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Jack O'Brien (director)
Encyclopedia
Jack O'Brien is an American director, producer, writer and lyricist. He served as the Artistic Director of the Old Globe Theatre
in San Diego, California
from 1981 through the end of 2007.
O'Brien has won three Tony Awards and been nominated for seven more, and won five Drama Desk Awards. He has directed and produced musicals
, including The Full Monty
and Hairspray
, contemporary dramas such as The Piano Lesson
, The Invention of Love
and The Coast of Utopia
, Shakespeare classics, including Hamlet
and Henry IV (a combination of Part 1
and Part 2
), and operas, including Il trittico
at the Metropolitan Opera
.
He has also been associated with some notorious Broadway failures. In 1972, he wrote the lyrics and co-wrote the book for The Selling of the President, which closed after five performances. The Old Globe also co-produced the stage adaptation of Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All
, which closed after only one performance.
and attended the University of Michigan
. He began on Broadway
at the Lyceum Theatre
as assistant director of revivals of You Can't Take It With You
(1965–67) and The Cherry Orchard
(1968), and in a number of other shows, also sometimes contributing additional lyrics to songs. He began directing at the Old Globe Theatre
in San Diego, California
with Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors
in 1969.
in 1975 and a revival of Porgy and Bess
in 1977, for which he received his first Tony nomination. In the meantime, he directed dozens of Shakespeare plays and other works at the Old Globe, the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, off-Broadway
and elsewhere. In New York, he next directed revivals of The Most Happy Fella
(1979) and Porgy and Bess (Radio City Music Hall
, 1983).
's The Skin of Our Teeth
, which was televised live to open the 1983 season of PBS's "American Playhouse" series, and the world premieres of Stephen Metcalfe's Emily (1986) and A. R. Gurney
's The Cocktail Hour (1988).
As Artistic Director of the Old Globe, O'Brien co-produced Stephen Sondheim
's Into the Woods
(1987–89), Rumors (1988–90) and the drama The Piano Lesson
(1990–91), for which he won his first Drama Desk Award
. Returning to directing, O'Brien helmed Two Shakespearean Actors (1992). He co-produced Two Trains Running (1992) and Redwood Curtain (1993). He also directed and produced a revival of Damn Yankees
(1994–95), Hapgood (1995, winning the Lucille Lortel Award for Direction), a flop called Getting Away With Murder (1996) and produced Play On! (1997). He next directed a revival of The Little Foxes
(1997), a new comedy, More to Love (1998), which closed in three days, and produced Getting and Spending (1998). O'Brien also has occasionally directed for television over the years.
O'Brien had a hit with The Full Monty
, which he directed and produced (2000–2002), and critical success with the drama The Invention of Love
(2001) for which he won the Drama Desk Award for direction. In 2002, he directed the world premiere of the Nora Ephron
play Imaginary Friends
, which then transferred to Broadway. That same year he directed Hairspray
, which ran on Broadway until January 2009. This marked his first Tony Award win, and he also received another Drama Desk Award. In 2002, he was honored with the prestigious "Mr. Abbott" Award from the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation. On Broadway, he next produced two more Old Globe productions, Imaginary Friends (2002–03), which he directed, and the one-performance flop, Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All
(2003), which he did not. He returned to Shakespears, directing Henry IV (2003–04), for which he won both the Tony and the Drama Desk Awards, and progressed from the sublime to the ridiculous, directing and producing Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
(2005–06). He then produced other works including the Old Globe's annual musical adaptation of Dr. Seuss
' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
(Christmas 2006–07 and 2007–08).
O'Brien next directed Tom Stoppard
's trilogy of plays The Coast of Utopia
(2006–07) at Lincoln Center in New York City
, winning both the Tony and Drama Desk Awards. He then he directed Giacomo Puccini
's trilogy of operas Il trittico
for the Metropolitan Opera
. Other opera productions have included Peter Maxwell Davies
' The Lighthouse for San Diego Opera
, Mozart's The Magic Flute
for the San Francisco Opera
, Verdi's Aida
for Houston Grand Opera
, Kurt Weill
's Street Scene
for New York City Opera
, which was televised on "Live from Lincoln Center
", and Puccini's Tosca
for Santa Fe Opera
. On television, O'Brien has directed six movies for "American Playhouse
", including An Enemy of the People, I Never Sang For My Father, All My Sons, and Painting Churches. His Broadway revival of Most Happy Fella and staging of The Good Doctor were produced for PBS.
O'Brien's recent directoral efforts at the Old Globe include Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Chekhov's The Seagull
, in a new version by Stoppard, and Brendan Behan
's The Hostage. In stepping down as Artistic Director of the Old Globe Theatre at the end of 2007, O'Brien said, "“I consider myself truly blessed to have been able to enjoy such a full and varied career at the Globe. I have had the enviable opportunity to direct everything from Shakespeare to new American works to Broadway-bound musicals, all under the supportive and watchful eye of an enthusiastic San Diego community."
, working together with Jerry Mitchell
, who has choreographed many of O'Brien's musicals. The Broadway production will open in April 2011.
He is also director of Andrew Lloyd Webber
's sequel to The Phantom of the Opera
(Love Never Dies), which opened in London on March 9, 2010.
In 2009 he directed the premiere of the Michael Jacobs
play Impressionism
at the Schoenfeld, starring Jeremy Irons
and Joan Allen
.
Nominations
Old Globe Theatre
The Old Globe is a professional theatre company located in Balboa Park in San Diego, California. It produces about 15 plays and musicals annually in summer and winter seasons...
in San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
from 1981 through the end of 2007.
O'Brien has won three Tony Awards and been nominated for seven more, and won five Drama Desk Awards. He has directed and produced musicals
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
, including The Full Monty
The Full Monty (musical)
The Full Monty is a musical with a book by Terrence McNally and score by David Yazbek.In this Americanized musical stage version adapted from the 1997 British film of the same name, six unemployed Buffalo steelworkers, low on both cash and prospects, decide to present a strip act at a local club...
and Hairspray
Hairspray (musical)
Hairspray is a musical with music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman and Shaiman and a book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan, based on the 1988 John Waters film Hairspray. The songs include 1960s-style dance music and "downtown" rhythm and blues...
, contemporary dramas such as The Piano Lesson
The Piano Lesson
The Piano Lesson is a 1990 play by American playwright August Wilson. The Piano Lesson is the fifth play in Wilson's The Pittsburgh Cycle. Wilson began writing this play by playing with the various answers regarding the possibility of "acquir[ing] a sense of self-worth by denying ones past"...
, The Invention of Love
The Invention of Love
The Invention of Love is a 1997 play by Tom Stoppard portraying the life of poet A.E. Housman, focusing specifically on his personal life and love for a college classmate. The play is written from the viewpoint of Housman dealing with his memories towards the end of his life and contains many...
and The Coast of Utopia
The Coast of Utopia
The Coast of Utopia is a 2002 trilogy of plays: Voyage, Shipwreck, and Salvage, written by Tom Stoppard with focus on the philosophical debates in pre-revolution Russia between 1833 and 1866...
, Shakespeare classics, including Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
and Henry IV (a combination of Part 1
Henry IV, Part 1
Henry IV, Part 1 is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written no later than 1597. It is the second play in Shakespeare's tetralogy dealing with the successive reigns of Richard II, Henry IV , and Henry V...
and Part 2
Henry IV, Part 2
Henry IV, Part 2 is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed written between 1596 and 1599. It is the third part of a tetralogy, preceded by Richard II and Henry IV, Part 1 and succeeded by Henry V.-Sources:...
), and operas, including Il trittico
Il trittico
Il trittico is the title of a collection of three one-act operas, Il tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi, by Giacomo Puccini...
at the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
.
He has also been associated with some notorious Broadway failures. In 1972, he wrote the lyrics and co-wrote the book for The Selling of the President, which closed after five performances. The Old Globe also co-produced the stage adaptation of Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All
Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All
Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All is a 1989 first novel by Allan Gurganus which was on the New York Times Best Seller list for eight months. It won the Sue Kaufman Prize from The American Academy of Arts and Letters, was a main selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club, and sold over four...
, which closed after only one performance.
Biography
O'Brien was born in Saginaw, MichiganSaginaw, Michigan
Saginaw is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Saginaw County. The city of Saginaw was once a thriving lumber town and manufacturing center. Saginaw and Saginaw County lie in the Flint/Tri-Cities region of Michigan...
and attended the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
. He began on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
at the Lyceum Theatre
Lyceum Theatre (New York)
The Lyceum Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 149 West 45th Street in midtown-Manhattan.It has the distinction of being the oldest surviving Broadway venue , the oldest continuously operating legitimate theatre in New York City, and the first Broadway theatre ever to be granted landmark status...
as assistant director of revivals of You Can't Take It With You
You Can't Take It with You
You Can't Take It with You is a comedic play in three acts by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The original production of the play opened at the Booth Theater on December 14, 1936, and played for 837 performances...
(1965–67) and The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard is Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's last play. It premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre 17 January 1904 in a production directed by Constantin Stanislavski. Chekhov intended this play as a comedy and it does contain some elements of farce; however, Stanislavski insisted on...
(1968), and in a number of other shows, also sometimes contributing additional lyrics to songs. He began directing at the Old Globe Theatre
Old Globe Theatre
The Old Globe is a professional theatre company located in Balboa Park in San Diego, California. It produces about 15 plays and musicals annually in summer and winter seasons...
in San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
with Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors
The Comedy of Errors
The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare's earliest plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play. The Comedy of Errors is one of only two of Shakespeare's...
in 1969.
Early career
O'Brien first took the director's chair on Broadway for a revival of Cock-A-Doodle Dandy in 1969. O'Brien wrote the book and lyrics for the short-lived The Selling of the President (1972) and returned to directing for a revival of The Time of Your LifeThe Time of Your Life
The Time of Your Life is a 1939 five-act play by American playwright William Saroyan. The play is the first drama to win both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. The play opened 25 October 1939 at the Booth Theatre in New York City...
in 1975 and a revival of Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess is an opera, first performed in 1935, with music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward, and lyrics by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward. It was based on DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy and subsequent play of the same title, which he co-wrote with his wife Dorothy Heyward...
in 1977, for which he received his first Tony nomination. In the meantime, he directed dozens of Shakespeare plays and other works at the Old Globe, the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
and elsewhere. In New York, he next directed revivals of The Most Happy Fella
The Most Happy Fella
The Most Happy Fella is a 1956 musical with a book, music, and lyrics by Frank Loesser. The story, about a romance between an older man and younger woman, is based on the play They Knew What They Wanted by Sidney Howard...
(1979) and Porgy and Bess (Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue located in New York City's Rockefeller Center. Its nickname is the Showplace of the Nation, and it was for a time the leading tourist destination in the city...
, 1983).
Old Globe Theatre
After becoming Artistic Director of the Old Globe Theatre in 1981, O'Brien's continued directing productions there, including a revival of Thornton WilderThornton Wilder
Thornton Niven Wilder was an American playwright and novelist. He received three Pulitzer Prizes, one for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and two for his plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, and a National Book Award for his novel The Eighth Day.-Early years:Wilder was born in Madison,...
's The Skin of Our Teeth
The Skin of Our Teeth
The Skin of Our Teeth is a play by Thornton Wilder which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It opened on October 15, 1942 at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, before moving to the Plymouth Theatre on Broadway on November 18, 1942...
, which was televised live to open the 1983 season of PBS's "American Playhouse" series, and the world premieres of Stephen Metcalfe's Emily (1986) and A. R. Gurney
A. R. Gurney
A. R. Gurney is an American playwright and novelist. He is known for works including Love Letters, The Cocktail Hour, and The Dining Room. Gurney currently lives in both New York and Connecticut....
's The Cocktail Hour (1988).
As Artistic Director of the Old Globe, O'Brien co-produced Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
's Into the Woods
Into the Woods
Into the Woods is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. It debuted in San Diego at the Old Globe Theatre in 1986, and premiered on Broadway in 1987. Bernadette Peters' performance as the Witch and Joanna Gleason's portrayal of the Baker's Wife brought acclaim...
(1987–89), Rumors (1988–90) and the drama The Piano Lesson
The Piano Lesson
The Piano Lesson is a 1990 play by American playwright August Wilson. The Piano Lesson is the fifth play in Wilson's The Pittsburgh Cycle. Wilson began writing this play by playing with the various answers regarding the possibility of "acquir[ing] a sense of self-worth by denying ones past"...
(1990–91), for which he won his first Drama Desk Award
Drama Desk Award
The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
. Returning to directing, O'Brien helmed Two Shakespearean Actors (1992). He co-produced Two Trains Running (1992) and Redwood Curtain (1993). He also directed and produced a revival of Damn Yankees
Damn Yankees
Damn Yankees is a musical comedy with a book by George Abbott and Douglass Wallop and music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. The story is a modern retelling of the Faust legend set during the 1950s in Washington, D.C., during a time when the New York Yankees dominated Major League...
(1994–95), Hapgood (1995, winning the Lucille Lortel Award for Direction), a flop called Getting Away With Murder (1996) and produced Play On! (1997). He next directed a revival of The Little Foxes
The Little Foxes
The Little Foxes is a 1939 play by Lillian Hellman. Its title comes from Chapter 2, Verse 15 in the Song of Solomon in the King James version of the Bible, which reads, "Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes." Set in a small town in Alabama in...
(1997), a new comedy, More to Love (1998), which closed in three days, and produced Getting and Spending (1998). O'Brien also has occasionally directed for television over the years.
O'Brien had a hit with The Full Monty
The Full Monty (musical)
The Full Monty is a musical with a book by Terrence McNally and score by David Yazbek.In this Americanized musical stage version adapted from the 1997 British film of the same name, six unemployed Buffalo steelworkers, low on both cash and prospects, decide to present a strip act at a local club...
, which he directed and produced (2000–2002), and critical success with the drama The Invention of Love
The Invention of Love
The Invention of Love is a 1997 play by Tom Stoppard portraying the life of poet A.E. Housman, focusing specifically on his personal life and love for a college classmate. The play is written from the viewpoint of Housman dealing with his memories towards the end of his life and contains many...
(2001) for which he won the Drama Desk Award for direction. In 2002, he directed the world premiere of the Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, novelist, playwright, journalist, author, and blogger.She is best known for her romantic comedies and is a triple nominee for the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay; for Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally... and Sleepless in...
play Imaginary Friends
Imaginary Friends (play)
Imaginary Friends is a play by Nora Ephron. It includes songs with music by Marvin Hamlisch and lyrics by Craig Carnelia.-Plot:The play focuses on writers Lillian Hellman and Mary McCarthy, who reunite in hell and reflect on their decades-long antagonistic relationship...
, which then transferred to Broadway. That same year he directed Hairspray
Hairspray (musical)
Hairspray is a musical with music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman and Shaiman and a book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan, based on the 1988 John Waters film Hairspray. The songs include 1960s-style dance music and "downtown" rhythm and blues...
, which ran on Broadway until January 2009. This marked his first Tony Award win, and he also received another Drama Desk Award. In 2002, he was honored with the prestigious "Mr. Abbott" Award from the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation. On Broadway, he next produced two more Old Globe productions, Imaginary Friends (2002–03), which he directed, and the one-performance flop, Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All
Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All
Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All is a 1989 first novel by Allan Gurganus which was on the New York Times Best Seller list for eight months. It won the Sue Kaufman Prize from The American Academy of Arts and Letters, was a main selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club, and sold over four...
(2003), which he did not. He returned to Shakespears, directing Henry IV (2003–04), for which he won both the Tony and the Drama Desk Awards, and progressed from the sublime to the ridiculous, directing and producing Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (musical)
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is a Broadway musical, with music and lyrics by David Yazbek and a book by Jeffrey Lane; it is based on the film of the same name...
(2005–06). He then produced other works including the Old Globe's annual musical adaptation of Dr. Seuss
Dr. Seuss
Theodor Seuss Geisel was an American writer, poet, and cartoonist most widely known for his children's books written under the pen names Dr. Seuss, Theo LeSieg and, in one case, Rosetta Stone....
' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is a children's story by Dr. Seuss written in rhymed verse with illustrations by the author. It was published as a book by Random House in 1957, and at approximately the same time in an issue of Redbook...
(Christmas 2006–07 and 2007–08).
O'Brien next directed Tom Stoppard
Tom Stoppard
Sir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and...
's trilogy of plays The Coast of Utopia
The Coast of Utopia
The Coast of Utopia is a 2002 trilogy of plays: Voyage, Shipwreck, and Salvage, written by Tom Stoppard with focus on the philosophical debates in pre-revolution Russia between 1833 and 1866...
(2006–07) at Lincoln Center in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, winning both the Tony and Drama Desk Awards. He then he directed Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's trilogy of operas Il trittico
Il trittico
Il trittico is the title of a collection of three one-act operas, Il tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi, by Giacomo Puccini...
for the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
. Other opera productions have included Peter Maxwell Davies
Peter Maxwell Davies
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, CBE is an English composer and conductor and is currently Master of the Queen's Music.-Biography:...
' The Lighthouse for San Diego Opera
San Diego Opera
The San Diego Opera Association is a professional opera company located in the city of San Diego, California and is a member of OPERA America. It was founded in 1950 to present productions by San Francisco Opera in the San Diego area...
, Mozart's The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
for the San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera is an American opera company, based in San Francisco, California.It was founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola and is the second largest opera company in North America...
, Verdi's Aida
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
for Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera Houston Grand Opera was founded in 1955 through the joint efforts of Maestro Walter Herbert and cultural leaders Mrs. Louis G. Lobit, Edward Bing and Charles Cockrell...
, Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
's Street Scene
Street Scene (opera)
Street Scene is a Broadway musical or, more precisely, an "American opera" by Kurt Weill , Langston Hughes , and Elmer Rice...
for New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
, which was televised on "Live from Lincoln Center
Live from Lincoln Center
Live From Lincoln Center is an ongoing series of musical performances produced by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in conjunction with Thirteen/WNET in New York City....
", and Puccini's Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
for Santa Fe Opera
Santa Fe Opera
The Santa Fe Opera is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe in the U.S. state of New Mexico, headquartered on a former guest ranch of .-General history:...
. On television, O'Brien has directed six movies for "American Playhouse
American Playhouse
American Playhouse is an anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service in the United States.It premiered on January 12, 1982 with The Shady Hill Kidnapping, written and narrated by John Cheever and directed by Paul Bogart...
", including An Enemy of the People, I Never Sang For My Father, All My Sons, and Painting Churches. His Broadway revival of Most Happy Fella and staging of The Good Doctor were produced for PBS.
O'Brien's recent directoral efforts at the Old Globe include Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Chekhov's The Seagull
The Seagull
The Seagull is the first of what are generally considered to be the four major plays by the Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov. The Seagull was written in 1895 and first produced in 1896...
, in a new version by Stoppard, and Brendan Behan
Brendan Behan
Brendan Francis Behan was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, and playwright who wrote in both Irish and English. He was also an Irish republican and a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army.-Early life:...
's The Hostage. In stepping down as Artistic Director of the Old Globe Theatre at the end of 2007, O'Brien said, "“I consider myself truly blessed to have been able to enjoy such a full and varied career at the Globe. I have had the enviable opportunity to direct everything from Shakespeare to new American works to Broadway-bound musicals, all under the supportive and watchful eye of an enthusiastic San Diego community."
Recent and planned projects
He has directed several workshops of the musical adaptation of Catch Me if You CanCatch Me if You Can (musical)
Catch Me If You Can is a musical with a libretto by Terrence McNally and a theatrical score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. It follows the story of con artist Frank Abagnale, Jr...
, working together with Jerry Mitchell
Jerry Mitchell
Jerry Mitchell is an American theatre director and choreographer.-Early life and education:Born in Paw Paw, Michigan, Mitchell later moved to St. Louis where he pursued his acting, dancing and directing career in theatre. He graduated from the Fine Arts college at Webster University in St. Louis. ...
, who has choreographed many of O'Brien's musicals. The Broadway production will open in April 2011.
He is also director of Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
's sequel to The Phantom of the Opera
The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical)
The Phantom of the Opera is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the French novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux.The music was composed by Lloyd Webber, and most lyrics were written by Charles Hart, with additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe. Alan Jay Lerner was an early collaborator,...
(Love Never Dies), which opened in London on March 9, 2010.
In 2009 he directed the premiere of the Michael Jacobs
Michael Jacobs
Michael Jacobs is a writer and producer whose work has appeared on Broadway, Off Broadway, television and film. He is the creator/producer of several popular television series including Boy Meets World, Dinosaurs, Charles in Charge and My Two Dads...
play Impressionism
Impressionism (play)
Impressionism is a 2009 play by Michael Jacobs about "an international photojournalist and a New York gallery owner whose unexpected brush with intimacy leads them to realize that there is an art to repairing broken lives."-Plot:...
at the Schoenfeld, starring Jeremy Irons
Jeremy Irons
Jeremy John Irons is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the...
and Joan Allen
Joan Allen
Joan Allen is an American actress. She worked in theatre, television and film during her early career, and achieved recognition for her Broadway debut in Burn This, winning a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play in 1989.She has received three Academy Award nominations;...
.
Awards and nominations
Awards- 1990 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Play – The Piano Lesson
- 2001 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play – The Invention of Love
- 2003 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical – Hairspray
- 2003 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical – Hairspray
- 2004 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play – Henry IV
- 2004 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play – Henry IV
- 2007 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play – The Coast of Utopia
- 2007 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play – The Coast of Utopia
Nominations
- 1977 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical – Porgy and Bess
- 1977 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical – Porgy and BessPorgy and BessPorgy and Bess is an opera, first performed in 1935, with music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward, and lyrics by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward. It was based on DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy and subsequent play of the same title, which he co-wrote with his wife Dorothy Heyward...
- 1989 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play – The Cocktail HourThe Cocktail HourThe Cocktail Hour is a comedy of manners by A. R. Gurney. It premiered in June 1988 in San Diego, California at the Old Globe Theatre and, on October 20, 1988, in New York City at the Off Broadway Promenade Theatre...
- 1990 Tony Award for Best Play – The Piano LessonThe Piano LessonThe Piano Lesson is a 1990 play by American playwright August Wilson. The Piano Lesson is the fifth play in Wilson's The Pittsburgh Cycle. Wilson began writing this play by playing with the various answers regarding the possibility of "acquir[ing] a sense of self-worth by denying ones past"...
- 1992 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play – Two Shakespearean Actors
- 1992 Tony Award for Best Play – Two Trains RunningTwo Trains RunningTwo Trains Running is a play by American playwright August Wilson, the seventh in his ten-part series The Pittsburgh Cycle. It was first performed by the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, while its Broadway première was on 13 April 1992 at the Walter Kerr Theatre in New York...
- 2001 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical – The Full Monty
- 2001 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical – The Full Monty
- 2001 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play – The Invention of Love
- 2005 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical – Dirty Rotten Scoundrels