All stories by Jonathan Mandell on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Happy Birthday Tennessee Williams: “Everybody is nothing until you love them.” by Jonathan Mandell

“Time is the longest distance between two places.” — Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams was born on March 26, 1911, and died in 1983. Barely a season goes by wh…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:54PM
Monday, March 25, 2019

Black Breakthroughs on Stage and Behind the Scenes. Sutton Foster Joins Hugh Jackman. #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

Ephraim Sykes in Ain’t Too Proud, Corbin Bleu in Kiss Me Kate, Daveed Diggs in White Noise: These are some of the black breakout stars in shows that opened last week on Broadway or Off Bro…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:37AM
Sunday, March 24, 2019

Fosse Verdon on FX: Preview, 18 photographs, trailer by Jonathan Mandell

In “Fosse Verdon,” an eight-part series that begins on April 9th on FX, current Broadway royalty and a cast of Broadway regulars (see below) tell the story of a king and queen of Broadwa…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:11PM
Saturday, March 23, 2019

Nantucket Sleigh Ride Review: Strangling Disney And Other Imagined Memories by John Guare by Jonathan Mandell

Nantucket Sleigh Ride is an old whaling term, as one of the characters explains in John Guare’s crafty new play. “Sailors would harpoon a whale. The whale would drag the sailors on a fra…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:17PM
Friday, March 22, 2019

Kiss Me Kate Review on Broadway by Jonathan Mandell

The most exciting moment in this fourth Broadway production of Cole Porter’s backstage musical riffing on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew comes at the top of Act II, when the cast …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 05:02PM

Kiss Me Kate on Broadway: Review and Pics by Jonathan Mandell

  The most exciting moment in this fourth Broadway production of Cole Porter’s backstage musical riffing on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew comes at the top of Act II, when the ca…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 04:29PM

Happy Birthday Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber! by Jonathan Mandell

Today Stephen Sondheim turns 89 and Andrew Lloyd Webber turns 71.  Sondheim made his Broadway debut at the age of 26 in 1956 , Lloyd Webber at 23 in 1971, and, along with John Kander (who t…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:02AM
Thursday, March 21, 2019

Broadway Review: Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations by Jonathan Mandell

In the six decades since The Temptations began, as we’re told near the end of the latest Broadway jukebox musical “Ain’t Too Proud,”  24 men have performed at one time or another as…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:14PM
Wednesday, March 20, 2019

White Noise Review: Daveed Diggs as voluntary slave in Suzan-Lori Parks illuminating new play by Jonathan Mandell

Leo (Daveed Diggs) makes an outrageous request of his best friend Ralph (Thomas Sadoski) in Suzan-Lori Parks’ bizarre, disturbing and in some ways brilliant new play, White Noise, at the P…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:00PM

White Noise Review, Pics: Daveed Diggs as Slave by Jonathan Mandell

Leo (Daveed Diggs) makes an outrageous request of his best friend Ralph (Thomas Sadoski) in Suzan-Lori Parks’ bizarre, disturbing and in some ways brilliant new play, “White Noise,” at…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:25PM

Raja Feather Kelly, Off Broadway’s Busiest Choreographer by Jonathan Mandell

Raja Feather Kelly is one of the busiest choreographers Off-Broadway, with a half dozen shows currently or soon to be on stage. All but one of them are straight plays. As I detail in my prof…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:26AM
Monday, March 18, 2019

The Final 12 Broadway Shows of the Season, and How To Get Them Cheap(er). #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

A dozen shows will be opening on Broadway over the next six weeks, ending the 2018-2019 season. Two-thirds of them have already announced their policies for official discounted tickets — r…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:56PM
Sunday, March 17, 2019

The Mother Review: Isabelle Huppert As a Depressed Woman in a Disorienting Play by Jonathan Mandell

Near the end of “The Mother,” her son strangles the title character to death. But not really. The mother (Isabelle Huppert) is imagining it, or dreaming it. There is a change of lighting…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:57AM
Saturday, March 16, 2019

Holy Day Review: A Repellent Gothic Tale of Australia by Jonathan Mandell

By the end of “Holy Day,” two hours without intermission or let-up of gothic horror set in 19th century Australia, the audience has been made witness to a missing child, an abduction, bo…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:59PM
Friday, March 15, 2019

Beware the Ides of March through the Ages by Jonathan Mandell

On the Ides of March, exactly 2,063 years ago, Julius Caesar was smug, at least according to Shakespeare. “The ides of March are come,” he tells a soothsayer in Act III. “Ay, Caesar,�…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 04:36PM
Thursday, March 14, 2019

Actually, We’re F**ked Review: A Pretend Issue Play by Roseanne, Cosby Show Creator/Writer by Jonathan Mandell

Playwright Matt Williams, who is credited with creating, producing and/or writing such once-popular TV series as Home Improvement, The Cosby Show, and Roseanne (tells us in the program that …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:43PM
Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Hugh Jackman to star in 4th Music Man on Broadway. (Watch the 1st, Robert Preston!) by Jonathan Mandell

Hugh Jackman will star as Harold Hill in “The Music Man.” Directed by Jerry Zaks, with choreography by Warren Carlyle, the fourth Broadway production of Meredith Wilson’s musical about…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:48AM
Tuesday, March 12, 2019

Fleabag on Stage Review: Oversexed and Grieving, plus the Perils of Binge-Watching by Jonathan Mandell

“I’m not obsessed with sex; I just can’t stop thinking about it,” says Phoebe Waller-Bridge in “Fleabag” — both the “Fleabag” that’s a funny and sad BBC TV series, curren…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 02:48PM

Teens Take Over Broadway (but is it real?). A Britney Spears Broadway musical? Hamilton Reconsidered. #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

“I’m not a girl, not yet a woman…I’m in between,” Britney Spears sang some two decades ago, and it could almost be the new anthem (gender-adjusted) for Broadway. The opening of Be …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:23PM
Sunday, March 10, 2019

Be More Chill on Broadway review. by Jonathan Mandell

Somebody wrote “NYC Loves BMC” in chalk on the sidewalk outside Broadway’s Lyceum Theater, the new home of Be More Chill, the high energy, high decibel pop-rock musical that stars Will…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:58PM

Be More Chill on Broadway: Review, Pics, Videos by Jonathan Mandell

Somebody wrote “NYC Loves BMC” in chalk on the sidewalk outside Broadway’s Lyceum Theater, the new home of Be More Chill, the high energy, high decibel pop-rock musical that stars Will…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:30PM
Saturday, March 9, 2019

The Cake Review: “This is Us” writer on Christian baker’s Lesbian wedding dilemma by Jonathan Mandell

In “The Cake,” Debra Jo Rupp (the mother on “That 70s Show”) portrays Della, a Christian baker in North Carolina who refuses to bake a cake for a lesbian wedding. If the story is ins…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:28AM
Friday, March 8, 2019

Hamilton on Broadway 2019: New Cast, New Clarity by Jonathan Mandell

I recently saw Hamilton again on Broadway, during a rare open captioned performance, and it was a revelation in several ways.   When I had last seen Hamilton, about two years ago, the last …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 01:11PM
Thursday, March 7, 2019

THE B-SIDE: “Negro Folklore from Texas State Prisons,” A Record Album Interpretation by Jonathan Mandell

In “The B-Side,” three men sing along with an album on a record-player —  or, as people prefer to say these days, a vinyl on the turntable. But there’s a reason why the Wooster Grou…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:11AM
Wednesday, March 6, 2019

Women on the March in March. Killing Mockingbird. Keeping Michael Jackson. #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

March is designated Women’s History Month and there is no better example of a theater woman on the march this March than Dominique Morisseau, who is 1. curating “50 in 50: Letters to Ou…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:27AM
Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Daddy Review: An Interracial Love/Hate Triangle Starring Alan Cumming, Charlayne Woodard by Jonathan Mandell

“Daddy,” a play by Jeremy O. Harris, who made his Off-Broadway debut a few months ago with his controversial “Slave Play,” could be accurately described as a porn melodrama about a l…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:32PM
Monday, March 4, 2019

Superhero Review: With Great Powers Come Great Disappointments by Jonathan Mandell

Simon, 15 years old and an aspiring comic book creator, is disappointed. His neighbor Jim in Apartment 4-B can’t walk through walls, and has no secret cave; he doesn’t even drive a “su…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:44PM
Sunday, March 3, 2019

Good Friday Review: Feminist Discourse Via Blood and Gunsy by Jonathan Mandell

Near the beginning of “Good Friday,” a play by Kristiana Rae Colon produced at The Flea with an all-female cast, crew and creative team, there’s something I’ve never seen on stage be…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 02:02PM
Saturday, March 2, 2019

Boesman and Lena Review: After Apartheid, Fugard Turned Into Beckett by Jonathan Mandell

The actors portraying Boesman and Lena move slowly through the audience, carrying their life’s possession on their heads and shoulders, looking around in fear and fatigue, until they make …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:03PM
Friday, March 1, 2019

March 2019 New York Theater Openings by Jonathan Mandell

Four shows are opening on Broadway in March. Two of them are transfers from Off-Broadway that thrilled audiences in very different ways: “Be More Chill” and “What The Constitution Mean…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 04:10PM
Thursday, February 28, 2019

New York Theater Quiz February 2019 by Jonathan Mandell

How well were you paying attention to the New York theater news and reviews in February? How about Broadway’s presence at the Oscars? At the Grammys? Answer these 13 questions and find out.

SOURCE: New York Theater at 01:34PM

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