{"id":421,"date":"2026-06-08T14:06:55","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T14:06:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=421"},"modified":"2026-06-08T14:06:55","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T14:06:55","slug":"michael-arden-catches-a-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=421","title":{"rendered":"Michael Arden Catches a Flight"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The theatre director Michael Arden has a phobia of hand injuries and of flying, but you wouldn\u2019t have known it when he showed up at iFLY, an indoor-skydiving facility in Queens, the other day. Indoor skydiving involves lying prone in a vertical wind tunnel. \u201cI was telling people at work that my biggest fear is just that I go in the tube and it doesn\u2019t work,\u201d Arden said while signing a safety waiver. His latest show, \u201cThe Lost Boys,\u201d which was nominated for twelve Tonys, subjects its actors to a half-dozen intricate flying sequences, including a period of dangling upside down about forty feet above the stage. The skydiving would serve as a kind of \u201cI wouldn\u2019t ask you to do anything I wouldn\u2019t do\u201d directing tactic.<\/p>\n

Read more From Sturgeon to Knicks Gear, Barney Greengrass Has You Covered<\/a><\/p>\n

Flying on Broadway is often scary. A missed mark can mean a splat. \u201cLike, inches,\u201d Arden said. \u201cThe other night, L.J.\u201d\u2014L. J. Benet, who plays the teen-age protagonist and maybe-vampire Michael\u2014\u201cwas off his mark, and he flew up as a platform came down, and he bumped into it. He was O.K. But it\u2019s something we really want to avoid.\u201d Flying can also be scary for investors. In \u201cSpider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,\u201d which premi\u00e8red in 2011, the actors kept getting injured or stuck in midair. (In the first preview, Spider-Man was left suspended above the audience, and a crewmember tried to nudge him loose with a stick, \u201clike a live Spider-Man pi\u00f1ata,\u201d the musical\u2019s co-writer said later.) The show reportedly lost about sixty million dollars. \u201cI did see \u2018Spider-Man,\u2019\u00a0\u201d Arden said. \u201cThe issue with \u2018Spider-Man\u2019 was\u2014how do I say this? It just wasn\u2019t a good musical.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Arden began working on \u201cLost Boys\u201d before he won Tony Awards for \u201cParade\u201d and \u201cMaybe Happy Ending.\u201d He hadn\u2019t seen the 1987 film version with Kiefer Sutherland, Dianne Wiest, and Jason Patric, and, when he watched it, he found himself surprisingly moved by the familial bonds. \u201cAlso, everybody was, like, the hottest they\u2019ve ever been,\u201d he said. In the musical, he emphasizes nontraditional families. \u201cI was raised mostly by my dad\u2019s parents,\u201d he said. This was Midland, Texas, in the eighties and nineties. \u201cI was an only grandchild.\u00a0I had lots of time for a strange imagination, and I would build stages in my garage and light them. I would explain what was happening in the play, but I wouldn\u2019t do the play because I didn\u2019t have any actors.\u201d<\/p>\n

He and the crew designed the flying sequences in Las Vegas, with the company Flying by Foy. \u201cThey did the O.G. \u2018Peter Pan,\u2019\u00a0\u201d in 1954, Arden said. \u201cTheir technology has gotten better. It was probably originally a guy with a rope.\u201d During the show, the stage manager monitors everything on a night-vision camera from above the stage, and a camouflaged stagehand helps with the harnesses. \u201cIt\u2019s literally a carpenter in a velvet ninja suit,\u201d Arden said. \u201cIf you watch it in infrared, it\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It was time to fly. Arden, who wore a plaid jacket and laceless black sneakers, headed to the flying area. In the giant tube, an instructor was doing flips. \u201cIt\u2019s like Willy Wonka,\u201d Arden said.<\/p>\n

The flying coach, Will, introduced himself. \u201cI\u2019ve done about eleven hundred jumps in the past three years, so I know a little bit about this,\u201d he said. \u201cBig question right off the rip: Any previous shoulder injuries?\u201d<\/p>\n

Will helped Arden into a red flying onesie, and he advised him to switch to laced shoes. \u201cThat\u2019s fourteen hundred horsepower,\u201d Will said, pointing at the tube. \u201cI blew my Vans off a few weeks ago. One went through the return vane and came back in about a hundred pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more The Twice-Widowed Khala Helai<\/a><\/p>\n

Will told Arden that he should lie flat, like a starfish. \u201cAll we\u2019re doing is trust-falling into the wind,\u201d he said. \u201cSlow movements.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur mantra at work is \u2018Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast,\u2019\u00a0\u201d Arden said.<\/p>\n

Will slipped a helmet onto Arden\u2019s head and said, \u201cThese are hurricane-force winds. How are you feeling? Nervous?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cExcited!\u201d Arden said.<\/p>\n

\u201cExcited-nervous?\u201d Will said.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA little nerves is O.K.!\u201d<\/p>\n

Arden entered the tube and caught the wind. Will kept hold of him, and, eventually, he flew him up toward the top.<\/p>\n

Emerging, Arden said, \u201cI didn\u2019t expect that we were going up right away. I was, like, \u2018Oh, shit!\u2019\u00a0\u201d After a rest, Arden went in again, and Will showed him how he could turn just by angling his hands. He spun around like a helicopter rotor.<\/p>\n

In his acceptance speech for his first Tony, in 2023, Arden recounted being a bullied queer theatre kid in Texas, and then said, \u201cAll I can say is that now I\u2019m a faggot with a Tony.\u201d Post-flying, Arden said, \u201cI was more nervous making that speech. That<\/em> was terrifying.\u201d\u00a0\u2666<\/p>\n

Read more Stories<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The theatre director\u2019s latest show, \u201cThe Lost Boys,\u201d has its actors dangle high above the stage. At an indoor-skydiving joint, it\u2019s his turn to defy gravity. 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