Charles Kirsch

As the recipient of two Tony Awards for Best Director of a Musical in the past three years, there’s no question that Michael Arden is at the top of his game. Between thrilling and inventive revivals of Parade and Once On This Island, and exciting new work like Maybe Happy Ending and the upcoming The Lost Boys, Arden has shown a remarkable ability to create theatrical magic. 

Not many directors could helm a blockbuster stage adaptation of a hit film starring George Clooney, the Broadway transfer of a dark and quirky musical about a Dead Outlaw, and an off-Broadway meditation on the root and consequences of AI all in the span of four months. If anyone could, however, it would certainly be David Cromer, who achieved that impressive feat last spring. Rocketed to fame by his revelatory 2009 production of Our Town, he has become one of New York’s most in-demand directors, noted for his versatility, sensitivity, and ability to create theatrical magic. 

In 2024, the pioneering director George C. Wolfe, who brought iconic pieces like Angels in America and The Normal Heart to Broadway stages for the first time, was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award. If that award is meant to signal the twilight of a career, however, fear not: Wolfe came back to New York the very next year with his critically acclaimed revival of Gypsy starring Audra McDonald. 

Charles Kirsch is the 17-year-old host of the theater podcast Backstage Babble, where he has conducted over 250 in-depth interviews with some of Broadway’s best. In “Stage Direction,” he will be using material from the podcast and additional interviews to chronicle the career and impact of some of the most influential theater directors.