Awards of Courage

Jerry Mitchell

Honoring with Pride 2008 Honoree
 

Jerry Mitchell is currently making his Broadway debut as director with the new hit musical Legally Blonde, for which he also served as choreographer. He was nominated for both the Tony and Drama Desk Awards for his choreography and the Drama Desk Award for his direction. Mitchell received the Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for his dazzling choreography for the 2005 Tony Award-winning La Cage Aux Folles. He was also nominated for the Tony Award in the same category for the smash hit musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Previously, Mitchell received Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Astaire Award nominations for choreographing Broadway's Tony Award-winning Hairspray, and Tony, Drama Desk, and Astaire Award nominations for choreographing The Full Monty. Both shows were directed by his cherished collaborator, Jack O'Brien.

Mitchell began his choreographic career as associate choreographer to Michael Bennett on Scandal and Jerome Robbins on Jerome Robbins' Broadway. Emmy-nominated for choreographing The Drew Carey Show, he has also worked on films, including In and Out, Camp, Drop Dead Gorgeous, and Scent of a Woman. He choreographed the hit Broadway revival of Gypsy, starring Bernadette Peters, which combined his own work with his re-creation of Robbins' original. He also choreographed Never Gonna Dance, the first and only Broadway musical based on an Astaire/Rogers film, making him one of the only choreographers to ever have three Broadway musicals running simultaneously (a distinction he achieved again in 2005 with the simultaneous runs of Hairspray, La Cage Aux Folles, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels).

Prior to those productions, Mitchell choreographed the Broadway revivals of The Rocky Horror Show (Drama Desk nomination); You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown; Hedwig and the Angry Inch (on stage and film); the national tour of Jekyll & Hyde; and Paper Mill Playhouse’s critically acclaimed Follies, featuring Ann Miller. Mitchell proudly conceives, directs, and choreographs Broadway Bares, a comedy burlesque performed annually for the charity Broadway Cares. Future projects include directing and choreographing Peepshow, a Las Vegas extravaganza production, and a Broadway musical based on the film Mad Hot Ballroom.