Stage helmer Theodore Mann dies

Theodore Mann, a Tony Award-winning director and producer who championed Eugene O'Neill and would be a driving pressure behind Circle within the Square Theatre and it is school, died Friday in NY of complications from pneumonia. He was 87."His contributions to Broadway and Off Broadway are immeasurable in the productions he produced and also the talent he nurtured," stated Charlotte now St. Martin, the executive director from the Broadway League. "He'll be skipped by many people within our community."A co-founding father of Circle within the Square Theatre in 1951, Mann headed in 1956 the acclaimed revival of O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh" and also the U.S. premiere of O'Neill's "Lengthy Day's Journey Into Evening." Individuals productions brought to some re-evaluation of O'Neill, now acknowledged as America's finest playwright.Mann created or directed a lot more than 175 plays at Circle, which in 1972 moved from Greenwich Village to the current home on Broadway. In 1963, he founded Circle within the Square Theater School, a course for training youthful stars. The school's alumni include Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kevin Sausage, Rhianna, Benicio Del Toro, Idina Menzel, Felicity Huffman and Molly Shannon.Mann received the 1957 Tony Award for the best play for "Lengthy Day's Journey Into Evening," a 1976 Special Tony Award acknowledging 25 continuous many years of quality productions at Circle within the Square, in addition to 12 additional Tony nominations.Along with Paul Libin, Mann presented new and classic works at his theater, including plays by Mike Shepard, Thornton Wilder, Horton Foote, Yazmin Reza, Truman Capote, Arthur Burns, Athol Fugard and Terrence McNally.Some noted Circle productions include "Uncle Vanya," with George C. Scott "The Woman In the Ocean," by which Vanessa Redgrave made her Broadway debut "Salome and Hughie," with Al Pacino "The Iceman Cometh," starring James Earl Johnson and directed by Mann "Candida," with Joanne Woodward and "Dying of the Salesperson," as well as Scott.The Circle has more lately been the place to find the Broadway premiere of Mike Shepard's "True West," the revival of "The Rocky Horror Show," "Sweeney Todd," "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," Alan Ayckbourn's "The Norman Conquests," "Lombardi" and also the current revival of "Godspell."Mann also directed operas, including Benjamin Britten's "Turn from the Screw" for that NY City Opera, "La Boheme" for that Juilliard School and "The Evening from the Iguana" for Moscow's Maly Theater.Mann's wife, leading lyric coloratura soprano Patricia Brooks, died in 1993. He's made it by two sons and five grandchildren. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com