Tony Awards Close-Up: How Do You Make a Mega-Hit? Michael Greif Explains the Magic of DEAR EVAN HANSEN

An emotionally harrowing journey, Dear Evan Hansen is a story that's hits home for a lot of its audience members. At the helm of this production is Michael Greif, who earned a Tony nomination for Best Director of a Musical for his part in bringing this story to life. Below, watch as he tries to remember when he first realized he wanted to be a director, and explain what it's like to constantly live in the world of Dear Evan Hansen!

Michael has directed Dear Evan Hansen at the Arena Stage in DC in 2015, Second Stage Theatre in 2016, and the current Broadway production, which began las fall at the Music Box Theatre. Most recently he directed War Paint at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Broadway: If/Then, Next to Normal, Grey Gardens, Rent (Tony Award nominations), and Never Gonna Dance. Delacorte: The Tempest, Winter's Tale, Romeo and Juliet. Off-Broadway: new plays, musicals, revivals at Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Class Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, NY Shakespeare Festival/Public, NYTW, Roundabout, Second Stage and Signature, including Katori Halls' Our Lady of Kibeho, the 2010 revival of Angels in America (Lortel Award), Kushner's The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide...(Public), Guare's Landscape of the Body (Signature), and musical adaptations of Giant (Public) and Far From Heaven (Playwrights Horizons).

A letter that was never meant to be seen, a lie that was never meant to be told, a life he never dreamed he could have. Evan Hansen is about to get the one thing he's always wanted: a chance to finally fit in. Both deeply personal and profoundly contemporary, Dear Evan Hansen is a new American musical about life and the way we live it.

The American Theatre Wing's 71st Annual Tony Awards will air live from Radio City Music Hall on the CBS Television Network on Sunday, June 11, 2017 (8:00-11:00 PM, ET/delayed PT), hosted by Tony winner Kevin Spacey.