Arthur P. Siccardi, a longtime Broadway production supervisor whose five-decade career included work on such notable original and revival stagings as Sweeney Todd, Whose Life is it Anyway?, Sunday in the Park with George, Gypsy, The Heidi Chronicles and Sunset Boulevard, to name a few, died December 23 of complications from pneumonia. He was 89.
His death was announced by his son Drew Siccardi.
Born in Englewood, NJ, and raised in Fort Lee, Siccardi began his professional life as a minor league baseball pitcher for the Johnson City Cardinals from 1951-53. An employment offer to work as a show carpenter on the original national tour of Gypsy led to what would be his life’s work.
Siccardi established Arthur Siccardi Theatrical Services in 1975 at the suggestion of Michael Bennett, and he’d go on to work with such notable directors as Mike Nichols, Jerome Robbins, Tommy Tune, Gower Champion, Trevor Nunn and Michael Blakemore. He collaborated with such prominent set designers as Jo Mielziner, Oliver Smith, Robin Wagner, John Napier, Santo Loquasto and John Lee Beatty.
Siccardi’s long list of credits as a production supervisor includes such Broadway productions and tours as Gypsy (2003); Grease (1994 and 2007); A Chorus Line; Chicago (1996); Hello, Dolly!; Cats; Annie; Sweeney Todd; Whose Life is it Anyway?; The Real Thing; Sunday in the Park with George; Whoopi Goldberg; Children of a Lesser God; I Ought to Be in Pictures; A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine; Brighton Beach Memoirs; My One and Only; Biloxi Blues; The Odd Couple (1985); Song and Dance; Social Security; Broadway Bound; Fences; Burn This; Cabaret (1987); Chess; Ain’t Misbehavin’; Jerome Robbins’ Broadway (1989); Lend Me a Tenor, The Heidi Chronicles; Lost in Yonkers; Paul Simon’s The Capeman; Annie Get Your Gun (1999); Kiss Me, Kate (1999); Dreamgirls; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; Victor/Victoria; My Fair Lady (1981); Sunset Boulevard; The Color Purple; Billy Elliot: The Musical; Dirty Dancing; and Mamma Mia!
He was awarded a Tony Honor in 2012, and later that year received the SUNY Purchase Backstage Legends and Masters Award. He was a member of the International Alliance of Stage Employees since 1968.
Siccardi divided his time between Miami, New York City, Cold Spring, NY, and Tupper Lake in the Adirondacks. He was predeceased by wife Jane Waller, son Arthur III and wife Susan MacNair. He is survived by son Drew, daughter-in-law Lori, two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
In light of current Covid-19 restrictions, a memorial tribute will be planned at a later date. The family asks that donations in his memory be made to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids, The Wild Center at Tupper Lake in the Adirondacks, and the Goff-Nelson Library at Tupper Lake.