Harold Wheeler, Legendary Broadway Orchestrator, Dies at 83

Harold Wheeler, the veteran orchestrator on Broadway and longtime musical director for ABC’s Dancing With the Stars, has died. He was 83.

Wheeler died Wednesday from an unspecified cause of death at home in Los Angeles, Tony Award-winning producer Lamar Richardson confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.

He began as a musical director on Broadway in 1968 when, at only 25, he was picked by Burt Bacharach to orchestrate Promises, Promises. His work as an orchestrator, music director, conductor and arranger spanned half a century on Broadway and included work on Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations. From 1968 to 1971, Wheeler also worked as an assistant program director for CBS-FM Radio in New York City.

Broadway musical premieres in which he was involved include Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Wiz, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, Dreamgirls, Little Me, The Tap Dance Kid, Carrie, The Life, Side Show, The Full Monty, Hairspray, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway

In addition to his Broadway work, Wheeler has arranged and produced music for such artists as Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Nina Simone, B.B. King, Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, Ray Charles, Kathleen Battle, Stevie Wonder, Al Green, Joe Cocker, Dizzy Gillespie and Gloria Gaynor, among many others.

In 2019, Wheeler received a Special Tony Award for lifetime achievement. “I was going to thank every cast member for every show I’ve every been in, until I realized I’ve done 30 Broadway shows,” he said on stage when receiving his career achievement trophy.

In a 2010 interview by the New York Post, Wheeler recalled a quick cancellation in Boston for Lennon, a 2005 Broadway-bound musical he arranged, allowed him to say yes to joining ABC’s Dancing With the Stars. “It was during that six-week cancellation that I got a call to work on a new show called Dancing with the Stars. Had Boston not been cancelled, I would have said, ‘Sorry, not available’ and we wouldn’t be having this discussion. They shot the pilot for Dancing during the exact same six weeks we would have been in Boston. So it was meant to be,” Wheeler recalled.

Wheeler and his live backing band and singers were eventually fired by ABC, to be replaced by recorded music and a smaller band. The Harold Wheeler Orchestra and Singers, led by Wheeler, consisted of 28 members and had been with the show for 17 seasons.

Wheeler also played piano for Bruce Springsteen on “Blinded by the Light” and “Spirit in the Night” on the 1973 album Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.

His other awards include the Drama Desk Award for outstanding orchestrations for Hairspray in 2003, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the NAACP Theatre Awards in 2008, in a addition to a host of Tony and Drama Desk nominations.

William Harold Wheeler Jr. was born in St. Louis on July 14, 1943. Starting at age 5, he played piano at Antioch Baptist Church, where the members included Chuck Berry and Ike and Tina Turner. He attended Turner Branch Elementary School, Sumner High School and Howard University before earning his master’s degree in music from the Manhattan School of Music in 1968.

It was at Howard University that Wheeler met his wife, Hattie Winston, an original member of the groundbreaking Negro Ensemble Company also known for her work on Becker, The Electric Company and Rugrats. They met when Wheeler was Winston’s student substitute music teacher. They teamed up for the 1971-73 Broadway production of Two Gentlemen of Verona before agreeing to marry.

In addition to his wife, Wheeler is also survived by daughters, Marian and Samantha, and his grandchildren.