Winter Theater Festivals in New York City 2014 by Jonathan Mandell

January is the month for theater festivals in New York – more than at any time other than the summer - and the stars are out this year in them: Muhammed Ali and Mike Tyson,…

Off-Broadway Spring 2014 Guide by Jonathan Mandell

Off Broadway this season, David Henry Hwang is telling the story of Bruce Lee in Kung Fu. Frank Langella plays King Lear. Actress  Linda Lavin and playwright Nicky Silver pair up ag…

Of Mice and Men Poster with James Franco and Chris O'Dowd by Jonathan Mandell

The first poster for the Broadway revival of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, featuring James Franco and Chris O’Dowd, both making their Broadway debuts. Also in the cast are Le…

Poll: Most Exciting Broadway Spring 2014 Show? by Jonathan Mandell

Choose the show that you are most looking forward to. The list below is for shows that have opening dates on Broadway in the Spring 2014 as of this writing, and they are listed chronological…

Broadway in 2014. 2013 Byes. Spider-Man Flies. Backstage Lies. The Week in New York Theater. by Jonathan Mandell

Five shows have already closed on Broadway in January, but three others are opening this month, the beginning of what looks to be an exciting season. The Week in New York Theater Monday, Dec…

Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark Ends Its Broadway Run Today by Jonathan Mandell

Click on any photograph to see it enlarged Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark ends its Broadway run at the Foxwoods Theater today, after more than three years and 1,200 performances. It has ge…

Bullets Over Broadway: First Look at Zach Braff, Marin Mazzie et al in Woody Allen musical by Jonathan Mandell

Zach Braff, making his Broadway debut, leads the cast of the musical theater adaptation of Woody Allen’s movie “Bullets Over Broadway,” about a playwright who gets in bed w…

Broadway and the Blizzard of 2014 by Jonathan Mandell

The two questions theatergoers want answered whether a big snowstorm threatens are: Will the shows be canceled? Will there be a snow day discount? The winter storm named Hercules, according …

Broadway Spring 2014 Season Preview Guide by Jonathan Mandell

“Theater is not so much a profession as a disease, and my first look at Broadway was the beginning of a lifelong infection," Moss Hart wrote in his memoir Act One, which has b…

'Leave No New Yorker Behind': Mayor Bill de Blasio's Inauguration Speech by Jonathan Mandell

…We are called to put an end to economic and social inequalities that threaten to unravel the city we love -Mayor Bill de Blasio Full text: Thank you, President Clinton, for your ki…

Ring in the New…and Keep the Old. What's It All About? by Jonathan Mandell

 In "What's It All About? Bacharach Reimagined" at the New York Theatre Workshop through February 2, Kyle Riabko, who is 26 , leads a half dozen other good-looking singer-musicians in the…

Magical Moments on Stage in 2013 by Jonathan Mandell

Sometimes the most magical moments in a work of theater are the ones that are unplanned — the audience suddenly singing along with Cicely Tyson as her character hums a spiritual in The…

New York Theater December 2013 Quiz by Jonathan Mandell

How well were you paying attention to theater news this month and this year? Answer these 10 questions to find out. As usual, the information comes from NewYorkTheater.me, especially my Week…

New York Theater in 2013. August: Osage County Brawls. Carly Rae Jepson on Broadway. Week in New York Theater by Jonathan Mandell

New York theater critics have completed their lists of top 10 theater of 2013. The most picked: Twelfth Night, The Glass Menagerie, Here Lies Love, in that order. Hundreds voted in the poll …

New Year's Eve in New York 2014 Last Minute Plans by Jonathan Mandell

A list of shows, parties, concerts, intimate dinners, cruises and outdoor events you can still do on New Year’s Eve 2014 in New York City. More than a billion people watch the ball dro…

Top 10 Stories in 2013 on NewYorkTheater.Me by Jonathan Mandell

2013 was, if nothing else, a year of lists. I’ve already put together a list of the most noteworthy (and weirdest) theater stories of 2013. Here is a list of the ten most-read articles…

August Osage County: Three ways the Meryl Streep/Julia Roberts film doesn't measure up to the play. by Jonathan Mandell

Why does the first film starring both Meryl Streep AND Julia Roberts, based on a play that won both five Tony Awards AND the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, wind up disappointing? There are a coup…

Burning log in Fireplace by Jonathan Mandell

Season of Shakespeare by Jonathan Mandell

There were more productions of Shakespeare on Broadway in 2013 than at any time since 1958. But it wasn’t just on Broadway that the Bard was big this year. That is I why, for the new m…

Broadway Show Schedule Christmas Week 2013 by Jonathan Mandell

Almost all of the 32 Broadway shows currently playing are offering Monday night performances on Christmas week, as well as matinees on the Thursday after Christmas Day. Some are offering a s…

Broadway's 15 Longest-Running Shows and Biggest Hits by Jonathan Mandell

Here are 15 of the longest-running and most popular shows on Broadway, listed alphabetically, with brief descriptions that include my take, and links where available to my initial reviews. T…

Best and Worst of 2013. Week in New York Theater. by Jonathan Mandell

The week in theater was one of unusual extremes, with tragic news coming from London one day " the collapse of a theater " followed by news the very next day that delighted Harry Potter fans…

Poll: The Worst Broadway Show of 2013 by Jonathan Mandell

Grudge Match: DeNiro vs. Stallone. Raging Bull vs. Rocky. Art vs. Cash by Jonathan Mandell

With Sylvester Stallone set to make his Broadway debut as book writer and producer of Rocky the musical, I was drawn to see Grudge Match, a new movie opening Christmas Day starring Stallone …

Drunk on Shakespeare " Three Day Hangover Company Takes the Bard to Bars by Jonathan Mandell, The Three Day Hangover Founders: David Hudson, Lori Wolter Hudson and Beth Gardiner

Lori Wolter Hudson remembers having a nervous breakdown in middle school in Indiana when her teacher assigned her to recite … Read More →

Top (and Weirdest) Theater Stories of 2013 by Jonathan Mandell

2013 was the year of Shakespeare, and cross-dressing, and people getting naked in tubs on stage. It was a year full of solo performances and celebrity Broadway debuts and shows that sound on…

The Iceman Cometh to Brooklyn by Jonathan Mandell

Brian Dennehy, Nathan Lane and the entire 18-member cast of the Goodman Theatre of Chicago’s production of Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh, directed by Robert Falls, are…

Top 10 Lists! RIP Peter O'Toole, Joan Fontaine. The Week in New York Theater by Jonathan Mandell

Even as we mourn the deaths of Peter O’Toole, 81,  Eleanor Parker, 91, and Joan Fontaine, 96, we celebrate the still theatrically active Estelle Parsons, 86, and Carol Lawrence, 82.…

Handle With Care Review. Carol Lawrence, Misused As Dead Israeli Grandmother by Jonathan Mandell

During the intermission at "Handle With Care," billed as a new romantic comedy starring Carol Lawrence, the original Maria of West Side Story, I pondered some nearly theological questions: I…

Top 10 Lists of Top 10 Best Theater 2013 by Jonathan Mandell

The Glass Menagerie and Twelfth Night are on most critic’s top 10 list of the best theater of 2013 so far — but not all (Time doesn’t have either.) I was early with my Top …

How I Learned What I Learned Review: August Wilson's Portrait Of The Playwright As A Young Man by Jonathan Mandell

How does one become one of the greatest playwrights of the 20th century? The answer is not directly forthcoming in "How I Learned What I Learned," the memoir written and performed by August …