All stories by Jonathan Mandell on BroadwayStars

Thursday, July 8, 2021

Fruma-Sarah (Waiting in the Wings) Review by Jonathan Mandell

“Fruma-Sarah (Waiting in the Wings),” at the Cell Theater through July 25, begins as an affectionate poke at theater folk, offering nearly everything theatergoers returning to live, in-p…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 01:03PM
Wednesday, July 7, 2021

Theater Etiquette Revisited by Jonathan Mandell

Six years ago this month, theater etiquette made headlines. Patti LuPone confiscated a cell phone from an audience member who was texting during her performance of “Show for Days,” then …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:44PM
Tuesday, July 6, 2021

Theater Blog Roundup: Are Theater Screens Here to Stay? Will Audiences Need Etiquette Reeducation? by Jonathan Mandell

As theater stages begin to reopen, theater artists aren’t through with theater screens — as some of the theater bloggers make clear. Terry Teachout discusses “hybrid theater” aka “…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:58PM
Monday, July 5, 2021

42 Dates on Broadway! The Fight for Digital Theater!! Hamilton Needs Help?!!! #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

Every work of theater I saw this past week was live and in person – which would have been an impossibility a year ago, and an insane thing to say two years ago…because what else was ther…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 01:19PM
Sunday, July 4, 2021

For the 4th of July: 25 Plays and Musicals about American History by Jonathan Mandell

Some of the best-known plays or musicals about American history actually depict the Fourth of July; one of them, “1776,” is entirely about the events leading up to it. But most of the th…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:50AM
Saturday, July 3, 2021

Enemy of the People Review. We are all complicit! by Jonathan Mandell

“Enemy of the People” at the Park Avenue Armory remakes Ibsen’s drama into a striking one-woman show starring Ann Dowd that forces us to realize our complicity in the lead poisoning of…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:06PM
Friday, July 2, 2021

Theater for 4th of July Weekend: 10 Shows To See, Online or On Stage by Jonathan Mandell

Below is an alphabetical list of ten shows you can catch up on over the July 4th weekend, about half of them live in person.* I’ve put a √ next to those I’ve seen and especially recom…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 03:45PM
Thursday, July 1, 2021

The Watering Hole Review: Theater as a Sacred (Depressing) Water Ritual by Jonathan Mandell

“The Watering Hole,” an art installation that takes over nearly every nook and cranny of The Pershing Square Signature Center, is meant to be healing and calming…like water. That’s t…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:28PM
Wednesday, June 30, 2021

Theater Quiz for June 2021 by Jonathan Mandell

How well were you paying attention to the theatrical doings in June? Answer the dozen quiz questions below to find out. (Clockwise from top left: Scenes from “In The Heights,” “Hot Win…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:26PM
Tuesday, June 29, 2021

Seven Deadly Sins Review. Thrilling Theater in the Streets of the Meatpacking District by Jonathan Mandell

Lust was the best. Everybody seemed to agree, and it wasn’t just because Cynthia Nixon was in the cast. But, in truth, none of the eight short plays by some of America’s most original p…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:09PM
Monday, June 28, 2021

Harry Potter and The Boss Back on Broadway! But Off Broadway etc Ain’t Chopped Liver! #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

“It’s great to see everybody unmasked sitting next to each other in one room,” Bruce Springsteen said on opening night Saturday of the first Broadway show in 15 months … speaking on…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 04:34PM

Four Chords and a Gun Review. The Ramones vs. Phil Spector by Jonathan Mandell

“Four Chords and a Gun” is John Ross Bowie’s version of  a legendary (or at least deeply weird) moment in rock n roll history –  the making of “End of the Century,” the 1980 …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:32AM
Sunday, June 27, 2021

Happy Pride! from Tina Landau and Friends on Little Island by Jonathan Mandell

“Happy Pride!” shouted the stage full of Tina Landau’s friends, capping  the free two-hour concert that featured Bill Irwin rapping and Tony Yazbeck tapping with Jared Grimes, to lot…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 02:15PM
Saturday, June 26, 2021

Off Broadway 2021-2022 Season Preview Guide by Jonathan Mandell

Below is an attempt to answer the question: What’s coming up Off-Broadway? Long-running favorites are reopening, there is exciting new work by a slew of much-heralded American playwrights …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 05:37PM
Friday, June 25, 2021

Off Broadway The Play Review. An Indictment of Off Broadway. by Jonathan Mandell

As Off Broadway reopens, “Off Broadway,” a play by Torrey Townsend, is streaming free online through Sunday to warn people away from Off Broadway.  It’s hard to conclude otherwise,�…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:29PM
Thursday, June 24, 2021

Ghosting Review: Secrets and Surprises of an Irish Woman Returning from Exile by Jonathan Mandell

In “Ghosting,” Síle is a young woman from Waterford, Ireland who has exiled herself to the anonymity of London after her boyfriend Mark — “first person I kissed, I slept with, I nee…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:29AM
Wednesday, June 23, 2021

Special Tony Awards to the Broadway Advocacy Coalition, “David Byrne’s American Utopia” and “Freestyle Love Supreme” by Jonathan Mandell

Special Tony Awards will be given to the Broadway Advocacy Organization, and the Broadway shows “David Byrne’s American Utopia” and “Freestyle Love Supreme,” as part of the 74th an…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:54AM
Tuesday, June 22, 2021

June Rites!! Waterwell Wrongs?? by Jonathan Mandell

See a one-minute video of “June Rites!!” below.It sounded enticing, a great way to celebrate the beginning of summer,  the lifting of pandemic-era restrictions and the start of a new e…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:59PM
Monday, June 21, 2021

Summer Theater is Here! NYC’s Most and Least Diverse Theaters. #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

I went island hopping this past week, without ever leaving New York City, all to see theatrical productions – Roosevelt Island, Governors Island, Little Island. These outdoor shows, along …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 01:36PM
Sunday, June 20, 2021

The Alcestiad. Thornton Wilder’s flop resurrected on Roosevelt Island by Jonathan Mandell

The Magis Theater Company’s staging of “The Alcestiad” beneath the dramatic sky on Roosevelt Island is a spectacular resurrection in several ways. The play by Thornton Wilder features …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:44PM
Saturday, June 19, 2021

Intar’s MicroTEATRO Festival. Turning Hell’s Kitchen Into a Reimagined Theater Wonderland by Jonathan Mandell

“This hood isn’t anything like how it used to be,” Officer Garcia is telling me and a teenage girl named Sam, as I watch the two of them play basketball in the gym of the Police Athlet…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:25PM
Friday, June 18, 2021

Juneteenth 2021: A New Federal Holiday, and a Day of Theater and Music by Jonathan Mandell

President Joe Biden signed into a law yesterday a bill establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, and the online celebrations dur…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:15AM
Thursday, June 17, 2021

Annual Summer Theater Festivals in New York City 2021 by Jonathan Mandell

Outdoor theater is exploding this summer, with the continuation of New York State’s NYPopsUp and New York City’s Open Culture street performances, with the opening of Little Island park …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 04:46PM
Wednesday, June 16, 2021

It’s Only A Play review. Terrence McNally’s bitchy semi-updated Broadway backstage comedy by Jonathan Mandell

This George Street Playhouse production of Terrence McNally’s 35-year-old bitchy, witty backstage comedy about the opening night party of a Broadway flop comes almost seven years after its…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:20AM
Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Book Review: In The Heights Finding Home by Jonathan Mandell

After working for some 16 hours on the hottest day of the year singing and dancing  in take after take on the uneven concrete floor of a courtyard between two old brick apartment buildings…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:36AM
Monday, June 14, 2021

The @Lin_Manuel Miranda News Service: New Movie, New Bookstore, New Teaser. Also: Pulitzers. The Boss. by Jonathan Mandell

It’s been three whole years since Lin-Manuel Miranda completely dominated the week’s news – and now he’s back doing it again (almost) with the opening simultaneously of the “In The…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:57AM
Sunday, June 13, 2021

Visiting The Drama Book Shop by Jonathan Mandell

I had one question above all others when I visited the reopened Drama Book Shop over the weekend in its new location at 266 West 39th Street, a very long 28 months after a rent hike chased …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:30PM
Saturday, June 12, 2021

In The Heights Movie: 10 Changes from the Broadway Musical by Jonathan Mandell

Thirteen years after Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical about the Latino community of Washington Heights opened on Broadway, “In The Heights” is now an exuberant, sentimental movie musical d…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:49PM
Friday, June 11, 2021

Katori Hall’s The Hot Wing King wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama by Jonathan Mandell

The Hot Wing King by Katori Hall wins the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Finalists: “Circle Jerk” by Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley — exclusively digital theater! — and “Stew” by Z…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 01:20PM
Thursday, June 10, 2021

Theater Blog Roundup: Anticipation, and Celebration by Jonathan Mandell

Theater bloggers have “reasons to celebrate,” as Jan Simpson put it in her most recent post in Broadway & Me, which she wrote before the dozens of announcements over the past month s…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:05AM
Wednesday, June 9, 2021

“Broadway you’re finally coming back”: Watch Lin-Manuel Miranda lead quick-hit homage by Jonathan Mandell

Watch the six minute video below of Lin-Manuel Miranda celebrating the return of Broadway in September, managing quick-hit homages to some dozen Broadway musicals, from “Six” to “Hamil…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:54AM

All that Chat