Marcia Milgrom Dodge

Marcia Milgrom Dodge
Broadway Directors Project Part 2
Danielle Ibrahim
Theatrical Directing 1
April 28, 2015

It is fairly often for a Broadway director to simply be a one hit wonder, with just one notable Broadway production to list on their resume. But behind every presumed one hit wonder of Broadway, there is almost certainly a plethora of other achievements that they have had.
Perhaps no example of a Broadway one hit wonder who has countless other non­Broadway achievements is better than Marcia Milgrom Dodge. As director and choreographer of the 2009
Broadway revival of
Ragtime,
Dodge has no other Broadway experience to take credit
for, yet she has still had an incredible amount of successes in both directing and choreography outside of the Broadway stage.
Marcia Milgrom Dodge was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1955. After attending
Southfield­Lathrup High School, she moved onto the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. She doubled majored in Speech Communication and Theatre in 1977. Shortly after her time in Ann
Arbor, she moved to New York City to pursue choreography.
Living in New York City, the first serious gig Dodge booked was as the choreographer for the Off­Broadway production of
Life Is Not A Doris Day Movie in 1982. The show was very small scale, and ran for only a month. Two years later, she choreographed the more successful
Romance Language
, which ran for two months. Dodge stayed largely working Off­Broadway in
New York, as well as a few regional productions, choreographing from 1982 to 1990. Some of her shows during this time include
Romance in Hard Times and
Closer Than Ever
Off­Broadway, along with
In a Pig’s Valise and
Merrily We Roll Along as regional productions
.
Closer Than Ever gained her notability in the choreography world, with reviews praising her work. The Washington Times said “Marcia Milgrom Dodge’s musical staging provides moves

that heighten the comedy and add a sting of irony...”, The Globe & Mail hailed her skills as
“imaginative and clever, fast­paced...”
Marcia Milgrom Dodge finally broke into the directing world when she took on the roles of both director and choreographer with the Off­Broadway production of
Radio Gals in 1996.
However, the show had limited success and closed after less than a month of performances. After the experience, she became part of the faculty of The American Musical and Dramatic Academy and Collaborative Arts Project 21 at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, both in 1996. At
CAP21/NYC, she directed and choreographed
Merrily We Roll Along once more, as well as
Times Square and
Drood.
All of her work in the educational field was focused on expanding the horizons of young performers and teaching the necessary skills to succeed in the theatrical world.
Dodge returned to professional theatre in 2007 with her Off­Broadway production of
Seussical, as both director and choreographer. Dodge took some risks with the show, but lightened them by making admission free. Her focus was on making the show simple and kid­friendly. The original Broadway production in 2000 was an absolute flop, losing $10 million and closing after just 6 months. It was over two and a half hours long, and far too over the top.
Dodge wanted to ensure her production did not make the same mistakes as its original. She slimmed the show down to only 70 minutes, with help from the show’s creators, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. Lynn Ahrens, the lyricist, said “It’s in a totally different form...It’s a new look at a show.” Dodge’s concept was to make the show as if put on by children on a
playground.
The props were all household objects that children might play pretend with, and the costumes were designed as if picked up from around a house. The show earned her a nomination for the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Choreography.

It is likely because of this production with
Seussical that Dodge has gone on to become an incredibly successful director. She worked closely with Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, the composers and lyricists, during the production. Together, they worked on the way to fix the mistakes that occurred in the original production. With the success of their collaboration on the
Seussical revival, the trio decided to take their chances on cleaning up another of Flaherty’s and
Ahren’s shows,
Ragtime.
When the show opened in 1998, it received equal criticism as it did compliments. The show was immediately hailed as a masterpiece of American musical theatre, but the production itself was seen to have many flaws, largely having the same problems that the
original

Seussical had: The show was too over the top. Flaherty and Ahrens believed Dodge would be the perfect fit for their second try at the musical.
When
Ragtime opened in 2009, Marcia Milgrom Dodge finally achieved the Broadway level success she had been searching for since her schooling.
With the production, she became the first woman to direct a major musical at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
The show was a complete success, winning seven 2010 Tony Awards, including Best Director of a Musical. The show was also nominated for six 2010 Helen Hayes Awards, winning for
Outstanding Director. Ben Brantley’s called it an “ appealingly modest new interpretation,” and says “ she makes it clear that “Ragtime” never needed all that decorative baggage to tell its stories of three families of different ethnic and economic strata.”
The Guardian said it was

“impassioned staging,” and was a “ sleekly beautiful concept for a show with interwoven narrative...; She placed the entire enterprise on a single trellised set and put the myriad of characters...more resolutely front and center.”

Since her success with
Ragtime,
Dodge has gone on to have much more small­scale success in the directing and choreographing worlds. Working with Stephen Flaherty and Lynn
Ahrens yet again, their production of
Once On This Island was hailed as “an energetic and vibrantly powerful musical” by The Sag Harbor Express.
Her work in the production was also positively reviewed by East Hampton Independent, saying “With her fluid and creative direction and choreography, Marcia Milgrom Dodge makes wondrous use of fabric, light, and the actors themselves to delineate the world the play inhabits...” She has also since directed her first straight play, with
Blithe Spirit in Vero Beach, Florida. The production was small, but still a success in the local theatre community. Dodge also choreographed the Sesame Street episode,
“The Tango Festival,” being the first film credit she has achieved.
Along with directing and choreographing, Dodge has also branched out into playwriting.
She and her husband, Anthony Dodge, have written multiple plays together, including
Hats: The
Musical and
Sherlock Holmes & West End Horror
, which received an Edgar Award nomination
.
She has directed all the productions of these plays.
Hats: The Musical has been performed at venues in California, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Chicago, and
Denver.
In more recent years, Dodge has focused much of her time on educating. She is a frequent guest at the Marymount Manhattan College, and continues to work with The American Musical and Dramatic Academy, teaching numerous classes in musical theatre. It is clear that she has achieved the success she always desired, and is now set to teaching upcoming performers so that they too may achieve their own success and goals.
As an educator, director, choreographer, and playwright, Marcia Milgrom Dodge has certainly been a success in the theatre industry1. She has always managed to recover from her

failures, and continues to show her talent through every show she has produced. Her success might not always be A­list, but her small scale successes have made her a notable part of modern
American musical theatre.

WORKS CITED
Brantley, Ben. "I Hear America Singing, in Syncopation."
The New York Times
. The New York
Times, 15 Nov. 2009. Web. 25 Apr. 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com>.
Dodge, Marcia Milgrom. "Marcia Milgrom Dodge."
Marcia Milgrom Dodge
. N.p., n.d. Web. 25
Apr. 2015. <http://www.marciamilgromdodge.com/resume.htm>.
Grazia, Maria. "MY JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB: AUSTEN ON STAGE ­ SENSE &
SENSIBILITY THE MUSICAL : INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR AND
CHOREOGRAPHER, MARCIA MILGROM DODGE." N.p., 3 Mar. 2013. Web. 25 Apr.
2015. <http://thesecretunderstandingofthehearts.blogspot.com/>.
No Author Given. "Marcia Milgrom Dodge."
Theatre Credits
. BroadwayWorld, n.d. Web. 25
Apr. 2015. <http://www.broadwayworld.com/people/Marcia­Milgrom­Dodge/>.