- Michael Mayer (director)
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Michael Mayer Born June 27, 1960
Bethesda, Maryland, USAOccupation Actor, director Michael Mayer (born June 27, 1960) is an American stage and film director. He won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical in 2007 for directing Spring Awakening.
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Biography
Mayer was born in Bethesda, Maryland to Jerry and Louise Mayer.[1] After graduating from Charles W. Woodward High School, he studied acting at New York University, where he earned an MFA in Theater in 1983.[2] He began performing onstage in New York City but by 1990 had turned his efforts to directing, working as a freelancer while also teaching at NYU, the Lincoln Center Theatre Institute, and the Juilliard School.[3]
Broadway
In 2007, Mayer won his first Tony Award for his direction of the musical adaptation of Spring Awakening (2006), which also took the award for Best Musical. He was nominated for the 2002 Tony for his direction of Thoroughly Modern Millie, which he then directed on London's West End. Mayer also won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical for both Spring Awakening and Thoroughly Modern Millie.
Other Broadway credits include The Lion in Winter (1999), the 1999 revival of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Side Man (1998; Drama Desk Award), the 1998 Tony Award-winning revival of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge starring Anthony LaPaglia and Brittany Murphy, for which he was nominated for a Tony and won the Drama Desk Award, and Triumph of Love, the musical starring Betty Buckley, Susan Egan and F. Murray Abraham, with music by Jeffrey Stock and lyrics by Susan Bikenhead. He is also currently working on American Idiot the musical, based on Green Day's 2004 album American Idiot.
Off-Broadway
Mayer's off-Broadway directing credits include The Credeaux Canvas, John C. Russell's Stupid Kids, Peter Hedges' Baby Anger, Theresa Rebeck's View of the Dome, and the New York premiere of Janusz Glowacki's Antigone in New York.
Film
After directing on- and off-Broadway for more than 15 years, Mayer made his feature film directorial debut with A Home at the End of the World, starring Colin Farrell and Robin Wright Penn, in 2004. He went on to make the family film Flicka (2006), an adaptation of the story My Friend Flicka, which became a hit in DVD market. In the same year, he directed a sleeper titled Graduation, which is currently a hit with Netflix's instant programming audience. (IMDb has this film's direction attributed to a different Michael Mayer.) He has also been confirmed to be directing the film adaptation of Green Day's American Idiot.
Other work
He directed and co-wrote the stage adaptation of Green Day's 2004 album American Idiot, also titled American Idiot which premiered at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, on September 4, 2009, and ran through November 15, 2009.[4] The show officially opened on April 20, 2010 on Broadway to positive reviews, and closed on April 24, 2011.
Stage productions
- Broadway
- American Idiot (2010)
- Spring Awakening (2006)
- Thoroughly Modern Millie (2002)
- 'night, Mother (2004)
- After the Fall (2004)
- An Almost Holy Picture (2002)
- Uncle Vanya (2000)
- You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown (1999)
- Triumph of Love (1997)
- Off-Broadway
- Everyday Rapture (2009)
- Our House
- 10 Million Miles
- Spring Awakening
- Missing Persons
- America Dreaming
- Hundreds of Hats
- National tour
- Angels in America (1994)
References
- ^ "Names & Faces" (column), Washington Post, May 9, 1998, Style section, page D3.
- ^ Judith Weinraub. "'Angels' around America: Elaborate staging and mature themes make the Broadway hit a risk on the road," Washington Post, May 7, 1995, Sunday Arts section, page G7.
- ^ Alexis Greene (14 June 1998). "Hot director takes the stage(s)". The Star-Ledger: pp. 2 Spotlight.
- ^ Extended interview with scenic designer Christine Jones about American Idiot and the creative team responsible for the showthefastertimes.com
External links
- Michael Mayer at the Internet Broadway Database
- Michael Mayer at the Internet Movie Database
- Steven Drukman. "A Two-Career Man: Theater Director And Jewish Mother," The New York Times, January 3, 1999. Retrieved July 2, 2007.
- announcement for 10 Million Miles
- Mayer milestones
- Interview with Mayer about Spring Awakening
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical (2001–2025) Susan Stroman (2001) · Michael Mayer (2002) · Jack O'Brien (2003) · Joe Mantello (2004) · James Lapine (2005) · John Doyle (2006) · Michael Mayer (2007) · Bartlett Sher (2008) · Stephen Daldry (2009) · Michael Mayer (2010) · Casey Nicholaw / Trey Parker (2011)
Complete list · (1975–2000) · (2001–2025) Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical (2001–2025) Susan Stroman (2001) · John Rando (2002) · Jack O'Brien (2003) · Joe Mantello (2004) · Mike Nichols (2005) · John Doyle (2006) · Michael Mayer (2007) · Bartlett Sher (2008) · Stephen Daldry (2009) · Terry Johnson (2010) · Casey Nicholaw / Trey Parker (2011)
Complete list · (1950–1975) · (1976–2000) · (2001–2025) Categories:- 1960 births
- American theatre directors
- American stage actors
- Drama Desk Award winners
- LGBT directors
- LGBT people from the United States
- Living people
- Tony Award winners
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