Jonathan Cerullo

Jonathan Stuart Cerullo, born December 21, 1960, is an American director, choreographer, executive producer, dramaturge, and former performer whose career spans Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional theater, circus, film, and television. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in directing from Emerson College, earned in 1982, and a Master of Arts from the same institution, completed in 2024. In 2025, Emerson College presented him with its Distinguished Alumni Award, an honor previously given to Norman Lear, Jay Leno, and Henry Winkler. Cerullo is also the great-great-nephew of the Italian operatic soprano Erminia Frezzolini. His home on West 47th Street was the subject of a New York Times article by Constance Rosenblum titled "Pocket-Sized on West 47th Street," which was subsequently included in Rosenblum's book Habitats: Private Lives in the Big City, published by NYU Press on March 25, 2013.

Cerullo entered the professional theater world in 1984 as a Production Assistant on the Broadway musical The Three Musketeers, directed and choreographed by Tony Award-winning director Joe Layton. His first major performing role came when he was cast as Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat in the US National III tour of Cats, which ran from September 1986 to August 1988. He subsequently appeared on Broadway as a featured dancer in the 1988 musical Legs Diamond, starring Peter Allen, and was included on the BMG-RCA Original Cast Recording for that production. In 1992, he served as Dance Captain for Circle in the Square's Broadway production of Anna Karenina. His Broadway performing credits span 1987 to 1992 and include Cats, Anna Karenina, and Legs Diamond.

Beyond Broadway performance, Cerullo appeared at regional venues including the Goodspeed Opera House, North Shore Music Theatre, the Ogunquit Playhouse, and the Cape Playhouse. He played Big Daddy in the West Coast production of Sweet Charity, which starred Tony Award winner Donna McKechnie. His regional and Off-Broadway work eventually gave way to a broader career as a director and choreographer, a transition shaped in part by his professional relationship with choreographer and director Patricia Birch, who began mentoring him following their collaboration on Anna Karenina. Through that partnership, Cerullo served as Associate Choreographer for Birch on the PBS Great Performances special This Is The Moment, starring Donny Osmond and Vanessa Williams, and on Natalie Cole's Untraditional Traditional Christmas Special. He also worked as Assistant Choreographer to Birch on the films The First Wives Club, starring Bette Midler, Diane Keaton, and Goldie Hawn, and The Cowboy Way, starring Woody Harrelson. He additionally served as Assistant Director and Choreographer alongside Birch on the St. Ann's Warehouse production of Band in Berlin.

Cerullo's work in circus came through his choreography for the Big Apple Circus at Lincoln Center, where he created the productions Picturesque and Carnevale, the latter earning a Village Voice 2003 Voice Choices Best Dance Pick. His circus work was also covered in a Backstage article by Simi Horwitz. In 2003, he choreographed Orpheus Descending for the Great Performances Evening at Pops with the Boston Pops, conducted by Keith Lockhart. The following year, he served as Special Effects Movement Consultant to Bette Midler on the film The Stepford Wives. He also conceived, directed, and produced a video tribute to George Abbott for the Mr. Abbott Award for Lifetime Achievement in the American Theatre, presented annually by the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.

Cerullo received the Newhouse Scholarship from Career Transition for Dancers, which he used to establish his production company JSCTheatricals, LLC. In October 2013, he made his producing debut under that company with the Grand Central Terminal Centennial Celebration presentation of Orphan Train, The Musical, directed by Patricia Birch. He also directed the original musical Fools' Paradise by Jim Camacho and worked with the late Frank Gorshin on the Broadway production of Say Goodnight Gracie by Rupert Holmes at the Helen Hayes Theatre, serving as Gorshin's dance instructor and creating the soft shoe routine Gorshin performed as George Burns. In 1992 in Los Angeles, Cerullo worked with Uta Hagen on what proved to be her final stage performance, Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks by Richard Alfieri at the Geffen Playhouse, a production choreographed by Kay Cole and co-starring David Hyde Pierce.

From 2015 onward, Cerullo directed the world premiere of Windywoo and Her Naughty Naughty Pets at the 2015 New York Musical Festival and received the Best Director award at Theatre Now New York's SOUND BITES 3.0 festival for his direction of Fictitious, a new musical by Paul Cozby and Tom Hyndman. In 2016, he directed the NYC premiere of RISE, written and performed by Scott Barry at the Museum of Sex, and directed the NY premiere of CHANCE, the musical by Richard Isen for the Fresh Fruit Festival. That same year, he conceived, directed, and choreographed the Bucket Brigade Tribute for the 30th anniversary of the Easter Bonnet Competition at the Minskoff Theater, and directed the NY premiere of The Fifth Dentist In Search Of Sid's Treasure at the NY International Fringe Festival, a production for which he was quoted in The New York Times. He also choreographed Lisa and Leonardo, written by Donya Lane and Ed McNamee, for the 2016 New York Musical Festival.

Cerullo directed and choreographed an all-male production of the Rodgers and Hart musical comedy The Boys From Syracuse for Musicals Tonight! Off-Broadway at the Lion Theatre on Theatre Row. He produced and directed a concert presentation of Legs Diamond at Feinstein's 54 Below featuring original cast members, including two-time Tony Award nominee Christine Andreas, Tony Award nominee Brenda Braxton, two-time Tony nominee Bob Stillman, and Randall Edwards. He also staged Amas Musical Theatre's No Foolin' A Musical Confection, honoring Tony Award and Grammy Award winner Micki Grant and hosted by Brad Oscar. In 2018, Theatre Resources Unlimited hired him to direct their TRU LOVE benefit honoring John Chatterton, Baayork Lee, and her National Asian Artists Project, an event featuring Tony Award winners Priscilla Lopez, Donna McKechnie, and Brenda Braxton. Amas Musical Theatre subsequently commissioned him to write and direct their Amas@50 Anniversary Concert, with Honorary Chair Whoopi Goldberg, hosted by Lillias White, and featuring Leslie Uggams, Vivian Reed, Christopher Jackson, Len Cariou, and others, with the gala honoring Harry Belafonte, Sharleen Cooper Cohen, Donna Trinkoff, and Shelly Berger. In 2019, he was named an Artistic Associate at Amas Musical Theatre.

Cerullo also produced Conrack, The Musical, based on Pat Conroy's The Water Is Wide, at the York Theatre Company Development Reading Series, featuring Tony Award nominees Vivian Reed and Ernestine Jackson and Drama Desk nominee A.J. Shively, with music by Emmy Award-winning composer Doug Katsaros and direction by Stuart Ross. He co-wrote Willie & Me: The Emmett Kelly Story with Stephen Woodburn. He is a voting member of the Lucille Lortel Award for Off-Broadway productions and holds membership in the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, the Dramatists Guild, and Actors' Equity Association.