Dear friends,
It is w/ great sadness that I inform you that my beloved wife of 36-years, Peggy Hickey has passed. She died peacefully at her home in Burbank, CA surrounded by her family: husband Tony and her proudest achievements, daughters, Molly and Gabriella.

Peggy immediately started working as a dancer after graduating from Sacramento State University. She worked extensively at regional theaters across the country, including many years of summer stock at the Sacramento Music Circus. Her first professional theater performance was in Gypsy w/ Joanne Worley. In Gypsy, Peggy performed as the back-of-the-cow to which Worley remarked, “Kid, now you can always say that you started at the ass of show biz.”

Peggy grew in her career, eventually as a choreographer and director. Peggy was an extremely versatile and gifted choreographer working not just in theatre but also in film, television, opera and video. Her choreography was seen at Goodspeed (Connecticut Critics Circle Awards for Brigadoon and On the Twentieth Century, and IRNE Award for Best Choreography for A Little Night Music), Lincoln Center (The Most Happy Fella and My Fair Lady), the Châtelet in Paris (King and I), Santa Fe Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington Opera, NY City Opera, and Seattle Opera.

For television and film, Peggy choreographed The Brady Bunch Movie, Beck’s New Pollution (MTV Award for Choreography), Samantha Who (ABC), Days of Our Lives (NBC), 90210 (The CW Network), and Kennedy Center Presents “Die Fledermaus” (PBS).

Peggy was diagnosed w/ breast cancer in 2011. In 2016, she was diagnosed w/ Stage 4 Metastatic Breast Cancer. Despite these devastating medical conditions, Peggy achieved her greatest professional success during this period choreographing the Broadway hits, A Gentleman’s Guide To Love and Murder (2014 Tony Award for Best New Musical, Outer Critics and Astaire nominee for Best Choreography) and Anastasia (opened in 2017 and ran for 842-performances). GGLAM toured extensively and is performed in regional theatres across the country; and Anastasia is currently touring the U.S. and has performed in Spain, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands (Dutch Music Award for Best Choreography), Brazil and later this year in Mexico and again in Japan.

I believe that in addition to her talent and success, Peggy will be remembered for the love and pure joy that she brought to her craft. Mother Theresa said that the goal in life is simply to love and be loved, and Peggy embodied this sentiment every day of her life. She developed many great life-long friendships, and one of her greatest joys was to reach out and connect w/ her many friends and colleagues. Peggy truly loved people and actively nurtured her relationships.

While this is a very sad occasion, Peggy would not want her dear friends and loved ones to mourn. She told me that she would like people to remember her fondly, remember the many happy times, and to continue to create the art that she loved so dearly. Peggy finally asked that we raise a glass (her favorite was Bombay Sapphire gin martini up, blue cheese olives, very dry and very cold) and toast w/ her favorite Irish toast:

“May your glass be ever full. May the roof over your head be always strong. And may you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you’re dead.”