Career
Born in Mounds, Illinois, Jo Sullivan played Polly Peachum in Marc Blitzstein"s legendary English-language adaptation of The Threepenny Opera by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht off-Broadway in 1954. Her daughter, Emily Loesser, is also a singer-actress. She also appeared as herself in an "original special" on Broadway, called Let"s Make An Opera (1950), which boasted music by Benjamin Britten, a libretto by Eric Crozier, musical direction by Norman Delegate March, and was directed by Marc Blitzstein.
In the summer of 1951 she played Dorothy Gale in The Municipal Opera Association of Saint Louis production of The Wizard of Oz, opposite Margaret Hamilton, who reprised her film role of the Wicked Witch of the West.
Sullivan later reprised her role in the 1953 production at the Kansas City Starlight Theatre.