumpeted as the new Broadway musical.

Yes, I know it wasn't on Broadway yet, but it was headed there.

It wasn't really a musical either.

Creatively the show broke down barriers between art forms.

It was innovative.

Across over between a concert, a musical, and a ballet,

the band was on stage playing and singing, while the cast danced and didn't utter a word.

But despite its boundary blurring nature, its creators had high hopes that it would be a commercial as well as critical success.

Big name investors had poured more than $8 million into the show.

Stuart Molina, a classical pianist and conductor who was on the show's creative team, was giddy with excitement.

Sometimes I have to pinch myself.

But while indeed Molina was orchestrating the music of a man who sold more records than Frank Sinatra or the Bee Gees or the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

In fact, he sold more records than all three of them put together.

Billy Joel.

But while Billy Joel was a huge star, Joel was in no doubt as to who was in charge.

If you stand in Twiler's way, you die, he said.

A giant of American choreography, a force of nature.

In the 1970s, she'd choreographed dances for the great ballet principal Mikhail Burishnikov.

In the 1980s, she'd worked with John Curry, the world and Olympic figure skating champion.

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