2009 Tony Award Nominees: 'Best Direction Of A Musical'

Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot)
Theatre: Billy Elliot currently running in London at the Victoria Palace Theatre and in Sydney at the Capitol Theatre. For The Royal Court Theatre - A Number by Caryl Churchill; Far Away by Caryl Churchill (also at the Albery Theatre and New York Theatre Workshop); Via Dolorosa by David Hare (also at the Duchess Theatre and on Broadway); Rat in the Skull by Ron Hutchinson (Royal Court Classic Season); Body Talk; The Kitchen by Arnold Wesker; The Editing Process by Meredith Oakes; Search and Destroy by Howard Korder. For the National Theatre - An Inspector Calls (also West End, Broadway and worldwide); Machinal. For the Gate Theatre - Damned for Despair; The Fleisser Plays (with Annie Castledine); Figaro Gets Divorced. Many productions at Sheffield Crucible Theatre, where he started his career under the late Clare Veneable. Productions at Manchester Library Theatre, Liverpool Playhouse, Stratford East, Oxford Stage, Brighton and Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Stephen was Artistic Director of The Royal Court Theatre from 1992-98 where he headed the £26 million re-development; the Gate Theatre (1989-92) and the Metro Theatre Company (1984-86). He is on the Board of the Young and Old Vic Theatres and remains an Associate Director of the Royal Court. Stephen was the Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre for 2002 at St Catherine's College, Oxford. He has won many awards for his theatrical work both in the UK and the USA. Film and TV: Currently filming The Reader with Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes. The screenplay is written by David Hare based on a novel by Bernhard Schlink. Stephen has produced two "Omnibus" programmes for BBC2. His first feature film Billy Elliot won over 40 awards worldwide and received 3 Oscar nominations including Best Director. His second feature The Hours also won innumerable international awards including Best Picture at the Golden Globes and received nine Oscar and eleven BAFTA nominations.

Michael Greif (next to normal)
Michael directed the Second Stage and Arena Stage productions of next to normal. Recent work includes The Three Sisters (Williamstown) and Romeo and Juliet (NYSF at the Delacorte). Broadway credits include Grey Gardens (Tony nom.), Rent (Tony nom.) and Never Gonna Dance. Off-Broadway: Landscape of the Body, A Few Stout Individuals (Signature); Satellites, f-ing A, Dogeaters (Obie), Marisol, Pericles, Casanova, A Bright Room Called Day, Machinal (Obie) at NYSF; Boys' Life, Spike Heels (Second Stage); A Very Common Procedure, The Distance From Here (MCC); Spatter Pattern (Playwrights Horizons); Mr. Marmalade (Roundabout); and Beauty of the Father (MTC). At New York Theatre Workshop (Artistic Associate), he directed Cavedweller; Bright Lights, Big City; and the original production of Rent (Obie). Favorite regional productions include The Cherry Orchard, The Seagull, Street Scene, Tonight at 8:30, Once in a Lifetime (Williamstown); and Our Town, Sweet Bird of Youth, Boy, Randy Newman's Faust, Slavs and Thérèse Raquin at La Jolla, where he was artistic director (1995-99)

Kristin Hanggi (Rock of Ages)
Rock of Ages marks Ms. Hanggi's Broadway directorial debut, after helming the musical's Off- Broadway and L.A. productions. She also directed the NY and L.A. productions of the hit musical Bare (Ovation, L.A. Weekly Award); Pussycat Dolls Live at the Roxy with Gwen Stefani, Christina Aguilera and Charlize Theron; 2007 NY Fringe Best Play Winner, Catch the Fish; the L.A. premiere of Corpus Christi (Ticketholder Award); and the L.A. and NY productions of Ann E. Wrecksick. Other L.A. theatre: 12th Premise; 40 Days; Crane, Mississippi; Greystone; Wayside. Also a film director and screenwriter, Hanggi is currently writing the musical movie Dear Dumb Diary for Zucker Productions. MA from USC and BA from UCLA. She won't stop believin' . . .

Diane Paulus (Hair)
Diane Paulus grew up feeling bad she had missed the 1960s. By age 10, she knew all the songs in Hair by heart, including "Sodomy." Having never seen the show, she had an active fantasy life about what Hair must have been like when it was first created. Breaking down the wall between performer and spectator, which is at the heart of Hair, has been a huge inspiration for her work in the theatre: The Donkey Show (Jordan Roth Productions); Kiss Me, Kate (Glimmerglass); Lost Highway (ENO and Young Vic, London); Another Country (Riverside Church); Turandot: Rumble for the Ring (Bay Street Theatre); The Golden Mickeys (Disney Creative Entertainment); Best of Both Worlds (Music-Theatre Group and the Women's Project); The Karaoke Show (Jordan Roth Productions); the Obie-winning Eli's Comin' and Brutal Imagination (Vineyard Theatre); the Pulitzer Prize finalist Running Man and Swimming With Watermelons (MTG and Vineyard). Opera credits: Monteverdi's Orfeo (BAM), Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro, Così fan Tutte, The Turn of the Screw, L'incoronazione di Poppea and Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria (Chicago Opera Theater). Artistic Director of The American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, MA. Endless love to the Tribe, the band, the entire Hair creative team and the eternal sunshine of Katharine, Natalie and Randy.