Susan Stroman | |
|---|---|
 Stroman in 2007 | |
| Born | (1954-10-17)October 17, 1954 (age 71) Wilmington, Delaware, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Choreographer, performer, theatre director |
| Years active | 1970s–present |
| Spouse | Mike Ockrent (1996–1999, his death) |
Susan P. Stroman[1] (born October 17, 1954) is an Americantheatre director,choreographer, andperformer. Her notable theater productions includeOklahoma!,The Music Man,Crazy for You,Contact,The Producers,The Frogs,The Scottsboro Boys,Bullets Over Broadway,POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, andNew York, New York.
She is a five-timeTony Award winner, four forBest Choreography and one asBest Director of a Musical forThe Producers. In addition, she is a recipient of twoLaurence Olivier Awards, five Drama Desk Awards, eight Outer Critics Circle Awards, two Lucille Lortel Awards, and the George Abbott Award for Lifetime Achievement in the American Theater.[2] She is a 2014 inductee in theAmerican Theater Hall of Fame in New York City.[3][4]
Stroman was born inWilmington, Delaware, the daughter of Frances (née Nolan) and Charles Harry Stroman.[5][6] She was exposed to show tunes by her piano-playing salesman father. She began studying dance, concentrating on jazz, tap, and ballet at the age of five. She studied underJames Jamieson at the Academy of the Dance in Wilmington. She majored in English at theUniversity of Delaware.[7] She performed, choreographed and directed at community theaters in the Delaware and Philadelphia area.
After graduating in 1976, she moved to New York City. Her first professional appearance was inHit the Deck at theGoodspeed Opera House in 1977. Later that year she was cast in the role of Hunyak[8] in the National tour ofChicago, which marked her first time working with composerJohn Kander and lyricistFred Ebb.
Her first Broadway credit was as an ensemble member in the 1979 musicalWhoopee!. In 1980 she was assistant director, assistant choreographer, and dance captain for the Broadway showMusical Chairs. Wanting to direct and choreograph instead of perform, Stroman concentrated on creating for the theater.[9] She worked in small venues as a director and choreographer in various industrial shows, club acts and commercials.[citation needed]
Stroman's big break as a choreographer came in 1987 with theOff-Broadway revival ofFlora the Red Menace (music byJohn Kander andFred Ebb) at theVineyard Theatre.[10] Her work there was seen byHal Prince, who hired her to create the dance sequences for hisNew York City Opera production ofDon Giovanni.
Her relationship with Kander and Ebb led to co-creating, along withScott Ellis andDavid Thompson, the 1991 hit Off-Broadway musicalAnd the World Goes 'Round. In 1992 she went on to choreographLiza Stepping Out at Radio City Music Hall[11] starringLiza Minnelli,[12] receiving an Emmy nomination for her work. Later that year she earned her third Broadway credit for her collaboration with director, and then-future husband,Mike Ockrent onCrazy for You. The show won theTony Award for Best Musical and she won her first Tony Award for Best Choreography.
In 1994, Stroman won her second Tony Award when she collaborated with Prince on a revival ofShow Boat, where she used some of her most innovative ideas. She added several dance montages to the show, complete with a revolving door, to help guide the audience through the generations that are covered in the show. Stroman heavily researched the period in which the show takes place and learned thatAfrican-Americans are credited for inventing theCharleston. She used that information in designing the montages, as the popular dance is introduced by and eventually appropriated from the black characters. In 1994, Stroman collaborated again with her husband Mike Ockrent on the holiday spectacularA Christmas Carol at Madison Square Garden, which ran for 10 years, and the Broadway musicalBig, The Musical (1996). She returned to her collaboration with Kander and Ebb, Ellis and Thompson on the Broadway musicalSteel Pier (1997). In 1999, her choreography ofOklahoma!, directed byTrevor Nunn at theRoyal National Theatre, won Stroman her secondOlivier Award for her outstanding choreography. Stroman's husband Mike Ockrent died fromleukemia on December 2, 1999.
She immersed herself in her work and directed and choreographed her first Broadway show as director, the 2000 revival ofThe Music Man. At the same time, Stroman was approached byLincoln Center Theater's artistic directorAndré Bishop, who offered assistance with developing the project of her choice. She andJohn Weidman, who had written the book forBig, began working on what would become the three-part "dance play"Contact, which she choreographed as well as directed. The show opened at Lincoln Center's Mitzi Newhouse Theater in the fall of 1999, and later transferred to the largerVivian Beaumont Theater, where it was reclassified as a musical. It won the 2000 Tony Award for Best Musical. Stroman won her third Tony Award for best choreography.Contact won a 2003 Emmy Award for Outstanding Classical Music-Dance Program when a live broadcast of the show appeared as an episode of PBS'sLive from Lincoln Center. For Lincoln Center Theater, Stroman went on to direct and choreographThou Shalt Not (2001) with music byHarry Connick Jr. andThe Frogs (2004) with book byNathan Lane.
In 2001, Stroman directed and choreographed theMel Brooks musicalThe Producers. Stroman's late husband, Ockrent, had initially been named to direct. It was a commercial success and won a record twelveTony Awards. Stroman won her fourth and fifth Tony Awards for direction and choreography, becoming the first woman to win both awards in the same night. She was also the second woman ever to winBest Direction of a Musical afterJulie Taymor in 1998. In 2005, she made her feature film directorial debut with afilm adaptation of the show. The movie was nominated for four Golden Globe Awards.
In 2007, she again collaborated with Brooks, as director and choreographer of the musicalYoung Frankenstein. In the fall of 2017, she and Brooks opened a newly revised version of the show at theGarrick Theatre in London's West End[13] after a successful tryout at theTheatre Royal inNewcastle.[14]
She directed and choreographed the musicalHappiness, which has a book byJohn Weidman, music byScott Frankel and lyrics byMichael Korie. The musical opened in February 2009 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater atLincoln Center.[15]
The musicalThe Scottsboro Boys opened at theVineyard Theatre in February 2010. The music is byKander and Ebb and the book is byDavid Thompson; Stroman both directed and choreographed.[16] The show later transferred to Broadway where it ran for 49 performances at theLyceum Theatre and received 12 Tony Award Nominations. Regional theaters such as theGuthrie Theater in Minneapolis, San Diego'sOld Globe,American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, and theAhmanson Theater in Los Angeles have all mounted successful productions of the show. In 2013, Stroman directed the UK premiere of the show at theYoung Vic in London.[17] After its successful run there, the show transferred to the West End where it was honored with the 2014 Evening Standard's Ned Sherrin Award.[18]
She co-directed with Hal Prince the new musicalParadise Found, which premiered at theMenier Chocolate Factory (London) on May 19, 2010. The cast includedMandy Patinkin,Judy Kaye andShuler Hensley.[19]
Stroman directed and choreographed the new musical,Big Fish with songs byAndrew Lippa and book by John August. The show, based on thebook andfilm of the same name, opened at theOriental Theater in Chicago in April and May 2013 and then ran on Broadway in September 2013 to December 2013.[20][21]
In 2014 she directed and choreographed a production ofThe Merry Widow for theMetropolitan Opera, starringRenee Fleming in the title role.
Stroman worked withWoody Allen on a musical adaptation of his filmBullets Over Broadway, titledBullets Over Broadway the Musical, which opened on Broadway in April 2014.[22]
She directed and choreographed the new musicalLittle Dancer, which ran at theKennedy Center, Eisenhower Theater from October 25, 2014, to November 30. The book and lyrics are byLynn Ahrens and music byStephen Flaherty.[23] In the spring of 2019 she directed and choreographedMarie, Dancing Still[24] for Seattle's5th Avenue Theatre. A newly reworked and retitled production ofLittle Dancer, the show starredTiler Peck reprising her title role alongsideTerrence Mann andLouise Pitre.
Stroman collaborated with Prince once again as co-director of a new musical entitledPrince of Broadway, a retrospective of the career and life of Hal Prince. The show has orchestrations and new material written byJason Robert Brown. The revue premiered in Tokyo at the Tokyu Theatre Orb in October 2015 and then ran in Osaka in November through December 2015, and featuredTony Yazbeck,Ramin Karimloo,Shuler Hensley andNancy Opel.[25][26] It premiered on Broadway on August 24, 2017, at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre as a co-production of theManhattan Theatre Club and Gorgeous Entertainment. The book is by David Thompson.[27]
In 2016 she returned to theVineyard Theatre to direct the playDot,[28] written byColman Domingo. The following year she directed and choreographed her fourth collaboration with the Vineyard Theatre,The Beast in the Jungle,[29] winning the 2018 Joe Callaway Award for excellence in choreography.[30] The music was composed byJohn Kander and the book written byDavid Thompson.
In April 2022, Stroman directed theBroadway playPOTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, bySelina Fillinger, at theShubert Theatre.[31]
Stroman directed and choreographed theChichester Festival Theatre revival ofCrazy for You, which transferred to the West End'sGillian Lynne Theatre in 2023.
Her next projects include the Broadwaymusical adaptation of the television seriesSmash and the playLeft on Tenth byDelia Ephron.[32][33]
In 2004, Stroman was the first woman to choreograph a full-length ballet forNew York City Ballet.Double Feature, with music byIrving Berlin andWalter Donaldson, is now in the New York City Ballet repertory.[34]
Stroman had previously worked with New York City Ballet in 1999, when she createdBlossom Got Kissed, featuring the music ofDuke Ellington, to celebrate the company's 50th Anniversary season. She later revisited the piece, choreographing three additional short dances to be performed alongside the original. This new expanded ballet entitledFor the Love of Duke premiered in May 2011.
In 1997 she createdBut Not for Me for theMartha Graham Company, using the music ofGeorge Gershwin.
The world premiere ofTake Five…More Or Less with The Pacific Northwest Ballet opened in 2008. Stroman combined jazz music byDave Brubeck and classical pointe work. The ballet is now in their repertoire.[35]
She appeared as herself in Season Four of the HBO seriesCurb Your Enthusiasm, directingLarry David andDavid Schwimmer in a production of the Broadway hit musicalThe Producers. In 2017 she returned to the show, choreographingLarry David's musicalFatwa!, starringLin-Manuel Miranda asSalman Rushdie.[36]
She has also made multiple appearances as herself on theFood Network'sBarefoot Contessa program, as she is a close friend of its host,Ina Garten.
Stroman received the American Choreography Award for her work in Columbia Pictures Feature filmCenter Stage (2000). In 2005, she directed the film version ofThe Producers.
Stroman received the Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre for 2018, presented by theYork Theatre Company.[38] Other notable awards includeGlamour Magazine's Woman of the Year Award[39] (2001), The George Abbott Award for Lifetime Achievement in the American Theater[40] (2002), and theSackler Center First Award[41] (2012) honoring extraordinary women who are first in their field.
She is a 2002New York Public Library "Library Lion" inductee[42] for Outstanding Achievement in Art, Culture, Letters and Scholarship and a 2014 inductee into New York City'sTheater Hall of Fame.[43]
In 2005 Stroman received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from theUniversity of Delaware.[44]
