Susan Stroman Biography

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Susan Stroman (born October 17, 1954 in Wilmington, Delaware) is a Broadway director, choreographer, film director and performer.

Exposed to show tunes by her piano-playing salesman father, Stroman began studying dance, concentrating on jazz, tap, and ballet at the age of five. She majored in theatre at the University of Delaware; her first professional appearance was in Hit the Deck at the Goodspeed Opera House in 1974. After graduating in 1976, she moved to New York City.

Stroman's first big break came when director Scott Ellis hired her to choreograph his off-Broadway revival of Flora the Red Menace at the Vineyard Theatre in Greenwich Village in 1987. 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. She earned her first Broadway credit for her collaboration with director (and future husband) Mike Ockrent on Crazy for You in 1992.

Stroman collaborated with Hal Prince on a revival of Show Boat in 1994 where she unleashed some of her most innovative ideas as 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 that African-Americans are credited for inventing the Charleston. She used that piece of information in one of the montages, as the popular dance is introduced by and eventually appropriated from the black characters. Stroman won a Tony for her work as choreographer in 1995. (Grode, Eric. "Susan Stroman-Woman of Steel." ShowMusic The Musical Theatre Magazine Spring, 1997: 37+.)

Suffering two major failures with big, The Musical (1996) and Steel Pier (1997), Stroman was approached by Lincoln Center's artistic director Andre Bishop, who offered her assistance in 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. The show opened at Lincoln Center's Mitzi Newhouse Theater in the fall of 1999, and later transferred upstairs to the larger Vivian Beaumont Theater (where it was reclassified as a musical).

While preparing for Mel Brooks' musical version for The Producers, Stroman's husband Ockrent lost his battle with leukemia, and she assumed the reins of the production. Its huge success - and record twelve Tony Awards - proved to be a bittersweet triumph for the grieving widow. In 2005, she made her directorial debut as a feature filmmaker with a big-screen adaptation of that musical.

Stage credits

• 1987 Flora, The Red Menace (Choreographer) (off-Broadway)
  
• 1989 Don Giovanni (Choreographer) (New York City Opera)
  
• 1990 A Little Night Music (Choreographer) (New York City Opera)
  
• 1991 And the World Goes 'Round (Conceiver/Choreographer) (off-Broadway)
  
• 1992 Crazy For You (Choreographer) (Broadway)
  
• 1994 Picnic (Choreographer of Musical Interludes) (Broadway)
  
• 1994 A Christmas Carol (Choreographer) (Madison Square Garden)
  
• 1994 Show Boat (Choreographer) (Broadway)
  
• 1994 Big The Musical (Choreographer) (Broadway)
  
• 1997 Steel Pier (Choreographer/Conceiver) (Broadway)
  
• 1998 Oklahoma! (Choreographer) (London)
  
• 1999 Contact (Director/Choreographer/Book Writer) (Broadway)
  
• 2000 The Music Man (Director/Choreographer) (Broadway)
  
• 2001 The Producers (Director/Choreographer) (Broadway)
  
• 2001 Thou Shalt Not (Director/Choreographer/Conceiver) (Broadway)
  
• 2002 Oklahoma! (Choreographer) (Broadway)
  
• 2004 The Frogs (Director/Choreographer) (Broadway)
  

Director Filmography

• 2005 The Producers
  

Awards and nominations

• 1992 Tony Award for Best Choreography for Crazy for You
  
• 1995 Tony Award for Best Choreography for Show Boat
  
• 1996 Tony Nomination for Best Choreography for Big
  
• 1997 Tony Nomination for Best Choreography for Steel Pier
  
• 2000 Tony Award for Best Choreography for Contact
  
• 2000 Drama Desk Award for Best Choreography for Contact
  
• 2000 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Direction for Contact
  
• 2000 Tony Nomination for Best Choreography for The Music Man
  
• 2000 Tony Nomination for Best Director for Contact
  
• 2000 Tony Nomination for Best Director for The Music Man
  
• 2001 Tony Award for Best Choreography for The Producers
  
• 2001 Tony Award for Best Director for The Producers
  
• 2001 Drama Desk Award for Best Director of a Musical for The Producers
  
• 2001 Drama Desk Award for Best Choreography for The Producers
  
• 2001 Drama League's Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theatre Award
  
• 2002 Laurence Olivier Award for Choreography for Oklahoma!
  
• 2002 Tony Nomination for Best Choreography for Oklahoma!
  

External links

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• Susan Stroman Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing
  

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