2002 to 2010 In Cooper's first venture into musical theatre, he was both the choreographer and actor (playing the lead role of Junior Dolan) in
On Your Toes. In 2002 it played at
Leicester Haymarket, and was in transferred in 2003 to the
Royal Festival Hall in London. Sarah Wildor joined the production in 2003 to play the role of Vera Baronova. He was lauded by both the critics and the audience for his contributions and was rewarded with the
Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Choreography and Most Popular Dancer. In 2004 the production also had a successful tour in Japan. Leicester Haymarket, and was nominated for the Critic's Circle Award for Choreography of a Musical. He choreographed 2004's
Grand Hotel for the
Donmar Warehouse. The production won the
Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Musical Production at the
2005 Laurence Olivier Awards, with Cooper nominated for
Best Choreographer. In 2005, Cooper and Wildor performed a two-person play,
Wallflowering, at the Seven Oaks Playhouse. Their roles were primarily dialogue with intermittent bits of ballroom dancing. Following this, he designed the choreography for the revival of
Promises, Promises at
Sheffield's Crucible Theatre. He also played the Tin Man in the Royal Festival Hall's summer staging of the musical
The Wizard of Oz, after which he turned his attention back to choreography. First, he choreographed
Carousel for director
Lindsay Posner which had a very successful UK tour, prior to a West End run at the
Savoy Theatre. Cooper was then asked by Paul Kerryson to direct and choreograph the first new show,
Simply Cinderella, at the brand new
Curve Theatre, Leicester. Cooper co-starred in the touring stage version of
Irving Berlin's
White Christmas during the Christmas season in 2009, 2010, and 2011. He played the role of Phil Davis.
2011 to the present Cooper was the above-the-title star playing the role of Don Lockwood in Jonathan Church's highly successful 2011–2013 production of ''
Singin' in the Rain, with choreography by Andrew Wright. Its first sold-out run was at the Chichester Festival Theatre, followed by a longer run at the Palace Theatre, London. He also performed the iconic Singin' in the Rain
scene for the 2011 Royal Variety Performance. The stage show was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival among several other awards. A cast recording of Singin' in the Rain
was issued in 2012. Good Mornin''' was performed at the 2012 Olivier Awards Ceremony. The show, starring Cooper, played in Japan for three weeks of November 2014. In 2013 Cooper choreographed Matthew White's well-received production of
Candide at the
Menier Chocolate Factory. Reviewer Sam Smith wrote "Adam Cooper's choreography is racy, and the production finds a particular affinity with the 'Surrealism' of the piece." In late 2013 Cooper was invited to Denmark to choreograph Daniel Bohr's Danish language version of
Evita at
Det Ny Teater (The New Theater) in Copenhagen. The show premiered in January 2014. For
Evita, Adam Cooper created a choreography with continuous tango elements merged into the rest of the dance. and then in October 2014 transferred to the
Harold Pinter Theatre in the West End. In 2021 and 2024, he played the lead role of Zach in Leicester Curve's production of
A Chorus Line, which later transferred to Sadler's Wells and toured the UK. He was stage director and choreographer of
The Pirates of Penzance (in German) at the
Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich in November 2024, described by one critic as "very much
Pythonesque" and "all in all... a masterfully staged and choreographed production". ==Films and TV==