The musical, of course, does not celebrate its subjects, but instead, as Ben Brantley noted in his review for the New York Times, allows "the frightening title characters" to restate "their demand to be noticed." And under Mantello's direction, Brantley continued, "they [do] so with an eloquence and an intensity that makes a compelling case for a misunderstood show."

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Mantello's production of Assassins was originally scheduled for the fall of 2001, but was postponed by the creative team until April 2004 due to the sensitivity of the content in light of the events of September 11, 2001. As an article in the New York Times explained, "It was hard to imagine asking the audience to accept the show's black humor and intermittently satirical tone, let alone sit through the monologue in which the would-be assassin Samuel Byck reveals his plan to 'drop a 747 on the White House and incinerate Dick Nixon.'"

The production received the 2004 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, and Mantello himself won his second Tony Award, this time for Best Direction of a Musical. He was also nominated for the 2004 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical.

The Normal Heart

In October 2010, Mantello returned to acting in an acclaimed one-night staged reading of The Normal Heart, Larry Kramer's 1985 landmark play about the AIDS crisis. Mantello, who had not appeared onstage since his work in Angels in America in 1994, played the central character Ned Weeks, an AIDS activist. Mantello said it was a role he had always wanted to play.

The reading was organized as a charity event and raised $150,000 for two caregiver groups, the Actors Fund and Friends in Deed.

The production, which was also a critical success, was remounted in early 2011 for a limited Broadway engagement, again with Mantello in the lead role of Ned Weeks. The production marked the Broadway debut of Kramer's play, which had distinguished productions Off Broadway in 1985 and 2004.

Other Productions

Mantello has had a very prolific directing career.

His Broadway productions also include Neil Simon's Proposals (1997) and the 2005 revival of Simon's The Odd Couple, starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick; the 2001 revival of Noël Coward's Design for Living; the solo stand-up comedy An Evening with Mario Cantone (2002) and the gay comedian's second solo show Laugh Whore (2004), which Mantello also directed for the cable TV network Showtime; the 2005 revival of David Mamet's drama Glengarry Glen Ross and the premiere of Mamet's political comedy November (2008); and the musical 9 to 5 (2009), with music and lyrics by Dolly Parton, based on the 1980 film of the same name.

His Off Broadway productions also include Blue Window (1996) and God's Heart (1997), both written by Craig Lucas; The Santaland Diaries (1996), a one-man, one-act play, which Mantello adapted from the essay by David Sedaris; Jon Robin Baitz's Mizlansky/Zilinsky or "Schmucks" (1998); Lillian (1998), by the British performance artist David Cale; Neil LaBute's Bash: Latter-Day Plays (1999); The Mineola Twins (1999), by Paula Vogel; Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues (1999); Another American: Asking and Telling (1999), by Marc Wolf, which explores sexual politics and the American military, and is based on a series of interviews Wolf conducted with gay, lesbian, and straight military personnel, as well as civil rights lawyers, federal judges, academics, and politicians; Adam Bock's comedy The Receptionist (2007); Blackbird (2007), by David Harrower; and Alexi Kaye Campbell's The Pride (2010), which explores themes of homosexuality in 1958 and 2008.

Mantello currently lives in New York City.

Gay, lesbian, and bisexual film directors have been a vital creative presence in cinema since the medium's inception over one hundred years ago.

The musical has been a significant aspect of American gay male culture, manifesting itself both in diva worship and, more recently, in the presentation of openly gay characters and shows written by gay writers primarily for gay audiences.

Opera, an eclectic synthesis of voice, drama, music, costume, visual arts and spectacle, has played an integral role in queer culture since its development in seventeenth century Venice.

Performance art has been embraced by queer artists as a means of challenging the very idea of traditional in art and culture.

Gay, lesbian, and bisexual actors and actresses are among the elite of contemporary theater, but only recently have many come out publicly.

Gay and lesbian theater companies attempt to create their own communities, while also fostering a sense of solidarity with the glbtq community and educating the larger society.

A leading contemporary American playwright, Jon Robin Baitz produces works that are both morally serious and politically conscious.

John Cheever, who was bisexual, gradually came to invest homosexuality with redemptive and transforming powers.

Actor-director Robert Drivas brought a provocative sexuality and an emotional intensity to his stage and screen performances at a time when the male body was being liberated as the object of the audience's gaze.

Despite having written lyrics as witty as any sung on the Broadway stage before or since, Lorenz Hart is best remembered for his songs of unfulfilled desire and failed romance.

British director Sir Nicholas Hytner is acclaimed for his work on musicals and plays in London as well as New York, and also for directing films and operas.

Controversial playwright, novelist, and essayist Larry Kramer has been a pioneer in the gay political response to AIDS in America.

In addition to being a prize-winning playwright, Tony Kushner has become a celebrity spokesman for gay politics and AIDS activism.

Highly-acclaimed actor Nathan Lane is not only openly gay himself, but has portrayed gay characters in several plays and films.

Craig Lucas, a leading contemporary American playwright, integrates high-spirited, kaleidoscopic storytelling with provocative explorations of love in all its varieties.

Texas-reared Terrence McNally, whose first play, And Things That Go Bump in the Night, was one of the great scandals of the 1964 New York season, emerged in the 1990s as America's most important gay playwright since Tennessee Williams.

One of the most innovative talents of the musical theater in the second half of the twentieth century, Stephen Sondheim has only indirectly reflected his homosexuality in his work.

In her work, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel has tackled difficult topics, including AIDS, incest, and prostitution.

Tony Award-winning director, writer, and producer George C. Wolfe is known for his abiding commitment to bringing cultural diversity to the stage and a culturally diverse audience to the theater.