Career
Stroman's big break as a choreographer came in 1987 when director Scott Ellis hired her for his Off-Broadway revival of Flora the Red Menace (music by John Kander and Fred Ebb) at the Vineyard Theatre in Greenwich Village. Her work there was seen by Hal Prince, who hired her to work on the dance sequences for his New York City Opera production of Don Giovanni Her relationship with Kander and Ebb led to co-creating, with Ellis and David Thompson, the hit Off-Broadway musical And the World Goes 'Round in 1991. She went on to choreograph Liza Stepping Out at Radio City Music Hall in 1992, receiving an Emmy nomination for her work. She earned her third Broadway credit for her collaboration with director, and then-future husband, Mike Ockrent on Crazy for You in 1992. The show won the Tony 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 of Show Boat, where she unleashed 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 African-Americans are credited for inventing the Charleston. 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 spectacular "A Christmas Carol" at Madison Square Garden, which ran for 10 years, and the Broadway show Big, The Musical (1996). She returned to her collaboration with Kander and Ebb, Ellis and Thompson on the Broadway show Steel Pier (1997). In 1999, her choreography of Oklahoma!, directed by Trevor Nunn at The Royal National Theater, won Stroman her second Olivier Award for her outstanding choreography. Her husband Mike Ockrent lost his battle with leukemia on December 2, 1999
She immersed herself in her work and directed and choreographed her first Broadway show as director, the 2000 revival of The Music Man. At the same time, Stroman was approached by Lincoln Center Theater's artistic director Andre Bishop, who offered assistance with developing the project of her choice. She and John Weidman, who had written the book for Big, 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 larger Vivian 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’s Live from Lincoln Center. For Lincoln Center Theater, Stroman went on to direct and choreograph Thou Shalt Not (2001) with music by Harry Connick Jr. and The Frogs (2004) with book by Nathan Lane. Stroman received the American Choreography Award for her work in Columbia Pictures Feature film Center Stage (2000). In 2001, Stroman directed and choreographed Mel Brooks' musical The Producers. Stroman's late husband, Ockrent, had initially been named to direct. It was a commercial success and won a record twelve Tony Awards. Stroman won her fourth and fifth Tony Award for direction and choreography. She was the first woman to win in these two categories at the same time. In 2005, she made her feature film directorial debut with a film 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 musical Young Frankenstein. She is both director and choreographer of the musical Happiness, which has a book by John Weidman. The musical opened in 2009 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center.
The musical The Scottsboro Boys opened at the Vineyard Theatre in February 2010. The music is by Kander and Ebb and the book is by David Thompson; Stroman both directed and choreographed. The show later transferred to Broadway where it ran for 49 performances at the Lyceum Theatre and received 12 Tony Award Nominations. Regional theaters such as San Diego’s Old Globe and the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco have mounted successful productions of the show. The Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles recently announced a production for 2013 Stroman will recreate the Broadway production in its UK premiere at the Young Vic in London from October 2013.
She co-directed with Hal Prince the new musical Paradise Found, which premiered at the Menier Chocolate Factory(London) on May 19, 2010. The cast included Mandy Patinkin, Judy Kaye and Shuler Hensley. She is collaborating with Prince once again as co-director of a new musical entitled Prince of Broadway, a retrospective of the career and life of Hal Prince.
She is the director and choreographer of a new musical, Big Fish with songs by Andrew Lippa and book by John August. The show, based on the book and film of the same name, will open at the Oriental Theater in Chicago before heading to Broadway in fall of 2013.
Stroman is working with Woody Allen on a musical adaptation of his film Bullets Over Broadway, slated to open on Broadway in spring of 2014.
Read more about this topic: Ballets By Susan Stroman
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