# Marcia Milgrom Dodge

Marcia Milgrom Dodge (born 28 April 1955) is an American director, choreographer, and stage writer. In 2009, after working in regional theatre, Dodge directed and choreographed her first Broadway production, a revival of Ragtime in 2009. The production received four Helen Hayes Awards in 2010, including one for Best Director. Additionally, it garnered seven Tony Award nominations, including one for Dodge, for Best Director of a Musical.

## Education

Dodge graduated from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1977. Upon graduation, Dodge moved to New York City to pursue a career as a choreographer.

## Career

Dodge was the director/choreographer of the 2009 Kennedy Center and Broadway revival of the musical Ragtime. The Guardian noted Dodge's "impassioned staging" of Ragtime. Peter Marks, in an article summing up the fate of the Ragtime revival, noted: "Marcia Milgrom Dodge, the director-choreographer...came up with a sleekly beautiful concept for a show with a complex, interwoven narrative about blacks, Jews and white Anglo-Saxons in New York at the turn of the 20th century." She is the "first woman to direct a major musical produced by the Kennedy Center." The Kennedy Center production of Ragtime was nominated for six 2010 Helen Hayes Awards and won four:
* Outstanding Resident Musical (Winner);
* Outstanding Director, Resident Musical: Marcia Milgrom Dodge (Winner);
* Outstanding Musical Direction, Resident Production: James Moore;
* Outstanding Lead Actor, Resident Musical: Quentin Earl Darrington;
* Outstanding Lead Actress, Resident Musical: Christiane Noll (Winner);
* Outstanding Costume Design, Resident Production: Santo Loquasto & Jim Halliday (Winners).
The Broadway transfer of this production received 7 Tony nominations, including one for Dodge for Best Direction.
In New York, Dodge was the Associate Choreographer for the Broadway musical High Society (1998). Off Broadway she was the choreographer for Life is Not A Doris Day Movie (1982), Romance Language (1984), Romance in Hard Times (Public Theatre 1989), Closer Than Ever (1989), The Waves (1990), The Loman Family Picnic (Manhattan Theatre Club 1993), director/choreographer for Radio Gals (John Houseman Theatre, 1996), Seussical for Theatre works USA (Lucille Lortel Theatre) (2007) (receiving a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for Outstanding Choreography) and consultant for Cooking (Minetta Lane Theatre, 2004).

### Director/Choreographer: Off-Broadway and Beyond

Dodge's oeuvre includes numerous regional and international credits. Dodge choreographed Sullivan and Gilbert at the Kennedy Center in 1983 and directed Tell Me on a Sunday (2002) with Alice Ripley at the Kennedy Center. At the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., she choreographed On The Town (1989), Closer Than Ever, Merrily We Roll Along (1990), and Of Thee I Sing (1992) (Helen Hayes Award Nomination for Outstanding Choreography). She directed several productions of Ain't Misbehaving, first at Virginia Stage in 1991, followed by River Arts Rep, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Cleveland Play House, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Huntington Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, and the Philadelphia Drama Guild, receiving two Barrymore Award nominations for Outstanding Choreography and Best Musical.
For The Cape Playhouse, she directed Deathtrap starring Robert Pickoff and Alison Fraser; Crimes of the Heart starring Sandy Duncan; Accomplice with Stephanie Zimbalist and Richard Kind; Angel Street starring David McCallum, Jean Leclerc, and Mia Dillon; and the upcoming production of Murder on the Orient Express.
As resident director of the Phoenix Theatre Company at SUNY Purchase, Dodge directed and choreographed Ken Ludwig's Sullivan & Gilbert, starring George Grizzard, as well as High Spirits. She also directed The Crucifer of Blood and There's One in Every Marriage.
She has directed and choreographed productions at the Music Circus in Sacramento, California, including The Unsinkable Molly Brown with Susan Egan, South Pacific with Kerry O'Malley (2006), and Guys and Dolls (2009) with Gary Beach.
In 2011, Dodge directed and choreographed The Three Musketeers at the Fredericia Theater in Denmark, by George Stiles, Peter Raby, Paul Leigh and Francis Matthews, Cabaret and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying at Reprise Theatre Company in Los Angeles, the Bay Street Theatre, Sag Harbor, NY, productions of Simeon's Gift, The Who's Tommy, Once On This Island, and Hair and director of Fit To Print. At the Riverside Theatre in Vero Beach Florida, she was the director/choreographer for, Dames at Sea, Anything Goes, Evita, and the director of Blithe Spirit.
In 2012, Dodge directed & choreographed Hello, Dolly! at the Malts Jupiter Theatre starring Vicki Lewis and Gary Beach. She directed Mark Brown's Around The World In 80 Days for Pittsburgh Public Theatre, then a new production of The Music Man for Glimmerglass Festival.
World premieres include Knight Life: The Girl Who Would Be King by Robert Sternean, Prudence Fraser, and Jeff Barry (Riverside Theatre); Rupert Holmes' Thumbs, starring Kathie Lee Gifford and Diana Canova (Helen Hayes Theatre Company); Cookin' (New Victory, Monette Lane, South Korea, and International Tour); One Foot On The Floor by Jeffrey Hatcher (also conceived, Denver Center Theatre Co.); Off-Key by Bill C. Davis and Richard Adler (George Street Playhouse); Elmer Gantry by John Bishop, Mel Marvin, and Robert Satuoff (La Jolla Playhouse); and Casino Paradise by William Bloom and Arnold Weinstein (American Music Theatre Festival).
Dodge's production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast at Olney Theatre Center was met with a positive reception from critics, with People Magazine stating the work as: “a tale as old as time [that] feels refreshingly new.” Olney Theatre brought back the production in November 2022, with leads Jade Jones as Belle and Evan Ruggiero as The Beast.

### Television

For television, she choreographed Sesame Street (Emmy Award-winning episode "The Tango Festival") and Remember WENN for AMC. Video: Elmo's World - Wild Wild West, featuring Bill Irwin, Michael Jeter, and Kristin Chenoweth (Sony Wonder).

### Writer

Dodge was the dramaturge for a new musical Quanah by Larry Gatlin and Anthony Dodge, which received a staged reading at Pace University in January 2010. The musical Hats: The Musical, for which she wrote the book with Anthony Dodge, was presented by the Willows Theatre Company, Martinez, California, from November 23, 2009, through January 10, 2010. Hats also ran in 2007 in several venues, including Las Vegas, Denver, New Orleans and Chicago starring Melissa Manchester. Anthony Dodge wrote Free Burt Lancaster and Venus Flytrap and Marcia also directed readings of both plays at the Bay Street Theatre and she directed a reading of Venus Flytrap at the LGBTQ+ Centre in NYC for Orange Hanky Productions in June 2008. The Active Theatre Company produced the play in November 2010 in NYC.
Marcia and husband Anthony Dodge wrote their first play, the Edgar Award-nominated Sherlock Holmes & The West End Horror, produced at the Bay Street Theatre in 2002, and later produced by the Asolo Theatre, Sarasota, Florida and the Pioneer Theatre Company, Utah (2005). Marcia directed all three productions. The play was published in 2006 by New York play publisher Playscripts, Inc.She adapted and directed Meet Me in St. Louis for The Muny.

### Educator

At Fordham College-Of Thee I Sing and Guys & Dolls; and Pacific Overtures at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. She has been on the faculty of The American Musical and Dramatic Academy since 1996, and was on the faculty of Collaborative Arts Project 21 (CAP21) at NYU Tisch School of the Arts from 1996 to 2002.

## Personal life

Marcia Milgrom married Anthony Dodge in 1980, and they have one daughter, Natasha, born in Russia in 1997. Dodge currently resides in New York City.