Dennis Grimaldi

Dennis Grimaldi an American theatrical producer, Director and Choreographer; who has worked on Broadway, Off Broadway, Television and on London's West End. His work include Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes and Annie Warbucks.

Born September 30 in Melrose Park, Illinois; Graduate of Proviso East High School, in Maywood, Illinois, studied dance at the Stone-Camryn School and Gail Larry School. Under the tutelage of the Russian actress Eugenia Leontovich, Dr. John Reich and Dr Charles McGaw; graduated on scholarship from The Theatre School of DePaul University Goodman School of Drama), also studied at The University of Indiana. As an actor, co-starred with Hiram Sherman in the Feydeau farce, A Flea in Her Ear, Caesar and Cleopatra with Carrie Snodgrass and Murray Matheson, The Sound of Music with Dorothy Collins, The pre-Broadway tour of Wright and Forrest's musical Song for Cyrano (Cyrano) starring and directed by José Ferrer, and Follies; to name a few. As a dancer, also appeared in Man of La Mancha, Hello, Dolly!, Promises, Promises, Sugar; among other productions.

After several injuries as a dancer, he began a career as a choreographer and director; during that time, he formed Dennis Grimaldi Productions and pursued an active career as a stage producer as well as television; For the stage,first worked as an "Associate to the Producers" on the Broadway production of A. R. "Pete" Gurney's Sweet Sue starring Mary Tyler Moore and Lynn Redgrave. Currently under the production company, "Standing CO Vation", he is Co-producer of the Tony-winning George and Ira Gershwin musical, Nice Work If You Can Get It by Tony winner Joe DiPietro. The musical received 10 Tony nominations, 9 Drama Desk nominations and 9 Outer Critics Circle nominations. It stars two-time Tony Award winner Matthew Broderick, Tony Nominee Kelli O'Hara and Academy Award winner and Tony nominee Estelle Parsons; directed by Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall. For the 2011 season he was involved with the highly successful musical production of A Christmas Story (Karen Mason and John Bolton); a Broadway version opened in November 2012,at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre starring Dan Lauria as Jean Sheppard, John Bolton as the Old Man and Erin Dilly as the Mother. In the fall of 2012 he was to co-produce the musical Rebecca based on the Daphane DuMurier novel. Directed by Tony Award winning director, Michael Blakemore and will star Ryan Silverman, Jill Paice, Howard McGillian, Karen Mason and John Barbour and Nick Wyman. The production was stalled due to the collapse of a Ponzi scheme by an investment team which collected tens of thousands of dollars from the production with the promise of deep pocketed investors. The team, Mark and Sherri Hotton were caught and arrested and charged with wire fraud and await sentencing as of November 2012. As a producer, other productions on Broadway and Off Broadway include the 2011 Broadway revival of the Stephen Schwartz musical Godspell; Leslie Jordon My Trip Down The Pink Carpet; Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes (Ron Liebman, Marcia Gay Harden, Jeffrey Wright); Other People's Money (Mercedes Ruehl); the Olivier Award winning Rise and Fall of Little Voice (Rondi Reed); Girl's Room (with Carol Lawrence and Donna McKecknie); Sally Marr (with Joan Rivers); Grace & Glorie (with Lucie Arnaz and Estelle Parsons); Tom Stoppard's Artist Descending a Staircase (Harold Gould, John McMartin); The Boys in the Band revival (with Michael Siebert); Any Given Day (with Sada Thompson) and Party. The musicals Richard Corey; Nunsense Jamboree, Fanny Hill and Annie Warbucks (Harve Presnell and Donna McKechnie); London's Evening Standard Award winning Burning Blue (Chad Lowe), Like Love by Lewis Flinn and Barry Kaplan; the musical adaptation of A.R. Gurney's Richard Cory by Ed Dixon; among others. He has also been associated with Emmanuel Azenberg on the Neil Simon productions of Lost in Yonkers (Kevin Spacey, Mercedes Reuhl) and London Suite (Carole Shelley, Jeffrey Jones) as well as Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life with The Producer Circle and David Mamet's The Cryptogram (Felicity Huffman, Ed Begley, Jr). His many London productions on the West End and The Fringe include The Boys in the Band, Stephen Sondheim's Marry Me A Little (choreographer/associate director), the comedic actor Jack Gilford in Look To the Rainbow (choreographer/associate director) and John Lahr's Diary of a Somebody. He was also an associate producer for Candid Productions, a television production company, for 15 years; producing programing for ABC, NBC and HBO, Many of the shows he was also choreographer. He was awarded the Robert Whitehead Award for Excellence in Theatre Production, The NY Film and Television Gold Medal Awards, The Outer Critics Awards and The Carbonell Award. Productions have earned The Drama Desk, Tony Awards, as well as The Pulitzer Prize.