5,881 stories by "Jonathan Mandell"
The opening of the new performing arts center at the World Trade Center site…has done what the rebuilders had hoped it would, at least for me. On the anniversary of 9/11, the imagery of Gr…
Sure I’m excited about the Broadway debuts of both Julia Louis-Dreyfus and “The Fantasticks” (both long overdue); I’m curious whether Raúl Esparza will make “Galileo” worthwhi…
Below are my two reviews of the original 2011 New York production of “Other Desert Cities,” by Jon Robin Baitz, which I’m resurrecting shortly before the play’s first Broadway reviva…
I needed several pieces of paper to watch Alan Cumming and Shirley Henderson perform live in “A History of Paper” – a theater ticket, a train ticket, a plane ticket (in reverse order) …
The announcement that Bruce Norris’s controversial play “Downstate” would be opening in Fall 2026 on Broadway seems like a good time to resurrect my review of his first and only other …
“Downstate,” the highly controversial play by Bruce Norris about a group home for men formerly imprisoned for sex crimes against minors, was announced this morning as opening on Broadway…
Labor Day may have taken on extra meaning (check out: Theater in Socialist Mayor Mamdani’s New York), but the holiday still serves as traditional dividing line between summer and the Fall…
Mayor Mamdani: Who built the Empire State Building? Crowd: Union workers! Mayor Mamdani: Who keeps the magic alive on Broadway? Crowd: Union workers! Mayor Mamdani: Who drives our …
How well were you paying attention to New York theater this summer? Take this quiz to find out. Loading…
The posters were everywhere in Edinburgh for “The Bridge,” Alaa Shehada’s solo show, one of the 17 winners of this year’s prestigious Fringe First Awards. I had already been lucky en…
Below is a calendar of theater opening* in September, with some starry and inventive fare, including a herd of life-size buffaloes! Jasmine Amy Rogers comes back to Broadway after “Boop!�…
On Broadway, “Paranormal Activity” opened, “Here There Are Blueberries” will open, and “Six The Musical” will close. Dolly Parton and Tim Curry died on the same day, both at age …
The last we heard from Alex Edelman, the Jewish comedian had won a Tony and an Emmy for “Just for Us,” his account of attending a meeting of neo-Nazis in Queens. There are several ec…
Xhloe Rice and Natasha Roland’s latest show sold out its entire run at the 2026 Edinburgh Festival Fringe before the festival even began, with interest piqued by their three previous sold…
A Scottish woman sings Arirang. A Korean man dances in a ceilidh. Both words were new to me – the first a traditional Korean folk song; the second a traditional Scottish gathering that fe…
Below are my reviews of “Depths of Wikipedia,” “Glob,” “Stand Up If You’re Here Tonight,” “Twitch,” and “Linus Karp Was Hit With An Umbrella,” all seen in a single day,…
Artificial Intelligence, sign language, clutter: I was drawn to these three disparate shows because of the personal connection I felt to each of their promised topics, and I felt rewarded be…
This misfire is neither about the attack on the US Capitol, nor is it really a musical; there are only a handful of songs, although these are catchy and performed with verve by the comedy du…
One is based on the true story of Genie Chance, a woman who steadied the city of Anchorage during the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964. The other is clearly inspired by another true American …
James and Lou move from Chicago to London to escape their past, but they soon discover that places aren’t haunted, people are, in this original story inspired by the seven films of the “…
“boobytrapped,” a play about a trans man who swaps bodies with a gay man, only succeeds if you focus on the points it’s trying to make about the realities of trans life rather…
Nobody can possibly be surprised that a show entitled “Judy Garland Is Fat at Carnegie Hall” is silly and in bad taste. What is more surprising is that the show works. I’ve seen it twi…
“Embro” is how people from Edinburgh pronounce their city, as poet Ken Cockburn explains at the beginning of his ninety-minute walk through wondrous sites like Dunbar’s Close Garden an…
“Women of Will” owes its inspiration and even its title to Tina Packer, the founding artistic director of the acclaimed Shakespeare & Company theater company of Lenox, Massachusett…
Short videos below of the buskers and flyererss I encountered on my trip along the Royal Mile. I was making my way to Edinburgh Castle, which featured the Crown Jewels and the oldest existin…
