All stories by Jonathan Mandell on BroadwayStars

Monday, December 18, 2023

Charles Dickens on the power of theater in the digital age. #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

I asked Charles Dickens yesterday why  “A Christmas Carol” has been adapted for the stage more often, and on more stages, than any other novella in history. “I believe it is because …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:48PM
Sunday, December 17, 2023

Buena Vista Social Club Off Broadway Review by Jonathan Mandell

“Buena Vista Social Club” is electrifying as a concert of fifteen classic Cuban songs performed in Spanish by multitalented singers, dancers and musicians who are easily as vibrant as th…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:34PM
Saturday, December 16, 2023

American Fiction movie review by Jonathan Mandell

American Fiction” is both a smart, funny satire of the way the white establishment pigeonholes Black artists, and a warmhearted if cool-eyed family drama.  No small reason for its appeal …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:35PM
Friday, December 15, 2023

Broadway Christmas Week Schedule 2023 by Jonathan Mandell

Below is the schedule of Broadway shows for Christmas Week. Only three shows have performances on Christmas Day, which falls on a Monday this year, the traditional day off for most of Broadw…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 04:10PM
Thursday, December 14, 2023

Crisis: The Theater Responds by Jonathan Mandell

It’s refreshing to come across a theater book entitled “Crisis” that’s not about the crisis in theater, but about every other crisis in the world – a book that makes the case that …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:43PM

Watch “Old Friends” from Merrily We Roll Along by Jonathan Mandell

In the videos below, Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, and Lindsay Mendez record the song “Old Friends” and the title song from “Merrily We Roll Along,” the Stephen Sondheim/ George …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 02:00PM
Wednesday, December 13, 2023

Death, Let Me Do My Show Review. Rachel Bloom’s Crazy Existential Riff by Jonathan Mandell

In a glitzy silver pantsuit, Rachel Bloom enters on stage and at once introduces us to her dog, who is sitting in the lap of a handler (or is it Bloom’s husband?) in the front row of the O…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:56PM
Tuesday, December 12, 2023

Is It Thursday Yet? Autism, Danced and Defined by Jonathan Mandell

It wasn’t until Jenn Freeman was thirty-three years old and a well-established dancer and choreographer that her therapist diagnosed her as having Autism Spectrum Disorder. “To arrive at…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:49PM
Monday, December 11, 2023

A Year of Sondheim and Struggle. Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

Theater in 2023 was barely surviving but also thriving, depending on which end-of-year assessment you read (see below), but everybody agrees on Stephen Sondheim as the bright spot of the yea…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:46PM
Sunday, December 10, 2023

How To Dance in Ohio Broadway Review by Jonathan Mandell

“How To Dance in Ohio” is a musical adaptation of a 2015 documentary film of the same name about a group of autistic young adults at a counseling center in Columbus, Ohio, who, as part o…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:00PM
Saturday, December 9, 2023

Poll: Best and Worst Broadway Show of 2023? by Jonathan Mandell

What did you think was the best of the thirty-five shows opened on Broadway in 2023? Which was the worst? Take the two polls below. Judge the quality of the show as you see it, not how it di…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 03:01PM
Friday, December 8, 2023

Happy Hanukkah via Harmony by Jonathan Mandell

Watch the video below of the cast of the Broadway musical Harmony celebrating the first night of Hanukkah with a special post-matinee menorah lighting outside the Barrymore Theater. �…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 03:49PM
Thursday, December 7, 2023

10 Most Watched Broadway Videos in 2023 by Jonathan Mandell

The ten videos below were the most viewed in 2023 of those that I’ve posted either on this blog or on my YouTube channel, @NewYorkTheaterme, arranged in order of popularity. I’m not sur…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:18PM
Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Poll: Best Broadway Cast Recording of 2023 by Jonathan Mandell

Choose your favorite Broadway cast recording released in 2023* from among the 12 in the poll below, ordered alphabetically. If I’ve somehow missed your favorite, fill in the “Other” sl…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 02:05PM
Tuesday, December 5, 2023

Manahatta Review by Jonathan Mandell

“Manahatta” dramatizes two pivotal, and shameful, moments in New York City history, occurring four centuries apart — the Dutch West India Company’s “purchase” of the island of Ma…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:50PM
Monday, December 4, 2023

Life & Times of Michael K Review by Jonathan Mandell

There is a stunning kind of poetry in the puppetry employed to dramatize Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee’s forty-year-old novel about a simple man who makes an epic journey through the physica…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:55PM

Jews and Theater: Jesse Green’s Straight Talk Hanukkah Gift. Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

Jewish theater artists in the three alternate magazine covers: Clockwise from left: Jesse Eisenberg, Matthew Broderick, Sam Gold, Amy Herzog, Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer and Joel Grey.Ha…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:12AM
Sunday, December 3, 2023

Holiday Shows in NYC 2023 by Jonathan Mandell

While there are always new shows in December (see December 2023 New York Theater Openings), the heart of theater during the month is in many ways the annual holiday shows — plays, ballets,…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 03:22PM
Saturday, December 2, 2023

Broadway Spring 2024 Preview Guide by Jonathan Mandell

Eddie Redmayne, Jessica Lange, Kelli O’Hara with Brian d’Arcy James, Tyne Daly with Liev Schreiber, Jeremy Strong with Michael Imperioli are all performing in shows on Broadway — and …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:18AM
Friday, December 1, 2023

December 2023 New York Theater Openings by Jonathan Mandell

Below is a day-by-day calendar of theater opening* in December, a month that features two Broadway openings — a play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins starring Sarah Paulson (see December 18th), a…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 04:21PM
Thursday, November 30, 2023

Spain Review. Art or Propaganda? by Jonathan Mandell

A thick smoke billows over the stage as a character sings Spanish operatically in one of the last scenes of “Spain,” a play by Jen Silverman that purports to tell the cloak-and-dagger ba…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:34PM

Theater Quiz for November 2023: A month of crises, and Barbra by Jonathan Mandell

How well were you paying attention to the theater news, views and reviews in November? Take this ten-question quiz and find out. Loading…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 01:54PM
Wednesday, November 29, 2023

Here in the Dark by Alexis Soloski by Jonathan Mandell

Alexis Soloski, a theater critic for the New York Times, has written a novel about a theater critic, but if that’s the lure, beware:  “Here in the Dark” (Flatiron Books, 256 pages) is…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:12AM
Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Giving Tuesday 2023: A List of NYC Theaters and Theater Charities by Jonathan Mandell

On this twelfth annual #GivingTuesday (created in 2012 by the 92nd Street Y), consider donating to theater in New York. Below, an alphabetical list of more than 100 New York theaters and t…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:02AM
Monday, November 27, 2023

Cyber Monday for Theater Lovers 2023. Whence Cyber Theater? Stageworthy News of the Week. by Jonathan Mandell

Cyber Monday ticket deals in theater still exist in 2023 (see below) although they are harder to find now, in part because of Elon Musk’s relentless degradation of the social media platfor…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:06AM
Sunday, November 26, 2023

Fixing the Musical: How Technologies Shaped the Broadway Repertory by Jonathan Mandell

Theater may be an ephemeral experience on stage, but the ways we have presented and attempted to preserve American musicals everywhere else – the printed page, photographs, the cast album,…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:54AM
Saturday, November 25, 2023

Top 10 Theater to be Grateful for in 2023 by Jonathan Mandell

My yearly list of New York stage shows for which I’m most grateful, which I started posting every Thanksgiving more than a decade ago, returns more or less to normal this year, as the t…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 04:31PM
Friday, November 24, 2023

Holiday Gifts for Theater Lovers 2023 by Jonathan Mandell

My twelfth annual theater gift guide below features links and information on shopping for theater tickets,theater subscriptions/memberships,cast recordings,play scripts and books about the …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:50AM
Thursday, November 23, 2023

Watch Broadway at Thanksgiving Day Parade 2023 by Jonathan Mandell

Below are videos from the Broadway casts who performed at the 2023 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade: “& Juliet, “Spamalot,” “Shucked” “How To Dance in Ohio,” and rehearsal …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:46AM
Wednesday, November 22, 2023

Amid Falling Walls Review. Holocaust Songs of Cheek and Worry and Rage by Jonathan Mandell

Long before Liza Minnelli and Joel Gray sang “The Money Song” in the musical “Cabaret,” set in a cabaret in Nazi Germany, a performer sang a similarly satirical song about money in a…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:21PM
Tuesday, November 21, 2023

The Gardens of Anuncia Review: The Anti Evita Musical by Jonathan Mandell

Graciela Daniele, a Broadway luminary for six decades, directs this lovely and peculiar musical written by her good friend Michael John LaChiusa, who uses Daniele’s life as the inspiration…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:54PM

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