Alumnus Christopher Wheeldon wins Tony Award for Best Choreography

Congratulations to alumnus Christopher Wheeldon, who has won a Tony Award for Best Choreography for the musical MJ.

Christopher trained at White Lodge and Upper School and was awarded the Ursula Moreton Emerging Choreographer Award in 1990. He joined The Royal Ballet in 1991. In 1993, he joined the New York City Ballet and was named NYCB’s first Resident Choreographer in 2001. Since then he has created productions for various major ballet companies worldwide and currently serves as Artistic Associate of The Royal Ballet.

MJ the Musical

MJ the Musical is a jukebox musical featuring the music of Michael Jackson. Christopher Wheeldon directed and choreographed the production which premiered on Broadway in 2021. Speaking about how he worked to incorporate Michael Jackson’s essence into the show, he said:

The show is very much anchored in one particular moment in time… I always bring up the fabulous movie that Spielberg made about Lincoln: You take one key moment, I suppose, in the history of someone’s life and then sort of use that as an anchor point for past storytelling and, perhaps, some kind of prophecy of what’s to come. We’ll be doing that with this story.

The musical was nominated for 10 awards at the 75th annual Tony Awards. Alongside Best Choreography, MJ was also awarded Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for Myles Frost, Best Lighting Design of a Musical for Natasha Katz, and Best Sound Design of a Musical for Gareth Owen.