All things grow: Justin Peck is transforming Sufjan Stevens’ album into ‘Illinoise,’ a different kind of stage musical

NEW YORK — The choreographer Justin Peck shot to theatrical fame with the 2018 Broadway revival of “Carousel,” then for Steven Spielberg’s 2021 movie “West Side Story,” and in this New York rehearsal room, the lush melodies of Richard Rodgers and Leonard Bernstein seem to be lingering in the air.

But Peck, who is still only 36, is actually intently working to the music of his friend Sufjan Stevens, a Detroit-born singer-songwriter whose deeply esoteric music has variously been described as indie rock, electronica, baroque pop, chamber pop or even folktronica. Stevens is one of those musicians whose name spoken in a bar elicits either blank stares or instant rhapsodic monologues — as you might expect from one whose work often has featured unusual instrumentation and such song subjects as birds, freeways, zodiac symbols and figure skaters.

Stevens’ followers, though, are akin to Stephen Sondheim groupies., “he’s shown that he can crush your chest like an empty can regardless of whether he’s playing 20 instruments or one.”