Michael Greif

Michael Greif is an American stage director known for contemporary musicals. He directed the original Broadway production of Rent and later Next to Normal and Dear Evan Hansen. Our directory lists him as director of The Notebook on tour in Houston and Dallas, and of Alicia Keys' Hell's Kitchen in both cities in early 2027.

A director shapes how a whole production looks and feels. Greif is known for musicals about ordinary people facing big emotions: families, friends, young adults finding their way. His shows tend to put the story and the actors first, often on fairly open stages with a few strong design ideas rather than huge spectacle. The Notebook follows a couple across a lifetime, and Hell's Kitchen draws on the early life of the singer Alicia Keys in New York. Both give an audience a chance to see how he stages songs so that they grow out of a scene instead of stopping the story.

Greif directed the original production of Rent, which began Off-Broadway in 1996 and moved to Broadway. He was artistic director of La Jolla Playhouse in California in the 1990s. He later directed Grey Gardens, Next to Normal, Dear Evan Hansen and The Notebook on Broadway, and Hell's Kitchen. He has received Tony Award nominations for directing, including for Rent, Next to Normal and Dear Evan Hansen.