Michael Arden

 ( 1982 Births ) 

Arden's interest in acting began when he was four years old and his grandparents took him to see Sesame Street Live. He was active in the Pickwick Players, Midland Community Theatre's youth performing company. He also built theatrical sets in his grandparents' garage. A Presidential Scholar in the arts, he received a scholarship to Interlochen Arts Academy as a theater student, where he graduated in 2001. He was accepted on a full scholarship to the Juilliard School, where he was in the Drama Division's Group 34 (2001–2005). He left Juilliard in 2003 to join the Broadway revival company of the musical Big River.

In 2007, he starred as John Robert in Ace at the Old Globe Theatre from January 13 to February 18. In the summer of 2007, he toured Europe with Barbra Streisand as one of her "Broadway Boys." From July to September 2010, he played the lead role in a revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Aspects of Love at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London.

Arden's regional theatre credits include Pippin, God of Vengeance , Falsettoland, Tom Jones' Harold and Maude, West Side Story, Songs for a New World, The Common Pursuit, and The Winter's Tale.

Beginning in October 2014, Arden played the role of Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame musical at San Diego's La Jolla Playhouse. The production ran from October 26 to December 7, 2014, and at Paper Mill Playhouse from March 4 to April 5, 2015.

Arden directed Deaf West Theatre's acclaimed Broadway revival of Spring Awakening. The production featured a cast made up of both deaf and hearing actors, performed simultaneously in American Sign Language and English. The production began in at Inner City Arts in Los Angeles in September 2014, transferred to the Wallis Annenberg Center in Beverly Hills in May 2015, and finally transferred to Broadway, where it began previews September 8, 2015, and opened on September 27, 2015, at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. On May 3, 2016, Arden received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for his work on the Spring Awakening revival.

Arden went on to direct the musical My Fair Lady at the Bay Street Theater in Southampton, New York in August 2016. He then returned as the first artist-in-residence at the Wallis Annenberg Center, where he directed productions of The Pride and Merrily We Roll Along, the latter of which earned him a 2017 Ovation Awards nomination for Best Director of a Musical.

Arden directed the first Broadway revival of Once on This Island, which began previews on November 9, 2017, and opened on December 3 at the Circle in the Square Theatre, where it ran until January 6, 2019. The acclaimed revival was nominated for seven Drama Desk Awards and eight Tony Awards, including a second Best Director Tony nomination for Arden.

Arden directed Annie at the Hollywood Bowl in July 2018 for the venue's annual summer musical production. Following this, Arden was directed Jefferson Mays in his one-man adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol at Los Angeles' Geffen Playhouse beginning October 2018. Arden directed the American premiere of Maybe Happy Ending at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta in January 2020. In November 2022, Arden directed a production of Jason Robert Brown's Parade for New York City Center's 2022 gala. The production transferred to Broadway in March 2023. This production won Arden the 2023 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical. Arden directed the Broadway premiere of Maybe Happy Ending, which opened in fall 2024 at the Belasco Theatre. He won a Tony Award for Best Director for the show.