Who

An actor turned Broadway director, Mantello has helmed everything from smash Broadway musicals (Wicked) to star-studded failures (Three Days of Rain).

Backstory

Illinois native Mantello attended the North Carolina School of the Arts (alongside Mary Louise Parker and writer/director Peter Hedges) before moving to New York in 1984 to pursue a career as an actor. His biggest role: Louis Ironson in Tony Kushner's Angels in America, which earned him a 1993 Tony nomination. In the mid-1990s, Mantello quit acting to pursue directing and achieved his first taste of directorial success with Terrence McNally's gay ensemble piece, 1995's Love! Valour! Compassion! Mantello's gone on to be one of Broadway's most prolific directors with hits like Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues, the mega-blockbuster Wicked (starring Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth), Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Richard Greenberg's Take Me Out, Glengarry Glen Ross and The Odd Couple with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick.

Recently

Like any director, Mantello's had his share of misses, but none was more conspicuous than the 2006 play Three Days of Rain, in which Julia Roberts made her ill-considered Broadway debut. Critics were uniformly unimpressed by the show—the Times called it a "wooden and splintered interpretation." Nonetheless, Mantello remains one of the most in-demand theater directors in the city. He recently directed a revival of Terrence McNally's gay bathhouse comedy, The Ritz, starring Rosie Perez at the Roundabout Theatre, as well as the off-Broadway show The Receptionist and David Mamet's November. He's also slated to direct a musical version of the 1980 film 9 to 5 that will debut in late 2008.

Drama

Mantello is frequently described as a hothead; in fact, that's his nickname among friends. He walked out in the middle of filming The Vagina Monologues due to differences with producers. There was also a rumor of backstage turmoil between Mantello and star Matthew Broderick during the 2005 revival of The Odd Couple—Mantello was apparently irritated that Broderick was taking too long to learn his lines.

Personal

Mantello was involved with playwright Jon Robin Baitz for more than a decade, but the couple split in 2002. He now lives in a West Village townhouse, for which he paid $4.5 million in 2007.

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