He later danced in the ensembles of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949), Kismet (1954), and The Boy Friend (1955) before deciding to concentrate on choreography.
His first two efforts Nowhere But Up (1962) and Cafe Crown (1964) were unsuccessful, but in 1966 he won his first Tony Award for his dazzling work in the hit Cabaret, the first of several noteworthy successes.
During rehearsals for Stephen Sondheim's trouble-plagued Merrily We Roll Along in 1981, Field was dismissed from the creative team.
In addition to his work on Broadway, Field staged such diverse projects as Las Vegas nightclub acts, the 44th Annual Academy Awards telecast in 1972, Pinocchio (a 1976 TV special starring Sandy Duncan), a Hollywood Bowl concert and television special with Bette Midler in 1977, the opening ceremonies for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and an acclaimed revival of Kiss Me, Kate in London's West End.
[3][4] Though obituaries at the time said his "cause of death was brain lesions and neurological impairments,"[5] it was common at the time for survivors of public figures to euphemize AIDS or provide only the symptoms and not the overarching cause in obituaries due to rampant stigma.