Joe Mantello

Joe Mantello
Born	Joseph Mantello (1962-12-27) December 27, 1962 Rockford, Illinois, USA
Occupation	Actor, director

Joseph Mantello (born 27 December 1962) is an American actor and director best known for his work on Broadway productions of Wicked, Take Me Out and Assassins, as well as earlier in his career being one of the original Broadway cast of Angels in America. Mantello directed The Ritz, his sixth production with playwright Terrence McNally, in 2007.

Biography

Mantello was born in Rockford, Illinois and studied at the North Carolina School of the Arts; he started the Edge Theater in New York City with actress Mary-Louise Parker and writer Peter Hedges. He is a member of the Naked Angels theater company and an associate artist at the Roundabout Theatre Company.

Mantello began his theatrical career as an actor in Keith Curran's Walking the Dead and Paula Vogel's The Baltimore Waltz. On the transition from acting to directing, Mantello said, "I think I've become a better actor since I started directing, although some people might disagree. Since I've been removed from the process I see things that actors fall into. Now there's a part of me that's removed from the process and can stand back."

Mantello directs a variety of theatre works, as the New York Times noted: "Very few American directors -- Jack O'Brien (director) and Mike Nichols come to mind -- successfully jump genres and styles the way Mr. Mantello does, moving from a two-hander like Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune to the huge canvas of a mainstream musical comedy like Wicked, from downtown stand-up (The Santaland Diaries) to contemporary opera (Dead Man Walking) to political performance art (The Vagina Monologues)."

A Roundabout Theatre Company revival of Lips Together, Teeth Apart was scheduled to open at the American Airlines Theatre in April 2010, when one of the stars, Megan Mullally, suddenly quit. The production was postponed indefinitely due to her departure. According to The New York Times, "Mr. Mantello, who is known in the theater industry for having a temper, reacted to Ms. Mullally in private on a couple of occasions in a manner that she found to be brusque or unsympathetic."

Currently, the Jon Robin Baitz play, Other Desert Cities, directed by Mantello, is playing on Broadway at the Booth Theater. Mantello will direct the Off-Broadway world premiere of the musical "Dogfight" in the summer of 2012 at the Second Stage Theater.

Mantello returned to acting with the role of Ned Weeks in the Broadway limited engagement revival of The Normal Heart in April 2011, for which he was nominated for the Tony Award as Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play. Mantello had previously been nominated for the Tony Award for his role as Louis in Angels in America.

Awards and nominations

Awards

• 1993 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play - Angels in America: Millennium Approaches
• 2003 Tony Award Best Direction of a Play - Take Me Out
• 2004 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Director of a Musical - Wicked
• 2004 Tony Award Best Direction of a Musical - Assassins

Nominations

• 1993 Tony Award Best Featured Actor in a Play - Angels in America: Millennium Approaches
• 1995 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Director of a Play - Love! Valour! Compassion!
• 1995 Tony Award Best Direction of a Play - Love! Valour! Compassion!
• 1998 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Direction of a Play - Mizlansky/Zilinsky or 'Schmucks'
• 2003 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Director of a Musical - A Man of No Importance
• 2003 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Director of a Play - Take Me Out
• 2004 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Director of a Musical - Assassins
• 2005 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Director of a Play - Glengarry Glen Ross
• 2005 Tony Award Best Direction of a Play - Glengarry Glen Ross
• 2011 Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Play - The Normal Heart

Work

Stage productions

• 8
• The Pride at MCC Theater
• 9 to 5 (Musical)
• Asking and Telling
• Assassins (Tony award winner, Director)
• The Baltimore Waltz
• bash
• Blackbird
• Blue Window
• Corpus Christi
• Dead Man Walking (Terrence McNally and Jake Heggie) for the San Francisco Opera
• Design for Living
• Dogfight (planned)
• Fat Men in Skirts
• Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune
• Glengarry Glen Ross (Tony nomination, Director)
• God's Heart
• Imagining Brad (produced at the Circle Repertory Company)
• Lillian
• Love! Valour! Compassion! (Tony award nomination, Director)

• A Man of No Importance
• Mario Cantone: Laugh Whore
• The Mineola Twins
• Mizlansky/Zilinsky or Schmucks
• November
• The Odd Couple
• Other Desert Cities
• The Other Place
• Proposals
• The Receptionist
• The Santaland Diaries (by David Sedaris)
• Snakebit
• Take Me Out (New York - Tony award, San Diego)
• Three Days of Rain
• Three Hotels
• The Vagina Monologues
• Wicked (2004 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Director of a Musical)

• The Grave

Filmography

• Love! Valour! Compassion! (director)
• Cookie (1989)
• Law & Order
• Sisters

References

• Playbill writers (2008). "Playbill Biography: Joe Mantello". Playbill. Retrieved 2008-05-24. 
• "The Old Globe Presents Richard Greenberg’s Take Me Out" (PDF) (Press release). The Old Globe. 12 November 2004. Retrieved 2008-05-24. 
• Allmovie (2008). "Joe Mantello Biography". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-05-24. 

External links

• Joe Mantello at the Internet Broadway Database
• Joe Mantello at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Joe Mantello at the Internet Movie Database
• Joe Mantello at the American Theatre Wing
• 1992 BOMB Magazine interview with Joe Mantello by Nicole Burdette