Michael Arden | |
|---|---|
 Arden in May 2018 | |
| Born | Michael Jerrod Moore October 6, 1982 Midland, Texas, U.S. |
| Education | Juilliard School |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 2003 – present |
| Spouse | |
Michael Jerrod Moore (born October 6, 1982), known professionally as Michael Arden, is an American actor, singer, musician, and theatre director. Arden won a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical in 2023 for the revival of the musical Parade .
Arden described his upbringing as "rocky". [1] He was born to a very young mother who struggled with drugs and alcohol and his father died by suicide when Arden was around 2 years old. Arden went on to live with his grandparents, Pat and Jim Moore, in Midland, Texas from 5th grade age onwards. [1] [2] Starting in the 5th grade, he was a student at Trinity School, a college preparatory school in Midland. [2] It was at the school that Arden first came out to his 9th grade English teacher, Shelly Wright. During his Tony Award speech in 2023, he revealed that he was bullied in his youth for being gay. [3]
Arden's interest in acting began when he was four years old and his grandparents had taken him to see Sesame Street Live . Growing up in Midland, he was active in the Pickwick Players, Midland Community Theatre's youth performing company. [4] [2] He says he asked his grandparents to let him build theatrical sets in their own garage. [5] A Presidential Scholar in the arts, he received a scholarship to Interlochen Arts Academy as a theatre student, where he graduated in 2001. [6] [7] He was accepted on a full scholarship [8] to the Juilliard School, where he was in the Drama Division's Group 34 (2001–2005). [9] He left Juilliard in 2003 to join the Broadway revival company of the musical Big River . [10]
Arden made his Broadway debut as Tom Sawyer in the 2003 Roundabout and Deaf West revival of Big River . He also starred opposite John Hill in the 2004 off-Broadway show Bare, a Pop Opera . In Summer 2005, he played Nick, a sexually promiscuous gay man in love with a shark, in Adam Bock's surreal play Swimming in the Shallows at New York's Second Stage Theatre. He played the title character in Pippin for the World AIDS Day Broadway benefit concert in November 2004. He starred in the new Twyla Tharp musical The Times They Are A-Changin' based on the music of Bob Dylan. [11] The Times ran January 25 to March 5, 2006, at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California and then on Broadway at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre from October 26, 2006, to November 19, 2006. [12]
In 2007 he starred as John Robert in Ace , at the Old Globe Theatre from January 13 to February 18. [13] In the summer of 2007 he toured Europe with Barbra Streisand as one of her "Broadway Boys." [10] [1] 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. [14] [15] [16]
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 new musical The Hunchback of Notre Dame at San Diego's La Jolla Playhouse. [17] [18] The production ran from October 26 - December 7, 2014, and at Paper Mill Playhouse from March 4-April 5, 2015. [19]
Arden directed Deaf West Theatre's acclaimed Broadway revival of Spring Awakening . The production marked his return to Deaf West and featured a cast made up of both deaf and hearing actors, performed simultaneously in American Sign Language and English. The production began in a small theater near Los Angeles' Skid Row 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. [20] On May 3, 2016, Arden received a Tony Award nomination in the category Best Direction of a Musical for his work on the Spring Awakening revival. [21]
Arden went on to direct the musical My Fair Lady at the Bay Street Theater in Southampton, New York in August 2016. [22] 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, [23] for which he earned a 2017 Ovation Awards nomination for Best Director of a Musical. [24]
Arden directed the first Broadway revival of the musical 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, noted for its gender fluid casting [25] and inspired staging, was nominated for seven Drama Desk Awards [26] and eight Tony Awards, including a second Best Director Tony nomination for Arden. [27] The cast includes Hailey Kilgore and Alex Newell in their Broadway debuts as Ti Moune and Asaka, Lea Salonga as Erzulie, and Merle Dandridge as Papa Ge. [28]
Next, Arden directed Annie at the Hollywood Bowl in July 2018 for the venue's annual summer musical production, with a cast including Ana Gasteyer as Miss Hannigan, Lea Salonga as Grace Farrell, and Megan Hilty as Lily St Regis. [29] Following this Arden was slated to direct Jefferson Mays in his one-man adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol at Los Angeles' Geffen Playhouse beginning October 2018. [30] Arden directed the American premiere of the musical Maybe Happy Ending at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, GA in January 2020. [31] In November 2022 Arden directed a production of Jason Robert Brown's Parade for New York City Center's 2022 Gala. [32] The production transferred to Broadway in March 2023 with the cast led by Ben Platt and Micaela Diamond as Leo and Lucille Frank. [33] This production won Arden the 2023 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical. [3]
He has appeared on ABC's Grey's Anatomy (episode "17 Seconds" as Neal Hannigan) and in Numb3rs for CBS. He was cast in the Fox show The Return of Jezebel James , which aired and was cancelled after three episodes in the spring of 2008. Arden had a recurring role in the NBC series Kings as Joseph, the secret boyfriend of the closeted gay heir to the throne, Prince Jack Benjamin. He also guest starred in an episode of The Closer as James Clark, a schizophrenic murder suspect, as well as guest starring in an episode of Bones as Harold Prescott. He was set to star alongside Radha Mitchell, Jeffrey Nordling, and John Heard in the A&E drama The Quickening. Producers of The Good Wife announced in August 2011 that Arden had been cast in a recurring role as a potential love interest for the recurring character Owen Cavanaugh (Dallas Roberts). [34] He starred alongside Charlie Sheen in the FX series Anger Management .
Having also worked in film, he is a featured actor in director Colin Spoelman's independent effort Underground, the story of five friends who become trapped inside a cave system deep below a mountain ridge in central Kentucky. Arden's more recent work included the 2011 movie Source Code , starring Jake Gyllenhaal. He also appeared as Kevin in the film Bride Wars. [35] [36]
As a composer, Arden has written several works, including Easter Rising, [37] As You Like It, and Ripley.
Arden is gay. [38] He first came out to his English teacher, though it took longer to tell his Southern Baptist grandparents, who both died in 2014. [39]
Arden got engaged to fellow Broadway and TV actor Andy Mientus on June 23, 2014. He and Mientus had both planned proposals to each other the same day without the other knowing. They married on August 18, 2016, at Babington House, Somerset, England. [40] They have been together since 2010. The two first met in 2006 during the opening night party of the Broadway show The Times They Are-a-Changin' , in which Arden was a performer.
| Year | Production | Role | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Big River | Tom Sawyer | Broadway |
| 2004 | Bare | Peter | Off-Broadway |
| 2005 | Pippin | Pippin | Regional (concert) |
| 2005 | Swimming in the Shallows | Nick | Off-Broadway |
| 2005 | The Secret Garden | Dickon | New York (concert) |
| 2006 | The Times They Are A-Changin' | Coyote | Regional |
| Broadway | |||
| 2007 | Ace | John Robert | Regional |
| 2014–2015 | The Hunchback of Notre Dame | Quasimodo | Regional |
| 2019 | King Lear | Aide to Cornwall | Broadway |
| Year | Production | Credit | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | A Tale of Two Cities | Assistant Director | Broadway |
| 2014–2015 | Spring Awakening | Director | Los Angeles (Deaf West Theatre) |
| 2015–2016 | Broadway | ||
| 2016 | My Fair Lady | Director | Regional |
| 2016 | Merrily We Roll Along | Director | Los Angeles |
| 2017 | The Pride | Director | Los Angeles |
| 2017–2019 | Once on This Island | Director | Broadway |
| 2018 | Annie | Director | Los Angeles |
| 2018 | A Christmas Carol | Director | Los Angeles |
| 2020 | Maybe Happy Ending | Director | Atlanta |
| 2022–2023 | A Christmas Carol | Director | Broadway |
| 2022 | Parade | Director | New York City Center |
| 2023 | Broadway | ||
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | The Good Shepherd | Pinafore Actor | |
| 2009 | Bride Wars | Kevin | |
| 2009 | The Cave Movie | Sam | |
| 2011 | Nurse Jackée | Gabe | Short film |
| 2011 | Source Code | Derek Frost | |
| 2012 | The Odd Life of Timothy Green | Doug Wert | |
| 2016 | So B. It | Elliot |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Numb3rs | Whitley | Episode: "Backscatter" |
| 2006 | Grey's Anatomy | Neal Hannigan | Episode: "17 Seconds" |
| 2008 | Cashmere Mafia | Denis | Episode: "Dog Eat Dog" |
| 2008 | The Return of Jezebel James | Buddy | 3 episodes |
| 2009 | Bones | Harold Prescott | Episode: "The Bond in the Boot" |
| 2009 | The Closer | James Clark | Episode: "Identity Theft" |
| 2009 | Kings | Joseph Lasile | 3 episodes |
| 2010 | The Forgotten | James Poole | Episode: "Mama Jane" |
| 2011 | The Good Wife | Finn | Episode: "Get a Room" |
| 2011 | Off the Map | Pher | 2 episodes |
| 2011 | Unforgettable | Joe Williams | Episode: "Lost Things" |
| 2012–2014 | Anger Management | Patrick | Main cast |
| 2012 | GCB | Reverend Steve Stewart | 2 episodes |
| 2012 | The Mentalist | Evan Kress | Episode: "War of the Roses" |
| 2012 | Nurse Jackie | Gabe | Episode: "Slow Growing Monsters" |
| 2012 | Royal Pains | Homer | Episode: "Some Pig" |
| 2019 | The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel | Milken Prince | 3 episodes |
| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Ovation Awards | Direction of a Musical | Spring Awakening | Won |
| 2016 | Tony Awards | Best Direction of a Musical | Nominated | |
| Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Director of a Musical | Nominated | ||
| Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Director of a Musical | Won | ||
| 2018 | Tony Awards | Best Direction of a Musical | Once on This Island | Nominated |
| Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Director of a Musical | Nominated | ||
| 2023 | Tony Awards | Best Direction of a Musical | Parade | Won |
| Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Director of a Musical | Won |
Thomas Edward Hulce is an American actor and theatre producer. He is best known for his portrayal of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the Academy Award-winning film Amadeus (1984), as well as the roles of Larry "Pinto" Kroger in Animal House (1978), Larry Buckman in Parenthood (1989), and Quasimodo in Disney's animated film The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996). Awards include an Emmy Award for The Heidi Chronicles, a 2007 Tony Award for Best Musical as a lead producer for Spring Awakening, an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for Amadeus, and four Golden Globe nominations.
Disney Theatrical Productions Limited (DTP), also known as Disney on Broadway, is the stageplay and musical production company of the Disney Theatrical Group, a subsidiary of Disney Entertainment, a major division and business unit of The Walt Disney Company.
Deaf West Theatre is a non-profit arts organization based in Los Angeles, California, US. It is most well known for its Tony Award-nominated productions of Big River and Spring Awakening.
Spring Awakening is a coming-of-age rock musical with music by Duncan Sheik and a book and lyrics by Steven Sater. It is based on the 1891 German play Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind. Set in late 19th-century Germany, the musical tells the story of teenagers discovering the inner and outer tumult of adolescent sexuality. In the musical, alternative rock is employed as part of the folk-infused rock score.
John Patrick Page is an American actor, low bass singer, and playwright. He originated the roles of the Grinch in Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical (2006), Norman Osborn/Green Goblin in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark (2011), and Hades in Hadestown (2019–2022), the last of which earned him a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.
Steven Sater is a Tony Award, Grammy Award, and Laurence Olivier Award-winning American poet, playwright, lyricist, television writer and screenwriter. He is best known for writing the book and lyrics for the Tony Award-winning 2006 Broadway musical Spring Awakening.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a musical with music and lyrics by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz. It is adapted from Walt Disney Animation Studios 1996 film of the same name, which in turn was based on the 1831 novel of the same name by Victor Hugo. The musical premiered in 1999 in Berlin as Der Glöckner von Notre Dame, with a book by James Lapine. It was produced by Disney Theatrical Productions, being the company's first musical to premiere outside the United States. It ran for three years, becoming one of Berlin's longest-running musicals.
Christopher Ashley is an American stage director. Since 2007, he has been the artistic director of the La Jolla Playhouse.
Taylor Hunt Trensch is an American stage and film actor.
Krysta Anne Rodriguez is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her roles as Ana Vargas in the NBC series Smash, Summer Henderson in the NBC series Trial & Error, Maxine Griffin in the ABC series Quantico and Ms. Crumble in the Netflix comedy series Daybreak.
Rob McClure is an American actor and singer, best known for his work on the Broadway stage.
The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts is a community arts center in Beverly Hills, California, named for philanthropist Wallis Annenberg in recognition for The Annenberg Foundation's major gift to fund the campus. It is colloquially known as The Wallis.
Andrew Michael Mientus is an American actor. He is best known for starring in the Broadway musicals Spring Awakening, Les Misérables, and Wicked, and on television in the NBC musical drama Smash and as Hartley Rathaway / Pied Piper in the CW series The Flash.
George Ernest Salazar is an American actor, singer, and musician known for his work on and off-Broadway. He made his Broadway debut in the 2011 revival of Stephen Schwartz's Godspell. Salazar originated in the role of Michael Mell in the 2015 musical Be More Chill and performed in the musical's 2018 Off-Broadway and Broadway in 2019 at the Lyceum Theater in New York City. He originated the role of Grover in The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical and starred in Pasadena Playhouse's production of Little Shop of Horrors as Seymour Krelborn.
Alyson Mackenzie Stroker is an American actress, author and singer. She is the first actor who uses a wheelchair to appear on a Broadway stage, and also the first to be nominated for and win a Tony Award. Stroker was a finalist on the second season of The Glee Project and later appeared as a guest star on Glee in 2013. She played Anna in Deaf West Theatre's 2015 revival of Spring Awakening, and won the 2019 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance in Oklahoma!
Austin P. McKenzie is an American actor and singer, known for his role as Melchior Gabor in Deaf West Theatre's 2015 Broadway revival of Spring Awakening. His performance as Melchior garnered significant critical acclaim, and multiple theatrical award nominations, for both Los Angeles runs and its run on Broadway.
Cody Lassen is an American Tony Award-winning and Grammy nominated theater producer and consultant. He is best known for producing the revival of Spring Awakening, which won him an Ovation Award and a Tony nomination.
Jay Armstrong Johnson is an American actor, singer, and dancer, known for starring roles on Broadway in musicals like Parade, On the Town, and The Phantom of the Opera and for his portrayal of Will Olsen in the ABC television series Quantico.
Dane Laffrey is an American scenic designer best known for Broadway shows Parade (2023), Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol(2022) Once on This Island (2017), Spring Awakening (2015), and Fool for Love (2015), and Off-Broadway shows The Christians (2015), Cloud Nine (2015), and Rancho Viejo (2016).
Thomas Joseph Kirdahy is an American Tony and Olivier Award-winning theatrical producer, film producer, lawyer, and activist.
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