PRAISE FOR JOE BANNO’S WORK IN MUSICAL THEATER

 

“Banno’s ‘Evita’ is stripped of glitz but earthy, impassioned and joltingly powerful….The edgy, urgent quality of Banno’s vision makes this an ‘Evita’ of unusual vigor.”

—WASHINGTON TIMES

on EVITA

 

“A provocative production, updated to a post-modern and very impersonal world…. Characters appear and disperse seamlessly under Banno’s direction….He ensures that ‘Sweeney’s’ dark truths cut close to the bone.”

—OPERA NEWS

on SWEENEY TODD

 

“What a pleasant, unpretentious surprise!....Joe Banno’s breezy staging flows seamlessly….This ‘Fiddler’ is well worth seeing.  A superior evening.”

—STRATFORD BARD

on A FIDDLER ON THE ROOF

 

“Considering the speed with which the musical barrels along, it is to the credit of Banno’s eye to detail and clarity of storytelling that it never derails….Exactly the sort of show that could support a more extensive commercial life.”

—WASHINGTON TIMES

on IN TROUSERS

 

“In what may be the zaniest production yet of ‘Candide’, the show is imaginatively conceived as a time-traveling farce, and brilliantly performed….One of the standout productions in this theater season.”

—WASHINGTON TIMES

on CANDIDE

Joe Banno is known for his often tradition-challenging work in musical theatre. His production of “Evita” – a collaborative project between Open Circle Theatre’s company of artists-with-disabilities and the acclaimed modern dance company Liz Lerman Dance Exchange – was a critical and popular success. His work in musical theatre extends from classics like “Sweeney Todd” (a 20th-Century update in an extended run at Wolf Trap Opera), “Carousel” (a national tour with Opera Northeast), and “Fiddler on the Roof” (a hit production at Connecticut’s Downtown Cabaret Theatre), to lesser-known works, such as William Finn’s early “Falsettos” prologue “In Trousers” (Source Theatre Company), the DC-premiere of “Six Women With Brain Death” (Razor’s Edge Theatre), the American premiere – in a freshly revised and newly orchestrated version – of the British theatre-for-youth musical “Spot’s Birthday” at MD’s Adventure Theater, and the new punk-rock musical “Requiem” staged for the graduate playwriting program at Catholic University’s School of Drama (DC).

 

Banno’s world-premiere staging of the political satire “Executive Leverage” at Source Theatre Company received a Helen Hayes Award Nomination for Outstanding Production of a Musical. Always interested in stretching genre boundaries, he has also directed hybrid stage-works incorporating text, dance, video, music, and visual arts for experimental companies like Musica Aperta and (over a 15-year period) The In Series, where he directed and developed (with “Homeland” writer Charlotte Stoudt) a new musical-revue based around the lives and songs of 1930s émigré Hollywood composers, “From Berlin to Sunset”.