Just in case the episode’s title wasn’t enough of a tip off, tonight’s HOUSE, appropriately titled “Bombshells” is kind of a big deal! So much so that director Greg Yaitanes and star Lisa Edelstein took some time out of their busy shooting schedule to preview just what happens when a despondent Cuddy’s altered mental state takes audiences ona magical mystery tour throughout a half-dozen dream sequences, one of which was choreographed by SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE’s Mia Michaels. But hey, don’t take our word for it, see for yourself after the jump.
Lisa Edelstein: Well I know for me it was great just to be in different costumes. We had a lot of fun doing the different styles that we did. We’ve been on this show for a long time, so it was like having a week off and just playing around. It was hugely entertaining.
Greg Yaitanes: Lisa channels a mean Robert Redford. It was actually great to see how much Hugh and Lisa, especially, just dove into all these different ideas and genres. It was like they got to do five different movies all within one week.
Greg Yaitanes: I was a fan of the show and had met Mia a couple months prior to getting the script to this episode. The second I had read the script, which basically said House and Cuddy sing a Housean version of Get Happy, and there was a couple of story points that happened within that dance sequence, and I texted Mia to see if she was going to be around and available. She was, and we made a deal. What was interesting about this is, that I think is so different than so many other musicals, is that the arrangement, the choreography, and everything about it was happening simultaneous to each other. So Mia was influencing the musical arrangement. The musical arrangement was influencing the choreography, John Erlich’s work. John Erlich, our composer, and Mia Michaels were incredibly collaborative, and then once they kind of got the ball rolling started some pretty intense rehearsal sessions with Hugh and Lisa.
Lisa Edelstein: I’m a big admirer of Mia Michaels, and I also watched that show religiously. So I was really excited, not just to…
Greg Yaitanes: It was like a Mia Michaels fan club here. I don’t think we’ve had anybody either on the show or around the office in which more people were lined up to want to meet her and talk to her, and it was everything you could imagine. She was fantastic. She really directed that sequence, and that was the thing we wanted. We basically stuck a straw in her head and sucked out what her idea was. She created that world that takes place in the choreography; worked on the costuming, set design. It’s like within the episode I directed, that these two and a half minutes were directed by Mia.
Lisa Edelstein: We don’t get any notice. It’s not like, “In two months, you’re going to be dancing.” It’s no Black Swan. I didn’t have a year to go train.
Greg Yaitanes: It all happened very quickly.
Lisa Edelstein: It was just sort of like, “Guess what? Next week Mia Michaels is going choreograph a super, fantastic dance sequence.” Then I got together with Mia. We had the first rehearsal for about four hours, and then I think the next time I saw her was on stage. We had one dress rehearsal and the following day we shot. So I really had maybe five hours.
Greg Yaitanes: I love the “Butch and Sundance” sequence. Mostly because if you take the original film, I mean down to Hugh and Lisa’s choices of the way that they approached the scene is very much with the same intention that Newman and Redford went at it. Just from a shot for shot technical standpoint, we recreated the sets and recreated the staging and the shot design and all the technical aspects, but I just love seeing—Lisa playing Redford, I just can’t get over it. Every time I see it, I just love it. She just does so many great things.
Lisa Edelstein: It was pretty funny. We were shooting guns. They had blanks of course, but it’s always scary when somebody’s handling a weapon on the set. It’s dangerous even if it’s blanks, and every time you put the gun back in your hand they have to check to make sure it’s just blanks and that there are blanks. It’s a whole process you go through. Still when we ran out of the building to fire, people ducked. So they really didn’t trust me that much.
Greg Yaitanes: I think here there’s—Cuddy’s going through a health crisis at this particular time, which with any crisis in your life gives you pause and you just really have to look at your life very hard and truly what’s going on in your life. So I think this is a great episode of a lot of inner reflection.
Lisa Edelstein: Everything is sort of coming to a head. All the truths about who these people are, how they relate to each other. 
HOUSE airs Monday at 8PM on FOX (Global TV in Canada)