The Broadway community mourns the loss of Theodore Mann, who passed away today. The marquees of Broadway theatres in New York will be dimmed in his memory tonight, February 24th, at exactly 8:00 p.m. for one minute.
Charlotte St. Martin, Executive Director of The Broadway League, said, "Theodore Mann has been a major driving force behind Circle in the Square Theatre since its inception. His contributions to Broadway and off-Broadway are immeasurable both in the productions he created, and the talent that he nurtured. He will be missed by many in our community, and our hearts go out to his friends, family, and students.”
Mann received the 1957 Tony Award®, for Best Play for Long Day’s Journey Into Night and a 1976 Special Tony Award acknowledging twenty-five continuous years of quality productions at Circle in the Square. He has been nominated for 12 additional Tony Awards and 7 Drama Desk Awards.
He received the 1999 Tao House Award from the Eugene O’Neill Foundation for his distinguished career in theatre and for his dedication to the works of O’Neill. In November 2007 Applause Books publishEd Mann's Memoir, Journeys In The Night: Creating a New American Theatre with Circle In The Square, which tells the story of his partnership with Jose Quintero and the rise of the Circle in the Square Theatre from Off-Broadway to Broadway.
He was co-founder of Circle in the Square Theatre with Jose Quintero in 1951. Their revival in 1952 of Tennessee Williams’ Summer and Smoke with Geraldine Page is recognized to be the “birth of Off Broadway.” For more than a half century, Mann and Circle have been in the forefront of American theatre with groundbreaking productions that include the highly acclaimed revival of Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh in 1956, followed that same year with the American premiere of Mr. O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night, for which the playwright was awarded posthumously the Pulitzer Prize. These two productions led to a reevaluation of O’Neill, now recognized to be America’s greatest playwright.
Mann has produced and/or directed more than 250 productions. In addition to his Broadway and off-Broadway credits, he has directed The Turn of the Screw for the New York City Opera, La Boheme for the Julliard School, and The Night of the Iguana for Moscow’s Maly Theater.
Paul Libin became co-producer with Mann in 1963, and they have presented new and classic American and European plays —from Williams and Shaw to Moliere and Greek classics such as Euripides’ The Trojan Women — as well as works by Jules Feiffer, Horton Foote, Truman Capote, Arthur Miller, Athol Fugard, and Terrence McNally.
As a home for new and classic Broadway plays, Circle in the Square has hosted such acclaimed productions as the Broadway premiere of Sam Shepard's True West, the smash revival of The Rocky Horror Show, the multiple Tony Nominated production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, the Tony Award winning revival of Alan Ayckbourn's The Norman Conquests, the highly lauded Lombardi, and the current hit revival of Godspell. In addition to Circle productions, Mann has also directed numerous national tours.
In 1972 Circle in the Square, at the invitation of then-Mayor Lindsay, moved from its Greenwich Village origins to its new home on Broadway.
In 1963, he founded Circle in the Square Theatre School, a program for training young actors for careers as professionals in theatre, television and film.
He was married to the late Patricia Brooks, a leading lyric coloratura at New York City Opera. He has two sons Andrew and Jonathan and five grandchildren.
