Casey Nicholaw earned his first Tony Award nomination with his choreographic debut: 2005’s Spamalot. Since then, the performer turned choreographer turned director-choreographer has become the go-to guy for classic musical comedy. He’s helmed The Drowsy Chaperone, The Book of Mormon (for which he won his Tony), Aladdin, and Something Rotten! to name a few.

With the Broadway bow of the musical adaptation of Tina Fey’s Mean Girls, Nicholaw has earned his ninth and tenth Tony nods for his choreography and direction of a musical. Even though he’s a mainstay on the Main Stem, one thing still excites him with each Broadway opening. “I still walk down the street and see ‘Mean Girls directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw’ and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, look at that,’” he says. “It does not get old because it was my lifelong dream as a little boy, as an eight-year-old listening to my parents’ Music Man album.”

Nicholaw is especially proud of this production for its 12 total Tony nominations. “Isn't that what you really want? You want something for everyone,” he says. “And we have 13 Broadway debuts in the show and it means the world to them. To me, that's infectious.”

Watch the full video interview above and catch Nicholaw and the cast in this spoofed Mean Girls audition for the Saturday Night Live season finale hosted by Fey: