Alex Timbers


Alex Timbers is an American two-time Tony-nominated writer and director and the recipient of Golden Globe, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and London Evening Standard Awards, as well as two OBIE and Lucile Lortel Awards. He is the recipient of the 2019 Drama League Founder's Award for Excellence in Directing and the 2016 Jerome Robbins Award for Directing. He was nominated for a 2020 Grammy Award.
His Broadway directing credits include Moulin Rouge! The Musical, Beetlejuice, American Utopia, Oh Hello! On Broadway, Rocky, Peter and the Starcatcher, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, and The Pee-wee Herman Show.
His Off-Broadway credits include David Byrne and Fatboy Slim's Here Lies Love, for which he won the 2014 Lucille Lortel Award for Best Director and the London Evening Standard Award, and The Robber Bridegroom, which won the 2016 Lucille Lortel Award for Best Revival.
For TV, Timbers directed and executive produced and Ben Platt Live from Radio City Music Hall, both for Netflix. He is a co-creator of the Amazon series Mozart in the Jungle which won the 2016 Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy. Oh Hello! on Broadway was filmed for Netflix, The Pee-wee Herman Show was filmed for HBO and received an Emmy nomination, and American Utopia will premiere on HBO in 2020.

Background

Timbers grew up in New York City. He graduated magna cum laude from Yale University.

Broadway

In 2010, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson opened at the Public Theater to rave reviews with Timbers directing. The show was co-written by Timbers and Michael Friedman. It returned to the Public the following year, extended three times, and became the second highest-grossing show in the downtown institution's history. It transferred to the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on Broadway on September 20, 2010. The show won a Lucille Lortel Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, and a Broadway.com Award for Best Musical. Timbers won a Drama Desk Award for Best Book of a Musical and was nominated for a Tony Award for his book, as well as an Outer Critics Circle Award for his direction.
In March 2011, Timbers co-directed with Roger Rees Peter and the Starcatcher for Disney at New York Theatre Workshop. The show opened to a rave review from Ben Brantley in The New York Times, and Timbers won the 2011 Obie Award for Direction. The production was the fastest-selling show in New York Theatre Workshop's history and extended three times. In March 2012, Timbers and Rees co-directed Peter and the Starcatcher on Broadway. It was subsequently nominated for nine Tony Awards and won five. The show spawned two national tours and a year-long return engagement Off-Broadway.
In 2014, Timbers directed Rocky on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre, for which he was nominated for Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Director. In 2012, he directed a pilot production of the show in Germany, which ran for five years.
In 2016, Timbers directed the comedy Oh Hello! on Broadway, written by and starring Nick Kroll and John Mulaney. The show opened to rave reviews, recouped its capitalization, and was filmed for Netflix.
In 2018, he directed out-of-town tryouts of Moulin Rouge! The Musical at the Emerson Colonial Theater in Boston and Beetlejuice at the National Theater in Washington DC. In April 2019, Timbers directed the Broadway premiere of Beetlejuice at the Winter Garden Theater. The show was nominated for eight 2019 Tony Awards, including Best Musical.
In July 2019, Timbers directed Moulin Rouge! The Musical, based on the Oscar-winning film, on Broadway at the Al Hirschfeld Theater. For his work on the production, Timbers won a 2020 Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Director of a Musical and was nominated for a 2020 Grammy Award. The show won Best Musical at the 2020 Outer Critics Circle Awards and 2020 Drama League Awards.
In September 2019, Timbers served as Production Consultant on American Utopia at the Emerson Colonial Theater in Boston. In October 2019, the show opened on Broadway at the Hudson Theater. "American Utopia" was called "the best live show of all time" by NME Magazine. The show recouped and was named to many critics' year-end top ten lists. The show was filmed for HBO by director Spike Lee.
Timbers served as an assistant director on the Broadway premiere of Jersey Boys.

Off-Broadway

For Gutenberg! The Musical!, Timbers was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Best Director of a Musical. For Hell House, Timbers was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Theatrical Experience. His production of Dixie's Tupperware Party was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance. Timbers conceived and directed A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant, for which he and writer Kyle Jarrow won an Obie Award. Timbers also won two Garland Awards for the subsequent Los Angeles production, and his 2006 revival was heralded by The New York Times as the "Best Revival of the Year."
In August 2013, Timbers and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson composer Michael Friedman reunited for a musical version of the play Love's Labour's Lost that appeared as part of Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte Theatre. It was nominated for a 2014 Drama Desk Award for Best Musical.
In 2013 and again in 2014, Timbers directed Here Lies Love at the Public Theater in New York City, an immersive club musical about Imelda Marcos featuring the music of David Byrne and Fatboy Slim, for which he won the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Director. The show was extended at the Public Theater three times, becoming the second-longest running show in the theater's history, and made numerous year-end Best Of lists including The New York Times, The New York Post, The New York Daily News, Time, The Hollywood Reporter, Time Out, New York Magazine, and Vogue. He was also nominated for Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Director.
In 2014, Timbers directed Here Lies Love at the National Theatre in London. Timbers, Byrne, and Fatboy Slim won the London Evening Standard Beyond Theatre Award "for pushing the boundaries of musicals."
In 2016, Timbers directed a revival of The Robber Bridegroom for Roundabout Theater Company, which won the 2016 Lucille Lortel Award for Best Revival.

Les Freres Corbusier

Through 2015, Timbers served as the Artistic Director of the award-winning, experimental theater company Les Freres Corbusier, which he co-founded in 2003. Les Freres productions included Dance Dance Revolution, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Hell House, Heddatron, and Hoover Comes Alive!.

Filmography

He is a co-creator with Jason Schwartzman, Roman Coppola, and Paul Weitz of the Amazon Studios series Mozart in the Jungle. He served as Co-Executive Producer on all episodes.
For ', Mulaney won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special in 2018. currently holds a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score.