Broadway choreography

Who choreographed Tamburlaine the Great?

Welcome Msomi was credited for the choreography recognized by the Olivier Award.

1 nominationFirst honored 1994
Tamburlaine the Great
Image: anonymous · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Choreography awards for Tamburlaine the Great

YearAwardChoreographerResult
1994Olivier AwardWelcome MsomiNominated

Productions are listed under the year of the award; revivals can bring new choreography — and new nominations — for the same show.

About the show

Tamburlaine the Great is a play in two parts by Christopher Marlowe. It is loosely based on the life of the Turco-Mongol conqueror and emperor Timur (Tamerlane/Timur the Lame, d. 1405). Written in 1587 or 1588, the play is a milestone in Elizabethan public drama; it marks a turning away from the clumsy language and loose plotting of the earlier Tudor dramatists, and a new interest in fresh and vivid language, memorable action, and intellectual complexity. Along with Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, it may be considered the first popular success of London's public stage.

Marlowe, generally considered the best of that group of writers known as the University Wits, influenced playwrights well into the Jacobean period, and echoes of the bombast and ambition of Tamburlaine's language can be found in English plays all the way to the Puritan closing of the theatres in 1642. While Tamburlaine is considered inferior to the great tragedies of the late-Elizabethan and early-Jacobean period, its significance in creating a stock of themes and, especially, in demonstrating the potential of blank verse in drama, is still acknowledged.

Whereas the real Timur was of Turkic-Mongolian ancestry and belonged to the nobility, for dramatic purposes Marlowe depicts him as a Scythian shepherd who rises to the rank of emperor.

From the Wikipedia article “Tamburlaine”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Award data from Wikipedia lists of Tony, Drama Desk and Olivier choreography awards (CC BY-SA 4.0).