When the curtain rises on the first preview of Tuck Everlasting, director Casey Nicholaw will have reached a milestone rarely equaled by directors in modern times.

He will have four shows running on Broadway simultaneously: Tuck Everlasting, along with The Book of Mormon, Aladdin and Something Rotten!

The last director to equal that feat was Susan Stroman in fall of 2001. From October 25, 2001 to December 30, 2001, her Contact, The Music Man, The Producers and Thou Shalt Not were playing concurrently, according to figures supplied by The Broadway League.

After hoofing it as a dancer in the Broadway dance spectacles Crazy for You, Steel Pier and Thoroughly Modern Millie, Nicholaw stepped out of the chorus and has become one of Broadway's most sought-after director-choreographers. Nicholaw began as a choreographer and moved into the director/choreographer mold created by the likes of Bob Fosse and Michael Bennett.

One of his specialties has been collaborating with Broadway first-timers, like the Kirkpatrick brothers of Something Rotten!, the creators of The Drowsy Chaperone, Trey Parker and Matt Stone of Book of Mormon, and now Chris Miller and Nathan Tysen of Tuck Everlasting. “It seems to be my thing a little bit,” he told Playbill.com. “It’s been fantastic It really has. They’re such good collaborators it’s been a really good experience.... I kind of like it. Honestly, it’s what’s just come my way. It sort of ended up not being a niche that I set out to do but it’s just kind of how things have happened which I love. I do love it. And for the most part it’s all original musicals, it’s not like being handed a revival. So that’s sort of cool. It takes a long time [laughs] but I love it.”

Nicholaw won't hold his distinction for long. When the revival of An Act of God arrives in May, Joe Mantello will also be a four-simultaneous-show Broadway director, along with Wicked, Humans and Blackbird.

Additional reporting by Ruthie Fierberg.