What The Critics Say:
Anastasia
Onstage May 29, 2016
“Finally, I must commend Peggy Hickey on some of her best choreography yet. While I found her work on last year’s Kiss Me Kate to be particularly excellent, she goes even further here with everything from ballroom to ballet to the Charleston.
…All in all, Anastasia is sensational and given its expected move to Broadway next year, I’d say the future is looking bright for this fairy-tale musical about a young woman trying to find out who she really is.”
A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder
Connor Palace, Playhouse Square, Cleveland
Kerry Clawson, Beacon Journal writes:
“A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder is so witty and has so many deliciously comical surprises, you’ll wish you could see it twice just to take all the mayhem in again….A Gentleman’s Guide isn’t a dance musical with huge production numbers, but the choreographed movement by Peggy Hickey is precise and highly effective, all in service to the comedy.”
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Nice Work
Newsday writes:
“Supporting players and especially the ensemble choreographed by Peggy Hickey (“A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder”) keep “Nice Work” fizzing like champagne. While you may find bigger dance numbers on Broadway, you’d be hard-pressed to find better.”
Kiss Me Kate
Talkin’ Broadway posts:
“Boasting Peggy Hickey’s choreographic touch and expertise, the production demonstrates many of the virtues of the genre. Musical theater lovers will adore this treat.”
“Kiss Me, Kate opens with ‘Another Op’nin’, Another Show’ and this ensemble smacks it out of the park with a truly stunning version of Cole Porter’s tune. With Hattie (Charity Angel Dawson) and others collaborating and Hickey’s dance moves actualized, the musical flies off the stage with an enviable blend of joy and expertise. ”
New Haven Review writes:
“In this staging it also has director Darko Tresnjak, who scored a Tony for A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, showing again his sure hand with flamboyantly fluffy stuff, reunited with members of the Gentleman team, Peggy Hickey, choreographer, Alexander Dodge, scenic designer, and Philip Rosenberg, lighting designer, and with Fabio Toblini, who did such an eye-pleasing job with the costumes for Tresnjak’s production of Bell, Book & Candle. And that means the show is a feast for the eyes and ears.”
Onstageblog.com writes:
“Ms. Hickey’s knowledge of dance during that time period is illustrated in a fun and engaging way which elevates numbers such as “Tom, Dick or Harry”(which can’t help itself from playing off the title a bit) and “Bianca”. Her choreography in these numbers was so good that I found myself wanting more during the more iconic numbers such as “Another Op’nin’ Another Show” and “Too Darn Hot”.
The Pearl Fishers
Press & Audience Reaction
“The dancers carried out Peggy Hickey’s brilliant choreography with stunning virtuosity.… Mary Dunleavy sang with impressive freedom and moved well.”
www.seattleopera.org/tickets/2008-2009/fishers/press.aspx
Outstanding Choreography in ‘Carnival!’ at Goodspeed Opera House (Aug 19, 2010)
“Exquisite leotard-donned dancers stretch and leap and hang from trapezes in a nuanced acrobatic ballet choreographed by Peggy Hickey that …” (read more)
LA Opera – Production – The Birds (From the LA Opera website)
“Opera choreographer Peggy Hickey was on a mission. She had a 12-minute ballet to choreograph on a 30-degree raked stage for LA Opera’s spring 2009…” (read more)
www.losangelesopera.com/production/0809/thebirds/article.03.aspx
Der Zwerg
Los Angeles Opera
“The production, directed by Darko Tresnjak, is perfectly charming. Peggy Hickey’s choreography for the overture is particularly brilliant, a shadow ballet clearly explains all that happens before the scrim comes up is both helpful and very funny.”
The Opera Tattler
Read the whole review
Carnival
Goodspeed Opera House, East Haddam, CT
Review in Connecticut Magazine
http://www.connecticutmag.com/Blogs/Box-Office/August-2010/Review-Love-Is-All-You-Need/
Interview in the Norwich Bulletin
http://www.norwichbulletin.com/entertainment/x145188638/The-Goodspeed-Opera-House-presents-the-Tony-award-winning-Carnival-through-Sept-18
My Fair Lady
New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center
“For sheer theatergoing delight, few evenings this year matched the Philharmonic’s staged concert version of My Fair Lady, starring Kelsey Grammer and the luminous Kelli O’Hara as Professor Higgins and Eliza Doolittle.”New York Magazine’s “Best of 2007”
New York, NY
The Most Happy Fella
New York City Opera
” The choreographer is Peggy Hickey, who produced last season’s best choreography at City Opera, in Puccini’s ‘La Rondine.’ Here again, she’s just terrific. In fact, she is one of the rare choreographers who actually listen to the music.
The big number, titled ‘Big D,’ is led by another supporting player, the sidekick Cleo. Played to perfection by Broadway veteran Leah Hocking, this was a swirling and high-energy dance extravaganza out in the grape fields that was tremendously exciting and seemed somehow in Technicolor compared to the rest of the piece.”
The New York Sun
New York, NY
On the 20th Century
Goodspeed Musicals, East Haddam CT
“The real star of the evening is choreographer Peggy Hickey. Having toiled in the wilds of the west coast for too many years, Hickey makes her Goodspeed debut with a blitheness that fuels her tap dancing chorus with high octane petrol.”
The Hour
Norwalk, CT
American Musical Theatre of San Jose
“Choreography by Peggy Hickey is effervescent, and one of the highlights of her work is the terrific “She’s A Nut” number, which is a vivid re-creation of slapstick ’30s film madness.” click here for full review
Richard Connema
Talkin’ Broadway
La Rondine
New York City Opera (debut)
“There were two significant debuts this Sunday afternoon. Choreographer Peggy Hickey fashioned a simply superb second act: The females of the waltz lifted up like carousel horses as they approached the front of their swirling circle. The dancing underscored that this work is really about illusion and its unique place in our perceived and romanticized reality. A magnetic pair of apache dancers at stage center tells the story even more forcefully than the singing lovers at the corner table.”
The New York Sun
New York, NY
Brigadoon
Goodspeed Theater, East Haddam CT
“Of course, the choreography by Peggy Hickey, whose Goodspeed credits include the superb “On The Twentieth Century,” deserves credit, too. (She’s following in imposing footsteps; Agnes deMille choreographed the original.) Hickey’s dances, infused with some Scottish folk flavor, create a romantic vibrancy often more powerful than even the “Brigadoon” score.”
The Day
“Choreographed by Peggy Hickey, the dancing is energetic, lively and full of the boisterous elements that one might expect from a town that appears only once in a century.”
New Britain Herald
“Choreographer Peggy Hickey has found enough room for the dancers to perform blissful ballet steps with ease and grace. The dancing’s high point comes in the dramatic sword dance at the first act’s conclusion, dominated by the passionate Mullaney.”
The News-Times
“The current Goodspeed production also spotlights outstanding choreography by Peggy Hickey. The mourning scene featuring dancer Elizabeth Ferrell is as memorable as it is moving. And Patrick Mullaney, as dark Harry, takes your breath away with his leaps and turns and fancy footwork in the sword dance.”
Republican-American
The Merry Widow
Los Angeles Opera
“There is much dance in this production, all designed by choreographer Peggy Hickey, and all remarkably effective. The second act folk dance sequence is constrained by the small size of the stage available, but her third act dances, one a complete miniature miniature ballet with Reid Olsen and Lisa Gillespie as lovers who discover each other at Maxim’s, are wonderful. The Grisettes, Kelley Cabrera, Karen Christenberry, Palmer Davis, Nicole Harlan, Candy Olsen, and Yvette Tucker put on a can-can that stops the show.”
Long Beach Press Telegram
Carnival of Wonders
At The Reno Hilton
“The inventive choreography of Peggy Hickey, whose theatrical flair – she’s done extensive work for Los Angeles Opera – has tightened the production’s grip on the exotic world of carnival. Hers is a major addition to the show and makes it a much more cohesive thematic entertainment vehicle than last year’s edition.”
click here for full review
Jack Neal
Nightclub Reviews
A Little Night Music
Goodspeed Opera House
“‘A Little Night Music’ is by no means easy to mount, especially on the Goodspeed’s small stage. All the more credit to Tresnjak, his cast and the design team he often works with, and to Peggy Hickey, whose choreography is more deftly dove-tailed movement than actual dance.
Markland Taylor
Variety
7 Brides for 7 Brothers
Music Theater of Wichita
“Choreographer Peggy Hickey whips up three (production numbers). The first — at the town social — stopped the show with extended applause opening night. There was also a terrific wedding finale filling the entire Century II stage with 26 dancers cavorting at once.
But my personal favorite was an ethereal spring fling number with the brothers and brides barefoot in the meadow. Lovely, lyrical and balletic, it’s reminiscent of the famous dream ballet of “Oklahoma!”
click here for full review
Bob Curtright
The Wichita Eagle
Carousel
Cabrillo Music Theatre
“Peggy Hickey’s choreography for the large chorus is lively and exciting. Her ballet, featuring the wonderful Lisa Gillespie (as Billy’s tomboyish daughter Luisa), is a remarkable and moving piece of theater.”
click here for full review
Rob Stevens
Critic’s Pick – ShowMag.com
“[Lisa Gillespie’s] graceful ballet with Harlan Bengel as Carnival Boy was brilliantly choreographed by Peggy Hickey and seemed to be the talk of the party following opening night.” click here for full review
Ryan O’Quinn
Thousand Oaks Acorn
Faust
Los Angeles Opera
“… choreographer Peggy Hickey [has] brought excellent ideas for the visual stage aspects of ‘Faust'”.
click here for full review
Allison Dixon
Daily Bruin