By Regina Weinreich
When Susan Stroman—or Stro, as she’s called—was hard at work on last year’s Broadway hit Left on Tenth, a rom-com based on Delia Ephron’s memoir, produced by Daryl Roth, she was called upon to follow Eric Fischl’s 10-year term as Guild Hall Academy of the Arts president. This was a big ask: Perhaps the busiest artist in theater, the winner of five Tony Awards for choreography and directing, and currently directing Smash, a new musical which just opened on Broadway, Stroman responded: “After I launch Smash, I can give Guild Hall all my time.” On April 22, recently christened Academy of Arts president Stroman hosts Guild Hall’s annual spring fundraiser at the Rainbow Room in New York City.
Stroman’s mission: to ensure the arts’ place in East Hampton, where she now rents a house after having owned two. Her love of the ocean, of sitting at Main Beach after 4PM and snacking or gathering with friends, was not East Hampton’s only allure. Growing up in Delaware, she always had music at home. Her father played piano and was a great storyteller. “I had no choice but to become a choreographer and theater director,” she says. “Now, to have a theater that encompasses all the art forms, including visual arts, music, dance, is a dream to me.”
During the pandemic, when arts centers closed down, towns closed down, Stroman says, adding that “theaters are the soul of the community.” In 2021, as people could come together, Guild Hall invited her to explain how musicals are created, resulting in a three-night event at the historic venue. First was The Producers, with Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane attending, and Mel Brooks projected in, the former East Hampton resident a god looming over the stage. Stroman won Tonys for directing and choreographing the 2001 musical. Next came Little Dancer, a ballet performance based on the Degas sculpture, and then a big Gershwin tap show, Crazy for You—Stroman’s first Tony win for choreography, in 1992. Each night featured performances, videos and a lesson in theater. “Learning how musicals are made was more entertaining for audiences than just singing a song,” she says. “I am a storyteller who tells in dance and music. I’m fortunate; I can do a serious story about second chances for a woman surviving cancer, a funny story about two swindling producers, then pure entertainment.”
“Smash,” she notes, is “meta, about creatives trying to put on a musical about Marilyn Monroe, and what it takes to create something, whether creating a musical or something in their own lives. In the best of all possible worlds, all goes well—until something goes awry. That’s where the humor comes in.” guildhall.org