Michael Greif


Michael Greif is an American stage director. He has won three Obie Awards and received four Tony Award nominations, for Rent, Grey Gardens, Next to Normal, and Dear Evan Hansen.

Career

Greif attended Northwestern University and graduated from the University of California, San Diego graduate directing program. He was the Artistic Director of the La Jolla Playhouse, LaJolla, California from 1994 to 1999.
He was an Artistic Associate at the New York Theatre Workshop where he directed, among others, Bright Lights, Big City and the original production of Rent for which he received the Obie Award for direction of a musical and later directed on Broadway.
Greif has directed six original Broadway musicals and been nominated for the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical four times. In addition to Rent, his Broadway credits include If/Then, Next to Normal, Grey Gardens, Dear Evan Hansen, and War Paint.
Among his many directing credits Off-Broadway are Katori Hall's Our Lady of Kibeho, John Guare's Landscape of the Body and A Few Stout Individuals at Signature Theatre, Beauty of the Father for the Manhattan Theatre Club, the 2009 Playwrights Horizons production of Mrs. Sharp, and Romeo and Juliet, Winter's Tale, and The Tempest at the New York Shakespeare Festival at the Delacorte Theater.

Work (selected)

;La Jolla Playhouse
  • The Three Cuckolds
  • What the Butler Saw
  • Thérèse Raquin
  • Slavs!
  • Faust
  • Boy
  • Sweet Bird of Youth
  • Our Town
Williamstown Theater Festival
  • Therese Racquin
  • The Seagull
  • Tonight at 8:30
  • Strew Scene
  • Once in a Lifetime
  • Landscape of the Body
  • The Cherry Orchard
  • Three Sisters
  • Far From Heaven
;Broadway
  • Rent
  • Never Gonna Dance
  • Grey Gardens
  • Next to Normal
  • If/Then
  • Dear Evan Hansen
  • War Paint
;Guthrie Theater
  • The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures
;Off-Broadway
New York Theater Workshop
  • 70 scenes of Halloween
  • RENT
  • Bright Lights, Big City
  • Cave-Dweller
The Public Theater
  • Machinal
  • A Bright Room Called Day
  • Casanova
  • Pericles
  • Marisol
  • Dogeaters
  • Satellites
  • The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide...
  • Giant
  • The Low Road
Signature Theatre
  • A Few Stout Individuals
  • Landscape of the Body
  • Angels in America
Playwrights Horizons
  • Spatter Pattern
  • Grey Gardens
  • Far From Heaven
Second Stage
  • Spike Heels
  • Next to Normal
  • Boy's Life
  • Dear Evan Hansen