Professor Andrew Palermo Choreographs New Sweet Smell of Success at Lincoln Center

The MasterVoices production earned enthusiastic audience response and acclaim for Palermo’s movement direction

UC Irvine Claire Trevor School of the Arts Professor of Music Theatre Andrew Palermo choreographed the newly re-envisioned production of Sweet Smell of Success presented by MasterVoices at Jazz at Lincoln Center in November 2025. Staged in the Rose Theater, the production featured a jazz-fueled score by Marvin Hamlisch and Craig Carnelia, a book by John Guare and themes drawn from power, influence and moral tension in 1950s New York.

“Choreographing Sweet Smell of Success at Jazz at Lincoln Center was a profound honor, especially in close collaboration with living authors Craig Carnelia and John Guare and longtime creative partner Ted Sperling,” said Palermo. “This highly anticipated, newly re-envisioned production received an exuberant response from audiences and critics alike. The heartfelt endorsement from composer Marvin Hamlisch’s widow Terre made the experience especially meaningful.” 

The musical follows press agent Sidney Falco as he navigates the grip of feared gossip columnist J.J. Hunsecker, whose control over his sister’s romantic life anchors the story’s dramatic stakes. Under the direction of Ted Sperling, the cast included Raúl Esparza, Ali Louis Bourzgui, Lizzy McAlpine, Noah J. Ricketts and Aline Mayagoitia. Guare and Carnelia revised their material for this staging, offering Palermo a chance to build movement language in direct dialogue with the show’s creators.

Critics echoed this reception, with BroadwayWorld praising Palermo’s “crisp, spirited choreography,” while the actor Ron Fassler’s theater column, Medium, highlighted how the nightclub sequences “crackled with period authenticity while maintaining a contemporary edge.” The production marks Palermo’s latest collaboration with MasterVoices and adds to his extensive record as a director, choreographer and creator of new works for the stage.

Image: Andrew Palermo. Photo by Lee Cherry.

Palermo’s performance credits include original Broadway casts of Wicked, Annie Get Your Gun (with Bernadette Peters) and How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (with Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker); U.S. and European tours of West Side Story and appearances at major venues including Carnegie Hall, The Hollywood Bowl and The Kennedy Center. Select creative credits include the choreography for Allegiance (Broadway’s Longacre and The Old Globe) and developing new works such as Nickel Mines (UCI, Off-Broadway and regional productions) and Let Go, an evening-length contemporary ballet with Moscow’s Gzhel Dance Theatre. Palermo has also published research on autism-focused movement approaches and the impact of sleep on motor learning.

To learn more about Sweet Smell of Success, visit here. To learn more about Andrew Palermo, visit his Department of Drama bio page here.