All stories by Jonathan Mandell on BroadwayStars

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
Sunday, October 3, 2021

Chasing Jack Review. Theatrical Malpractice That Might Set Records. by Jonathan Mandell

In “Chasing Jack,” nothing is as it seems. That’s true of Dr. Jack Chase, the heart surgeon who is being sued for malpractice after his patient died on the operating table. And it’s …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 03:38PM
Saturday, October 2, 2021

The Nosebleed Review: A Long-Dead Father, Vulnerability, Failure and Healing by Jonathan Mandell

“The Nosebleed,” Aya Ogawa’s sly, strange and ultimately rewarding autobiographical play that’s at the Japan Society through October 10, focuses on Ogawa’s long-dead father and the…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:01PM
Friday, October 1, 2021

October 2021 New York Theater Openings and Reopenings by Jonathan Mandell

Below is a day-by-day selection of the theater that is scheduled to open in October, organized by opening date*, including fifteen shows on Broadway, more than half of which are new, as wel…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 02:24PM
Thursday, September 30, 2021

Theater Quiz for September 2021: Reopening and Awarding. by Jonathan Mandell

How well were you paying attention to a very busy theater month? Answer these ten question to find out. Loading…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 05:42PM
Wednesday, September 29, 2021

La MaMa Puppet Festival 2021: Lunch with Sonia by Jonathan Mandell

Aunt Sonia, who is gathering the whole clan for one last meal before she ends her life, looks different from when I last saw her. She once was just a huge head, with a mouth that seemed per…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:08PM
Tuesday, September 28, 2021

Persuasion Review. Bedlam’s staging of Jane Austen’s last, romantic novel by Jonathan Mandell

Bedlam’s return to live in-person theater with its new adaptation of Jane Austen’s romantic final novel — about a woman who meets once again the man whose proposal of marriage she reje…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:19PM
Monday, September 27, 2021

A Commercial Jingle for Regina Comet Review by Jonathan Mandell

In this slight musical comedy with an on-the-nose title, Broadway veteran Bryonha Marie Parham portrays a fading diva named Regina Comet who hires two aspiring jingle writers (Alex Wyse and …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:30PM

Tony Night 2021: Memorable Moments and Contradictions. #Stageworthy This Week by Jonathan Mandell

Four hours full of spectacular musical numbers, ending with three famous musical duets from the past  — Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel performing “For Good” from Wicked, Anthony…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:07AM
Sunday, September 26, 2021

2020 Tony Award Winners (in 2021) by Jonathan Mandell

Below are the winners of the much-delayed 74th annual Tony Awards, honoring the much-truncated 2019-2020 Broadway season, selected from 18 eligible shows, which opened between April of 2019…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:10PM

I Squeezed Really Hard: The Healing Power of Theater, Whether on Broadway or Off Off Avenue B by Jonathan Mandell

The day of the Tony Awards might seem a strange time to write about an Off-Off Broadway solo play, playing in a theater off Avenue B, with the downbeat title “I Squeezed Really Hard” (a …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 03:48PM
Saturday, September 25, 2021

Watch 5 New Broadway Musicals Previewed in Bryant Park by Jonathan Mandell

Watch musical numbers performed by cast members from the new Broadway musicals “Six,” “Diana,” and “Mrs. Doubtfire,” as well as the new revivals of “Company” and “Caroline …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:22PM
Friday, September 24, 2021

Sanctuary City Review. Ironic, heartbreaking tale of two young immigrants by Jonathan Mandell

“Sanctuary City” is full of surprises, rarely happy ones for the boy and girl who have grown up together — or for the audience. Martyna Majok’s challenging, intelligent play focuses …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:34PM
Wednesday, September 22, 2021

Phantom Pain Review. 5 Women Living Through Trauma, In One Body by Jonathan Mandell

Why are these five women in the same play? A prostitute in Amsterdam; a mother from Guatemala; a sister from the Midwest;  a food vendor in the Central African Republic; an international c…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 05:38PM
Tuesday, September 21, 2021

The Medievalists Review. A monstrous family, thanks to history by Jonathan Mandell

“I loathe that word ‘nice,’” Hallie says, and so apparently do both her parents; all three could not be more unlikeable in the first 100 minutes of the 110-minute play “The Medieva…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 02:29PM
Monday, September 20, 2021

Watch Broadway videos, from Sondheim to Six #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

Over the past week, there has been so much hoopla bout Broadway — reopening nights, festival concerts, TV spots, heartfelt speeches about Broadway being back (Kristin Chenoweth: “There�…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:19AM
Saturday, September 18, 2021

Repulsing the Monkey Review: A play about gentrification, staged at the White Horse Tavern by Jonathan Mandell

“Repulsing the Monkey,” which is set in an old bar in Pittsburgh about to be sold to (and destroyed by) gentrifiers, takes place in an old bar in New York, the White Horse Tavern. This i…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:31PM
Friday, September 17, 2021

Wicked Back on Broadway by Jonathan Mandell

 “There’s no place like home,” Kristin Chenoweth said on the reopening night of “Wicked,” on September 14, 2021, eighteen years after it opened on Broadway (on October 30, 2003) a…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:40PM
Thursday, September 16, 2021

Fall 2021 Theater Books: 3 Memoirs, 2 Biographies by Jonathan Mandell

Alan Cumming and Billy Porter have written memoirs that are being published this fall, which will also see biographies of Oscar Wilde and Emily Mann, plus a book “by” Noel Coward. Click …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:51PM
Wednesday, September 15, 2021

Waterman Review by Jonathan Mandell

Thicket & Thistle is the kind of company that anybody serious about theater in America would want to encourage. This is what drew me to “Waterman,”  which turns out to be a Fringe-…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 05:52PM
Tuesday, September 14, 2021

Hamilton on Broadway 2021. A cast of newcomers and returning favorites. by Jonathan Mandell

Below are new production photographs of the 2021 cast of “Hamilton,” which is reopening on Broadway tonight, along with “Chicago,” “The Lion King” and “Wicked,” after eightee…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:53PM
Monday, September 13, 2021

Leslie Odom, Jr. and Audra McDonald Tony Awards hosts, with a catch. The busiest week on Broadway, and NYC. #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

This week could not be busier. Today,  300,000 employees go back to work for New York City’s government, and a million students go back to the city’s public schools. Tomorrow, “Chica…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:48PM
Sunday, September 12, 2021

Angela’s Ashes the Musical Review: McCourt’s childhood trauma and lilting uplift by Jonathan Mandell

“It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while,” Frankie the narrator says at the beginning of  “Angela’s Ashes the Musical,” just as h…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:44PM
Saturday, September 11, 2021

The arts looking forward from 9/11: Q & A with Bill Rauch of the PAC at the World Trade Center by Jonathan Mandell

By the time that Bill Rauch became the artistic director of the performing arts center on the site of the World Trade Center, it had been nearly two decades in the making. On this, the twent…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:14AM
Thursday, September 9, 2021

What Happened? Review. 10 Pithy, Poignant, and Exasperating Aspects of Richard Nelson’s Rhinebeck Panorama formula. by Jonathan Mandell

In “What Happened? The Michaels Abroad,”  the dancer Rose Michael, already riddled with cancer, has died of COVID, and her family and friends have gathered around the kitchen table in …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:14PM
Wednesday, September 8, 2021

Return the Moon Review: Third Rail Projects latest site-specific experiment by Jonathan Mandell

If Third Rail Projects’ “Return The Moon” — an eerie, airy 75 minutes that is as much secular ritual as work of theater — had been produced by almost any other theater company, I m…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 04:29PM
Tuesday, September 7, 2021

Fall New York Theater 2021 Begins in Awe and Anxiety. by Jonathan Mandell

The Fall season means the reopening of some 20 big Broadway musicals, two of which began again last week to much hoopla, but it’s the large slate of new work, much of it unusual for Broadw…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 04:33PM
Monday, September 6, 2021

Theater Question for Labor Day: Does the Reckoning Over Race + Class = Intriguing New Plays About Workers and Workplaces? by Jonathan Mandell

Where are the American plays about unions, or workers, or even just workplaces? I started asking that question several years ago on Labor Day, a legal holiday created by Congress in 1884 …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:15AM
Friday, September 3, 2021

Labor Day Weekend 2021 Theater to Catch Up On by Jonathan Mandell

Here are shows you can still see either on stage, or online, or both, during Labor Day weekend, with links to my reviews. Of course, there are now four shows running on Broadway — Springst…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:27PM
Thursday, September 2, 2021

Hadestown Back on Broadway, Hot as Ever by Jonathan Mandell

“Hadestown” is back from the dead, reopening with most of its original principal Broadway cast intact*. “Has Hell ever sounded so thrilling,” I exclaimed in my review of the 2016 Off…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:30PM

Waitress Back on Broadway 2021: Sara Bareilles’ bittersweet treat of a musical by Jonathan Mandell

“Waitress,” a musical I savored when it opened in 2016, is back on Broadway. Its reopening tonight is unlike many of the other shows returning this season. Its run had ended in January 2…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:26PM

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