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WELCOME TO THE HOME OF J. AUSTIN EYER
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BROADWAY ACTOR
PROFESSOR DIRECTOR / CHOREOGRAPHER AUTHOR 
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Austin is an Assistant Professor and head musical theatre program at The University of Texas at Arlington. Before Texas, he was an Assistant Teaching Professor at Penn State University and an Adjunct Instructor at New York University. As a New York-based performer he was seen on Broadway in Evita, How to Succeed..., Billy Elliot, The Little Mermaid, Curtains, and The Secret Garden. Austin choreographed the long-running Off-Broadway productions of My Big Gay Italian Wedding, as well as choreographed for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Disney World, and Universal Studios. Eyer has taught around the world in Germany, Paris, and Tokyo. He is a contributing author for Digital Theatre+ and his book titled Broadway Swings: Covering the Ensemble in Musical Theatre was published by Bloomsbury/Methuen Drama. In 2022, he directed Queer-Antiracist-Feminism and Design for the Future, collaborating with Dr. Danielle Wood, an Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT’s Media Lab. He received a BFA in theatre from New York University and an MFA in directing from Penn State. He recently completed a four-year certification as a Contemporary Alexander Technique teacher at the Contemporary Alexander School in Santa Fe, NM.
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J. Austin Eyer grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, where he began working professionally in television, film, commercials, and theatre at the age of seven. Just three years later, he made his Broadway debut playing Colin in The Secret Garden. After the show’s closing, he continued training in Atlanta and even appeared in the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 1996 Olympic Games.
At fourteen, Austin moved to Orlando to attend the renowned Dr. Phillips Performing Arts High School, where he discovered a love for choreography while working with Walt Disney World and Universal Studios. He went on to earn his BFA in Theatre from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, graduating with honors. During his college years, he assisted on professional productions and began teaching at CAP21, launching what would become a lifelong passion for teaching.
Soon after graduation, Austin hit the road with the National Tour of Evita (directed by Hal Prince and Larry Fuller) and Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, before returning to Broadway at age 25 with Curtains, The Little Mermaid (understudying Prince Eric), and the revival of Evita starring Ricky Martin. He also performed in Billy Elliot, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (working alongside Daniel Radcliffe, Darren Criss, and Nick Jonas), and at New York City Center Encores! in Sondheim’s Anyone Can Whistle. Off-Broadway, he choreographed Boys Just Want to Have Fun and the long-running hit My Big Gay Italian Wedding.
Throughout his career, Austin has collaborated with Broadway’s brightest talents—from Audra McDonald, Sutton Foster, David Hyde Pierce, Michael Cerveris, Bebe Neuwirth, Sherie Rene Scott, Raul Esparza, and Donna Murphy, to directors and choreographers like Rob Ashford, JoAnn Hunter, Casey Nicholaw, Lorin Latarro, and Jerry Mitchell. His choreography has appeared at the New York Musical Theatre Festival, Vital Theatre Company, and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. In 2013, he co-founded Broadway Donation, offering donation-based classes for working professionals, and in 2015 his book Broadway Swings: Covering the Ensemble in Musical Theatre was published by Bloomsbury/Methuen Drama.
In 2014, Austin transitioned into academia, earning his MFA in Directing from Penn State University. He is now the Head of Musical Theatre at the University of Texas at Arlington, where he integrates his Broadway experience with new research on the Contemporary Alexander Technique and the “somatics of belonging.” He continues to teach nationally and internationally, with guest teaching credits in Japan, France, Germany, and across the U.S.
