Donald Saddler
Encyclopedia
Donald Saddler is an American
choreographer, dancer, and theatre director.
. He spent his school vacations at the MGM studios, eventually dancing in the chorus of movie musicals such as Rosalie
(1937).
Saddler was an original member of the American Ballet Theatre
, appearing in Giselle, Pillar of Fire, and Fancy Free before heading overseas to serve in World War II
. When he returned, he decided to forego ballet in favor of Broadway
musicals
, appearing in High Button Shoes
(1947) and two 1950 revue
s, Dance Me a Song and Bless You All, before winning his first assignment as a choreographer for Wonderful Town
in 1953.
In 1958, Saddler won critical acclaim for his choreography for a Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival "dance drama" adaptation of Sherwood Anderson
's Winesburg, Ohio
, in which he also performed.
Sadler has directed Together on Broadway: Mary Martin
and Ethel Merman
, George Abbott
: Celebration, and I Hear Music of Frank Loesser
and Friends, a concert featuring the composer's widow, Jo Sullivan
. Saddler directed the 1988 Broadway reunion of prima ballerina Cynthia Gregory
and danseur Fernando Bujones
.
His choreographic work for feature films includes April in Paris
, Young at Heart
, By the Light of the Silvery Moon
, and Radio Days
. For television
he staged the dance routines for Verna: U.S.O. Girl, a presentation of the PBS series Great Performances
starring Sissy Spacek
and William Hurt
.
In 2001, at the age of 81, Saddler was featured in the Broadway revival of Follies
, performing the adagio with fellow dance veteran Marge Champion
.
In 2004, Saddler directed a staged reading of Only a Kingdom at The John Drew Theater of Guild Hall in East Hampton, NY. Among the well-known performers in the cast were Kaitlin Hopkins, George S. Irving, Dina Merrill, Marni Nixon and JoAnne Worley.
Nominations
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
choreographer, dancer, and theatre director.
Biography
Born in Van Nuys, California, Saddler studied dance at an early age to regain his strength after a bout of scarlet feverScarlet fever
Scarlet fever is a disease caused by exotoxin released by Streptococcus pyogenes. Once a major cause of death, it is now effectively treated with antibiotics...
. He spent his school vacations at the MGM studios, eventually dancing in the chorus of movie musicals such as Rosalie
Rosalie (film)
Rosalie is an MGM film adaptation of the 1928 stage musical of the same name. The film was released in December 1937. The film follows the story of the musical but replaces most of the Broadway score with new songs by Cole Porter...
(1937).
Saddler was an original member of the American Ballet Theatre
American Ballet Theatre
American Ballet Theatre , based in New York City, was one of the foremost ballet companies of the 20th century. It continues as a leading dance company in the world today...
, appearing in Giselle, Pillar of Fire, and Fancy Free before heading overseas to serve in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. When he returned, he decided to forego ballet in favor of Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
musicals
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
, appearing in High Button Shoes
High Button Shoes
High Button Shoes is a musical with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Sammy Cahn and book by George Abbott and Stephen Longstreet. It was based on the semi-autobiographical 1946 novel The Sisters Liked Them Handsome by Longstreet...
(1947) and two 1950 revue
Revue
A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century American popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932...
s, Dance Me a Song and Bless You All, before winning his first assignment as a choreographer for Wonderful Town
Wonderful Town
Wonderful Town is a musical with a book written by Joseph A. Fields and Jerome Chodorov, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and music by Leonard Bernstein...
in 1953.
In 1958, Saddler won critical acclaim for his choreography for a Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival "dance drama" adaptation of Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson was an American novelist and short story writer. His most enduring work is the short story sequence Winesburg, Ohio. Writers he has influenced include Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, J. D. Salinger, and Amos Oz.-Early life:Anderson was born in Clyde, Ohio,...
's Winesburg, Ohio
Winesburg, Ohio
Winesburg is an unincorporated community in southwestern Paint Township, Holmes County, Ohio, United States. The town sits on the crest of a hill in the Amish country of Ohio, with a quaint downtown containing antique shops. It lies along U.S. Route 62....
, in which he also performed.
Sadler has directed Together on Broadway: Mary Martin
Mary Martin
Mary Virginia Martin was an American actress and singer. She originated many roles over her career including Nellie Forbush in South Pacific and Maria in The Sound of Music. She was named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1989...
and Ethel Merman
Ethel Merman
Ethel Merman was an American actress and singer. Known primarily for her powerful voice and roles in musical theatre, she has been called "the undisputed First Lady of the musical comedy stage." Among the many standards introduced by Merman in Broadway musicals are "I Got Rhythm", "Everything's...
, George Abbott
George Abbott
George Francis Abbott was an American theater producer and director, playwright, screenwriter, and film director and producer whose career spanned more than nine decades.-Early years:...
: Celebration, and I Hear Music of Frank Loesser
Frank Loesser
Frank Henry Loesser was an American songwriter who wrote the lyrics and scores to the Broadway hits Guys and Dolls and How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, among others. He won separate Tony Awards for the music and lyrics in both shows, as well as sharing the Pulitzer Prize for...
and Friends, a concert featuring the composer's widow, Jo Sullivan
Jo Sullivan
Elizabeth Josephine "Jo" Sullivan Loesser is an American soprano and the widow of composer Frank Loesser. Her daughter, Emily Loesser, is also a singer-actress....
. Saddler directed the 1988 Broadway reunion of prima ballerina Cynthia Gregory
Cynthia Gregory
Cynthia Kathleen Gregory is an American ballerina.-Career:Born in Los Angeles, Gregory’s parents encouraged her to take up dancing when she was five, hoping exercise would stem a history of childhood illnesses. By age six, she was en pointe...
and danseur Fernando Bujones
Fernando Bujones
Fernando Bujones was an American ballet dancer.Born in Miami, Florida to Cuban parents, Bujones is regarded as one of the finest male dancers of the 20th century and hailed as one of the greatest American male dancers of his generation.Bujones' first formal ballet classes were in Alicia Alonso's...
.
His choreographic work for feature films includes April in Paris
April in Paris (film)
April in Paris is a 1952 musical film starring Doris Day and Ray Bolger. It was directed by David Butler.-Synopsis:Winthrop Putnam is the Assistant Secretary to the Assistant to the Undersecretary of State, and was formerly Assistant Assistant Secretary to the Assistant to the Undersecretary of State...
, Young at Heart
Young at Heart (1954 film)
Young at Heart is a 1954 film, directed by Gordon Douglas. It was a remake of the 1938 film Four Daughters, and it starred Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Gig Young, Ethel Barrymore, Alan Hale, Jr and Dorothy Malone and was the first of five films that Gordon Douglas directed with Frank...
, By the Light of the Silvery Moon
By the Light of the Silvery Moon (film)
By the Light of the Silvery Moon is a 1953 musical film. It is the sequel to On Moonlight Bay. Like its predecessor, the movie is based loosely on the Penrod stories by Booth Tarkington.-Plot:...
, and Radio Days
Radio Days
Radio Days is a 1987 comedy film directed by Woody Allen. The film looks back on an American family's life during the Golden Age of Radio using both music and memories to tell the story.-Plot:...
. For television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
he staged the dance routines for Verna: U.S.O. Girl, a presentation of the PBS series Great Performances
Great Performances
Great Performances, a television series devoted to the performing arts, has been telecast on Public Broadcasting Service public television since 1972...
starring Sissy Spacek
Sissy Spacek
Sissy Spacek is an American actress and singer. She came to international prominence for her for role as Carrie White in Brian De Palma's 1976 horror film Carrie for which she earned her first Academy Award nomination...
and William Hurt
William Hurt
William McGill Hurt is an American stage and film actor. He received his acting training at the Juilliard School, and began acting on stage in the 1970s. Hurt made his film debut as a troubled scientist in the science-fiction feature Altered States , for which he received a Golden Globe nomination...
.
In 2001, at the age of 81, Saddler was featured in the Broadway revival of Follies
Follies
Follies is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman. The story concerns a reunion in a crumbling Broadway theatre, scheduled for demolition, of the past performers of the "Weismann's Follies," a musical revue , that played in that theatre between the World Wars...
, performing the adagio with fellow dance veteran Marge Champion
Marge Champion
Marge Champion is an American dancer, choreographer, and pedagogue. In addition, she also worked in film and appeared in a number of television variety shows.-Early years:...
.
In 2004, Saddler directed a staged reading of Only a Kingdom at The John Drew Theater of Guild Hall in East Hampton, NY. Among the well-known performers in the cast were Kaitlin Hopkins, George S. Irving, Dina Merrill, Marni Nixon and JoAnne Worley.
Stage credits
- 1953: Shangri-LaShangri-La (musical)Shangri-La is a musical with a book and lyrics by James Hilton, Jerome Lawrence, and Robert E. Lee and music by Harry Warren.Based on Hilton's classic 1933 novel Lost Horizon, it focuses on Hugh Conway, a veteran member of the British diplomatic service, who stumbles across a utopian lamasery high...
- 1961: Milk and HoneyMilk and Honey (musical)Milk and Honey is a musical with a book by Don Appell and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. The story centers on a busload of lonely American widows hoping to catch husbands while touring Israel and is set against the background of the country's fight for recognition as an independent nation...
- 1971: No, No, NanetteNo, No, NanetteNo, No, Nanette is a musical comedy with lyrics by Irving Caesar and Otto Harbach, music by Vincent Youmans, and a book by Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel, based on Mandel's 1919 Broadway play My Lady Friends...
- 1973: Much Ado About NothingMuch Ado About NothingMuch Ado About Nothing is a comedy written by William Shakespeare about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero....
- 1974: Good NewsGood News (musical)Good News is a musical with a book by Laurence Schwab and B.G. DeSylva, lyrics by DeSylva and Lew Brown, and music by Ray Henderson.The show opened on Broadway in 1927, the same year as Show Boat, but its plot was decidedly old-fashioned in comparison to Show Boats somewhat tragic and daring...
- 1975: Rodgers & Hart: A Musical Revue
- 1976: The Robber BridegroomThe Robber Bridegroom (musical)The Robber Bridegroom is a musical with a book and lyrics by Alfred Uhry and music by Robert Waldman. The story is based on the 1942 novella by Eudora Welty of the same name, with a Robin Hood-like hero; the adaptation placed it in a late 18th century American setting...
- 1979: The Grand TourThe Grand Tour (musical)The Grand Tour is a musical with a book by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman.Based on S. N. Behrman's play Jacobowsky and the Colonel, the story concerns an unlikely pair. S.L. Jacobowsky, a Polish-Jewish intellectual, has purchased a car he cannot drive....
- 1980: Happy New YearHappy New Year (musical)Happy New Year is a musical with a book by Burt Shevelove and music and lyrics by Cole Porter.Based on Philip Barry's comic 1928 play Holiday and its subsequent 1930 film adaptation and better known 1938 remake, it focuses on hedonistic young Wall Street attorney Johnny Case who, driven by his...
- 1983: On Your ToesOn Your ToesOn Your Toes is a musical with a book by Richard Rodgers, George Abbott, and Lorenz Hart, music by Rodgers, and lyrics by Hart. It was adapted into a film in 1939....
- 1987: Teddy & AliceTeddy & AliceTeddy & Alice is a musical with a book by Jerome Alden, lyrics by Hal Hackady, and music adapted from the work of the late John Philip Sousa, with some new songs by Richard Kapp...
- 1993: My Fair LadyMy Fair LadyMy Fair Lady is a musical based upon George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe...
Awards and nominations
Awards- 1953 Tony Award for Best Choreographer – Wonderful Town
- 1971 Tony Award for Best Choreography – No, No, Nanette
- 1971 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography – No, No, Nanette
- 1984 Dance MagazineDance MagazineDance Magazine is an "influential" American trade publication for dance, currently published by the Macfadden Communications Group. It was first published in June 1927 as The American Dancer. William Como was its editor-in-chief from 1970 to his death in 1989. Wendy Perron became its editor-in...
Lifetime Achievement Award - 2006 Capezio Dance Lifetime Achievement Award
Nominations
- 1975 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography – Good News
- 1973 Tony Award for Best Choreography – Much Ado About Nothing
- 1977 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography – The Robber Bridegroom
- 1983 Drama Desk AwardDrama Desk AwardThe Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
for Outstanding Choreography – On Your Toes - 1983 Tony Award for Best Choreography – On Your Toes