Dennis Grimaldi

Dennis Grimaldi and Olympic Figure Skater Dorothy Hamill

Dennis Grimaldi is an American theatrical producer, Director and Choreographer; who has worked on Broadway, Off Broadway, Television and on London's West End.^[1] His work include Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes and Annie Warbucks.^[2]

Early life and education

Born September 30; Melrose Park, Illinois; Graduate of Proviso East High School, in Maywood, Illinois, studied dance at the Stone-Camryn School and Gail Larry School. Under the tutelage of the Tony Award winning Russian actress Eugenie Leontovich, Dr. John Reich and Dr Charles McGaw; graduated on scholarship from The Theatre School of DePaul University (The Goodman School of Drama), also studied at The Indiana University. As an actor and dancer, he co-starred with Hiram Sherman in the Feydeau farce, A Flea in Her Ear, Caesar and Cleopatra with Carrie Snodgrass and Murray Matheson, The Sound of Music with Dorothy Collins, Funny Girl with Mimi Hines, The Pre-Broadway tour of Wright and Forrest's musical A Song for Cyrano (Cyrano) starring and directed by José Ferrer, and Follies; to name a few. As a dancer, also appeared in Man of La Mancha, 'Hello, Dolly!, Promises, Promises, Sugar; among other productions.

Career

After a career as a dancer, he began Directing and Choreographing and in 1989 he formed Dennis Grimaldi Productions and pursued an active career as a stage producer as well as television; For the stage,first worked as an "Associate to the Producers" on the Broadway production of A. R. "Pete" Gurney's Sweet Sue starring Mary Tyler Moore and Lynn Redgrave. As a Producer for Broadway, productions include The Heidi Chronicles 2015 with Elisabeth Moss, Jason Biggs and Bryce Pinckham, Bernstein/Comden/Green On the Town 2014 revival, The Realistic JONESES starring Toni Collette, Michael C. Hall, Tracy Letts and Marisa Tomei; In 2014 Won the Grand Slam of Theater Awards, The Tony, Drama Desk, Drama League and Outer Critics Circle Awards for "Best Musical" for the Broadway Production of A Gentleman's Guide To Love And Murder starring Tony Winner Jefferson Mays; 2014 Other Broadway productions include Love Letters directed by Gregory Mosher and starring an all rotating cast; Mia Farrow, Brian Dennehy, Carol Burnett, Alan Alda, Candice Bergen, Stacey Keach, Dame Diana Rigg, Anjelica Huston and Martin Sheen, The Musical revival of On the Town, also Producer of the US National Tour of Ghost Adapted for the stage by Bruce Joel Rubin, directed by Matthew Warchus, Music and Lyrics by Dave Stewart and Glenn Ballard, The Australian Tour of Driving Miss Daisy starring Angela Lansbury, James Earl Jones and Boyd Gaines. Co-producer of the Tony-winning George and Ira Gershwin musical, Nice Work If You Can Get It by Joe DiPietro. The musical received 10 Tony nominations, 9 Drama Desk nominations and 9 Outer Critics Circle nominations. It stars two-time Tony Award winner Matthew Broderick, Tony Nominee Kelli O'Hara and Academy Award winner and Tony nominee Estelle Parsons; directed by Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall. For the 2011 season he was involved with the highly successful musical production tour of A Christmas Story (Karen Mason and John Bolton); a Broadway version opened in November 2012,at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre starring Dan Lauria as Jean Sheppard, John Bolton, and Erin Dilly; Directed by John Rando, it was nominated for a Tony Award as 'Best Musical' In the fall of 2012 he was to co-produce the musical Rebecca based on the Daphane DuMurier novel. Directed by Tony Award winning director, Michael Blakemore The production was stalled due to the collapse of a Ponzi scheme by an investment team which collected tens of thousands of dollars from the production with the promise of deep pocketed investors. The team, Mark and Sherri Hotton were caught and arrested and charged with wire fraud and await sentencing as of November 2012. As a producer, other productions on Broadway and Off Broadway include the 2011 Broadway revival of the Stephen Schwartz musical Godspell; Leslie Jordon My Trip Down The Pink Carpet; Angels in America (Ron Liebman, Marcia Gay Harden, Jeffrey Wright); Other People's Money (Mercedes Ruehl Outer Critic Award); the Olivier Award winning Rise and Fall of Little Voice (Rondi Reed); Girl's Room (with Carol Lawrence and Donna McKecknie); ';'Sally Marr (with Joan Rivers, Tony Nomination); Grace & Glorie (with Lucie Arnaz and Estelle Parsons); Tom Stoppard's Artist Descending a Staircase (Harold Gould, John McMartin); The High Rollers (Tony Nomination Vivian Reed) The Boys in the Band revival (with Michael Siebert Obie Award); Any Given Day (with Sada Thompson) and Party,London's Evening Standard Award winning Burning Blue (Chad Lowe),. The musicals Richard Corey; Nunsense Jamboree, Fanny Hill and Annie Warbucks (Harve Presnell and Donna McKechnie Outer Critics Award)[2]; which had the distinction to also perform for The White House, Like Love by Lewis Flinn and Barry Kaplan; the musical adaptation of A.R. Gurney's Richard Cory by Ed Dixon; among others. He has also been associated with Emmanuel Azenberg on the Neil Simon productions of Lost in Yonkers (Kevin Spacey, Mercedes Reuhl) and London Suite (Carole Shelley, Jeffrey Jones) as well as the Broadway production Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life with The Producer Circle and David Mamet's The Cryptogram (Felicity Huffman, Ed Begley, Jr) as well as The Broadway production of Terrance McNally's It's Only a Play starring Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Megan Mullally, Stockard Channing, Rupert Grint and F. Murray Abraham.. His many London productions on the West End and The Fringe include The Boys in the Band, Stephen Sondheim's Marry Me A Little (choreographer/associate director), actor Jack Gilford in Look To the Rainbow (choreographer/associate director) and John Lahr's Diary of a Somebody. Produced The Martin Charnin revue Something Funny's Going On. He was also associate on the Off Broadway production of Oblivion Postponed by Ron Newseyer, directed by Nicholas Martin. Also an associate producer for Candid Productions, a television production company, for 15 years; producing programing for ABC, NBC and HBO, Many of the shows he was also choreographer. He was awarded the Robert Whitehead Award for Excellence in Theatre Production, The NY Film and Television Gold Medal Awards, The Outer Critics Awards and The Carbonell Award. Productions have earned The Drama Desk, Tony Awards, as well as The Pulitzer Prize.

References