Theater isn’t there to provide answers. Only possibilities. I just ask the questions. But I believe hope comes from the fact that there is a potential for redemption. At the core, that’s what matters in the theater I’m attracted to. Do we dare to hope? Do we allow ourselves to hope? Joe Mantello Read Quote
One of the jobs of a director is to ask questions. One of the jobs of the director is to stand in for the audience until they get there. Joe Mantello Read Quote
I get to be in a room with other actors, but I never, or very rarely, get the chance to be in a room with another director. Joe Mantello Read Quote
I do not resent Sarah Jessica Parker. We’ve been friends for decades. I just do not like what ‘Sex and the City’ did to my neighborhood. Joe Mantello Read Quote
I don’t believe really good plays – interesting plays, complicated plays – can mean just one thing to every single person in the audience. Joe Mantello Read Quote
Alison Pill is the unsung hero of ‘Three Tall Women’ to me. She’s extraordinary in this part, and she makes it look easy. I’m just in awe of her. Joe Mantello Read Quote
As a director, you’re incredibly proud when an individual steps up to the podium and is acknowledged for their work. But to have an entire company acknowledged, there is just no higher honor ever paid for that company – or for the director, for that matter. Joe Mantello Read Quote
I was a member of Circle Rep; I had done a little bit of directing there. I remember that I had a vacation from ‘Angels’, in which I remounted a play that I had done out of town called ‘Three Hotels.’ That’s how I spent my week vacation. Joe Mantello Read Quote
I understood that I was not the best director in the world nor the worst director in the world. I realized that there is a very mysterious element to what works and what doesn’t work in the theater. And it’s good to know that from the beginning. Joe Mantello Read Quote
I think that from day one, when it became clear that ‘Wicked’ was going to have a life, that we have set a standard for ourselves that we are never going to shortchange the audience; that every person that we put into that musical is going to be held to the highest standards; and that nobody is going to be coasting. Joe Mantello Read Quote
