Susan Stroman
Years active	1970s-present
Spouse	Mike Ockrent (1996-1999†)

Susan Stroman (born October 17, 1954) is an American theatre director, choreographer, film director, and performer. She has won the Tony Award for both her choreography and direction, notably for the stage musical The Producers.

Stroman was born in Wilmington, Delaware, to Frances and Charles Stroman.^[1] 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 under James Jamieson at the Academy of the Dance in Wilmington. She majored in English at the University of Delaware.^[2] 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 in Hit the Deck at the Goodspeed Opera House in 1977. Her first Broadway credit was as an ensemble member in the 1979 musical Whoopee!. In 1980 she was assistant director, assistant choreographer, and dance captain for Musical Chairs. Wanting to direct and choreograph instead of perform, Stroman concentrated on creating for the theater.^[3] She worked in small venues as a director and choreographer in various industrial shows, club acts and commercials.

Stroman's first big break as a choreographer came 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 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. 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 where she was nominated for an Emmy award. 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 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, 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 went on to win the 2003 Emmy Award. 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 (2002). 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 ever win in these two categories at the same time. In 2005, she made her directorial debut as a feature filmmaker with a film adaptation of the show. The movie was nominated for four Golden Globe Awards. In 2007, she collaborated with Brooks again, 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.^[4]

She is co-directing a new musical Paradise Found with Hal Prince, which premiered at the Menier Chocolate Factory on May 19, 2010. The plan is to open on Broadway. The cast stars Mandy Patinkin, Judy Kaye and Shuler Hensley.^[5]

In 2004, Stroman was the first woman ever to choreograph a full-length ballet for the New York City Ballet Company. Double Feature, with music by Irving Berlin and Walter Donaldson, is now in the New York City Ballet repertory.^[6]

For New York City Ballet she also created the ballet Blossom Got Kissed in 1999 to celebrate the company’s 50th Anniversary season. In 1997 she created But Not For Me for the Martha Graham Company.

The world premiere of Take Five…More Or Less with The Pacific Northwest Ballet opened in 2008. Stroman combined jazz music by Dave Brubeck and classical pointe work. The ballet is now in their repertoire.^[7]

Stroman is the recipient of five Tony Awards, two Lawrence Olivier Awards, five Drama Desk Awards, eight Outer Critic Circle Awards, a record four Astaire Awards and the Lucille Lortel Award. She is the recipient of the George Abbott Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Theater.

Awards

• 1992 Tony Award for Best Choreography - Crazy for You
• 1993 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreographer - Crazy for You
• 1995 Tony Award for Best Choreography - Show Boat
• 1999 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreographer - Oklahoma!
• 2000 Drama Desk Award for Best Choreography - Contact
• 2000 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Direction - Contact
• 2000 Tony Award for Best Choreography - Contact
• 2001 Drama Desk Award for Best Choreography - The Producers
• 2001 Drama Desk Award for Best Director of a Musical - The Producers
• 2001 Tony Award for Best Choreography - The Producers
• 2001 Tony Award for Best Director - The Producers
• 2001 Drama League's Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theatre Award
• 2002 Laurence Olivier Award for Choreography - Oklahoma!

Nominations

• 1993 Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography - Liza Minnelli Live from Radio City Music Hall
• 1996 Tony Award for Best Choreography - Big
• 1997 Tony Award for Best Choreography - Steel Pier
• 2000 Tony Award for Best Choreography - The Music Man
• 2000 Tony Award for Best Director - Contact
• 2000 Tony Award for Best Director - The Music Man
• 2002 Tony Award for Best Choreography - Oklahoma!
• 2010 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical and Outstanding Choreographer - The Scottsboro Boys^[8]
• 2010 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical and Outstanding Choreography -The Scottsboro Boys^[9]

• 1992 Crazy for You (choreographer) (Broadway)
• 1993 Show Boat (choreographer) (Broadway)
• 1994 Picnic (choreographer of Musical Interludes) (Broadway)
• 1994 A Christmas Carol (choreographer) (Madison Square Garden)
• 1996 Big (choreographer) (Broadway)
• 1997 Steel Pier (choreographer) (Broadway)
• 1998 Oklahoma! (choreographer) (West End)
• 2000 The Music Man (director/choreographer) (Broadway)
• 2000 Contact (director/choreographer) (Broadway)
• 2001 Thou Shalt Not (director/choreographer/creator) (Broadway)
• 2001 The Producers (director/choreographer) (Broadway)
• 2002 Oklahoma! (Choreographer) (Broadway)
• 2004 The Frogs (director/choreographer) (Broadway)
• 2004 Double Feature: The Blue Necklace and Makin' Whoopee for New York City Ballet
• 2007 Young Frankenstein (director/choreographer) (Broadway)
• 2010 The Scottsboro Boys (director/choreographer) (Off-Broadway, Vineyard Theatre)
• 2010 Paradise Found (Menier Chocolate Factory, co-director with Hal Prince)

• Grode, Eric (1997). "Susan Stroman - Woman of Steel". ShowMusic: The Musical Theatre Magazine (1). ISSN 8755-9560. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

• Susan Stroman at the Internet Broadway Database
• Susan Stroman at IMDb
• Susan Stroman - Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing.org
• Susan Stroman TIME Broadway's Favorite Babe

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