Faculty

Peggy Hickey was a versatile artist and an award-winning choreographer, working extensively in theater, opera, film and television. Hickey’s Broadway credits include Anastasia (April 2017), A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (2014 Tony Award, Best Musical); and the world premiere/pre-Broadway production of Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre (June 2017). She also directed and choreographed the national tour of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. Other New York credits include My Fair Lady, starring Kelli O’Hara, Kelsey Grammer and Brian Dennehy, at Lincoln Center with the New York Philharmonic; Cinderella for the Little Orchestra Society of New York at Lincoln Center; and several productions at New York City Opera at Lincoln Center including The Most Happy Fella, starring Paul Sorvino; Lucky to Be Me and The Music of Leonard Bernstein. Hickey also collaborated with Monty Python’s Eric Idle on An Evening Without Monty Python, which played in New York and Los Angeles.

She was awarded the MTV Video Music Award for Best Choreography for her work on Grammy-Award winner Beck’s The New Pollution. She choreographed the Spring Awakening sequences on the hit CW series 90210; the episode “So I Think I Can Dance” for Christina Applegate’s ABC series Samantha Who?; and was nominated for an MTV Movie Award in the category of Best Dance Sequence in a Feature Film for her work on Paramount’s The Brady Bunch Movie. Hickey choreographed the “Nurses Ball” episodes on ABC’s General Hospital for eight consecutive seasons as well as the “Jailhouse Tango” episode of NBC’s Passions.

Hickey was a 2014 Outer Critics Circle nominee for her choreography on A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder and a two-time recipient of the Connecticut Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Choreography for Brigadoon and On the Twentieth Century at the renowned Goodspeed Musicals in Connecticut.

Also for Goodspeed, she choreographed King of Hearts, A Little Night Music, Amour and a revival of Carnival. Other credits include Oklahoma! at the Paper Mill Playhouse; The Music Man (starring Shirley Jones and Patrick Cassidy) for Hartford’s Bushnell Theatre; and Gigi and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum for Los Angeles’ Reprise. She also did many productions for Music Theatre Wichita, Sacramento Music Circus and Casa Mañana.

Hickey also worked extensively in opera, and collaborated with such renowned artists as Plácido Domingo, Samuel Ramey, Denyce Graves, Susan Graham, Jonathan Kent and Franco Zeffirelli, among others. Her work has been performed at Los Angeles Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Seattle Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Santa Fe Opera, Palm Beach Opera, and the Julliard School, where she choreographed Hansel und Gretel with sets and costumes by Maurice Sendak, which was subsequently televised on PBS’ Live from Lincoln Center. Internationally, Hickey choreographed La Cenerentola and Ballo en Mascara at the Hong Kong Arts Festival; Don Giovanni and Salome at the Savonlinna Opera Festival; and The King & I at Théâtre du Châtelet, starring Susan Graham.

Hickey passed away on Jan. 22, 2023.