Michael Longhurst
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Theatre, Film and TV Lily Williams
+44 (0)20 7393 4452
Email Lily Williams
Biography
Michael is an award-winning stage director. His smash-hit production of Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus featuring orchestral accompaniment from the Southbank Sinfonia, opened to exceptional reviews at the National Theatre in 2016 and completed two sell-out engagements in the Olivier (the longest running show there since Warhorse).
His civil rights-era musical Caroline, or Change, starring Sharon D Clarke, completed sell-out runs at Chichester and Hampstead and will transfer to the West End in November 2018 with ATG.
His Royal Court production of Nick Payne’s Constellations transferred to the West End (starring Sally Hawkins and Rafe Spall) and Broadway (starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Wilson) winning the Evening Standard Award for Best Play as well as receiving Olivier, Drama Desk and Tony nominations. Its UK tour won Three Manchester Theatre Awards before returning to the West End alongside Bad Jews, also enjoying its second West End run.
Michael previously directed Academy Award nominee Jake Gyllenhaal in his American stage debut at the Roundabout Theatre, New York in Nick Payne’s If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet.
He has developed and directed new plays across the UK including Adam Brace’s Stovepipe about the Rebuild Iraq Project; a promenade co-production with the National Theatre, which featured in the Sunday Times ‘Best Theatre of the Decade’ list.
Michael is also a recipient of the Jerwood Directors Award at the Young Vic (Dirty Butterfly) and a Fringe First (Guardians).
He trained in directing at Mountview after reading Philosophy at Nottingham University.
In 2015, the Evening Standard named Michael as one of the 1000 most influential Londoners. He also appears in The Stage 100.
CV
Theatre
Director
Adaptation of Tony Kushner's poignant and exuberant musical. First performed at Chichester Festival Theatre. Hampstead Theatre 12 March - 21 April 2018. West End November 2018.
National Theatre's production of Peter Shaffer's modern classic, featuring the Southbank Sinfonia.
Currently in its second run at the National.
A newly married American couple in Paris start to discover their lives are not as perfect as they imagined.
A razor-sharp comic drama about ambition, office warfare and hierarchies, where the only thing that matters is moving up the ladder and selling out to the highest bidder.
A play about the invisibility of older women and what it takes to have it all.
Caryl Churchill’s play about a man who, at the age of 35, learns that he is not an only child
Michael directs Simon Stephens' new play, a reimagination of Bizet's opera Carmen.
Broadway transfer of Nick Payne's play about a relationship between a man and a woman that plays out in multiple different ways in parallel universes.
Constellations has been nominated for the Drama League Awards 2014-2015 for Outstanding Production of a Broadway of Off-Broadway Play and Distinguished Performance Award.
New production of the John Ford classic.
Michael Longhurst directs Joshua Harmon's viciously hilarious brawl over family, faith and legacy
Patrick Marber's play is about male camaraderie and obsession, set in the gritty world of amateur poker
New play about contemporary China
American début of Nick Payne's incisive look into an ordinary family
Play about voyeurism, power and guilt, winner of Jerwood Directors Award 2007