Broadway choreography

Who choreographed Top Hat?

Bill Deamer was credited for the choreography recognized by the Olivier Award.

1 choreography award1 nominationFirst honored 2013
Top Hat
Image: AllTalking at en.wikipedia · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Choreography awards for Top Hat

YearAwardChoreographerResult
2013Olivier AwardBill DeamerWon

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

About the show

Top Hat is a 1935 American musical comedy film, in which Fred Astaire plays an American tap dancer named Jerry Travers, who arrives in London to star in a show produced by Horace Hardwick (Edward Everett Horton). He meets and attempts to impress Dale Tremont (Ginger Rogers) to win her affection. The film also features Eric Blore as Hardwick's valet Bates, Erik Rhodes as Alberto Beddini, a fashion designer and rival for Dale's affections, and Helen Broderick as Hardwick's long-suffering wife Madge.

The film was directed by Mark Sandrich, and was written by Allan Scott and Dwight Taylor, with songs by Irving Berlin. "Top Hat, White Tie and Tails" and "Cheek to Cheek" have become American song classics. It has been nostalgically referred to—particularly its "Cheek to Cheek" segment—in cinema, including films as diverse as The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), The Green Mile (1999), and The Boss Baby (2017).

Astaire and Rogers made nine films together at RKO Pictures; the others include The Gay Divorcee (1934), Roberta (1935), Follow the Fleet (1936), Swing Time (1936), Shall We Dance (1937), and Carefree (1938). Top Hat was the most successful picture of Astaire and Rogers' partnership (and Astaire's second most successful picture after Easter Parade), achieving second place in worldwide box-office receipts for 1935. While some dance critics maintain that Swing Time contained a finer set of dances, Top Hat remains, to this day, the partnership's best-known work.

Top Hat was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in its second year, 1990, as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film has also been recognized by the American Film Institute on various lists commemorating the best of American cinema; the film appeared on their list of the twenty five greatest film musicals at number 15, and "Cheek to Cheek" appeared on their list of the one hundred greatest songs of American cinema, also at number 15.

From the Wikipedia article “Top Hat”, 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).