Susan Stroman could not resist lure of Woody Allen’s ‘Bullets’

Five-time Tony Award-winning choreographer/director Susan Stroman has been the woman behind many of Broadway’s most popular and successful musicals, both originals and revivals, including “Young Frankenstein,” “Big Fish,” “The Producers,” “Oklahoma!” and “The Music Man.” But it’s her collaboration with Oscar-winning director/writer Woody Allen for the musical “Bullets Over Broadway” (based on his 1994 Oscar-winning film of the same name), that checked off an item on her bucket list.

“Living and working in New York, it’s inevitable that you run into these iconic entertainers or see them about town,” Stroman said with a chuckle during a recent phone conversation. “And I remember saying to a friend that I’d never come across Woody anywhere in New York.”

That all changed with one phone call, Stroman said. “When I got the call to meet with Woody [Allen] for a possible stage project I could not get to the meeting fast enough. … Of all the movies he’s written, I thought this particular screenplay would make a great musical. It’s a backstage story. Backstage stories make the best musicals.”

Stroman talked about her passion for musicals, working with Allen, and that other comic genius, Mel Brooks.

Q. You said backstage stories make the best musicals. How did you and Allen come up with the musical framework “Bullets” ?

A.The great backstory for “Bullets” was all there in Woody’s writing. But he’s also quite the musician. He plays [clarinet with a jazz band] here [at the Carlyle] in New York City. So he wanted a score for “Bullets” that was authentic to the 1920s in which it is set. That was important to him. I’m also huge fan of the music of that era. So there I was, sitting with flipping through music lists with him. Finding that music was a real joy. That’s one of my fondest memories of putting the project together.

Q. What’s it like to work with Woody Allen? Did he give you free rein to run with your concepts or was he very hands-on?

A. Woody was wonderful about collaborating.He really gave me total freedom. And he is the quickest writer I’ve ever worked with. I’d put big chunks of scenes together and then he’d come in to look at it and then he would talk about rewrites [if needed]. … He watched every preview from the back row and he’d come in the next morning with new jokes for the actors. He’d have them written on these pieces of yellow paper, in his handwriting, and he would tell the actors, let’s try this joke instead. Woody, ever the comic, feeds off an audience. He hears a joke and wants to feel that an audience [connects] with the jokes.

Q. You also worked with that other comic genius, Mel Brooks, on “The Producers” and “Young Frankenstein.” How different were the experiences?

A. [Laughing] It was very different. They’re two very different types of men. Woody is very quiet and shy and loves to work one-on-one with his actors. Mel is very loud. He loves to perform and he loves to play the characters right in front of you to convey what he’s looking for.

Q. When you’re directing someone else’s work, do you find yourself stepping into the mind of the creator?

A. Whenever you direct any show, especially if it’s based on another work, be it a book or film or story, you immerse yourself in research. You have to be intimately familiar with how the piece came about. So when you are working with a Woody Allen or a Mel Brooks you do have to immerse yourself into their world to get to know more about them and their writing styles. You have to learn their rhythms. They are like drummers in a sense. You get to know their beats, their rhythms, the rhythms of their words.

Q. You’ve directed revivals of some of the greatest shows in the stage musical canon. Is that daunting, to revisit an iconic show and make it new again?

A. I was very lucky to do shows such as “The Music Man” and “Oklahoma!” and in doing so I learned so much from those classics. I learned a great deal about structures and music arrangement. But I made a decision after “Oklahoma!” about 10 or 12 years ago to not do big revivals anymore. I wanted to spend my time primarily doing new works. And I’ve really stuck to that for the most part. It interests me more to create from scratch, to create my own work, whether it’s from a painting I see, or someone I come across on the street. There’s something so challenging and exciting in that.

Q.When you’re crafting a new work, are there topics that prove to be too daunting?

A. Nothing gives me pause, really. I’ve always loved creating new works. I and [the veteran Broadway musical writing team of] Kander and Ebb did “The Scottsboro Boys” based on actual historical events because I felt there was a truth there that needed to be told. I just directed Coleman Domingo’s Off Broadway comedy-drama “Dot,” about a family dealing with Alzheimer’s. It’s such a powerful piece and it was great for me to have the opportunity to do a straight play. But it’s very difficult to do new works. Financially [producers] more often than not don’t want to invest in new works. They’re very into revivals. That’s why I love “Hamilton” so much. It’s such a new way to do theater. It’s so intuitive. Such good storytelling. I’m so happy when new shows like that succeed.