Michael Grandage Announces Departure from London's Donmar Warehouse

Tony-winning director Michael Grandage has announced he will step down as artistic director of London’s Donmar Warehouse theater, “leaving late 2011 after nine years of leading the company.” No successor has been named.

Grandage, winner of the 2010 Best Director Tony for Red, said in a statement, “I have spent nearly fifteen years running organisations in the subsidised sector in Sheffield and London, and the experience has been completely thrilling from start to finish. I am now keen to have a career that moves away from being in charge of a building in order to develop my work as a director in other ways.”

After spending five years as artistic director of Sheffield Theatres, Grandage took over at the Donmar November 2002. Since then, four of the theater’s productions have been produced on Broadway to great success: Frost/Nixon in 2007 (earning Grandage his first Tony nomination as a director), Mary Stuart (directed by Phyllida Lloyd) and Hamlet in 2009 and Red in 2010.

Under Grandage, the Donmar won more than 80 major awards including Oliviers, Tonys, Critics’ Circle and Evening Standard Awards. In addition to the shows that transferred to New York, Grandage has helmed acclaimed London productions of Ivanov, The Chalk Garden, Othello, The Wild Duck, Guys and Dolls, Grand Hotel and Caligula, among others.

His schedule for the next two years includes King Lear and Luisa Miller at the Donmar, a debut at the Metropolitan Opera with his new production of Don Giovanni, and a planned 2012 Broadway revival of Evita.