The Dance World of Susan Stroman

Monday, February 12, 2024

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Directed and Choreographed by Susan Stroman

Open: 26.04.2023 - Broadway

Photos by Paul Kolnik

"But the real star of the show is Susan Stroman, whose blockbuster direction and choreography make up for the relatively lackluster songs." - by Lester Fabian Brathwaite in Entertainment Weekly

"That said, there is plenty of first-rate musical making in New York, New York. Stroman gives us some of the most exciting choreography on Broadway just now; there is too much of it, though, and a good deal distracts from (or covers for the faults of) what used to be called plot." - by Steven Suskin in New York Stage Review

"And despite the less felicitous moments that verge on cliché (“Life turns around, like that. In a New York minute. Things can change. Even Jimmy!”), it actually adds up to a satisfying entertainment, steadily guided by Stroman, who has obviously learned from her 2014 musical adaptation of Woody Allen’s Bullets Over Broadway, which took off with breakneck speed and never paused to breathe. New York, New York is full of wonderful, swirling movement — the streets of Manhattan come alive with strutting and spinning residents — but it also makes time for the human element." - by Michael Musto in Village Voice

"Its love letter to the city often doesn’t set well on its target board of the city, especially in the confused first act. But “New York, New York,” under the savvy direction and choreography of Susan Stroman and featuring a score by John Kander and the late Fred Ebb, additional lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda and a book by David Thompson and Sharon Washington, ultimately delivers its melting-pot message with intelligence, style and, yes, good old-fashioned razzle-dazzle." - by Robert Hofler in The Wrap

"It’s a lot to pack in, but Stroman, who helmed the long-running hit The Producers, pulls out all the stops, aided by a fantastic score by John Kander, the late Fred Ebb, and additional lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Lesser-known songs from the Kander and Ebb canon supplement the title number and provide a gorgeously crafted blueprint for Stroman’s legendary dance sequences as well as more intimate moments of discovery. " - by Matthew Wexler in Queerty

POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive

Directed by Susan Stroman

Open: 27.04.2022 - Broadway

Photos by Paul Kolnik

"Susan Stroman, apparently on leave from musicals, directs. She's so creative at this song-and-dance-less assignment that the leave is likely to be extended. She never falters at keeping the stage lively. That goes for the stretches where the Fillinger script stalls. Yes, Stroman lovers, she does slip in a brief dance routine or two." - by David Finkle in New York Stage Review

"Ms. Stroman, meanwhile, proves once again that her own leadership abilities should be held in no doubt." - by Elysa Gardner in The New York Sun

"It helps enormously that the production, directed by Susan Stroman (The Producers), is so well-cast. This ensemble makes an implicit argument of its own for female accomplishment: Even when their characters are floundering hopelessly, these ladies are pros." - by Adam Feldman in Time Out New York

Saturday, February 10, 2024

MARIE, STILL DANCING

Directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman

Open: 22.03.2019 - Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre

Photos by Paul Kolnik

"... And the extended dance number "The Choices" exhibits the vivid theatricality you'd expect from Stroman, given her choreographic ingenuity in "The Producers" and so many other shows. In this late Act 2 set piece, Marie has been kicked out of the ballet company and is plagued by surreal images of laundress drudges tugging on one end of her fears, and scandalous cancan dancers and lascivious swells tugging on the other. Akin to the groundbreaking "dream ballets" created by Agnes de Mille for "Carousel" and"Oklahoma!," this nightmarish fantasia expresses in music and movement the dark choices faced by "les petits rats" (French slang for these ballerinas)." - by Misha Berson in The Seattle Times

"Sure, I enjoy dance. And yes, I’ve seen many productions of musical theater that have enrapturing elements. However, I have never caught myself so fully engaged in a musical number as I was last night while watching Tiler Peck (Young Marie van Goethem) encompass a stage, sorrowfully swaying, gliding, soaring and tip toeing with and through a profoundly proficient supporting cast.

In this climactic dance number, I found myself fully within the work, not wanting the song, the dance or the message to end. It was one of those transcendent moments that only live theater can offer, when the heart and the motivation of the creators of the work come alive in the room. I know these words might sound foolish to some, but this world has been laying heavy on my soul lately. Last night, I found a moment of needed refreshing." - by Douglas Bursch in Culture, Review

Wednesday, June 27, 2018

THE BEAST IN THE JUNGLE

Directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman

Open: 23.05.2018 - Off-Broadway

Photos by Carol Rosegg and Sara Krulwich

"STUNNING, IMAGINATIVE, AND LYRICAL!

Stroman’s eloquent choreography speaks volumes without saying a word. All the dancers display the inventive wit, emotive force, and unsurpassed beauty that characterize the show. Stroman offers an exquisite synthesis of drama, dance, and music. It all adds up to one enthralling experience in the theater."

- Deb Miller, DC Metro Theater Arts

"THE DANCES ARE WONDERFUL!

Stroman’s choreography is balletic and elegant. Kander’s music is equally tender. The cast is excellent."

- Jesse Oxfeld, New York Stage Review

"Directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman, who always exudes great finesse in allowing storytelling to blend from spoken word to musical interpretations, the 100-minute one-act is beautifully touching and bittersweet."

- Michael dale, Broadway World

Sunday, March 13, 2016

DOT

Directed by Susan Stroman

Open: 23.02.2016 - Off-Broadway
Photos by Sara Krulwich & Carol Rosegg

"But Ms. Stroman’s streamlined direction, which sometimes has the snappy rhythms of musical comedy (there is even a brief dance break), keeps the play from tilting too far toward the soap operatic, or for that matter the sitcomic. The rapprochement between Donnie and Adam in the second act runs a tad long and approaches the treacly, but when the focus is on Dotty and her family’s reckoning with her disease, the play is on firm footing, and consistently generates laughter."

in The New York Times by Charles Isherwood

"Encompassing themes of sexuality, family and race — "I'm a black man in America, I own trauma," Donnie exclaims at one point — the play is too wildly uneven to have much of an impact. Director Susan Stroman (The Producers, Crazy for You, The Scottsboro Boys) does little to help, her over-emphatic staging reflective of the musicals that are more in her wheelhouse."

in The Hollywood Reporter by Frank Scheck

"Stroman — who directed Domingo in “The Scottsboro Boys,” which also began at the Vineyard — helms with a bright broadness that punches the laughs but sometimes brings the work to a sitcom level. Only when the production takes a breather from the fraught storylines does the play find its focus, and its heart.A scene between Fidel and Dotty, where the mother confides her fears, is presented simply and truthfully. And a moment where an old song gives Dotty a wondrous sense of escape — when Adam lovingly steps in as her imagined dead husband and we glimpse Dotty in her younger glory — is exquisite, tapping into Stroman’s musical staging gifts."

in Variety by Frank Rizzo

"Susan Stroman is an ideal director for the piece as a whole, bringing her Tony-winning eye for musicality to a play that really needs to sing and dance, and she's helped the actors pitch their performances perfectly." in Talkin' Broadway by Matthew Murray