Susan Stroman - Biography

Last Editor: chalryanne23				Susan Stroman Biography -   Name : Susan Stroman Profession : Choreographer Birth Details : born October 17, 1954 in Wilmington, Delaware Spouse : Mike Ockrent (1996 - 2 December 1999) (his death)

Susan Stroman Trivia -

She was nominated for a 2003 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Theatre Choreographer of 2002 for Contact performed at the Queen's Theatre. Her dance program, Contact, was performed at the Queen's Theatre in London in 2002 and was nominated for a 2003 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Entertainment. Has won five Tony Awards: as Best Choreographer, in 1992 for "Crazy for You;" in 1995 for "Show Boat;" and in 2000 for "Contact;" and as both Best Director (Musical) and Best Choreographer, in 2001 for "The Producers, the new Mel Brooks musical." She has also been Tony-nominated six other times: as Best Choreographer, in 1996 for "Big - The Musical;" in 1997 for "Steel Pier;" and in 2002 for "Oklahoma!;" as Best Director (Musical), in 2000 for "Contact;" and as Best Director (Musical) and Best Choreographer, in 2000 for "The Music Man." October 10, 2005, she was presented with an Elan Award for her choreographic work.

Susan Stroman Detailed Biography -

Susan Stroman (born October 17, 1954 in Wilmington, Delaware) is a Broadway director, choreographer, 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. Suffering two major failures with Big (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 adaption of that musical.