Name John Rando | Role Stage Director | |
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Education University of California, Los Angeles Nominations Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical, Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Director Similar People Tony Yazbeck, David Ives, Warren Carlyle, Justin Paul, Joseph Robinette | ||
Behind the scenes with director john rando
John Rando is an American stage director who won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for Urinetown the Musical in 2002. He received his 2nd nomination in the same category in 2015 for the 2014 Broadway revival of On the Town.
Contents
- Behind the scenes with director john rando
- In conversation with john rando director of on the town
- Early life
- Career
- Stage productions select
- References
In conversation with john rando director of on the town
Early life
Rando grew up in Houston, Texas and attended the University of Texas in Austin, studying theatre. He received a Fulbright Program fellowship and studied theatre in Germany and Italy and then studied directing at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, graduating in 1988. He next worked as an assistant director at the Old Globe Theatre (San Diego).
Career
Rando has directed Off-Broadway, on Broadway and in regional theatre. His first Off-Broadway play was Fortune's Fools, by Frederick Stroppel, at the Cherry Lane Theatre in 1995. He directed the musical The Toxic Avenger, which opened Off-Broadway in 2009, after it premiered at the George Street Playhouse (New Brunswick, New Jersey).
Rando has directed several plays by David Ives Off-Broadway, including: a revival of Ancient History in May 1996 at Primary Stages, as part of a double bill with his play English Made Simple, Mere Mortals at Primary Stages in 1997, and Polish Joke at the Manhattan Theatre Club in 2003. In February 2013 he directed a revival of Ives' All in the Timing at Primary Stages, and received a 2013 Obie Award for Direction. He also directed Ives' play Lives of the Saints in a Philadelphia Theatre Company production in 1999 and Berkshire Theatre Festival. Rando is directing a revival of Ives' Lives of the Saints at Primary Stages in 2015.
On Broadway he made his debut in 1994 as the Assistant Director for the Arthur Miller play Broken Glass. He next directed on Broadway in 2000, with the play The Dinner Party by Neil Simon. Rando directed the musical Urinetown, which opened in 2001 and closed in 2004, and won the 2002 Tony Award for Direction of a Musical.
Rando directed several staged concerts of musicals for New York City Center's Encores!: Strike Up the Band (1998),Do Re Mi (1999) The Pajama Game (2002), On the Town (2008), Damn Yankees (2008), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (2012), It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman (2013), Little Me (2014) and The New Yorkers (2017).