His LOVE VALOUR was somewhat clever and inventive, but shallow. I didn't realize how much until I saw an Off-Off-Broadway production of it last year that was infinitely superior to Mantello's original, managing to nail the quippy humor, but also peeling back and discovering layers of depth and feeling that Mantello never found.
Mantello's direction of WICKED was poorly paced, inefficiently blocked (he's clueless with crowd scenes), clunky in its transitions (nothing flows easily), and frequently listless in tone and energy. It's amazing what people will accept these days in terms of direction, score and bookwriting -- all of which are rather pedestrian in this show. Imagine what a Robbins or Bennett or Champion or Fosse (directors who were masters of epic theatre) would have done with this material. They'd have thrown out every single thing Mantello did and started over -- there's NOTHING distinguished about Mantello's work on that show.
I saw TAKE ME OUT three times, from early previews at the Public to late in the run on Broadway and he tinkered and tinkered with it until it was more or less competent (which it wasn't at the Public at all -- certain scenes were very awkwardly blocked).
His DESIGN FOR LIVING just sat there, unfunny (he has ZERO ability when it comes to creating clever comedic stage business) and unnecessarily sexualized. It's a light and frothy romantic comedy which requires a deft touch which is beyond him and his typically leaden approach.
FRANKIE AND JOHNNY was too slowly paced and lacked depth.
LAUGH WHORE? PLEASE. What did he do? Tell Mario where to put the stool? Mario's been on stage doing standup longer than Mantello has been in New York. Even if he gave Cantone some of his mediocre blocking, you really think he followed it exactly 8 times a week?
The GLENGARRY production was, to me, a shadow of the brilliant and very memorable original production which was electric, profane, laugh-out-loud funny and ultimately tragic. In this one, several roles were miscast (Fred Weller? Tom Wopat?) and his direction never captured the kind of propulsive force Mamet at his best contains. They should have grabbed Terry Kinney and let Steppenwolf (the Mamet experts) do the revival. Mantello somehow managed to make a terrific play bland.
I found ASSASSINS gimmicky, though some of it worked OK. Sorry, I just don't think he has a true musical sense and he approached the work academically rather than using the music to really organically tell the story.
Not sure how he managed to screw up ODD COUPLE, but screw it up he did. It lays there like a bad dinner theatre production. Where's the spark and electricity and excitement?
Sorry. I don't get his "success" at all. I've seen a dozen+ off- and off-off-Broadway directors with ten times as much talent, but no name recognition. It's pathetic Mantello gets seemingly every plum assignment on the Broadway stage these days. He simply is NOT very talented.
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
