All stories by Jonathan Mandell on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, December 21, 2021

Top 10 Lists of Top 10 Theater in 2021. Best NYC stage plays and musicals by Jonathan Mandell

The Broadway debut of “Trouble in Mind” some three decades after playwright Alice Childress’ death is the most popular choice among critics whose lists of top 10 New York theater for …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:34AM
Monday, December 20, 2021

Broadway and Omicron: Cancellations “Out of An Abundance of Caution.” #Stageworthy News by Jonathan Mandell

A third of all Broadway shows were canceled on Sunday because members of the company or crew tested positive for Covid, the latest in “a raft of cancellations unlike any in history,” evi…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:21AM
Sunday, December 19, 2021

7 Theater Trends Revisited, Again by Jonathan Mandell

While others were busy assessing the trends in New York theater of the decade that had just ended, on January 1, 2020, I asked: What will be the trends of the future? I had a list of seven q…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:01PM
Saturday, December 18, 2021

Healthy at Last. What NYC Mayor Eric Adams’ vegan book may say about his tenure by Jonathan Mandell

It shouldn’t surprise anybody who followed the race for New York City mayor that Eric Adams, who won and will take office on January 1, 2022, has a book out called Healthy at Last: A Plant…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 03:45PM
Friday, December 17, 2021

Holiday Shows 2021: Nutcrackers, Christmas Carols etc in person, online by Jonathan Mandell

This year’s holiday season in New York is meant as a return to the annual tradition of live in-person Christmas Carols and Nutcracker Suites, as well as the usual mix of family fare, offb…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 03:40PM
Thursday, December 16, 2021

Becoming Dr. Ruth Review: Tovah Feldshuh as celebrity sex therapist, sniper, survivor by Jonathan Mandell

It’s been 40 years since sex therapist Ruth Westheimer became a celebrity. The 4’7” “Grandma Freud,” aka Dr. Ruth, who gave advice on her radio and TV shows in a sing-song European…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:44PM
Wednesday, December 15, 2021

10 Favorite New York Stage Performances in 2021, and 10 Top Ensembles by Jonathan Mandell

Deirdre O’Connell gave one of my favorite performances on a New York stage in 2016, and she returns in this latest of my annual lists of favorite theatrical performances  (not all of th…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:56AM
Tuesday, December 14, 2021

And Just Like That, Broadway Ends 2021 on a High Note. #StageworthyNews by Jonathan Mandell

This past week, the last Broadway shows of 2021 opened (Flying Over Sunset) and reopened (Dear Evan Hansen, the last of the reopening shows that were shut down by the pandemic.) For all the …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 01:01PM
Monday, December 13, 2021

Flying Over Sunset Review: Cary Grant, Clare Boothe Luce and Aldous Huxley take LSD, not a hippie in sight. by Jonathan Mandell

When he takes LSD, the movie star Cary Grant turns into a spectacular tap-dancer, in a duet with a boy in a dress – who turns out to be his younger self, Archie Leach. The novelist and fut…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:01PM
Sunday, December 12, 2021

Kimberly Akimbo musical review. She is 16 going on 70. by Jonathan Mandell

Kimberly Levaco is a 16-year-old girl with a rare, terminal disease that accelerates the aging process, and makes her look as if she’s in her 70s. Seth Weetis is her nerdy, smiling classma…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:28AM
Friday, December 10, 2021

West Side Story: 7 changes in 2021 Steven Spielberg/Tony Kushner movie musical from beloved 1961 version by Jonathan Mandell

The remake of “West Side Story,” the tragic story of lovers from rival New York street gangs, which opens in movie theaters today, is director Steven Spielberg’s first movie musical. S…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 05:38PM
Thursday, December 9, 2021

Company on Broadway Review. Sondheim’s musical, and live tribute. by Jonathan Mandell

 “Company” is perfectly timed, sadly. Opening less than two weeks after the death of Stephen Sondheim at the age of 91, in a season delayed by more than a year and a half by the worldwi…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:03PM
Wednesday, December 8, 2021

Just For Us Review: Alex Edelman, a Jewish comic who tries to charm some antisemites by Jonathan Mandell

Alex Edelman read a Tweet from somebody he knew to be antisemitic – the man had previously attacked him online for being Jewish —  inviting people to go to an address in Astoria, Queen…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:41PM
Monday, December 6, 2021

Selling Kabul Review: Left Behind in Afghanistan by Jonathan Mandell

“Selling Kabul,” a play by Sylvia Khoury at Playwrights Horizons through December 23, tells a small, claustrophobic story about Taroon, an Afghani man who is holed up in his sister Afiya…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:50PM

The Arts Honored. Sondheim Rediscovered. #StageworthyNews by Jonathan Mandell

The President of the United States attended the 44th Kennedy Center Honors, in a return to tradition, and paid tribute not just to the honorees — opera singer Justino Díaz, Motown founde…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:01AM
Friday, October 22, 2021

Fall Forward Festival: New free short works by Kirsten Childs and Ngozi Anyanwu by Jonathan Mandell

The Vineyard Theater has launched its Fall Forward Festival with the first two of the five planned  “new works of alternative theater,” according to its website, works that promise to …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 02:21PM
Thursday, October 21, 2021

Lackawanna Blues On Screen and On Stage by Jonathan Mandell

After my tickets to “Lackawanna Blues” were canceled twice because Ruben Santiago-Hudson, the author, director and star of this autobiographical solo show, had injured his back, I search…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 04:02PM
Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Paradise Review. The Science of Love by Jonathan Mandell

Do chimpanzees fall in love? Can human couples really stay madly in love after many years, and can a brain scan prove it?  Will theatergoers still love digital theater now that in-person t…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:45PM
Tuesday, October 19, 2021

Book Review: Unprotected a Memoir by Billy Porter by Jonathan Mandell

“”You’re a singular talent, Billy. Nobody knows what to do with you.’“And there it is again—the smoke up my ass…Singular talent without a gig don’t pay the rent, and a bitch …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:40PM
Monday, October 18, 2021

Thoughts of A Colored Man, Lehman Trilogy, Dana H. 51 Shows on Broadway! Sanctuary City Goes Hybrid! #Stageworthy This Week by Jonathan Mandell

There were five Broadway openings (and reopenings) this week, in what promises to be the oddest and busiest Broadway season in memory. There are now 51 shows on the Broadway 2021-2022 season…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:36AM
Sunday, October 17, 2021

Dana H. Broadway Review. Deirdre O’Connell lip-syncs an incredible trauma by Jonathan Mandell

“Dana H.” is unlike any play you’ve ever seen on Broadway. It’s 75 minutes of an actress sitting on a chair, lip-syncing to a tape of a woman recounting the horrific story of a deran…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:48PM
Thursday, October 14, 2021

The Lehman Trilogy on Broadway Review. Changing with the times, but enough? by Jonathan Mandell

The country has changed in the two and a half years since The Lehman Trilogy came to America, wowing audiences at the Park Avenue Armory with a theatrical epic, inventively staged and extra…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 05:24PM
Wednesday, October 13, 2021

Thoughts of a Colored Man Review: Ntozake Shange meets The Wire by Jonathan Mandell

“Thoughts of a Colored Man,”  Keenan Scott II’s often powerful, often entertaining debut Broadway play about a day in the life of seven Black men in Brooklyn,  is performed by a te…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:52PM
Tuesday, October 12, 2021

Letters of Suresh Review. Unfolding the mysteries of the heart by Jonathan Mandell

Rajiv Joseph’s epistolary play begins with some meager clues to the mysteries at its heart – a stack of letters from a man named Suresh, and an origami sculpture of a bird – before it …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:02PM

Six, Chicken & Biscuits, Is This A Room. Theater Boosters. Darren Criss, Pal Joey to hustle on Broadway at last. #Stageworthy This Week by Jonathan Mandell

“Booster” has taken on a new meaning in the age of COVID, which Broadway has embraced in its own way. Some 250 people have been hired (so far) to serve as safety team members in Broadway…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:59AM
Monday, October 11, 2021

Broadway Review: Is This A Room. Reality Winner’s FBI Interrogation Verbatim by Jonathan Mandell

Much is improbable about “Is This A Room,” starting with the name of the real-life whistleblower who’s the subject of the play (Reality Winner), and the fact that she received a stupef…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:47PM
Sunday, October 10, 2021

Chicken & Biscuits on Broadway Review. Funny Funeral with Happy Ending by Jonathan Mandell

Beverly Jenkins doesn’t wear black to her father’s funeral. “We already Black! We should be honoring my Daddy in style, COLOR! Hell, canary yellow was his favorite, and he wore it l…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 02:04PM
Saturday, October 9, 2021

Hit Your Mark, Die Beautiful Review. What’s so bad about Off Off Broadway. by Jonathan Mandell

 “Hit Your Mark, Die Beautiful” lured me in because it was being promoted as a “Waiting for Guffman” for Off Off Broadway, which I took to mean a comic but affectionate look at how …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:26AM
Thursday, October 7, 2021

Six Review. Wronged Queens in a Broadway Musical of Sonic Wave Feminism by Jonathan Mandell

“Divorced. Beheaded. Died. Divorced. Beheaded. Survived.” The first six words of “Six” sum up the fate of each of King Henry VIII’s six wives. The first six minutes of “Six” (t…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:40AM
Tuesday, October 5, 2021

Saving New York Independent Theater: An Update by Jonathan Mandell

If you think that reopening has solved the problems of New York’s theaters and theater artists, listen up: “We’re talking about life and death: The life and death of our neighborhoods;…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 05:23PM
Monday, October 4, 2021

Reopening…and Reclosing? Daniel Craig, Thornton Wilder Back on Broadway. #Stageworthy This Week by Jonathan Mandell

In what may be the busiest October for theater in generations, there are fifteen shows scheduled to open on Broadway, more than half of which are new, as well as much Off and Off Off Broadwa…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:56AM

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