From Brockton to Broadway: Larry Sousa is in demand

Larry Sousa (photo: courtesy SpeakEasy Stage)
SpeakEasy Stage’s In The Heights features the work of a local choreographer gone big time. New production runs May 10 to June 8

By Loren King

Director/choreographer Larry Sousa remembers the first day of his first Broadway show, My Favorite Year. Sousa, who was part of the chorus, visited the craft services table. Dozens of coffee mugs were set out, each one emblazoned with the show’s logo and the cast member’s name. “I was shocked. I had my own mug!” recalls Sousa. As he stood there in awe of the validating welcome, a voice behind him said, “I know. It’s my first Broadway show, too.” Sousa turned and came face to face with Andrea Martin, one of the stars of the musical.

Now an in-demand choreographer/director on the Boston theater scene, Sousa has had other pinch-me moments over the course of 12 years working in television and theater in Los Angeles and New York. While appearing in the 2009 Broadway musical Busker Alley, composed by the Richard and Robert Sherman of Mary Poppins fame, Sousa recalls a rehearsal when the cast members broke into one of the composers’ signature songs. “We were sitting around a table singing ‘Feed the Birds’ to the guy who wrote it,” he says.