Robert Cohen - Theatre, Brief Version-McGraw-Hill Education (2016)

Theatre 149
Photo Essay: Director Susan Stroman
No director-choreographer has
captured turn-of-this-century
Broadway audiences and critics of
musical theatre better than Susan
Stroman, who won Tony Awards for
both her direction and choreography
of The Producers in 2001, and Tony
nominations in both of those categories
for Scottsboro Boys in 2011—along
with three Tonys and five nominations
for her earlier work in Crazy for You,
Showboat, Contact, Steel Pier, The
Music Man, Oklahoma, and Young
Frankenstein. Recent Broadway credits
include the film adaptations Big Fish
and Bullets over Broadway; in 2015
she branched out to opera with a
well-reviewed production of The Merry
Widow. Quite an achievement for a
Wilmington, Delaware, girl who hit
the ground running—or at least
dancing—immediately after her
college graduation.
Co-author Cohen met up with
Stroman in Las Vegas, where she was
restaging her Broadway production
of The Producers—which won more
Tony Awards (twelve) than any show in
history—for the Paris Hotel and Casino.
The show had begun its preview
performances the evening before, and
Stroman was working with a few actors
prior to the full rehearsal, which was to
begin in the following hour.
RC: When did you start thinking of
being a choreographer?
SS: Always. I’m not one of the people
who dance-dance-dances and
then decides to try choreography.
Ever since I was a little girl,
whether it was classical or rock
and roll or an old standard, I
visualized music. My father was a
wonderful piano player. He would
play the piano and I would dance
around the living room, but in my
head I would be imagining loads
of people dancing with lights, sets,
and costumes. When I came to
New York, I knew I couldn’t just
“take over”—I would have to come
as a song-and-dance gal because
I could sing and dance—but I did
so always with the idea of going
to the other side of the table. So I
1. Directing and choreographing a musical involves close personal interaction, plus great attention
to the details of both script and musical score. Here Stroman (center) gathers members of
her Producers cast around the orchestral score, which she has laid upon the stage in the
convenient spotlight so all can see it (and her) clearly. From left to right behind her are Associate
Choreographer Bill Burns and performers Matthew J. Vargo, Shari Jordan, Katrina Loncaric, and
Patrick Boyd. © Robert Cohen
started to choreograph and direct
industrial shows and club acts in
small venues—just dabbling in it
to see if I could compete. But at a
certain point I had to stop being
known as a performer, because in
New York you have to be either
one thing or another. You have to
focus on what you want to be. So
I stopped performing and decided
to go for it. I was in a Broadway
show called Musical Chairs and
with me was another aspiring fellow,
Scott Ellis, who also wanted to be
on the other side of the table. We
both knew [the musical Broadway
team of composer John] Kander
and [lyricist Fred] Ebb, and we
decided to go to them and ask
if they would allow us to mount
an off-Broadway production of
their Flora the Red Menace. This
is a good lesson because in any
business you need to ask yourself,
“what’s the worst that can happen?”
They can say “no” or they can say
“yes,” but you won’t get anywhere
unless you ask the question. So
Scott and I went to Kander and
Ebb and they said “yes!” We
mounted a production
of Flora, which developed a
cult following and launched our
careers. I think we made about
three hundred dollars that entire
summer. Of course we starved to
death, but we had made the leap
to the other side. And we have
never gone back. It was a
wonderful combination of believing
in the show, adoring Kander and
Ebb, and asking “the question”
that led us to get that one really
good break. Coincidentally, Kander
and Ebb wrote a song in that
show called “All I Need Is One
Good Break.”
That was when things really
opened up for me. Hal Prince
asked me to choreograph Don
Giovanni at the New York City
Opera, and then we collaborated