Broadway director Joe Mantello will receive the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation Mr. Abbott Award, in honor of his outstanding contributions to theatre. The two-time Tony Award winner will be presented with the honor March 30, 2020, at SDCF’s annual gala.
Mantello earned back-to-back Tonys for directing Take Me Out and Assassins. His myriad additional credits on Broadway include Wicked, Three Tall Women, the 2018 revival of The Boys in the Band. This season, he will helm a revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? starring Laurie Metcalf and Rupert Everett.
As an actor, Mantello was Tony-nominated for his performance as Louis Ironson in the original Broadway production of Angels in America and earned an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Mickey Marcus in Ryan Murphy’s TV adaptation of The Normal Heart (having played Ned Weeks in the Broadway revival). Next, he’ll appear in Murphy’s upcoming Netflix series Hollywood, starring Jeremy Pope, Darren Criss, Patti LuPone, and Jim Parsons.
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Chairing the “Mr. Abbott” Award Committee are Murphy, Scott Rudin, Robert Greenblatt, and SDC Executive Board Members Mark Brokaw, Rachel Chavkin, and Anne Kauffman.
The Mr. Abbott Award is named in honor of the late renowned director George Abbott, who penned the book for and helmed The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, and Fiorello!. Past recipients include Kenny Leon, Bob Fosse, Lynne Meadow, Jerry Mitchell, Harold Prince, James Lapine, Susan Stroman, Julie Taymor, Tommy Tune, George C. Wolfe, and Jerry Zaks.
Celebrating the Stage Work of Two-Time Tony Winner Joe Mantello
