Lee Micklin ’08

Time at Lehigh
Micklin dreamed of being a pediatrician until he shadowed one during high school. That’s when his pre-med plans changed. His love of languages then sent him toward a degree in Russian. 

During this pursuit of a college plan, he worked as a stage manager for a high school production of Les Miserables and went to summer camp where he learned more about stage management. 

It never crossed his mind that this avocation could be a vocation until he attended Admitted Student Day at Lehigh and met with Mary Nicholas, professor of Russian and then chair of the Modern Languages and Literatures Department. At her suggestion, Micklin went to check out the Zoellner Arts Center … and fell in love.

“It was the first time I could see myself doing theater for a living,” he says. Of course, he still studied Russian, but theatre became the main focus until his parents insisted on a business minor (just in case). At Lehigh, he built sets, directed, and stage managed. No surprise that he liked the last one best.

“The lovely thing about theatre at Lehigh is that it was open to all–theatre majors, athletes, students from other departments,” he says. “You are shielded from how great that is until you are out working in this business.”

After Lehigh
With New York City in his career sights, he went to Yale School of Drama to earn a master’s in stage management. Following that three-year program, he entered the market on a high note, working as a production assistant on the 2011 Broadway revival of Follies, starring  Bernadette Peters and Elaine Paige while the late composer Stephen Sondheim looked on. 

Micklin was in the studio as the cast recorded the album and witnessed as Sondheim changed a word in a song that he was never satisfied with (pitiful for those who care). “Here I thought I might work on one Broadway show in my career but am now on my 13th show,” he says.

He has been stage manager for Evita, starring Ricky Martin; Cabaret at Studio 54, directed by Sam Mendes; and Oh, Hello on Broadway, starring John Mulaney and Nick Kroll.

Career Highlight
At Lehigh he directed two shows in the black box theatre: Bug by Tracy Letts and A Number by Caryl Churchill. He was stage manager for A Shape of Things by Neil LaBute. He also worked on the Chekov masterpiece Three Sisters where he had to combine his theatre and Russian skills by translating the original lines for actors — part of an independent course by Profs. Nicholas and Ripa.

After campus, a highlight was working again with Sondheim, this time on the 2012 revival of Into the Woods. They snapped a photo together at the Central Park stage where the performance was part of the summer series.

Advice to your younger self
“Pursue more passions,” he says. “There are things I wish I had done, but if I had, I might not be where I am now.” One of those things was traveling to Russia. As a student, such a trip didn’t feel safe, so he took a three-month break in 2018 from a long-running Broadway show (Anastasia) to visit the country. Later he went to Columbia University to become certified to teach English in case he felt the pull to travel abroad. 

What’s next?
He is working on the Neil Diamond musical A Beautiful Noise, which opened in December. “My family played his songs when I was a baby, or so my mom tells me, but I don’t remember them,” he says. 

Read the full story on Alumni News.