Theatre Register

Jo Sullivan

Shows · Jo Sullivan

Actor 1927–2019 On stage 19481980

Elizabeth Josephine Sullivan Loesser (née Sullivan; August 28, 1927 – April 28, 2019) was an American actress and high lyric soprano singer. She became a musical theatre star with her performance in the original production of The Most Happy Fella, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award in 1957.

On stage 7 productions, 32 years

1948 As The Girls Go Winter Garden · Original · directed by Howard Bay 420 perf.
1948 Sleepy Hollow St James Theatre · Original · directed by John O'Shaughnessy 12 perf.
1950 Let's Make an Opera John Golden Theatre · Original · directed by Marc Blitzstein 5 perf.
1954 Carousel City Center · Revival · directed by William Hammerstein 79 perf.
1954 The Threepenny Opera Theatre de Lys · Original · directed by Carmen Capalbo 95 perf.
1956 The Most Happy Fella Imperial Theatre · Original · directed by Joseph Anthony 676 perf.
1980 Perfectly Frank Helen Hayes Theatre · Original · directed by Fritz Holt 17 perf.

Each row is a staging this name appears in the cast list of, read from the production record rather than from the person record. The person record names works instead, and a work cannot say which run somebody was in — that is how Elaine Stritch ends up filed under Show Boat 1927 when she was in the 1994 revival. No row here says what part was played, because no cast list records it.

Worked with more than once6 names

Russell Goodwin 2 productions
Meri Miller 2 productions
Jean Handzlik 2 productions
Christopher Snell 2 productions
Betty Jane Watson 2 productions
Ann Dunbar 2 productions

Both names in the same cast list, more than once. It is not evidence of a partnership — a long-running company puts the same forty people together every night — but it is where one would start looking. 4 of these names are not links because we hold no record behind them; the name is set from the identifier and its punctuation may be wrong.

In the literature8 passages

  • The Most Happy Fella , act I, scene 2. Jo Sullivan and Robert Weede (1956). Photograph: Vandamm Studio. Museum of the City of New York. Theater Collection.ebooks/Block, Geoffrey/Enchanted Evenings_The Broadway Musical from 'Show Boat' to Sondheim and Lloyd Webber - Geoffrey Block.txt
  • Rosabella (Jo Sullivan) comes to the Napa Valley expecting to marry a handsome young man who has sent her his picture and proposed by mail. She is certain that she has at last found “Somebody, Somewhere” to really love her. But she soon discovers the handsome man, Joe (Art Lund), is merely a hired hand, and that the man who proposed is ac…ebooks/Block, Geoffrey/Enchanted Evenings_The Broadway Musical from 'Show Boat' to Sondheim and Lloyd Webber - Geoffrey Block.txt
  • Original cast (1956) : Robert Weede, Jo Sullivan, Art Lund, Susan Johnson, Shorty Long, Mona Paulee, Arthur Rubin, Herbert Greene (conductor). Columbia 03L 240; reissued on Columbia Special Products CO3L 240 (three LPs).ebooks/Block, Geoffrey/Enchanted Evenings_The Broadway Musical from 'Show Boat' to Sondheim and Lloyd Webber - Geoffrey Block.txt
  • Studio cast (mainly): Ben Bagley’s Kurt Weill Revisited . Paula Lawrence (original cast), Arthur Siegel, Chita Rivera, Jo Sullivan. Painted Smiles PS 1375; reissued 1989 on Painted Smiles PSCD 108. Contents: “One Touch of Venus,” “How Much I Love You,” “Dr. Crippen,” “Very, Very, Very,” “Vive la différence” (cut), and “Love in a Mist” (cu…ebooks/Block, Geoffrey/Enchanted Evenings_The Broadway Musical from 'Show Boat' to Sondheim and Lloyd Webber - Geoffrey Block.txt
  • Cast : Barbara Cook (Carrie Pipperidge), Jo Sullivan (Julie Jordan), Winifred Heidt (Mrs. Mullin), Chris Robinson (Billy Bigelow), Russell Goodwin (First Policeman, Principal), Stanley Carlson (David Bascombe), Jean Handzlik (Nettie Fowler), Mavis Ray (June Girl), Don Blackey (Enoch Snow), John Conte (Jigger Craigin), Dusty Worrall (Hanna…ebooks/Dietz, Dan/Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals, The - Dan Dietz.txt
  • Act One: Prelude—“Waltz Suite: Carousel” (Ensemble); “You’re a Queer One, Julie Jordan” (Barbara Cook, Jo Sullivan); “When I Marry Mister Snow” (Barbara Cook); “If I Loved You” (Chris Robinson, Jo Sullivan); “June Is Bustin’ Out All Over” (Jean Handzlik, Barbara Cook, Ensemble; Dancing Ensemble led by Mavis Ray); “When I Marry Mister Snow…ebooks/Dietz, Dan/Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals, The - Dan Dietz.txt

Passages naming this person, found by keyword across 178 books. A keyword match is not a biography, and a common name will pull in the wrong one.

What this page does not know

  • What this person played. No cast list we hold records a character against a performer.
  • Any portrait. 1,626 of 7,139 people have one, so this is the usual case rather than the exception.
  • Which of the credits above the roles on this record — actor — apply to. The roles sit on the person and never on a credit, so a director who also acted looks the same here as one who did not.

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