David Neumann to Receive Critics’ Choice Award at 2025 Chita Rivera Awards

Choreographer David Neumann, whose visceral, movement-driven work has helped redefine contemporary musical theater, will receive the Douglas and Ethel Watt Critics’ Choice Award at this year’s Chita Rivera Awards. The honor will be presented at the ceremony on May 19 at NYU Skirball.

Neumann’s choreography for Swept Away, the folk-rock musical set aboard a doomed 19th-century whaling ship, earned wide acclaim for its physical intensity and inventive staging. The production, which played at the Longacre Theatre this season, featured actors leaping across ropes, crashing onto decks, and embodying the peril and poetry of life at sea.

This year’s Critics’ Choice honor comes from the Chita Rivera Awards’ Broadway judging committee—an assembly of theater journalists who reserve the prize for work that defies conventional categories but demands recognition. The award is named in honor of the late Daily News critic Douglas Watt and his wife, Ethel.

In a statement, the committee praised Neumann’s choreography as “a remarkable tableau that filled the Longacre proscenium from top to bottom with breathtaking imagery,” citing in particular the climactic shipwreck scene. “We are honored to give David this well-deserved recognition.”

Neumann, who previously earned a Tony nomination for his choreography on Hadestown, also took home a Chita Rivera Award that season. His work blends contemporary dance with narrative clarity, often pushing performers beyond traditional musical theater movement into raw, emotionally charged territory.

The 2025 Chita Rivera Awards will also honor Broadway legend Ben Vereen with the Lifetime Achievement Award. The evening, produced by Joe Lanteri (Founder and Executive Director of the NYC Dance Alliance Foundation) alongside Patricia Watt, will gather top names in dance and theater to celebrate the season’s outstanding choreography across stage and screen.

Founded to celebrate excellence in dance and choreography, the Chita Rivera Awards also serve a philanthropic mission. Proceeds from the ceremony benefit the NYC Dance Alliance Foundation’s scholarship fund. This year, that includes support for a new initiative: the Chita Rivera Training Scholarship, aimed at nurturing the next generation of professional dancers.

Tickets for the event range from $125 for general admission to $7,500 for VIP table packages. 

Full details are available at www.ChitaRiveraAwards.com.