Theater Professor Sam Biondolillo wins second Tony Award
Visiting Assistant Professor of Theater Sam Biondolillo, who joined Connecticut College in 2023, has won his second Tony Award. Biondolillo is a co-producer for Schmigadoon!, which won the top distinction of Best Musical at the 79th annual Tony Awards on June 7 at Radio City Music Hall.
This is the second Tony for Biondolillo and his business partner, Sam Houlihan, through their production company, SAMS Entertainment. They won in 2024 for Best Revival of a Musical for the Broadway production of Merrily We Roll Along.
As a co-producer for Schmigadoon! Biondolillo assisted lead producers Lorne Michaels and Christine Schwarzman with crucial funding tasks that included finding investors, marketing the show and selling tickets.
“The production team is responsible for the financial health of the show,” he explained, adding that many people are involved in its ultimate success. “We have a screen above the marquee that rotates through every person involved in Schmigadoon!, including the people working the box office, the people sweeping the seats, the cast, the crew, the producers and the marketing people.”
“I think that it’s very easy for the producers to say, ‘Yeah, we did it!’ But what we’ve actually done is create the environment for it to be able to happen.”
Biondolillo hardly has time to revel in his big win. His work for CBS as a lighting designer will take him to Washington, D.C., to cover Fourth of July festivals on the National Mall, and then he heads to London for two theater projects in July and August. He’s already working on one of them: “Today, I’ve been putting together a shop order and making sure that we have all the electrical pieces that we need.”
Allegra will mark his West End producing and lighting design debut, and he will provide lighting design for the off-West End production of The Jonathan Larson Project as it makes its U.K. debut. His involvement in the latter show is possible thanks to an award he applied for and won from Conn’s R.F. Johnson Faculty Development Fund, which supports conference travel, research and supplies for tenured and tenure-track faculty, lecturers and continuing part-time faculty members.
Biondolillo can’t wait to share his experience with his students next semester and beyond. “For me to be able to travel and bring it back here to them is a big win. I really try to integrate students into the work that I’m doing. I’ve brought them to work on off-Broadway productions, and I’ve helped get them internships with different general managers. I like the merger between the academic world and the professional world, and how those things can work together.”
And Conn is grateful for his talent. Associate Professor of Theater Sabrina Notarfrancisco, who is also the department chair, said, “Sam brings great energy to the theater department as a professor, lighting designer and production manager, and our students are so lucky to have him.”
