John Weidman

Weidman earned another Tony nomination for the book of the musical "Big" (1996), based on the popular Penny Marshall movie starring Tom Hanks. An abysmal failure despite its slick veneer and marketing push from F.A.O. Schwarz, "Big" introduced him to choreographer Susan Stroman, with whom he would collaborate on "Contact" (1999), a hybrid of dance and dialogue, movement and metaphor, opening to critical acclaim Off-Broadway as "A Dance Play." Featuring a recorded score that moved from swing to ballet and back to swing again, "Contact" emphasized the difficulty humans have making contact, both physical and emotionally, in three very distinct stories, and its move to Broadway brought Weidman another Tony nomination for his libretto. Regrettably, "Wise Guys," on which he had worked with Sondheim since 1995, did not open as planned in the spring of 2000, following three weeks of work-in-progress presentations attended by audiences (but not critics) at the New York Theatre Workshop in Greenwich Village.