All stories by JONATHAN MANDELL on BroadwayStars

Friday, March 22, 2019

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 cast…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 04:29PM[SHARE]

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…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:02AM[SHARE]
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 membe…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:14PM[SHARE]
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 Pub…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:00PM[SHARE]

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 the P…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:25PM[SHARE]

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[SHARE]
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 " rus…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:56PM[SHARE]
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, he…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:57AM[SHARE]
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, both h…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:59PM[SHARE]
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," the So…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 04:36PM[SHARE]
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[SHARE]
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 a tra…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:48AM[SHARE]
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, currently available on Ama…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 02:48PM[SHARE]

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 More Chi…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:23PM[SHARE]
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 Rolan…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:58PM[SHARE]

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 Rolan…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:30PM[SHARE]
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 inspired by…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:28AM[SHARE]
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 las…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 01:11PM[SHARE]
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 Group's en…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:11AM[SHARE]
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 Our …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:27AM[SHARE]
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 love/hate…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:32PM[SHARE]
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 "super ki…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:44PM[SHARE]
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 before: Af…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 02:02PM[SHARE]
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 th…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:03PM[SHARE]
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 Means To M…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 04:10PM[SHARE]
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[SHARE]
Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Hurricane Diane Review: A Lesbian, Climate Catastrophe Comedy by Jonathan Mandell

In Madeleine George's often  hilarious, ultimately pointed comedy, the Greek god of agricultural and theater has decided to save the planet, after retreating for several centuries from th…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:16PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Alice By Heart Review: Lewis Carroll during the London Blitz, via Spring Awakening team. by Jonathan Mandell

  In this latest musical inspired by Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,"  Alice (Molly Gordon) is a British teenager in 1941 who takes shelter in the Underground with o…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:01PM[SHARE]

NYC's Theater Building Boom. Broadway at the Oscars. #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

The launching of The Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space, with the opening tonight of "Alice By Heart,"  is the latest "new, state-of-the-art complex" (as MCC is calling it) " with several…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:35PM[SHARE]
Monday, February 25, 2019

Marys Seacole Review: A Creole Florence Nightingale by Jonathan Mandell

Mary Seacole, though little known in the United States, was almost as celebrated in her time as Florence Nightingale, and for much the same reason " for nursing the sick and wounded during t…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:38PM[SHARE]
Sunday, February 24, 2019

2019 Oscar Winners: Green Book, director Alfonso Cuaron, Rami Malek, Olivia Colman by Jonathan Mandell

Green Book won best picture, Rami Malek of "Bohemian Rhapsody" lead actor and Olivia Colman of "The Favourite" lead actress at the 91st annual Academy Awards. Ruth E. Carter and Hannah Beach…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:13PM[SHARE]

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